Death II
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1:31 ESV)
Death in Eden
Was death present in the Garden of Eden? Not human death, no death plans for Adam… but death as an ending of some sort of life?
That kind of death probably was in the garden.
The logical proof is found in God’s statement at the end of His creating work. When He was done making the universe He said it was not merely good… but VERY good.
I am not all that artistic. But the few times I have completed some artwork (a song, or a drawing, or even a poem…) when I am done, I am done. Until I am done, I edit, I finesse, I correct, I try again… but when it is done, when it is beautiful, when it is completed, it is done.
God made everything, and then called it very good… He was done creating at that point. No more creating. No more making something out of nothing.
Consider, then a bug. Without being all scientific, many bugs eat plant (or animal) matter. That is their purpose, and it shows in HOW they were made, and how they function. If no plant (or animal) matter existed, those bugs could not survive. It does not make sense that God would have created those bugs “figuring that someday they would have something to eat.” It does not make sense that God would have created those bugs in a way that did not function correctly, because they had nothing to eat. It does not make sense that God made a bug “very good,” but would fix it up later when it’s food chain changed.
The same can be said of a tiger’s fangs, a giraffe’s long neck, or many bacteria. The ‘end’ of life is evidenced in creation itself.
There must have been death before the fall.
Note… NOT human death. But something that was alive (a plant… and animal… bacteria…) would have ended that ‘life.’
Death, before the curse that resulted from Adam’s sin, was not evil. It was not a curse. It was not anything to do with the God-breathed life that God put into Adam’s body.
It was simply a part of the cycle. It was natural. And it was very good.
When the world defines death as ‘the end,’ the world is correct as far as it goes. Death for my favorite Cactus Plant IS that plant’s end. Death for the buzzing fly IS that bug’s end. Death, even for my precious pet IS that pet’s end. But that is vastly different from what happens to humans.
Because the death present in the Garden of Eden was not Adam’s death.
That shows us two things… first, death for humans was something later, something worse, something terrible. And second, the world is wrong in it’s definition of death as ‘the end.’ We are not merely a part of nature. And our entire life, from conception to our body’s end, is therefore different.
It is better. It is more than ‘very good.’ It is precious to God uniquely.