The first pages of Genesis set up several dichotomies. Heaven and earth, land and sea, day and night, Male and Female, Animal and Human.
Sometimes these pairs are brought together in a kind of Marriage. Male and Female, obviously. Eden is a kind of marriage of Heaven and Earth. In Revelations we see these things coming together in a True and Eternal marriage. The promise is that we will one day experience the peace of unbreakable connection, not forever be tormented with fleeting glimpses of the Love that we long to know. He separated the parts, so we could see them as distinct features of the whole, but they were not meant to remain separate.
Sometimes these pairs are separated permanently. Revelations says there will be no sea, and no night when all is complete. The implication is that these things were separated from there counterparts to protect or preserve the one from the other. People can’t live in the ocean. They can’t stand on water (well, rarely). They can’t build stable structures and move freely on the water. Similarly, darkness is a picture of ignorance and blindness. These things are impediments to Wisdom and growth. We hope one day to leave our ignorance behind. We hope to see and know as we are seen and known by God.
So what we see is that God separated many things in the beginning. Some He separated to highlight certain things, so that when they come together again, there will be understanding. And some He separated because they oppose and hinder our growth.
The Genesis 1 mandate is centered around this idea that God’s Image is being cultivated in one Race called Mankind. Everything was laid down and ordered and given into the hands of this Regent. This Regent was made Male and Female. It has a duel nature – Male and Female, and They were given dominion over the earth. God has made out of the earth a vassal in His own likeness. Humanity is both a marriage of the Man and the Woman, but also a Marriage of Heaven and Earth and given a stewardship to bring the wisdom of heaven to the earth- a blessing to every creature on the earth. Both Voices are needed to govern with the Wisdom and Understanding common to Heaven. (We aren’t there yet, but God is not done with us yet either!) Creation groans with labor pains waiting for the birth of the People of the kingdom.
Genesis 2 sets up a second dichotomy of a different type all together! Here God says, “It is not good that the Man should be alone.” We know this already because the Gen 1 mandate tells us we need the Female to be complete, but God does not immediately reveal the Woman to the Man. First, He brings every animal passed the Man. He lets the Man discover that He is not an animal. He is unique, and His Complement must be unique as well.
In Genesis 3, we see a tragedy. It is the marriage of the Human mindset, with the mindset of an animal! This is a thing separated for good reason, never to be married together. When Eve turns her thinking to align with the words of an animal (and Adam follows) at the expense of trusting the Words of God, we see the Human nature fall from It’s Mandate to bridge Heaven and Earth and govern with Light and Wisdom to something that is short sighted, self-serving, base and primal.
All of our tendencies to this day, that come from that longing to find a short cut, a quick fix, or out of our greed to be the “Alpha” to hoard and shore up our own resources and security, the craving to “be like God, and to know good and evil.” That rebellious heart that wants to do whatever I choose and answer to no one, these goals and attitudes come from a mindset out of our animal nature. All earth and no heaven. This is a kind of blindness. It measures good and evil on a very “short-sighted” timetable, and can’t see that that way of behaving leads to Alone and Death.
When God speaks to Eve after the fall, He addresses these consequences of this unholy marriage with the mind of an animal. She will desire a Man, who will look at her and see “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh,” but she will not find it. Not for a very long time. The need for Him will Rule over her heart for many generations.
“We wrestle not against flesh and blood.” Satan & Serpent or Satan as Serpent, these ideas are propagated throughout all human cultures. They are animal, not Divine. They preach scarcity, predator or prey, territorialism, division.
The Divine Wisdom is one of Unity, even in distinctions, Self-control, Self-sacrifice, Love and Respect for the “Other.” This leads to multiplication and abundance! It is an ambition to build, so that more can be given!! It is not a grasping for more, but an upwelling of more that leads to more!
But this Divine Mindset is dependent on faith. Faith in a God Who is generous, a Refuge and Defender. We are His planting, we are branches of His Vine. No matter how much the world may eat our leaves and fruit, and consume our flesh, our Roots are in Heaven, and we come up again and again! We dwell in Eternity and time cannot steal from us, and nothing we do out of Love and Faith is ever lost. It remains in Eternity forever.
