Gabbylittleangel
Member
cybershark5886 said:But when you say God gave the earth to man I still visualise you meaning "God gave mankind to man". And you said earlier that you agree that God came to redeem man.
This is where I'm confused, and would like you to elaborate. I'm not trying to be difficult, I just want to understand you. So please bear with me.
When man fell, God cursed the man, God cursed the woman, God cursed the serpent, and God cursed the earth.
Gen 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou [art] cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Gen 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Gen 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed [is] the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life;
Gen 3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return.
God gave the earth to man in Gen 2:15. Maybe in the sense of stewardship, rather than in the sense of "Here, it's all yours." Man was in charge. Either way, the Lord came to claim back what belongs to Him, and became incarnate in order to do so.
Gen 2:15 ¶ And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
This is what the Concordance has for the word "keep":
1) to keep, guard, observe, give heed
a) (Qal)
1) to keep, have charge of
2) to keep, guard, keep watch and ward, protect, save life
a) watch, watchman (participle)
3) to watch for, wait for
4) to watch, observe
5) to keep, retain, treasure up (in memory)
6) to keep (within bounds), restrain
7) to observe, celebrate, keep (sabbath or covenant or commands), perform (vow)
8) to keep, preserve, protect
9) to keep, reserve
b) (Niphal)
1) to be on one's guard, take heed, take care, beware
2) to keep oneself, refrain, abstain
3) to be kept, be guarded
c) (Piel) to keep, pay heed
d) (Hithpael) to keep oneself from
I apologize for not having documents, or links to any of the Bible studies that I referred to earlier. It has been a common teaching for quite a while. I will see if I can find something for you on that.