I realized something the other day that I had never picked up on
before. Genesis opens up with an account of man’s creation and
fall. I’ve always taken it as obvious that Moses included the
story because he wanted to detail the history of Israel all the
way back to creation. Additionally, however, I think Moses had a
very practical reason for including the story: It served as a
warning to the nation of Israel. Just as God had prepared a
garden for the first humans to live in, God had also prepared
the land of Canaan for the Israelites to inhabit. And just as
God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden because of
their disobedience to God’s covenant with them, likewise God
would expel the children of Israel from the land of Canaan if
they disobeyed the covenant God had made with them. Adam and
Eve’s experience served as a literary and historical example for
Israel to learn from, lest they experience the same fate in
Canaan. September 28, 2010 September 23, 2010 In a previous post
I argued that chance can