Really, hundreds of times. It's one of the few scriptures I can quote verbatim. But I guess I never really really looked at it. I always just read it and moved on. I know Adam fell for men. I know men are supposed to be happy. Okay, cool.
But this time I saw it differently. I suppose it has to do something with the Mary and Eve picture I wrote about last week. Or maybe I just read it at the right moment. Or maybe I just really needed to see it differently. I don't know. But this time I was caught by the comma.
Yes, a comma. "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." I had always assumed this was just fancy biblical language that tranated roughly to "Adam fell so men could live and men should be happy." But it's not. And men are. That's the main phrase. Men are. Adam (and, in my Eve/Mary mindframe, Eve) fell so that man could come to earth. And men are, men exists on earth so that they might have joy.
This shed a whole new light for me. I know we came to earth to receive our physical bodies. I know we came to earth so that we can become like God. I know that we came to earth to prove ourselves and choose the right path. But all of this is for us. "Men are, that they might have joy."
Adam and Eve didn't accidentally eat the apple. It wasn't Satan ruining God's plan. Eve knew that she would never know joy in the Garden of Eden, for without sin there can be no redemption. Without pain there can be no pleasure. She could not bring man into the world without the fall. The Fall was an intricate and essential part of the plan of salvation. She chose to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. She chose to be the mother of all the earth. She chose to give life to men. And she couldn't have done it without Adam. Adam and Eve fell so that men might live on earth; and men live on earth, so that they might find joy in eternal life.
Glory, Hallelujah!
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