The Covenant on Earth: The Adamic Covenant

 

God fulfilled the first part of His promises by creating the Heavens and the Earth. His stunning final act was creating physical bodies for two of His children, those choice spirits that we know as Adam and Eve. In the beginning, He walked and talked with them in the Garden as He had in their pre-earth lives. He gave them two initial commandments:

1. Multiply and replenish the Earth.
2. Refrain from eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 

It has always interested me that in order to keep the first of these commandments, they had to transgress the second so as to become mortal (they were still immortal at this point, even in Eden.)

It also interests me that Lucifer, as a serpent, was still worming his way into the picture (sorry; I couldn't resist!) Always in the background, Satan was trying to hijack the Father's plan. Fortunately for us, he didn't understand what Aslan* called "the deep magic." He didn't know the mind and will of the Father and the Son. So when he beguiled Eve to partake of the fruit, he thought he was stopping god's purposes.  In fact, he was aiding them.  Our first parents had to transgress a lesser law in order to keep a higher law.  Because mortality is fraught with trials and tribulations, the Father and Son, according to the laws of agency, couldn't just foist it off on two unsuspecting spirits.  He explained to them the consequences of such a transgression so that, ultimately, the choice was theirs.

After the Fall (for that is what is was called) God ceased to daily walk and talk with Adam and Eve in the garden.  As mortals they were cast out of the Garden into a world of trials and tribulations. For Adam, this meant that he would have to work his entire life to provide for his wife and family; for Eve, it meant motherhood, with all its accompanying pains and joy.

Before they were cast from the Garden, God gave them further commandments. 

• First, God cast Satan out before them. He placed enmity between Satan and God's people. Satan could bruise the offspring of God's people, but ultimately one would be born of Adam's lineage who defeat Satan in the end.
• Next, God clothed Adam and Eve in skins.  That is significant on several levels. First, in order to get the skins, death had to come into the world as one or more animals had to die. Also, He clothed them to cover their nakedness.  God would use the same expression when He called Aaron and his sons to the priesthood.  The first items of clothing were breeches of linen to cover their nakedness (See Exodus 28: 42)
• God asked Adam what he would name his wife, and he called her Eve because she was the mother of all living (See Moses 4: 26) God found that name to be appropriate.  I don't know how much Adam and Eve knew about microbiology, genetics, and mitochondria, God certainly knew, for He created them. Mitochondria are microscopic organelles present in every cell that generate the chemical energy for the cell to live and function. ** Without mitochondria, a person could exist, but not live. Genetic researchers of the late Twentieth century were able to trace mitochondrial DNA back to a single female ancestor, whom they named - appropriately - mitochondrial Eve. This DNA is different from cellular DNA.  A man can pass on his genetic code during reproduction, but he cannot pass on his mitochondrial DNA.  Only the woman can do that.  So when Adam called his wife, the mother of all living, he was right on point, whether he understood it or not.
• God also put them under covenant to keep the laws of obedience and sacrifice.  We read:

And Adam and Eve, his wife, called upon the name of the Lord, and they heard the voice of the Lord from the way toward the Garden of Eden, speaking upon them, and they saw his not; for they were shut out from his presence.  And he gave unto them commandments, that they should worship the Lord their God, and should offer the firstlings of their flocks, for an offering unto the Lord.  And Adam was obedient unto the commandments of the Lord.  (Moses 5: 4-5)

They were obedient, even though they didn't understand why until an angel visited them with the knowledge that sacrifice was in similitude of the ultimate sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, Jehovah/Jesus Christ. Adam and Eve remained obedient throughout the remainder of their moral lives. (See Moses 5: 6-12)

We are still under the Adamic covenant to obey and to sacrifice, although our sacrifice today is that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

* The Chronicles of Narnia

** www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Mitochondria