God sometime after placing Adam in the garden decides to pull Eve out of Adam. God creates Eve because there was no suitable helpmate for Adam which God decides is a problem. (Gen 2:18-20) Scripture does not state that Eve was given the same instructions from God that He gave Adam. We can only draw conclusions from Eve’s statements that are made to the serpent.  GEN 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said ...” How would Eve have known what God said if Eve was not there when God said it? God told Adam about the tree before Eve existed. The only way Eve could have known what God said was for God to say the same thing to her that he said to Adam or Adam had to tell her what God had said. It may seem rather obvious that Adam told Eve what God said because when questioned about the tree, Eve quotes pretty accurately what God told Adam, except she adds the phrase “or touch it.” GEN 3:2 And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said,' You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.' "I personally believe that Adam added the “or touch it” when telling Eve God’s requirement. Adam not only has authority over the garden but Eve as well. Adam’s authority doesn’t stop here but even extends over the revealed word of God. This addition of “or touch it” was to prevent Eve from even coming close to eating the fruit. If you cannot touch the fruit you will have a hard time eating it as well. This is the first example we have of religion. Religion being man’s attempt to be obedient to God by adding boundaries or conditions to make disobeying His declared word more difficult. Adam is the authority in the garden with the responsibility to make sure Eve knew what God had said. Interesting that even unfallen man would add to God’s word for fear of transgressing His one command. The result of adding to God’s word proved to be ineffective. Eve ate the fruit anyway and gave some to Adam to eat.

God is apparently not aware of the fact that Adam and Eve have broken His commandment. While God was walking through the garden the man and his wife hid themselves because they were naked. God calls out to the man and he says to God, we are hiding because we are naked. God questions him by asking, "Who told you that you were naked? (Gen 3:11)” God’s first part of the question shows God’s heart toward mankind. God thinks that someone may have given them this knowledge about being naked as opposed to transgressing the one requirement he had given them. The second part of the question, “GEN 3:11 Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" reflects the fact that if they were not told by someone else that they were naked they found out because they ate from the tree. This shows that God was not monitoring man’s every move expecting them to fail nor was He concerned that they would not do what He wanted them to do. God had complete faith and confidence in the man that He created and was willing to give him responsibility over the things that he created without micro managing man’s decisions. Some may question God and His judgment concerning man in light of the fact that man so quickly disobeyed. We must understand God can only think the best and expect the best from us. It is only when we have filled up transgression to the point of judgment that we reap the consequences of that which we have sown. We will see this concept as we look further into the topic of authority.

When God began to question why Adam was hiding he did not address Eve but Adam. Adam was the authority that He entrusted the garden and woman to. This is not to say the woman didn’t have authority but her authority was primarily over her own actions and obedience to Adam. God questioned the man. The man quickly blamed the woman and implied God had some guilt in this situation. Adam said, "The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate." God then questions Eve and she tells God, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."  It is generally accepted in Christianity that Adam’s sin in the garden has descended upon all men; making every man, woman and child bound by sin and therefore dead (Rom 5:14). This is the result of Adam’s authority and the fact that he is the father of every person that would be born on earth. We cannot escape our heritage from Adam or the curses God had declared upon us because of Adam’s sin.

God told Eve, GEN 3:16... "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, In pain you shall bring forth children; Yet your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you." The very thing that women hate today is the fact that men rule over women. This is not by mistake but is part of God’s judgment against Eve for her disobedience. It is not uncommon to hear about our sin that was a result of Adam’s disobedience but seldom do we hear about what women have to endure because of our mother Eve and her sin. Even as Adam represented all mankind and the male aspect of humanity, Eve represents the female part of humanity. Eve is the mother of all and every girl will share in the judgment God pronounced upon Eve. Child birth with multiplied pain and a desire for her husband, who will rule over her, is God’s judgment. This understanding of bearing the sins of our mother Eve and our father Adam is not exclusive to them but is also the basis for generational sins and the fact that we, as well as our children, are visited by the sins of our fathers (and mothers) to the fourth generation. This result of authority is most prominent in the family structure. Our strengths and weaknesses are placed upon our succeeding generations.

We must understand from this story about Adam and Eve that authority is not something that is always recognized or understood.  Adam and Eve did not fully understand their position or responsibility. God did not sit them down and conduct weeks of classes explaining the ramification to them and coming generations if they happen to eat the forbidden fruit. If Adam had known that death was to pass to every person born and that he was handing authority over the world to satan, would he have eaten the fruit? How could he have fully understood the consequences of eating the fruit? The only thing we know God told Adam was that he would die! Did Adam understand what death was? Adam probably did not understand that anything bad that he did would influence and be a burden to every succeeding generation.

We are no different. It doesn’t matter who we are or what we do for a living. We all have authority. Unless we understand this, we are causing those under our authority to be burdened by our wrong choices. It doesn’t matter if we have “a position of authority” or just a single young person without any real responsibility. Everything we do doesn’t just affect us but those around us and especially any children we will eventually have. This is even more intense as we grow in authority. The more authority we have (whether recognized or not) carries more responsibility to do the right things or many people will suffer for our short comings. Adam carried the responsibility and authority for every person who would be born after him. He may not have known what that meant but it was a fact nonetheless.

Not long after Adam and Eve were removed from the garden, thus preventing them from eating from the tree of life, Eve bore two sons. The elder son was named Cain. Abel the younger son kept flocks of animals and Cain tilled the ground. Cain took the initiative to offer to God a sacrifice from the produce that came from his labors. Abel decided to bring an offering to God from his flocks. Scripture declares that God looked favorably on Abel’s sacrifice but not on Cain’s. Many wrongly attribute God’s displeasure with Cain’s sacrifice to the fact that it was grain or vegetables and not an animal sacrifice. According to the Mosaic Law both grain and animal sacrifices are acceptable to God. (Exo 29:38-42) So what was the problem? According to the book of Hebrews Cain’s sacrifice was not of faith like Abel’s  HEB 11:4 By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. So what does it mean that Abel’s sacrifice was better than Cain’s? Hebrews tell us that Abel “by faith” offered a better sacrifice. Faith is not just an idea or something that resides in us but must have real expression in order to be declared real faith. (James 2:17) So most likely Abel’s sacrifice was extravagant in some way, which required him to have to trust in God to meet his needs after the sacrifice. While Cain seemed to be the first to initiate a sacrifice, his was without faith. In other words, Cain’s sacrifice was not extravagant in anyway and thus required no faith to make it. 

I’m sure that Cain was mad and offended that God accepted his brother’s sacrifice over his. He no doubt felt slighted by God, especially seeing that it was his idea to do it first. Cain chose by his own authority to offer a sacrifice. It was also under his authority to decide exactly how much and what quality that sacrifice would be. God confronts Cain saying, GEN 4:6... "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? v7 "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." God tells Cain if he does what is right his countenance will be lifted up. Cain had complete authority over his sacrifice. Cain was the one who decided to make the sacrifice. He was neither forced nor told to do it. He chose what he was going to offer up to God and he chose not to give to God from a place of faith. Abel on the other hand showed up his brother by giving in faith and thus being accepted by God. Cain kills Abel out of jealousy and brings judgment upon himself and family.

God does not love Cain less then Abel nor does He have greater regard for Abel. Cain fell into the trap of sin. God told Cain that, “sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." God’s warning was not heeded and Cain failed to realize that Abel wasn’t the problem but his own evil desires are. Instead of coming with a truly acceptable sacrifice he decides to eliminate the competition. We have all fallen into this trap at one time or another. Some people seem favored by God and we may be jealous of them but we should not be. If we commit ourselves to God and refuse to bend or sin, we too will be favored by God.

It is not always possible to know by looking who has God’s favor. Success and influence are not good measurements of God’s favor. We must understand that we have the authority to decide whether we will do what it takes to advance in God. No one and I mean NO ONE except yourself can stop you from attaining to the highest position attainable in God. It is in your hands and up to you to make the right choices.

Cain made the wrong choice and is cursed by God for it. GEN 4:11 "And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. v12 "When you cultivate the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you; you shall be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth." Cain by making a rash decision places himself and his family in a very uncomfortable place. Cain being a tiller of the earth is now banished from it and is told the ground will not yield its strength for him. Farmers tend to stay in one location but he is no longer a farmer but a vagrant and a wanderer.

One generation after Adam and we find a murder. This is not just Cain’s fault. Had Adam done what was right and not eaten the fruit Cain may have never killed his brother. We see the beginning of generational sin take hold and be passed to succeeding generations. Generational sins are based solely on our ancestor’s authority over succeeding generations. We need to learn from this and prevent our weaknesses from being passed on to our children. We are the only ones that can prevent it.

Authority within the family is the most fundamental and probably the most profound understanding that we can have about authority.  When we choose to do the right thing we can align future generations for the blessings of God.  When we choose to do wrong we are aligning our descendants for failure. If we could possibly know what the results of our actions will be we might choose a different course of action. Adam and Eve did not have the benefit of looking at past generations when making their decision to eat the fruit in order to discern what was the best course of action. Unlike Adam and Eve, we do have stories from past generations to glean from other people’s successes and failures.

Cain’s sin of murder is further seen just five generations later in Lamech. GEN 4:23 And Lamech said to his wives, "...Give heed to my speech, For I have killed a man for wounding me; And a boy for striking me.”  We do not know anything beyond Lamech in Cain’s family line. While we did not see any murder in Cain’s lineage until Lamech that sin’s evidence was still there.

“GEN 4:25 And Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, "God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel; for Cain killed him.” Seth having taken the place of Abel has within five generations a man so pleasing to God that he does not die but is the first to enter heaven by rapture. What a contrast to Cain’s descendant Lamech who was a murderer. Three generations after Enoch, (who was taken into heaven and did not die) Noah was born. Noah and his wife along with their three sons and their spouses were the only people to survive the flood God brought upon the earth. Authority works both for the negative as well as the positive. In this case righteousness (or the tendency towards righteousness) is inherited by the succeeding generations. 

Sin had permeated the earth so thoroughly within a little over 1600 years that God decided to destroy everything and cleanse the earth from violence. We are not fully versed in what actually caused mankind and the earth to be in such a predicament except the fact that Adam and Eve released sin into what was a perfect universe.

Noah at 500 years old has three sons and sometime after this God begins to speak to him about the coming flood. We are told in scripture that, “GEN 6:9 ...Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.” God chose Noah’s family to survive the flood. No other humans are said to have survived the deluge but we are expressly told that all things were destroyed. “GEN 7:22 of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died. v23 Thus He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark.” This responsibility of perpetuating the human race fell upon Noah and his sons. Noah now had similar authority to Adam. Every human proceeded from Adam and Eve but now every human would come through Noah.

While God may not be a respecter of persons when it comes to position (president, lawyer, doctor, judge, pastor, priest) He definitely is a respecter of righteousness. I’m sure there probably were many people who thought they had a better relationship with God then Noah had. There could have been a priest class and regional rulers who thought of themselves as much more important than Noah. But God chose Noah. We know that Noah was righteous, blameless and that he walked with God, but the most important thing written about him is: “GEN 6:8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” God is about to destroy the earth and He chooses a righteous, blameless man who walks with Him to start the repopulation process. Noah has in his past a man named Enoch who also walked with God and was taken up to heaven alive. Noah’s father Lamech names him in a prophetic declaration. GEN 5:29 Now he called his name Noah, saying, "This one shall give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed." This declaration was not pointing to Noah, but Noah’s descendant Jesus.  Godly families create godly flows for many generations.

Noah’s job had its difficulties. He had to build a behemoth of a ship to house all the provisions for this new earth. The ark was approximately 450 feet long and 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. This is no small undertaking which Noah is called to. Noah had to first believe God was talking with him and then he had to believe that what God said was true. As evidence of Noah’s faith in God’s voice the ark was built. I doubt if Noah had anyone encouraging him as he spent years (possibly just shy of 100 years) building this ark. There may have been some displeasure by Mrs. Noah about the amount of time he spent on this project instead of the real needs of the family. No doubt Noah was viewed as a lunatic and extreme by those who knew him because of this thing he was building. God didn’t speak to Noah through some spiritual authority nor did God expect Noah to pass it by those who seem to have a better handle on God than him. God expected Noah to know the veracity of the truth based on his relationship with his Creator. It was not about theology but about relationship. Noah’s relationship with God was real and dependable. How much more should our relationship with God be real and dependable? We are not just offspring of Adam but reborn by the second Adam. Jesus birthed us to be “sons of God” not just sons of Adam. This doesn’t mean that we have no need for theology or conformation from other children of God. What it does mean is that like Noah, we should know God’s voice because we walk with God and we should not let the nay sayers stop us from building our ark for God. Each one of us has the authority and responsibility to hear from God ourselves and follow His leading. It is our authority to do what we think is right regardless of how others feel about it. JAM 4:17 “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.”