Jon Collins

So in that sense, it feels straightforward.

And it tends to feed into a perception that people have about the Bible as a divine rule book or behavior manual.

So what we started with was looking at the theme of God telling people what to do in the Bible, which goes back to

In the Genesis scroll, the word command appears for the first time in the Garden of Eden story.

Then it appears again in the story of Noah and the flood.

It appears again with reference to the story of Abraham.

And then you get to the story of Israel at Mount Sinai with the commands, Ten Commandments.

So we looked at those first three stories.

And what we found was this pattern that God's commands are first and foremost directing God's human partners about how to enjoy and discover life.

God's commands are for life.

So the first command for life is Adam and Eve.

Enjoy all the trees of the gardens.

Eat.

Eat of all the trees of the garden.

That's God's first command.

That's a good one.

That's a great one.

And then there's a second part to that command, which is prolong your life by not eating from the one tree that will kill you.

But it looks like all the others, so you've got to trust my word and follow my command.

So that sets the pattern.