Adam’s Song

Writes

Extract from The Wanderer Scorned featuring Adam’s Song

On the twins’ first birthday, we were sitting together outside the hut. In a rare moment, Havel was not in my mother’s arms but was crawling on the floor with Avan. They had invented a new game, climbing over the top of each other and then giggling furiously when one of them tumbled. I shifted my weight to my hands and knees and crawled towards them. Havel looked at me wide-eyed, but Avan chortled and came crawling forward. I swept my arm under her belly and tickled her until she rolled over on to her back, legs in the air and holding her toes. 

Havel decided to join in. When he crawled forward, I tickled him in the same way. However, he resisted rolling over and continued towards me, grabbing hold of my arm. I swung him up and around onto my shoulder, where he grasped my ear and started chewing it. I laughed aloud as he’d found my single ticklish spot. Then, he fell into my arms and I blew on his stomach, reducing him to fits of giggles. When I looked up, Ima was watching us, her face radiant. 

Then Abba began to sing, his low voice rumbling through the valley:

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He is our source; by His breath, we were made.

Formed from the dust to subdue the land,

Taken from my side, she was placed at my hand.

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Then blessed to procreate, producing more 

Offspring to fill the earth and adore

Yahveh, for in His name is might,

All power and goodness are His right.

*

We fell, alas we listened

To the lying tongue that glistened,

In the light of the fading day.

Only darkness evermore would reign.

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Or so we thought.

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Yet Yahweh has blessed us again,

For we followed His command, when

We multiplied! And blessed we have been

With three to bring glory to Elohim.

*

Yahweh – my rock – forgive our iniquity;

Set us free, provide sanctuary.

Cleanse us, make us new once more. 

May we fulfil all you have designed us for.

*

We sat silently afterwards for many moments. Even the babies were still. Then a gentle wind whipped around us and caressed our hearts. 

The Banishment

After The Banishment from the Garden of Eden, I imagine Adam and Chavah (Eve) experiencing a long period of wandering before Kayin (Cain) is born. They do not settle, they do not farm and, we find out later in the novel, they are not living in a true relationship with one another either – hence why they do not procreate for some time. There is a tragic symmetry in the story between Adam and Chavah’s life of wandering at the start, and Kayin’s destiny at the end.

But why?

Because I cannot imagine their relationship with God or each other being easy. They have just broken the world ( I talk about this more in my blog on Shame here.) They have just brought down curses upon their heads by their disobedience. So what do they do?

They avoid the curses. They do not experience childbirth. They do not attempt to farm the land. They just wander. The problem is, in doing so, they also avoid the blessings given to them in Eden. They have no relationship with the one they rejected (God) and no harmony with each other. After all, the blame game started the moment they were caught in their sin:

 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it…”The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12-13)

What changes?

God reaches down to them. He chooses to bless them. Quite by accident, it seems, they do have children, and at the point where they acknowledge this as a gift from God, Adam finally confesses, and things start to change.

Wrongs

What does this have to do with me?

Well, I know I have a tendency to do this. Just as Adam and Chavah play the blame game, refusing to change for years on end, I do that too. I will blame anyone but myself for what I’ve done wrong. I will skirt around the sin in my heart, believing the reason things go wrong is God not doing what he has promised – rather than me. The problem is, in avoiding the consequences of my wrongdoing that God lays out in scripture, I can also avoid his blessings. Because refusing to acknowledge the truth doesn’t help me. It breaks my relationship with Christ, putting a barrier up that stops the blessings from flowing. I believe this is what it means to grieve the Holy Spirit:

²⁹ Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. (Ephesians 4:29-31)

What comes next?

Adam and Chavah assumed that after The Banishment, their God would want nothing to do with them. But, after leaving them to wallow for a while, He reaches down. He does this for us too. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Philippians 2 applies this to the way we relate to one another. “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus”:

⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

Songs

If you feel like you’re in a time of wandering, either because you’ve never come to Christ, or because there is a barrier you’ve put up that stops his blessings from flowing, then Adam’s song is for you. Picture Adam with me; let his situation be your situation, his sin your sin, his burden your burden. Then get to the end of the song and let his confession into your heart; let it be your song too. I know this isn’t a simple, or one-time, thing. I pray this almost every day – and that probably is not enough! But we have to start somewhere.

Enjoy listening to the song, and may God bless and keep you. May his face shine upon you and give you peace.

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New International Version (NIV) Scripture quotations taken from Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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