Pattern #1

One of the first things to notice is the manner in which God relates to his people.  When God created Adam, he provided for him all that he needed.  He placed him in an already crafted garden, in order to keep it, not organize or work it out.  He gave him authority over all the creatures (i.e., he was to name them) and he gave him a set of rules.  In this first form of relationship, he only had one rule, don't eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Because Adam was already perfect and in communion with God, he was already blessed.  God also gave Adam an explanation of what would happen if he disobeyed, death.  Think of this as his response.  Adam only had two choices, he could respond with either disobedience or obedience.
While the name is not used, this was a covenant relationship.  We can determine this by looking ahead in Scripture at the form that the Abrahamic covenant took.  The next step will be to explore the way that this covenant worked out in history.

We all know the story.  At some point after creation and after naming all of the animals, Eve was tempted by the devil, in the form of a serpent, into eating from the tree.  Adam, who was with her at that moment, did not act as leader but was instead led by Eve and ate of the fruit as well.  They immediately lost the grace of God and realizing their nakedness, tried to hide.  God confronted them for their disobedience, provided a covering for them in the form of an animal sacrifice and cast them out of the garden.  

So here is the pattern:  God establishes the covenant between himself and man, sets up the details (rules, blessing, curses), man is confronted with a situation in his maturation time and fails, then the curse of the covenant follows, death.  In the case of Adam, he and Eve lost their covering of grace and were cast out from God's presence.  The final judgment for them was in the form of a global flood.  The world from the time of Adam's initial sin continued in a downward slide into sin.  Scripture describes man at that time as only thinking evil thoughts in his heart all of the time.

My next post will look at the second phase of the Old Covenant, the covenant under Noah.