A day with Manual

 How would man have reacted to the beautiful scenes and the flora and fauna of the Eden Garden? Would he be able to enjoy the beauty of flowers arrayed in different colors? Would he be fascinated by its fragrance? What about the chirping of birds? Would he be listening to it? Numerous questions like these arose in our minds. We longed to know more about man and his life.

Senoy came with the news that we had been waiting for. ‘The man put in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it has now got a name, Adam.’ He told those gathered around him anxiously. ‘Jehovah told him,’ he said, ‘of every tree of the garden you may eat freely.  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat for in the day that you eat you shall surely die.’

‘What about the fruit of the tree of life?’ Raphel asked.

‘How can he say to Adam that he would die in the day that he eat it? That fruit is the fruit of everlasting life. None will die eating it.’ It was Sansenoy who replied.

‘I heard Jehovah saying,’ continued Senoy. ‘That it is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him an help mate for him!’

‘Yet another man!’ exclaimed Semanjelof stepping forward.

‘Jehovah brought all the beasts of the field and every fowl of the air unto Adam to see what he would call them and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name there of.  But for Adam there was not found an help mate for him.’ ‘Why, didn’t Jehovah know that a mate for man couldn’t be found from the creatures that we had created?’  asked Semanjelof.

‘How do I know?  But you should have seen his face paling with fear when the huge creatures were brought before him.’  Senoy proved himself to be an expert in spying.

‘All those creatures that scared Adam will be perished, I forewarn you. The efforts to create them will go vain.’ Semanjelof’s words cast disappointment on many faces.

‘Your fate will also be the same if Adam sees you and is scared.’  Sansenoy’s words aroused fear in every mind. They turned towards Satan and said, ’Satan, man was denied the knowledge of good and evil because of you. If you had remained silent the Lord would have given it to man and he would have angered him by doing evils. The Lord himself would have destroyed him.’ Satan left silently. Others also dispersed.

Senoy, Sansenoy and Semanjelof returned with more news. One said that Adam, created as male and female, was blessed to be fruitful and to multiply and replenish the earth.  Another said that Jehovah had found a mate for Adam, Lilith, who was equal to Adam in all aspects and they had made Lilith revolt against Adam and leave him when the Lord blessed them to be fruitful and to multiply and replenish the earth. They became heroes because of their courage they had shown to separate Adam and his mate.

But their words were short-lived when Satan came with the latest news. He said, ‘the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man, made he a woman and brought her unto the man.’

Satan continued as if he was caught in some confusion, ‘Was the woman created from the rib or was the feminity separated from Adam who was created male and female, I can’t say.  But one thing I know for sure, that Adam looks more masculine now and that man and woman become one flesh and complete when they are together.’

The feminity in some males and the masculinity in some females substantiate Satan’s doubts even today.

Satan continued on what Adam had said when Jehovah brought the woman unto him. Adam said, ’This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.’

This is the reason why a man should leave his father and mother and should cleave unto his wife so that they are one flesh. This was the first law given by the Spirit of God to mankind through Moses.”

Manual looked at Litha and found her listening and continued. “The other angels who didn’t have the courage to gather information had to satisfy themselves with whatever Satan and others told them. There were many discrepancies in their information but on one thing they were unanimous, that unlike man there was no mark on the woman’s neck.

‘Would Jehovah have forgotten to put a mark on her neck?’ Senoy asked. None of the other angels paid heed to that. They were not fools to believe that Jehovah could commit such a silly mistake.

‘I think I know why there is no mark on woman.’ said Satan and left.

The others also left for they didn’t know it.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. On the sixth day Jehovah finished everything.  And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested from all his work which he had made. And God blessed and sanctified the seventh day because that in it he had rested from all his work, which God created and made.