The First Man and the Second Man - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good.

Joseph died, a hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him; and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Genesis 1:31; Genesis 50:26

The First Man and the Second Man
The early chapters of Genesis teach us in simple terms what many a scientist has not yet learned: .

The Bible gives us the history of two men: the first man Adam, and the Second Man, the last Adam, the Lord from heaven. Genesis gives us the story of the first man. After God had garnished the heavens and made the earth a suitable habitat for man, He set Adam as head over this fair creation. This was God's crowning act, and He declares, It was very good.

But as the account continues, very soon that creation rest was marred. Man's disobedience to the one command given by God proved fatal. God had said that the day he would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die. And as we read in Romans 5:12, "By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death; and thus death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

And so time marches on from generation to generation. They produced sons and daughters and reached a high age, yet, with only one exception, they died. And until the very present, given all the skills and technology man can muster, "It is the portion of men once to die, and after this judgment" (Heb. 9:27). The last verse in Genesis records that Joseph died and was put in a coffin in Egypt, a picture of this sad world where death now reigns as king.

Thank God, that is not the end. For when the first man failed in responsibility, it only served as an occasion for God to introduce the Second Man, the Man of God's counsel.

Jacob Redekop