Eld Siow Chai Sheng

On 29 May 2026, the GYF had their outing to the Rainforest Wild Adventure at Mandai.  While the authorities tried to create, as naturally as possible, a slice of the rainforest for the visitors’ exploration, the grounds were a constant reminder of how far creation has fallen from the divine original that God spoke into existence in 6 days in Genesis.

Gen 1 records the 6 times God was pleased with His creation. On 5 occasions, “God saw that it was good”. The living conditions were ideal; the green landscape was perfect; the creatures in the water, the fowls of the air, and the land animals were blessed. It was only on the 6^th day, after He had created man “in our image, after our likeness”, that God pronounced, “it was very good.” The creation of man was the most pleasing to God. Man was the crown jewel of His creation.

When God made man, He made him unique -- different from all the other creatures that had been created earlier. God said before He created man, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Gen 1:26). Man’s creation was also special in the way that God created him. Unlike the other created creatures, God did not simply speak man into existence. In a two-part creation recorded in Gen 2:7, He formed man from the dust of the ground, and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”. Then man became a living soul.

Since God is Spirit, He is invisible. He does not have a corporeal form. The image of God in man is not a physical image but a spiritual one. Man’s likeness is in “righteousness and true holiness”, as can be seen in Eph 4:24, “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” In other words, when man was made, he was righteous and holy after the image of God. Man was also created an intelligent being, having been imparted the “knowledge” of God and acquainted with the divine existence of his Creator. “And ye have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” (Col 3:10).    

God also intended man to have dominion over the created world. “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Gen 1:28).

Man was blessed generously with the full enjoyment of all things abundantly provided by God. There was only one prohibition -- “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen 2:17).

The fall of man

The rainforest we saw during our outing was hot and humid with intermittent rain, which was an unknown feature in the Genesis creation account. There were lots of greenery, but the undergrowth was so dense, and thorny, that it was hard to imagine Adam and Eve walking on the forest floor. On our trek along the treetop walkways, we encountered various animals -- a troop of black langurs, shy spotted deer, four deathly-still crocodiles basking in the man-made river and one lazy tiger with its head tucked under a tree trunk. For our safety, they were kept away from us by moats, trenches or unscalable walls. The animals were as scared of us as we were of them. In God’s original plan, man and animals co-resided without fear. God “brought (every beast and fowl) unto Adam to see what he would call them:” (Gen 2:19a).

Sadly, this idyllic scene was forever marred by sin. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.” (Gen 3:6).

What was their sin?

In a single word, it was disobedience. Disobedience to the known will of God. Eve succumbed to the lust of the eyes (pleasant to the eyes), lust of the flesh (good for food) and pride of life (make one wise). Adam also ate and sinned. Today, we can discern the will of God through His Word and find the strength not to yield to temptation by using the Word of God to fend off the devil, doing what Jesus did when He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Pray without ceasing for strength to obey God. Remember 1 Cor 10:13, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

“Where art thou?”

Thank God that after man fell, God provided for his redemption.

First, He sought out Adam. “And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” (Gen 3:9). What magnanimity! Salvation is all of God, and none of man.

Then He provided the solution in the Saviour, “the seed of the woman”, and pronounced the ensuing enmity between the devil’s seed and her seed, and the victorious outcome of Christ because, as God warned the devil, “it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Gen 3:15).  

Finally, He clothed Adam and Eve in coats of skins. In so doing, God had to kill an animal to make the coverings, in a foreshadowing of Christ’s shedding of blood for the cleansing of our sins, and in clothing us in the robe of Christ’s righteousness.

Today, our longsuffering God is still not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet 3:9). When we hear His call “Where art thou?”, let us come out of our hiding place and accept His offer of salvation.