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Even before the Fall Adam needed God to reveal what he (Adam) should do. Special revelation (general revelation is nature, special revelation is Scripture, i.e. words from God) was required for Adam to know God’s will. He could not discern God’s purposes from the created world around him alone.
God had to counsel Adam as to what he (as a created being) should be doing.
“And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth’’’ (Gen 1:28).
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die’”(Gen 2:15-17).
It was God, not Adam, who decided Adam needed a bride.
“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him’” (Gen 2:18).
Now, if Adam needed God’s counsel about what to do and what not to do, i.e., how Adam should act to please God, then how much more after the Fall? Indeed, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is to rule over us (Gen 4:7). We desperately need God to counsel us in the way we should go.
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you” (Ps 32:8).
Indeed, we are so far gone (in terms of desires) that we often need God to afflict us to stir us out of the pit of sin and rebellion and place our feet back upon the rock of obedience (see Ps 40:1-3, 11-13).
“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word” (Ps 119:67).
“It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Ps 119:71).
Sin’s desire is to rule over or master you. Does it? How are you doing in the battle? Do you have a counselor that can help you when you grow weary of the fight? Are you helping others who are losing the battle?
God, in the perfect environment, the Garden of Eden, expected this first man, Adam (created in God’s image) to follow his counsel. How much more did/does humanity need restorative counsel after sin entered the picture?
10,000 Blessings in The Wonderful Counselor,
Rod and Staff Ministries
*Compiled from Semester One: Principles of Biblical Counseling, 2ndEdition. Lesson One.