Genesis 2:9-15 KJV
What was the gold for? Or the onyx? Or the bdellium? And do you know what each of those is and why a naked man and woman would need those things to be fruitful and to multiply? How they play into the dominion expected of them after the beast of the field were finished? Because that is the context they were given to you, via the scriptures. If your mind first went to the idea and industry of mining, when you heard or read gold just now, shame on you for your eisegesis. You know that you shouldn’t be reading the Bible that way. You should know better. So why did you? And why is the bdellium there. If your mind went to perfume, because of a casual GPT prompt about what bdellium is, because heaven knows you didn’t know prior, shame on you for your eisegesis. You should know better.
Why do you keep bringing modern tech into the reasons for biblical events that happened before everything else? All Adam had to work his dominion with with as a vegan diet and language that came with all stock Humans. We know this because God changed that feature a few chapters later. (Genesis 11:1-9) And Jesus later confirmed Adam's starting gear in (Mark 11:23) But you do have to read and believe your entire bible, both at the same time. If you don’t and you want to have your bible before the author of it ever spoke the world into creation. Then you can get hung up on words like most theologians that seem to think technology was the plan all along, do, and not something God’s grace covers. Adam did not need mining to get the gold from the Pison. He could ask it to march up the banks and line his pockets. Exactly how he could have asked a mountain move over yonder with the perfect faith he must have had prior to ever sinning, Right? I guess, except pockets weren’t invented yet, were they?
That’s why God fixed the tawdry clothes Adam and Eve made when they made it. Not because he wanted them to wear dead things or even things at all. There was no need for pockets, remember. But that he wanted them covered in their sinfulness as the long and sordid process of salvation would need to work its course.
You’re telling me Adam had enough time to name every single animal, but God’s nomenclature schedule didn’t have a lunch break where loincloths could be covered. And that only after knowledge of good things and bad things did mankind think to cover the nakedness of a wife he was supposed to be fruitful with. Even teenage boys can figure out that was the wrong call.
Our first technology was the direct result of our first sins, and every other one followed it. Whether we want to admit it or not. We don’t live in a world where we can go back. But we do live in a world where we can remember why we’re moving forward. The animals and there requisite skins, that covered the shame of the first sinful humans, were named by those humans. I would venture a guess that they might have been their favourites. Fits the theme of first fruits and a son dying on a cross for the sins of your enemies, don’t you think?
How much tech are you bringing to the word of God that exists outside of text itself. The same Holy Ghost that hovered over the waters, before there was waters, also wrote the Bible that mentions how he hovered. And in being an unchanging and everlasting God that same Spirit would have the bible memorized before their were people and places to write the bible about. I get it. You have a MacBook and a Prius, designer sneakers and discount underwear. But all you need, technology wise, is a recognition that there are internal consistencies in the Bible we ignore, so we can have the finer technological things in life. And not feel like they’re just our way of hiding from God, like so many fig leaves and apple cores. We want there to be MacBook's in heaven so we can get Jesus’s email address and make prayer more efficient. We want Priuses that pat our heads in eco friendly grace to drive the streets of gold. Designer sneakers to match our blood dipped robes and something better than a 6 pack of tighty-whities to go underneath them.
What we don’t want, clearly, is to be caught naked before the creator of all things and found wanting, idle, or even disobedient. To be exposed to the lack of obedience that we all share and accomplish every day. So we bring our tech to get things done and deal with this sin problem that the tech never seems to destroy but sure covers neatly enough. As more and more reasons not to do things God’s way creep into our lives and worship. We have a mind, bent towards the every present need for technology, as it it were a good that God ordained from the start. We don’t care how many logical hoops we need to jump through to get there. Lord knows we have enough words to describe exactly how we would, if we could. But what if we can’t? What if technology wasn’t the plan? Does doing godly things in ungodly ways makes sense? The technological mind can only see the things we can do and make and figure out as a way forward to our future in heaven. It will retcon anything that sinful humanity could possible come up with as if that was God’s plan all along. Self righteousness is a poison that hides in every switch and lever of works based salvation. And so long as you cling to technology at every turn, you will cling to such feckless works.
The technological mind does not bring a humility to its reading of God’s word, but rather a fire extinguisher. Because it read there, that there was a flaming sword, keeping it from where it got its knowledge from.
“So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”
Genesis 3:24 KJV
We have the distinct privilege of being so far removed from the events of scripture, as to be able to consider them fully. The people in the scripture didn’t have that. But we do. We can see the narrative of salvation penned in each chapter and verse. But we also are not a part of the story it tells in the words it uses. None of our technology is in the Bible the way we know it is in our day to day lives. And we will desperately want to weave those fallacies together as we grapple with the implications of a sinful life. But the story is already complete. It was complete before it was ever started. No need for the next big thing. For the latest advancement in technology. That’s how eternal things work.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10 KJV
It is only in the sacrifice for our sins that we can be close to God again. And only through the redemption of our technology that we can consider it a godly thing. Technology is sinful, as man is sinful. And as such, Technology can be redeemed as mankind can be redeemed. By it’s orientation towards the ends of Christ on a cross; or it’s subjugation to the worship of the King of Kings. All things will be his. But to suggest goodness apart from that by misattributed virtue and stolen permission, is foolishness. God spoke precious little about the need of technology for humans and has redeemed all our works according to his will since then. We are the ones who insist upon technique and technology. God not only doesn’t do so but also empowers the believer to unbelievably more. He would have a man with nothing more than words do what an army of men could do with tools and industry at their same beckoned call. How else does a man apart from God move the mountain? With picks and shovels and trucks and dynamite. But the man of God can just ask it.
But he does need to be willing to just ask it and be the kind of man of God to believe that he could if God wanted him to. The kind of man who would never look at what would be impossible for him to do outside of technological influence. Because there’s biblically no such thing.
“And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”
Matthew 17:20 KJV