Doing things in our own strength (Part 2)

In the Bible, from beginning to end, God does not require of people what He has not given them the ability, responsibility, and authority to do.  And God does not do for people what He has given them the ability, responsibility, and authority to do.

Take Adam in the Garden of Eden.

In Genesis chapter 2, God planted the Garden of Eden and put the man in the garden to work it.

Who planted the Garden?
God.
Who put the man in the garden?
God.
Who worked the garden?
Adam.

God made Adam in His image and likeness. As God brought order in creation, Adam was to bring order in the garden.

God created the garden. God put man in the garden. Man worked the garden. We see the cooperation of freewill submission, and not the domination of demon possession.

Again, look at God's relationship to Adam in the same chapter of Genesis.

God made the animals.  God brought the animals to Adam. Adam named the animals.

God did not require Adam to make the animals and bring them to himself.  If God had, then Adam could have rightly said, "LORD, I can't do that 'in my own strength.'"  And he would have been right.  He did not have the ability, responsibility, or authority to create animals. 

But Adam was created in the image and God.  God named the day, night, sky, earth, and seas.  And Adam, in the image of God, had the ability, responsibility, and authority to name the animals.  After all, God gave Adam dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that moves on the earth. 

Yet again, take for example, God's creation of the woman.

God put the man into a deep sleep, opened up his flesh, took out a rib, closed the man's flesh, and made a woman out of the rib.  God then brings the woman to the man.  So far, we see God alone acting according to His divine ability, responsibility, and authority.  God was not pleased that the man should be alone, so it was up to Him to do what pleased Him in relation to the man.

Once God brings the woman to the man, then the man says, "This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.  She shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man." 

God made her.  God brought her.  Adam named her. 

God acts.  Man acts in the cooperation of free will submission.  We'll see the same thing happening with Abraham and Moses.