The fundamental sin of angels and mankind is the failure to act as if Jesus is the source of life. We embody Jesus as the source of life by serving the bread of life to weak people. Failure to serve bread occurred in the Garden of Eden and in the wilderness where Jesus battled with Satan. In both cases, our older, more powerful brothers, the fallen angels, failed to serve bread and so failed to serve God to the first and second Adam (see 1 Ki 5:4–5; 7:40; Matt 4:11). In other words, they failed to properly discern the body of Christ.
The same sin occurs today when young baptized members are not served communion. Jesus said he is the bread of life. Bread symbolizes the life that Jesus gives, and we memorialize this sacrificial love each time we eat the bread and drink the wine in communion.
The purpose of life is to serve bread and so serve Jesus. Yes, that is a deliberate double entendre. We both serve Jesus and we serve Jesus to others. Galatians 3:19 and 4:1–3 informs us that during humanity’s childhood, angels were tasked with training mankind to serve God. Lucifer was initially the chief of the angelic tutors until he led Adam and Eve into death instead of life. After the creation of man, angels were required to teach men both how to serve bread to other men and also to serve bread to men.
One example of angels serving bread to man is found in Matthew 4:11, where it says that the angels ministered to Jesus. What kind of food do angels eat? Why, angel food, of course (Ps 78:25)! Just as Israel received angel food in the wilderness, angels gave bread to Jesus in the wilderness. So, angels served manna to Jesus, and that manna was the bread of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is no better nourishment. Angels eat, not because they have to, but in order to have communion with God and his human sons (see Gen 18:8; 19:3).
In 2026, most of the Church is still committing the basic sin of failing to serve bread to her weakest members. It is a horrible sin because it denies life to the weak.
Understanding the failure of the fallen angels to serve Jesus, the bread of life, to man, will bring great and instant clarity to the issue of infant communion. In the following I have attempted to explain how the denial of bread in the Garden of Eden unfolded.
Cain murdered Abel over the issue of which communion table to worship at, but this act was not the original older brother sin. There is an earlier sin of an older brother against the younger. That was the sin of the angels against their younger brother, Adam.
When and where would God have explained to Adam his work and purpose? On the sixth day of creation, God made the animals first, then Adam, followed by the Garden of Eden. After that, Adam named the animals, and last and probably late in the day, God made the pinnacle of creation, the woman (after the fall, Adam named the woman Eve, which means “life,” because she was the “mother of all living”). So, the place and time when God instructed Adam would have been in the Garden as Adam was naming the animals.
What did God tell Adam while they were in the Garden? This is important to consider because the Bible tells us that Adam was not deceived when he later encountered Satan in the form of a serpent (1 Tim 2:14). I think God would have explained to Adam that he would be allowed to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil only when he was prepared to die for Eve. That is why he told Adam that he would die if he ate from that Tree. The greatest love someone can give another person is their life. God is infinite love, and as a Father he requires his sons to imitate him.
Both Satan and Adam did the opposite of what they should have when they fell; they let Eve die for them. Adam tested God, and he was willing to let Eve die to determine if the fruit would cause death. Satan has always desired to be worshipped, as his encounter with the second Adam in the wilderness makes crystal clear. Satan desired that Eve die for his perverted glory, and Adam sacrificed her to him. Obeying the command of the serpent leads to death.
In the Garden, God explained to Adam what he needed to know. Similarly, Jesus worked with and taught his disciples during his earthly ministry—God walking and talking with his sons in what will become the new garden: the entire world.
God does not waste time or words. Consider that the entirety of the written gospel accounts are approximately 120 pages. Further, there are only about 36,000 spoken words of Jesus recorded. This number of words can easily be spoken in a few hours, but they are powerful. I suggest that God in the Garden was the preincarnate Jesus (see John 1:18; 6:46), and he told Adam an earlier version of what he later told his disciples. Jesus spoke with Adam while preparing the Garden of Eden, simultaneously teaching and demonstrating how to work.
Genesis records less than 65 words that Jesus spoke to Adam before the fall. Not every word God spoke to Adam is recorded, but what is recorded are the words God wants us to know. From these words we have all we need, and as kings we can come to a good understanding of how God thinks.
So, while it is not recorded in Genesis exactly what God told Adam, we know with certainty what the parameters of the discussion were because we know what God’s priorities are. We know this by looking back through the entire lens of the Bible with particular focus on the quality and brevity of Jesus’ ministry as recorded in the gospel accounts.
Additionally, we know that Adam presented a summary of his discussion with God because we know what God told him: to be fruitful and multiply and to have dominion. This succinct command is a summary of God’s gracious covenant. For this statement to be recorded for us, Adam would have had to understand what dominion is and what it looks like. Therefore, we can safely assume that God explained his covenant to Adam. Is not this the same thing that God does repeatedly throughout the Bible?
The discussion in Eden probably went something like this: Jesus explained to Adam that he was God and had just made heaven and earth and everyone and everything in them—that there was a hierarchy and order to his creation. Then he explained to Adam who the angels are and their role within creation. At the least, by this point Jesus has probably introduced Adam to his older brothers, and in particular pre-fallen Satan (a name he was called after his fall, which means “accuser” or “adversary”).
Adam had probably awakened to the face of God in the preincarnate Jesus and the happy faces of the angels that joyfully witnessed God making their younger brother. The angels would probably have been excited about meeting Adam, for this is their response to all of God’s creative acts which climaxes in the birth of Jesus (Job 38:7; Matt 18:10; Lk 15:10). Importantly, a good father would not keep an older brother away from his newborn younger brother.
Why aren’t we told this level of detail in Genesis? Sometimes, God makes acquiring information and wisdom a challenge, but God does not hide information or wisdom from his children indefinitely. God wants his sons to figure it out. Is it necessary for us to be told that God would have introduced Adam to his heavenly brothers? Or that he would have been told that his older and stronger brothers were to care for him and periodically report to God on their brother’s condition? Scripture already tells us that this is what angels do (Ps 91:11; Matt 18:10; Heb 1:14).
I think God explained to Adam that he was to follow God’s rules. If he did, Adam’s mandate to transform the world into a heavenly place would go well. But if he did not, he and his descendants would struggle with death all their lives.
After observing the animals, Adam realized he needed a wife. At that point, God probably told Adam that he would give him a wife, as well as children, to assist him in his dominion mandate. Importantly, God would have explained to Adam that he would need to die in order for his bride to be created. God put Adam in a death-like sleep to make Eve. God did not have to make Eve this way; the point was to teach Adam to always be ready to die for his bride. Adam achieved dominion when Christ died for his bride. Jesus gives us an improved version of the dominion mandate in the great commission when he commands his disciples to be fruitful and multiply by baptizing the nations and making the earth like heaven.
Most importantly, God would have explained to Adam in the presence of Satan and other angels how he required Adam to worship him. Proper worship would have involved eating from the Tree of Life and, one day, after a period of maturing, likely also from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Both trees are symbolic of the life and wisdom Jesus gives us to rule over creation with him. Now, because Jesus has died for us and is king, the gift of both trees has become the Lord’s Table.
A worship service should always include communion—the meal. Worship is incomplete without the memorial of the Lord’s Table. Jesus said, “Do this.” Meaning, do the Table. The memorial of the Lord’s Table is primarily to remind God of his son’s sacrifice and secondarily to remind believers that Jesus died for us. There could be no worship if Jesus had never died. The memorial is the means of Christian worship. Covenant memorials are given for God to remember. A worship service reminds the Father of the Son’s sacrifice, and this is only correctly performed when God sees his son’s bride consume the bread and wine on his table.
For Adam and Eve, the meal would have initially consisted only of food from the Tree of Life and later would have included fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the Garden, God, angels, and man would perhaps have dined on the fruit of life together in unity. What a day that could have been. What a wonderful day it is now, when on the Lord’s Day we dine with God in remembrance of Jesus’ great act of love. What a day it will be when we worship the God of love in heaven the way God always intended.
Sadly, on the first Lord’s Day we see Adam and Eve at the wrong Tree. How did they arrive there? I do not think it a stretch or inconsistent with God’s word to suggest that the serpent purposefully allowed Adam and Eve to see him moving toward the Tree, or that Satan may have led Eve there as he talked to her while Adam silently followed. Satan, the older and stronger brother, was supposed to lead Adam and Eve to the Tree of Life, but instead led them to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Or, perhaps Satan stationed himself near the Tree because he was responsible for guarding its fruit from his younger brother before the right time. The serpent was supposed to be an angelic guardian, but instead of guarding the Tree he tempted Eve to transgress. Throughout the Bible, Satan and his followers lead men astray. The Proverbs teach us that Lady Folly leads the simple to her bed for the consumption of poisoned fruit. We know the rest of the sad story: Adam, Eve, and at least one angel failed to worship God on the first Sabbath.
Interestingly, Adam and Eve were not afraid of talking to a very intelligent animal. Did Adam recognize it was Satan in disguise? If Satan had already met his younger brother, Adam, that would explain why he felt it necessary to disguise himself as a serpent. Adam would have known Satan as the chief angel, so Satan needed to hide his identity when he came alone into the garden. Therefore, I think the evidence suggests that Adam knew the serpent was Satan in disguise, even as he watched Satan deceive Eve. Adam was not deceived.
Another possible reason Adam was not deceived is that God may have told Adam his faith would be tested. Why wouldn’t God tell him? Isn’t that the message throughout the entire Bible? God tells his children that he is going to sanctify us through instruction and testing. I think Adam understood that God was going to test him, and if angels were his teachers then they would be doing the testing.
But Adam did something equally as bad as Satan; he let Eve eat from a Tree that could have caused her immediate death, the complete opposite of what he should have done as a husband. Through his silence, Adam joined the conspiracy to overthrow God. Thankfully his alliance with Satan was only temporary.
When Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden, God placed the cherubim to guard the way to the Tree of Life. The angelic older brothers are barring their younger brother from their Father and the communion table, so to speak.
Adam failed to lead Eve to the Tree of Life, and God’s discipline for that sin was that Adam must provide bread for Eve as before, but now it would be through the sweat of his brow.
Since the fruit of the Tree of life is the communion meal of the Garden, this means that Satan and man fell from grace at the communion table. In the New Testament, we see the former older brother, Satan, appear again at a communion table. The disciples are sharing communion with Jesus when Satan enters Judas and leads him away.
Satan’s fall is the original failure of the older, stronger brother to lead his younger brother to the Tree of Life—to Jesus. The fact that Satan should have served bread to the first Adam is confirmed by how Satan treated the second Adam when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. To lead someone away from the Tree of Life is to lead them to death. Satan tried to lead Jesus away from God, away from the source of life and the bread of life. Satan tempted Jesus to depend on himself to satisfy his needs, to make bread on his own terms. After Jesus resists Satan’s temptation, the faithful angels do what good older brothers are supposed to do—serve heavenly bread like Israel received in the wilderness. The bread of life is the remedy for Satan, the remedy for evil.
The theme of an older brother leading a younger brother either to or away from a communion table is repeated throughout the Bible with magnificent or devastating consequences. Two examples of each condition will suffice to prove the point:
- Joseph gave bread to his Egyptian brothers and saved the known world from starvation. Like Joseph, Jesus gave himself for all his brothers and saved the universe.
- The Ammonites and Moabites failed to serve Israel bread and were denied access to the Temple and so to the bread of life for ten generations (since a generation is forty years, that’s 400 years), in essence a death sentence for their nations. Throughout its history, Israel failed to act as a nation of priests and serve bread to their brother nations, the Gentiles. Because of this, God tore his house down and gave the keys of his kingdom to the church.
What are we to learn from this?
The fall was about angels and men failing to unite in service to God. At Corinth, Paul had to address the same sin of disunity. What sin did all the fallen angels commit? The angels that followed Satan refused to serve God by refusing to serve bread to man. Satan and the fallen angels refused to serve bread to their weaker brothers and so refused to be united to them. This is the same as the sin of Corinth. At the communion table, the rich and strong failed to serve bread to their poorer, weaker brothers, creating disunity in the church. By failing to serve them bread, they failed to properly examine themselves.
This is the same sin as failing to serve communion to baptized infants and little children. Angels are God’s messengers. In this sense, human ministers are angels as well. The “angels” of the churches in the first three chapters of the Revelation to John are human ministers of the gospel, serving the seven churches. The lesson to learn for all angels who serve communion is that it is sinful to deny bread to weaker brothers, specifically to children and to infants. Denying them bread repeats the sin of the demons.
Tommy F. Thompson has been married for 45 years to wonderful woman. He is the father of seven children and grandfather of eleven. He’s an adult Sunday School teacher and occasionally assists with the homily. Former elder, school board member and Sunday school teacher at Tri-City Covenant Church in Somersworth, N.H. Retired from Portsmouth Naval Shipyard as a Nuclear Engineering Technician. Completed 8 years active military duty in the Navy’s submarine service. Retired military reserve. Currently residing in Chattanooga, TN. and attending Trinity Reformed Church.