Genesis 2

GENESIS 2

The author OF GENESIS – probably Moses - was not merely collecting ancient stories, not merely recording ancient history. Genesis is a very careful account, which teaches the main principles in the Bible. The author wrote by the Holy Spirit of God.

CREATION COMPLETED; ADAM IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN

A. The completion of creation.

         1.  (1-3) The seventh day of creation.

                  a. God did not need rest because He was tired. He rested to show His creating work was done, to give a pattern to man regarding the structure of time (in seven-day weeks), and to give an example of the blessing of rest to man on the seventh day.

         The seven-day week is permanently ingrained in man. Though some through history tried to change the seven-day week (a ten-day week was attempted during the French Revolution), those attempts have come to nothing. We are on a seven-day cycle because God is on a seven-day cycle.

                  b. God sanctified the seventh day because it was a gift to man for rest and replenishment, and most of all because the Sabbath is a shadow of the rest available through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

         Colossians 2:16-17 and Galatians 4:9-11 make it clear that Christians are not under obligation to observe the Sabbath today, because Jesus fulfilled the purpose and plan of the Sabbath for us and in us (Hebrews 4:9-11). Yet Christians do not lose the Sabbath; every day is a day of rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Every day is specially set apart to God.

         Though we are free from the legal obligation of the Sabbath, we dare not ignore the importance of a day of rest. God has built us so we need one. But we are also commanded to work six days. "He who idles his time away in the six days is equally culpable in the sight of God as he who works on the seventh." (Clarke)

                  c. Though God rested on the seventh day of creation, He did not institute the Sabbath or show us His rest for His own sake. God does not take the Sabbath off. Jesus Himself said, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working" (John 5:17). God does not need a day off, but man needs to see the rest of God and know he can enter into it by the finished work of Jesus.

         The description of each other day of creation ended with the phrase, "so the evening and the morning were the … day." However, this seventh day of creation does not have that phrase. This is because God's rest for us isn't confined to one literal day. In Jesus, God has an eternal Sabbath rest for His people (Hebrews 4:9-11).

         "God, having completed His work of creation, rests, as if to say, 'This is the destiny of those who are My people; to rest as I rest, to rest in Me.' " (Boice)

In this second chapter, Moses tells the same Creation story but adds details that we need to know in order to understand events that happen later. 

         2. (4-7)

                  a. This is the history of the heavens and the earth: This ends the "genealogy" of the heavens and the earth, a history given directly by God, recording the history of God's seven-day creation. This was something no human was present to witness.

                  b: This is the first use of LORD (Yahweh) in the Bible. Here is a name given to the Creator, which we have not yet met with, Jehovah. The LORD in capital letters, is constantly used in our English translation, for Jehovah. This is that great and incommunicable name of God…It properly means, He that was, and that is, and that is to come.

                  c. Before any plant of the field was in the earth: This history begins before there was any vegetation on the earth at all (back to Genesis 1:1), a time when there was only space and a watery globe we know as the earth.

                  d.  When God first created vegetation (on the third day of creation, Genesis 1:11-13), man was not yet created to care for the vegetation of the earth, and there was no rain. The thick blanket of water vapor in the outer atmosphere created on the second day of creation (Genesis 1:6-8) made for no rain cycle (as we know it) but for a rich system of evaporation and condensation, resulting in heavy dew or ground-fog.  We do not told of rain until the time of the building of the ark … upon its completion … then the RAIN came!

                  e. When God created man He made him out of the most basic elements, the dust of the ground. There is nothing "spectacular" in what man is made of, only in the way those basic things are organized.  When the Bible speaks of dust, it means something of little worth, associated with lowliness and humility (Genesis 18:27; 1 Samuel 2:8; 1 Kings 16:2). In the Bible, dust isn't evil and it isn't nothing; but it is next to nothing.

         f. With this Divine breath man became a living being, like other forms of animal life (the term chay nephesh is used in Genesis 1:21, 1:21, and here). Yet only man is a living being made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27).

         The word for breath in Hebrew is ruach - the word imitates the very sound of breath - is the same word for Spirit, as is the case in both ancient Greek (pneuma) and Latin (spiritus). God created man by putting His breath, His Spirit, within him.

         "The implication, readily seen by any Hebrew reader, [is] that man was specially created by God's breathing some of His own breath into him." (Boice)

         The King James Version reads: man became a living soul. Mankind being made in THEIR image is a triune being:  body, soul and spirit.

B. Adam in the Garden of Eden.

         1. (8-9) Two trees in the Garden of Eden.

                  a. The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden: Eden was a garden specifically planted by God; it was a place God made to be a perfect habitation for Adam (and later, Eve).

                  b. The details in the creation of Adam and Eve teach us something. After reading Genesis 1, we might assume man and woman were made at the same time, but the text doesn't specifically say so. We assume it. We don't know the details about man's creation until Genesis 2.

                  c. In Matthew 19:4-5, Jesus referred to events in Genesis 1 and to events in Genesis 2 as one harmonious account.

                  d.These two trees were among all the other trees God created and put in the Garden of Eden.

         The tree of life was to grant (or to sustain) eternal life (Genesis 3:22). God still has a tree of life available to the His people (Revelation 2:7), which is in heaven (Revelation 22:2).

         The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the "temptation" tree. Eating the fruit of this tree would give Adam and Eve an experiential knowledge of good and evil. Or, it is possible that it is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil not so man would know good and evil, but so God could test good and evil in man.

        

         2. (10-14) Rivers in the Garden.

                  a. Now a river went out of Eden: The whole feel of this account gives the sense that it was written by an actual eyewitness of the rivers and surroundings.

                  b. The name of the first is Pishon: These rivers are given specific names which answer to names of rivers known in either their modern or ancient world. However, the names of these rivers can't be used to determine the place of the Garden of Eden because the flood dramatically changed the earth's landscape and "erased" these rivers.  We know modern rivers today such as the Tigris or Euphrates because some rivers in the post-flood world were named after familiar pre-flood rivers by Noah and his sons.

        

         3. (15-17) God's command to Adam.

                  a. God put Adam into the most spectacular paradise the world has seen, but God put Adam there to do work (to tend and keep it). Work is something good for man and was part of Adam's perfect existence before the fall.  Work is not a curse but an opportunity to cooperate with God and be a good steward of HIS blessings.  John 17:4.

                  b. The presence of the temptation tree was the presence of a choice for Adam - was good because for Adam to be a creature of free will, there had to be a choice, some opportunity to rebel against God. If there is never a command or never something forbidden there can then never be choice. God wants our love and obedience to Him to be the love and obedience of choice.  Choice is found in the WILL!  We must make the correct CHOICE with an act of our will and not be dependent upon feelings!

         Considering all that, look at Adam's advantages. He only had one way he could sin and we have countless ways. There are many trees of temptation in our lives, but Adam had only one.

         God made this command originally to Adam, not to Eve; God had not yet brought woman out of man.

                  c. God not only made His command clear to Adam, but He also clearly explained the consequences for disobedience.  Adam had not seen death but the LORD was having fellowship with him to inform him and gifted Adam with the intelligence and language to name the animals and to understand consequences of disobedience. 

C. God created the first woman.

         1. (18) God declares He will make a helper comparable to Adam.

                  a. It is not good that man should be alone: For the first time, God said that something was not good - the aloneness of man. God never intended for man to be alone, either in the marital or social sense.

         Marriage, in particular, has a blessed "civilizing" influence on man. It would be interesting to study and know if this statement is true that one commentary stated:  “The most wild, violent, sociopathic men in history have always been single, never under the plan God gave to influence men for good.” This is not good!

                  b. God's "blueprint" for creating this companion to Adam was to make a helper comparable to Adam. Different versions of the Bible translate this idea in a variety of ways, but the idea is essentially the same in each of them:

                  c. God created woman to be a perfectly suitable helper to the man. This means God gave the plan and agenda to Adam, and he and the woman together were to work to fulfill it.

         God gives to man the responsibility (and the accountability) to be the leader in the home and gives to the woman the responsibility and the accountability to help him.

         This does not mean there is to be no help from the man to the woman. A man in leadership, good or bad, faithful or not, is designed for leadership. A true leader will, of course, help those helping him.

         We only see "helping" as a position of inferiority when we think like the world thinks. God considers positions of service as most important in His sight (Matthew 20:25-28).

                  d. Not only was the woman to be a helper, but also she was made comparable to the man. She should be considered and honored as such. A woman or wife cannot be regarded as a mere tool or worker, but as an equal partner in God's grace and an equal human being.  Helper mate not slave!  The structure of Ephesians description of the family begins with mutual submission!

For us, the main question is:  Am I fulfilling the Lord’s role for me, not ‘if he/she will, I will!’

        

         2. (19-20) No helper was found comparable for Adam among the animals.

                  a. If Adam had the capability to intelligently name all the animals, it shows he was a brilliant man. He was probably the most brilliant man who ever lived. Adam was the first and greatest of all biologists and botanists.

                  b. Adam did not name any other animal after himself, calling any other animal "man" or "human." By this, we see he understood that he was essentially different from all the animals. Animals were not made in the image of God.

                  c.  Since God deliberately had Adam name the animals after seeing his need for a partner (Genesis 2:18), perhaps God used this to prepare Adam to receive the gift of woman.

        

         3. (21-22) God makes the first woman from Adam's side.

                  a. God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam: This is the first "surgery" recorded in history.  

                  b. God used Adam's own body to create Eve.

         The building materials for male and female are different and yet they are still the same.  Man=dust!  Woman=flesh and blood

         We also know the Bride of Christ comes from the wound made in the side of the second Adam, “  f his head to rule over him nor out of his feet to be trampled up, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm that he might protect her and near his heart that he might love her."

The plain fact is that man needed woman!   Paul wrote that “the woman is the glory of man!

                  c. There was one beginning of the human race in Adam.

                  d. God created Eve out of Adam and then brought Eve to Adam.  He was first - the source and the head. She was created to be a helper perfectly suited to him. Thus the roles in the relationship of wives to husbands are found before the curse, not only after it.

        

         4. (23) Adam's brilliant understanding of who Eve is and how she is related to him.

                  a. Adam recognized that Eve was both like him (bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh) and not like him (woman … taken out of man).

                  b. Flesh of my flesh: Adam understood the essential oneness in his relationship with Eve. This point is so important that it is referred to several times in the New Testament, including the great marriage passage in Ephesians 5:28-29: so husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it (Ephesians 5:28-29).

         No one walks into a room and seeks the most uncomfortable seat. The natural concern we have for ourselves causes us to take care of ourselves. In a healthy marriage relationship the husband realizes the essential union he has with his wife, that he cannot bless her without blessing himself and he cannot mistreat or neglect her without mistreating or neglecting himself.

                  c. Adam recognized that though he and Eve were one, she was not the same as him. He understood that two different people were becoming one. 1 Peter 3:7 tells husbands to recognize that they are one with someone different, someone whom they must understand: Likewise you husbands, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel.  (Does not say that she is weaker…only that he is to treat her as tho!)

         If men and women are different, are they equal? Elisabeth Elliot, quoted in Boice: "In what sense is red equal to blue? They are equal only in the sense that both are colors in the spectrum. Apart from that they are different. In what sense is hot equal to cold? They are both temperatures, but beyond this it is almost meaningless to talk about equality."

         5. (24-25) The marriage of Adam and Eve.

                  a. They shall become one flesh: The marriage principle stated here is based upon the dynamic of oneness yet distinction. A man and wife can truly come together in a one-flesh relationship, yet they must be joined. It is a spiritual fact, but the benefits of that oneness are not appropriated by accident or by chance.

                  b. This passage forms the foundation for the Bible's understanding of marriage and family. Both Jesus (Matthew 19: 5) and Paul (Ephesians 5:31) quoted it in reference to marriage.

         "The institution of monogamous marriage, home, and family as the basic medium for the propagation of the race and the training of the young is so common to human history that people seldom pause to reflect on how or why such a custom came into being." (Morris)

         Many want to believe that the monogamous, two-parent family was invented in the 1950's by American television icons Ozzie and Harriet, but Adam and Eve are the original family. This is God's ideal family. This isn't polygamy. This isn't having a concubine. This isn't the keeping of mistresses. This isn't adultery. This isn't homosexual co-habitation. This isn't promiscuity. This isn't living together outside the marriage bond. This isn't serial marriage. This is God's ideal for the family, and even when we don't live up to it, it is still important to set it forth as God's ideal.

                  c. The idea of one flesh is taken by many to be mainly a way of expressing sexual union. While sexual union is certainly related to the idea of one flesh, it is only one part of what it means to be one flesh. There are also important spiritual dimensions to one flesh.

         Paul makes it clear the sexual union has one flesh implications even when we don't intend so, as when a man has sex with a prostitute (1 Corinthians 6:16). Husband and wife become "one flesh" under God's blessing. In extramarital sex, the partners become "one flesh" under God's curse.

         In this sense, there is no such thing as "casual sex." Every sexual relationship at least begins a one-flesh bond. The bond will either be something beautiful or it will be something grotesque (like Siamese twins).

         It depends on whether the bonding takes place in a relationship with the right conditions: committed love, demonstrated by the marriage commitment, and a pursuit of true intimacy. Just because sex is taking place in marriage doesn't mean it is truly fulfilling God's purpose of bonding together a one-flesh relationship.

                  d. Though an initial bond in a one flesh relationship can be formed at the first sexual relationship a couple has, the fullness of what God wants to do in the one flesh relationship takes time. It has to become.

                  e. Before the fall, Adam and Eve were both naked … and not ashamed. The idea of "nakedness" is far more than mere nudity. It has the sense of being totally open and exposed as a person before God and man. To be naked … and not ashamed means you have no sin, nothing to be rightly ashamed of, nothing to hide.

         Adam and Eve knew they were physically naked - nude - before the fall. What they did not know was a sinful, fallen condition, because they were not in that condition before their rebellion.

         We often feel uncomfortable when someone stares at us. This is because we associate staring with prying, and we don't want people to pry into our lives. We want to remain hidden and only reveal to other people what we want to reveal.

         When we want to be most attractive to someone else, we do the most to change our normal appearance. We have the thought, "If I really want to impress this person, I have to fix myself up." None of this feeling was present with Adam and Eve when they were naked … and not ashamed.

God’s original plan:  One man for one woman to be one flesh for a lifetime!

1.   Suitable companionship found in a woman for a man.

2.   God given right to enjoy sex and have children.

3.   Encourage self control:  A marriage built only on sexual passion isn’t likely to be strong or mature.  Sex should be enriching not just exciting…need to respect one another.  Sex outside of marriage is condemned, destructive as are perversions of the sexual union.  Romans 1:24-27.  No matter what the judges or the marriage counselors say: “God will judge…”  Heb. 13:4

4.   Marriage is an illustration of the loving and intimate relationship between Christ and His church.  Eph. 5:22-33.  Adam was put to sleep that he might have a wife, but Jesus died on the cross and His blood shed that He might have a bride.  John 19:33-37.

Marriage is a CIVIL relationship regulated by law, ad should be a SPIRITUAL relationship and a HEART relationship governed by the Word of God and motivated by love. 

The greatest pre-marital agreement is one made in the heart of each individual:  I receive you as Christ has received me and I will forgive you of any offence that you might commit.