Genesis Chapter 2
Genesis 2 – Creation Completed; Adam in the Garden of Eden
Major Topics:
• The Sabbath
• Mr. & Mrs. Man
• Why no “erev” and “boker”?
• “A Repose” on the Universe?
• The Sabbath in Prophecy
• The Role of Marriage
A. The completion of creation.
1. (1-3) The seventh day of creation.
Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
The text says He “rested” not “is resting” (No day-epoch theories here). He finished His Creation work. His next work is the Redemption. Most of the Bible is about The Redemption! (John 4:34, 5:17) When Jesus is on the cross in John 19:30 and says, “It is finished” (John 17:4; 19:30) or in the greek, “Tetelestai,” which means “paid in full!”
Rabbinical View …the Creator caused a repose to encompass the universe…
The “Creator caused a repose to encompass the universe” that had been made during the first six days. Studying the ancient Hebrew text to mean that God imposed a rest on the universe. This viewpoint was from one of the highest Rabbinical scholars from the 13th century. Over the past 125 years, the
Laws of Thermodynamics have been fully described. The Laws of Thermodynamics
The First Law of Thermodynamics is the conservation of matter and energy and asserts that matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed (under natural circumstances). You can interchange matter and energy (Einstein’s equation of e = mc2 or Energy = Mass and Speed of Light squared). All observed processes conserve matter or its equivalent energy. Corollary: natural processes cannot create energy. All is a result of the past.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics is the Entropy law, “The bondage of decay” also called the “Arrow of Time,” and it asserts that as time advances, the universe progresses from a state of order to a state of greater disorder (entropy). This also declares that the energy available to do work continually decreases. The universe appears to run “downhill” to an eventual heat death when no temperature differences exist (no energy is available), resulting in uniform randomness. The universe had a beginning and will have an ending.
The Third Law is every substance has a finite positive entropy which may become zero at a temperature of absolute zero.
Conservation of Matter/Energy in Scripture
And on the seventh day God ended His work… Genesis 2:2-3
The works were finished from the foundation of the world… Hebrews 4:3-4
All the things that are therein…you preserve them all. Nehemiah 9:6
Entropy in Scripture
They shall perish… grow old as a garment… Psalm 102:25-26
The earth will grow old like a garment… Isaiah 51:6
Heaven and earth will pass away… Matthew 24:35
Entropy to be Repealed? …Because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. Romans 8:21
Thermal Decay
• Heat always flows from hot bodies to cold bodies
• If the universe was infinitely old, the temperature throughout the universe would be uniform; but it is not, therefore, it is not infinitely old
• The universe had a beginning
Background on Genesis 2 How many of each animal did Noah take into the ark? (2 each of the “unclean”; 7 each of the “clean.”) How did he know which were which? These were ceremonial definitions, ordained (Garden of Eden) in Genesis and codified in Leviticus.
Roots in Eden
• “Clean” and “Unclean” Genesis 7:2, 8
• The Kinsman-Redeemer Genesis 3:15
• Substitutionary Atonement Genesis 3:21
• The Sabbath Genesis 2:2, 3
The Scriptural View
For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Exodus 20:11
The Sabbath And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. Genesis 2:3
Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8
Does a Christian need to “keep the Sabbath”? Anyone who thinks this is a simple question has not really studied it. The Sabbath was established in Genesis 2:2,3. It was practiced beforethe giving of the Ten Commandments.
Examples would be the manna was not collected on 7th day (Ex 16:22-28) and the Commandments given at Mount Sinai (Ex 20:8-11). The Institution of the Sabbath The Sabbath becomes distinctive of Israel (Ex 20:2, 8-11; Deut 4:13; 5:2-21).
Mosaic Laws concerning the Sabbath (Ex 35:2,3; Lev 23:3; 26:34; et al; Isa 56:2, 4, 6; 58:13,14; Jer 17:20-22; Neh 13:19) such as kindling a fire was forbidden (Ex 35:3). The penalty for profaning the Sabbath by doing any work was death (Ex 31:14-17). However, priests carried on their duties about the Tabernacle on the Sabbath (Lev 24:8; Num 28:9, 10). The Temple was full of activities (1 Chron 9:32; 23:31; 2 Chron 2:4; 8:13; 23:4; 31:3) and the rite of circumcision was performed on the Sabbath if it was the 8th day after the child’s birth (Lev 12:3; John 7:22)
Abuses Isaiah condemned the hypocrisy of the worshipers (Isa 1:12, 13). He defined true Sabbath keeping as turning from one’s own ways and own pleasures and taking delight in the Lord (Isa 58:13, 14). Other prophets also raised their protests against the abuse of the Sabbath (Jer 17:21, 22; Ezek 22:8; Amos 8:4-6). The destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the Jews was due to their desecration of the Sabbath (Jer 17:27; Ezek 20:23, 24). Why were they in captivity for 70 years (2 Chron 36:20, 21)? God takes His instructions for the Sabbath, and Sabbatical years, seriously.
The Exile
• Hosea predicted that God would make Israel’s Sabbaths to cease because of her unfaithfulness (Hos 2:11); it was not meant to be permanent (Isa 66:23; Ezek 44:24; 46:1ff).
• Nehemiah was shocked to see the widespread desecration of the Sabbath day and took steps and instituted reforms. This was so successful that in the days of the Maccabees, many chose to die rather than desecrate the Sabbath, even for self-defense (1 Macc 2:41). Mattathias, the leader of the revolt against the tyranny of Antiochus IV, ruled that it was permissible to take up arms in self defense on the Sabbath.
• However, as the rules multiplied, so did the ruses to circumvent them: You can’t legislate devotion. Even today, in Israel’s secular state, a visitor is confronted with Sabbath elevators (stopping at every floor) and other travel inconveniences quite removed from the original intent.
Sabbath in the New Testament
• Jesus’ custom was to attend the synagogue on the Sabbath (Luke 4:16; Mark 1:21; 3:1; Luke 13:10)
• Jesus taught the authority and validity of the Old Testament Law (Matt 5:17-20; 15:1-6; 19:16-19; 22:35-40; Luke 16:17)
• His emphasis was not on the external observance of the law, but on the spontaneous performance of the will of God which underlay the law (Matt 5:21-48; 19:3-9)
Six Conflicts
1) He defended His disciples for plucking grain on the Sabbath by alluding to the time when David and his men ate the bread of the Presence (Matt 12:1-4; Mark 2:23-26; Luke 6:1-4). In so doing, Jesus placed the Sabbath commandment in the same class as the ceremonial law. Human need had precedence over the ceremonial requirements.
2) He also reminded His critics that the priests in the Temple profaned the Sabbath and were held guiltless (Matt 12:5).
3) He referred to circumcising a male on the Sabbath day (Lev 12:3; John 7:22, 23).
4) Jesus expressed anger over those at Capernaum who showed more concern for the punctilious observance of the Sabbath than for a human being who was deprived of the use of a hand (Mark 3:1-5; Matt 12:8-14).
5) Likewise, Jesus rebuked the ruler of the synagogue, who became indignant when He healed a woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years (Luke 13:10-17).
6) Jesus asserted His lordship over the Sabbath (Matt 12:8; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5).
Seven Healings on the Sabbath
1) Demoniac, in Capernaum Mark 1:21-27
2) Peter’s mother-in-law, in Capernaum Mark 1:29-31
3) Impotent Man, in Jerusalem John 5:1-9
4) Man with withered hand Mark 3:1-6; Matt 12:8-14
5) Woman bowed together Luke 13:10-17
6) Man with Dropsy Luke 14:1-6
7) Man born blind John 9:1-14 In all of these instances, Jesus showed that He placed human need above mere external ceremonial observance of the Sabbath. He never did or said anything to suggest that He intended to take away from man the privileges afforded by such a day of rest.
There were many healings throughout Scripture, but these are noted because they were controversial taking place on a Sabbath day. Another healing was on a Sunday, after the Sabbath (Mark 1:32). The Sabbath was made for man; not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27 Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. Matthew 12:8
The Early Church The early Christians were loyal Jews. They worshiped daily in the Temple at Jerusalem (Acts 2:46; 5:42); they attended services in the synagogue (Acts 9:20; 13:14; 14:1; 17:1, 2, 10; 18:4); and they revered the law of Moses (Acts 21:20). The dispute over the requirements of a Gentile Christian were resolved at the Council at Jerusalem (Acts 15).
Paul and the Sabbath The law was a yoke of bondage from which the Christian had been set free (Gal 3:2, 3; 5:1; et al.). Paul made no distinction between moral and ceremonial law: It was all part of that old covenant, which was done away in Christ (2 Cor 3:14); it was “nailed to the cross” (Col 2:14). The Sabbath and festivals are declared to be “only a shadow of what is to come” (Col 2:16, 17). To “observe days, and months, and seasons, and years” is to be slaves to “the weak and beggarly elemental spirits” (Gal 4:9, 10; Col 2:20). The observance of days is a characteristic of “the man who is weak in faith” (Rom 14:1-6).
Apostolic Practice? After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples on four consecutive Sundays (Matt 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1). This is a part of the basis of the veneration of Sunday as the “Lord’s Day,” replacing the traditional Sabbath. Pentecost, the birth of the church, was, by definition, on a Sunday (Acts 2:1). Some think Sunday replaces Shabbat
but I think this is a mistake as they are two different things. Some maintain that the Ascension occurred on a Sunday; but with Forty days intervening between the Resurrection and the Ascension, this appears unlikely (Acts 1:9). They did meet on a Sunday night (Acts 20:7, but Sunday night was their Monday). The often quoted 1 Corinthians 16:1, 2 is actually unclear: “…. that there be no gatherings when I come…”? (They collected offerings on Sunday so they would not be collecting when Paul was visiting.) The assertion that “we never see Christ meeting with his disciples on any other day” appears to be contradicted by John 20:26: “and after 8 days…” Jesus appears to them again.
Caveats about the “Early Church” The lessons from the Seven Churches mentioned in Revelation 2 and 3:
• Each were surprised by their report card
• Those that thought they were doing well, were not
• Those that thought they were not doing well, were doing well
As early as 96 AD, the church was confused, so maybe not the best model for us. Many errors were rampant for example:
• Origen’s allegorical hermeneutics (clearly unscriptural, but laid foundation for Augustines Amillennialism)
• Augustine’s Amillennialism, et al (became eschatology for the Catholic Church and Protestant Reform Churches) If you study the scriptures, Amillennialism is an indictment of God because it states He does not keep His promises! So, we should not use the early church as the model but the Word the God as the model. Furthermore, the rising anti-Semitism in the early church makes their views regarding the “Sunday Sabbath” suspect
Constantine (AD 274–337) October 27, 312 AD, on the eve of the battle of Milvain Bridge just outside of Rome, Constantine is reported as having seen in the sky a vision of the cross, with the words, “In this Sign Conquer.” He had painted on his men’s shields a figure that was perhaps intended to be Christ’s monogram (although he may have had Christ confused with the Sun in his manifestation as summa divinitas (the highest divinity). He won the battle and declared himself a Christian, establishing a turning point in the history of Christianity (Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 20, 353–410). Whether this was true conversion or a politically advantageous rationalization is a matter of scholastic dispute. Even his contemporaries, Lactantius and Eusebius of Caesarea, are not enlightening and even contradictory on the subject. He ultimately abolished slavery, gladiatorial fights, the killing of unwelcome children, and crucifixion as a form of execution. Frustrated with the paganism of the aristocracy in Rome, he relocated the capital of the world to Byzantium, renaming it Constantinople. This, too, may have been motivated by its strategic and economic importance: its proximity to the Danube and Euphrates frontiers, and the Strait of Bosphorus and the eastern commercial routes.
Sun Worship
Constantine was faced with uniting an empire following three forms of pagan sun worship: The Syrian solar cults of Sol Invictus (the unconquerable sun), Jupiter Dolichenus (the Roman storm god), and the Persian cult of Mithra, the ancient Iranian god of light. (This same pagan pragmatism Mohammed employed in syncretizing the 360 idols of Ka’aba into the worship of Al-Ilah in Islam.
Constantine’s Edicts In 313 AD, the Edict of Toleration (making it legal to be a Christian) was instituted. Constantine granted to Christians and to all others full liberty of following a religion which each may choose; the first edict of its kind in history.
On March 7, 321 AD, Sunday as a day of rest was instituted. Constantine introduced the first civil legislation concerning Sunday: “Let all the judges and town people, and the occupation of all trades rest on the venerable day of the sun.” In 325 AD, Constantine issued a general exhortation to all his subjects to embrace Christianity. He ordered 50 Bibles to be prepared under the direction of Eusebius, on the finest vellum by skillful artists. (It was through this fusing of extant paganism with the new Christianity that the December 25 of Sol Invictus became the Christmas of the Christians, etc.) In his zeal to institute a universal creed, he presided over the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. In 337 AD, Constantine was baptized on his deathbed.
Theodosius’ Edicts (AD 347-395) In 380 AD, Theodosius made Christianity the state religion; affirmed the dogmas of the Council of Nicea and made church membership compulsory. In 392 AD, there was forcible suppression of all other religions. It was a later successor, Emperor Theodosius (347–395 AD), who made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. His legislation in 380 affirmed the dogmas of the Council of Nicea and made church membership compulsory (the worst calamity that has ever befallen the church). Theodosius undertook the forcible suppression of all other religions, and in 392 he prohibited paganism. Thus began the great apostasy as the church began its pursuit of temporal power. If our perception of Revelation 13, 17 and 18 are correct, the current Ecumenical Movement will ultimately lead to a reprise of ecclesiastical tyranny and the Darkest Ages of all. [See The Kingdom of Blood briefing for a shocking history of the Church, by Dave Hunt and Chuck Missler.] Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a German philosopher said, “History teaches that man learns nothing from history…” We are going down the same path now that they did in the 4th century
The Sunday “Sabbath”
• Only Christ has a right to make such a change (Mark 2:23- 28). As Creator, Christ was the original Lord of the Sabbath (John 1:3 Heb 1:10). It was originally a memorial of creation. A work vastly greater than that of creation has now been accomplished by Him, the work of redemption.
• The entire Jewish calendar was changed at the Exodus, the birth of the nation (Ex 12:2). We would naturally expect just such a change as would make the Sabbath a memorial of that greater work. Yet, we can give no specific text authorizing the change.
Prophetic Implications
From the standpoint of Bible prophecy, however, there are some enigmas which impact the Seventh Day issue. Sabbaths will continue as a basis for worship in the Millennium (Isa 66:22, 23); Sabbaths will be honored in Ezekiel’s Temple; the gate to the inner court is closed six days, opened on the Sabbath and the day of the new moon (Ezek 46:1ff). [There will also be memorial sacrifices also.] This would seem to refute the permanent “substitution” of Sunday for the Saturday Sabbath!
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.
Isaiah 66:22, 23
Thus saith the Lord GOD; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.
Ezekiel 46:1
So Where are We?
• There are no grounds for imposing the Sabbath on the Christian, who is free from the burden of the law’s demands. The Spirit of Christ enables him to fulfill God’s will apart from the external observances of the law. So worship on Saturday if you would like, but don’t let yourself get under the law.
• The writer of Hebrews alludes to the Sabbath as a foreshadowing or type of “God’s rest,” which is an inheritance of all the people of God (Heb 4:1-11). So it has a broader, prophetic and spiritual implication. We are urged, in a larger sense, to “strive to enter into that rest.” Not the Sabbath “rules” but to rest, trust and abide in God’s provision for you.
Some Conclusions
• The Sabbath was instituted for man at creation and preceded the Law. It is for the benefit of man, to be taken advantage of
• The Sabbath will survive the church period (Matt 24:20; Isa 66:22, 23; Ezek 46:1)
• Our conformity to rules is not the basis of our salvation. The Sabbath is a time of devotion, not a subjection to rules
Our Jewish God
• Salvation is of the Jews (John 4:22)
• All of our benefits are derivative from the Abrahamic covenant. We are grafted in the true olive tree (Rom 11). We should not forget that we serve the King of the Jews. We are members of a church founded by Jewish leaders. Our highest authority is a Jewish Bible.
Our Opportunities
• While free of the law, we still enjoy the benefits of Creation.
• The veneration of the first day as a memorial of the Resurrection is also appropriate (although its historical role as a day of worship is argumentive).
Can we enjoy the benefits of the Sabbath without coming under the law?
In our culture, we usually enjoy two days each week. The first day worship is also available to us as an opportunity. Its formal institution was an expedient exploited by Constantine and following. The seventh day Sabbath is still available to us as an opportunity. Yet, not under the law (Rom 14:5). Caveat: Not attempting to justify, or accomplish by works because Christ is the fulfillment of the Sabbath rest (Heb 4:1-11).
a. And He rested on the seventh day: God did not need rest on the seventh day 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.
i. 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 blessed the seventh day and sanctified it: 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.
i. 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.
ii. 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). In our modern world of four or five-day workweeks and generous vacation time, surely more “leisure time” can be given to the work of the LORD.
c. In it He rested from all His work: 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.
i. 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).
ii. “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)
2. (4-7) The history of the heavens and the earth.
This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and therewas no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
The term “LORD God” translated to be “Jehovah” or “Yahweh Elohim” is the covenant name for God and His relationship with the people. Some believe these scriptures were written by “Adam” or Adamah meaning earth.
The world, at this time had an entirely different hydrological cycle. The “…mist” in scripture here is different as there was no rain until flood
All the ingredients found in our bodies can be found in the ground such as carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, calcium and many trace elements. It is not obvious, but is verified by science. Putting all these elements together does not make it “alive.” God made man alive! Adam is designated in the book of Luke as a son of God and a direct creation of God.
a. This is the history of the heavens and the earth: This probably ends the “genealogy” of the heavens and the earth, a history given directly by God to either Moses or Adam, recording the history of God’s seven-day creation. This was something no human was present to witness.
b. In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens: This is the first use of LORD (Yahweh) in the Bible. Our English word Lord comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for bread (as does our word loaf) because ancient English men of high stature would keep a continual open house, where all could come and get bread to eat. They gained the honorable title of lords, meaning “dispensers of bread.”
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 were only space and a watery globe we know as the earth.
d. The LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth: When God first created vegetation (on the third day of creation, Genesis 1:11-13), man had not yet been 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.
e. The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground: 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.
i. When the Bible uses dust in a figurative or symbolic sense, 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. And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being: With this Divine breath, man became a living being, like other forms of animal life (the term chay nephesh is used in Genesis 1:20-21 and here). Yet only man is a living being made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27).
i. 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.
ii. “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)
iii. The King James Version reads: man became a living soul. This makes some wonder if man is a soul, or if man has a soul. This passage seems to indicate that man is a soul, while passages like 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and Hebrews 4:12 seem to indicate that man has a soul. It seems that the Scripture speaks in both ways, and uses the term in different ways and in different contexts.
B. Adam in the Garden of Eden.
1. (8-9) Two trees in the Garden of Eden.
The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Where was the garden with respect to “Eden”? East of Eden. The garden of Eden is roughly in the area of the Fertile Crescent (Mediterranean Sea, Persian Gulf, the Tigris and Euphrates river). Where was Eden? West of there or west of the Fertile Crescent, which is Israel. Israel is west of the “fertile crescent.” Our God has a particular interest in this real estate, more than any other on the planet earth. A piece of land God calls His own. His name is on this land and he has granted it to Israel as tenants under the condition of obedience. It does not belong to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) or the United Nations (UN). When we mess around in our foreign policies, we are poking our finger in the eye of God.
There are twenty-five trees listed in the Bible and Genesis 2 has many hidden codes relating to these trees.
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. There he put the man whom He had formed: The details in the creation of Adam and Eve teach us something. After reading Genesis 1, we might have assumed that 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. Out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow: The rest of Genesis chapter 2 does not present a different or contradictory account of creation. Rather, it is probably the history of creation from Adam’s perspective. This is Adam’s experience of creation, which does not contradict the account of Genesis 1:1-2:7 – it fills it out.
i. In Matthew 19:4-5, Jesus referred to events in Genesis 1 and to events in Genesis 2 as one harmonious account.
d. The tree of life… the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: These two trees were among all the other trees God created and put in the Garden of Eden.
i. 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).
ii. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the “temptation” tree. Eating the fruit of this tree would give Adam 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.
Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
Through Assyrian monuments we link the Hiddekel River with the Tigris. Rivers were part of the pre-flood topography, but the world changed after the flood. In 2 Peter 3:6, Peter says, “the world that then was, perished.”
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. Adam probably wrote this himself.
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.
i. We know modern rivers today such as the Tigris or Euphrates because Noah and his sons named some rivers in the post-flood world after familiar pre-flood rivers.
3. (15-17) God’s command to Adam.
Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
This text is further refutation of evolution (Cf. 1 Tim 2:13; 1 Cor 11:8).
The word Isha is the Hebrew word for “woman” and Ish is the word for “man”.
a. Put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it: 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.
i. “The ideal state of sinless man is not one of indolence without responsibility. Work and duty belong to the perfect state.” (Leupold)
b. Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat: The presence of this tree – 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.
i. 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.
ii. God made this command originally to Adam, not to Eve; God had not yet brought woman out of man.
c. In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die: God not only made His command clear to Adam, but He also clearly explained the consequences for disobedience.
C. God creates the first woman.
1. (18) God declares He will make a helper comparable to Adam.
And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
a. It is not good that man should be alone: For the first time, God saw something that was not good – the aloneness of man. God never intended for man to be alone, either in the marital or social sense.
i. Marriage, in particular, has a blessed civilizing influence on man. The wildest, most violent, sociopathic men in history have always been single, never under the plan God gave to influence men for good. For society as a whole, this is not good.
b. I will make him a helper comparable to him: God’s “blueprint” for creating this companion to Adam was to make a helper comparable to Adam.
i. Different versions of the Bible translate this idea in a variety of ways, but the idea is essentially the same in each of them:
· Helper meet (suitable, adapted, completing) (Amplified).
· A companion… a helper suited to his needs (Living).
· A helper such as he needs (Beck).
· A helper correspondent to himself (Septuagint Bible).
· A helper suitable (NIV, NASB).
· A help meet for him (KJV).
c. A helper comparable: In reference to the marriage relationship, 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 work to fulfill it.
i. The phrase “in reference to the marriage relationship” is used because God has not ordained women to be helpers to men in authority (instead of being in authority themselves), except in marriage and in the church (1 Timothy 2:12-13).
ii. 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.
iii. This does not mean there is to be no help from the man to the woman (though in many cases this is sadly true). It means when God looks down from heaven upon the family, He sees a man in leadership, good or bad, faithful or not, to the calling of leadership. A true leader will, of course, help those helping him.
iv. 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. A helper comparable: 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.
2. (19-20) No helper was found comparable for Adam among the animals.
Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
a. Brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: Since Adam had the capability to intelligently name all the animals, it shows he was a brilliant man. Because at this time Adam’s intellect had not yet suffered from the fall, he was probably the most brilliant man who ever lived. Adam was the first and greatest of all biologists and botanists.
b. So Adam gave names: 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. They were not made in the image of God.
i. Mark Twain had a joke where he described Adam coming home to Eve after naming all the animals. Eve looked at an elephant and said, “What did you name that big animal?” Adam replied, “I called it an elephant.” Eve asked, “Why did you call it an elephant?” Adam answered, “Because it looked like an elephant!”
c. But for Adam there was not found a helper: It was obvious to Adam that the animals came in pairs and he had no mate. Since God deliberately had Adam name the animals after seeing his need for a partner (Genesis 2:18), God used this to prepare Adam to receive the gift of woman.
3. (21-22) God makes the first woman from Adam’s side.
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.
a. God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam: This is the first surgery recorded in history. God even used a proper anesthetic on Adam.
b. The rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman: God used Adam’s own body to create Eve to forever remind him of their essential oneness. As Adam came to know Eve he would see many ways that they were different, but he must never forget that they are essentially one and that they are made of the same substance. They are more alike than they are different.
i. We don’t really know exactly what God took from Adam’s side to make Eve, and it doesn’t really matter. Modern research into cloning and genetic replication shows every cell in our body contains the body’s entire genetic blueprint. God took some of Adam’s cells and changed their genetic blueprint in the creation of Eve. Nevertheless, the story that women have one more rib than men because of the way Eve was created is a myth.
ii. We also know the Bride of Christ comes from the wound made in the side of the second Adam, Jesus Christ.
iii. There is a beautiful Jewish tradition saying God made woman, not out of man’s foot to be under him, nor out of his head to be over him, but “She was taken from under his arm that he might protect her and from next to his heart that he might love her” (Barnhouse).
c. He made into a woman: It is important to realize that there are not two beginnings to the human race, one in Adam and one in Eve. There was one beginning of the human race in Adam.
d. And He brought her to the man: God brought Eve to Adam and created Eve out of Adam. He was first – the source and the head. She was created to be a helper perfectly suited to him. Thus the subordinate relationship of wives to husbands is found before the curse, not only after it.
4. (23) Adam’s brilliant understanding of who Eve is and her connection to him.
And Adam said:
“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”
Marriage Instituted
Marriage was instituted by God. Christ based His teaching on this passage (Matt 19:3-9; Mark 10:2-12; He quoted Gen 1:27; 2:23, 24). Marriage is with one wife (Matt 19:8), heterosexual, and permanent (Matt 19:4-6). The male is the head of the union (1 Cor 11:8,9; 1 Tim 2:13).
First Adam
• “Son of God” (Luke 3:38)
• A figure of Him to come (Rom 5:14; 2 Cor 5:21)
• Bride paid for by a wound in his side (spear in the side of Jesus)
• All the following model “Gentile Brides” have no death recorded because each one is a “type” of the church.
Eve-Adam
Rebekah-Isaac
Asenath-Joseph
Zipporah-Moses
Rahab-Salmon
Ruth-Boaz
Church - Jesus Christ
a. This is now bone of my bones: 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). They were one, but they were not the same.
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.
i. 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, and that he cannot bless her without blessing himself and he cannot mistreat or neglect her without mistreating or neglecting himself.
c. She was taken out of Man: 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.
i. If men and women are different, are they equal? Elisabeth Elliot said: “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” (cited in Boice).
ii. She shall be called woman: “Woman has been defined by many as compounded for wo and man, as if called man’s wo because she tempted him to eat the forbidden fruit; but this is no meaning of the original word, nor could it be intended, as the transgression was not then committed.” (Clarke)
5. (24-25) The marriage of Adam and Eve.
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
a. They shall become one flesh: The marriage principle stated here is based on 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 gained by accident or by chance.
b. They shall become one flesh: 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.
i. “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)
ii. 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. One flesh: 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.
i. 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.
ii. 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 (like the beautiful dancing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) or it will be something distorted (like Siamese twins).
iii. 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. They shall become one flesh: 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. They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed: 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, and nothing to hide.
i. 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.
ii. 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.
iii. 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.
