Genesis 2:4-25 "A Perfect Start" For Switch 2006-10-22
William Ng
Main Point: God created humanity, man and woman together, for the good purpose of ruling the world in His way.
1: God has made man and woman for relationship with Himself under His care and rule,
2: God has given man and woman a good world that they are to manage and enjoy.
3: God has made man and woman for relationship with each other.
Main Switch: We must worship our amazing God because of His good plans and creation,
Second Switch: We must listen to God our Creator and Lord in the way we live.
Third Switch: But we must also realize that our present relationships with God, each other and the world are broken…
Genesis 2:4-25
A Perfect Start
1. Relating to God
2. Lord(s) of the Land
3. Humanity and the sexes
4. A Big Switch
Talk on Genesis 2:4-25
“A Perfect Start”
Last week, I hope that you were smacked by the awesome Cosmic creation of an Almighty God who made the vast universe or “heavens”, a Meticulous God who made the Earth and everything in, on and around it, and a Generous God who made humankind in His image to subdue the world. Well, Genesis 2 is an upclose and personal retelling of a special part of that creation. It tells the story from the ground-level, and zooms right into the scene of the Design and Creation of Man and Woman.
The writer of Genesis is giving us readers a clue that he is moving and focussing onto a special part of the story. Verse 4 says, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.” The Genesis writer uses the words “This is the account” at important scenes of the biblical history1 whenever he wishes to direct the story on a certain path, or focus our eyes along a certain way. Here in the second part of verse 2, the writer directs the story, not to Mars, or another galaxy, not into the heavens, but onto earth and not at any time but: “When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.” When is the scene? It’s when God made the earth. Where is the story going? It’s going to focus on the earth. The writer switches from using the phrase “the heavens and the earth” to “the earth and the heavens.” The focus of biblical history is going to be on earth.
As you read verses 5-6, the writer takes you in with his camera lens as he zooms onto a particular time of the earth, the very beginning. Now imagine standing there, in the beginning, when no plants have sprung up yet, no crops are growing on the fields of the earth, and no rains have been sent down by God, and then – hold on – what is God doing there? He is making a man. He forms him from the dust of the earth. He makes Adam. From now on the Story is on Adam, the first man.
1. Relating to God
(vv4, 7-8, 9, 10-15, 16-17, rest…)
This passage tells us how Adam – and so all of us humans – are relate to God. Firstly God is a personal, committed, friendly God. God is a personal and committed God. We see this in the special name for God in this chapter. It’s not used often in Genesis, so when it is used, it’s used for a special reason. Verse 4 calls God “The LORD God”, not just “God”, but “The LORD God”. The words “the LORD” is the personal name of God in the Jewish bible text, or Yahweh. Only God’s people knew this name because He told them this name when He called them through Moses2. It buzzes with ideas of his personal commitment to His people, it stands for relationship, it tells us that God is Adam’s personal God. He’s not just the Almighty Creator in the Heavens, He’s the LORD God, a God, whom Adam can call, can SMS, can blog on and be blogged back, at anytime.
Look now at how God makes Adam. In verse 7 we see that God forms him from the dust. Adam is a man of the earth, formed from the earth. God on the other hand is the maker of the Heavens and the Earth. God is of Heaven and the Earth is His footstool3. The separation between God and man is an infinite gap: it’s like a grand canyon or a deep chasm or a vast heavenly space that a man of the earth can never, ever cross.
Not only that, this Adam, man of earth, is given an extraordinary life from God. In verse 7 we see how God breathes a supernatural life into Adam and he becomes a living being. Without the breath of God, there is no life for man. So man is always dependent on God the life-giver. So every breath you take, this one, that one, and the next one, is another breath that God gives you. Every beat of your heart, this one, that one, and the next one is given by God. He gives it and He can take it. At anytime if God so chooses to, He could take your breath away. Just like that. This is why man cannot live without God: the man of earth is dependent on God.
This God is also such a generous God. Just look at how lush, rich and watered the land of Eden is from verses 10-15. Eden is full of life, which is suggested by the 4 rivers that flow from it. The land of Havilah around Eden is laid with precious gold, bdellium and onyx. And what about the Garden in verse 9? It’s full of every type of good, fruit bearing tree. Not only that, these trees are also a delight on the eyes. Not like some of the shrubs and dried-up trunks near the carpark here. God has separated Eden from the wilderness and vegetation of the land, and filled its lush garden with every type of tree to die for, with fruits of juicy, cool sweetness. This God knows how to be generous.
There is another thing that made life in this Garden just wonderful and it’s this: the LORD God was present in this Garden, no joke. His presence was in the Garden. Genesis 3:8 tells us that God walked in the Garden. In chapter 2, we see God pointing out to the man Adam all the wonders of the Garden that He made, take him on a guided tour, place him here, leave him there, etc. And if you were there, just as Adam was, you could hear God talking, feel His presence, talk with Him and just hang out with Him. God’s presence was really dwelling in the Garden, and relationship with Him was real.
You’ve already heard that this Life-giving, Heavenly and generous God is a personal God, who is committed to Adam and human beings and, who wishes to have a real relationship them. How was Adam to relate to God? By living under God’s rule, listening to God’s commands and trusting in God’s provision. This is why God placed the Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the middle of the Garden, in verse 9. Firstly, Adam the man was free to eat from every tree except one in the Garden, including the Tree of Life. We know from eating the Tree of Life the Man could live and continue to live from Genesis 3:22. Adam was to trust in God’s good provision by eating freely from the Tree. Yet he was to listen to God’s command to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. To disobey God’s command is death. To distrust God’s wisdom is deadly. To doubt God’s goodness will surely kill Adam and everyone after him.
Let’s tease out what the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is. Well, it’s at least a symbol of God’s command in the middle of the Garden. Every time Adam turns his head around the Garden he will see the tree. It’s placed in the centre so that everyday he is reminded of God’s command, God’s rule and God’s wisdom in prohibiting him from taking from the tree. He’s free to choose, every moment he sees the tree, to take or not to take. And each time he will be making a choice of whether to listen to God, or not to listen to God, whether to obey, or not to obey. The Tree symbolically reminds him to trust and obey God’s command daily.
The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil also grants moral independence. To Know Good and to Know Evil is to determine, choose and to experience what is Good and Evil. The word “knowing” in the bible has more meanings than just head knowledge. So in the end, it’s about Humans becoming like God. When Man wants to determine for himself without God what is Good and what is Evil, he is trying to be God, he’s trying to do what only God should do. And God promises that this rebellion leads to death. You’ll hear more on this next week.
So humans were made for personal relationship with a good, generous and committed God under His rule.
2. Lord(s) of the Land
(vv7, 8, (10-15), 18-20)
Let’s think about the world and all other creatures on the land that God had created. One thing sure thing is that Adam the man is to enjoy the Garden. Look at verse 8: “Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.” The word “put” is like saying God reserved the place for the man, or He rested the man in the Garden, or He safely placed him in the Garden. It’s not dumping. But it’s lavishing the man with goodness in the Garden.
And did you remember how lush the watered and full of life the Land of Eden was? Remember all the lovely, ravishing and delicious trees that God brought forth in the Garden? Adam the earth Man was to enjoy all the goodness and grandeur in God’s Land. And verse 15 expands the picture, when the writer tells us that “LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Adam was to be a keeper and manager and carer of the Garden. He was to be creative in nurturing the Land, just as God was in making it so good. Adam was to use his powers to make the garden look beautiful, look cosy, do a bit of landscaping, just as God had carefully designed the whole earth for man. Adam was to keep things orderly in the Garden, making sure it is kept safe, kept neat, kept well. He is not to exploit it, rip it apart, tear the trees down, exhaust the soils, or just do nothing, do zilch, or do jack all. Adam was to do a creative good work on earth, just as God does. God completes His powerful work of the Creation of the world, and later on in history, He undertakes the establishment of an everlasting Kingdom through Jesus’ work in history.
The bible already gives a great example of a type of creative good work Adam could do. Adam started to rule over the animal kingdom. In verses 19 to 20, God also formed animals from the land and birds in the air. And Adam names each and every one of them. Naming is a special task, it means sorting and categorising everything. Looking at the strengths and functions of each kind of animal, judging what each does and giving appropriate names to each animal. The name someone or something in the Old Testament is often to be the lord of something, the master of something, the one who determines the fate of someone. The earth man is exercising his rule over these animals, as God had wanted him to do4, when he gave Man and Woman the command to rule over fish of the sea, the birds of the sky and every creature that moves along the ground in Chapter 1.
So God has given the good world for Man and Woman to enjoy and to manage.
3. Humanity and the sexes
(vv18 & 20, 22-23, 24, 25)
And now, we get to a real important part of God’s design of Adam. In verses 18 and 20, we see that "It is not good for the man to be alone.” And so God says, He “will make a helper suitable for him." God never meant to make Adam a Nigel. Adam the man was made for relationship, firstly with God, but also within a community, a society, a people. Man was made a social creature. So God made the Woman. Carefully note how God makes her. She is made from the bone and the flesh of Adam in verses 21 to 23. Woman is of the same stuff as Man, they share the same substance and they share the same life. Another thing about Woman is that she is a suitable helper for the Man, mentioned twice in verses 18 and 22. It means that whatever the earth Man lacked, the Woman was able to provide. They complement each other, makeup for what the other needs and complete the picture of humanity. The Woman is a helper for the Man in his task of caring for the Garden, in ruling over the animal, in living in God’s world. So the Bible tells us that Man and Woman together makes humanity, not one without the other, not one abusing the other and not one ruling over the other. Woman and Man are equal and they complement each other as God’s highest creation over the earth, as God’s image and representative rulers over the world5.
[In this Man and Woman, God also laid out the pattern for the continuation of humanity: Marriage. And just look at how smacked the Man is when he sees the Woman in verse 23. He says “This is now the flesh of my flesh” and “bone of my bones”. At last, someone he can really relate to, be with, commit to, care for and love. God’s pattern for marriage is laid out in verse 24. Firstly the man leaves his family. This is a public move to enter into a unique relationship. All other relationships, not matter how important, are left behind for this marriage. Second he is to cleave to his wife. So he is to be committed to his wife, faithful to her only, stick by her at all times and never to leave her. This is what it means to cleave. Marriage is also between a Man and a Woman. To imagine a marriage between Man and Man or Woman with Woman so is to reject God’s plans and purposes for humanity. It is to not trust Him. Lastly, the Man and Woman are to be one flesh. This is physical and spiritual and emotional unity. So there is no sex outside of marriage, it is to be in a committed relationship between Man and Woman, for them to enjoy, it is also for them to produce children for fulfilling God’s purpose for them to be fruitful. The Man and Woman also have unity in how they live, in their plans, in good times and in bad times they are one and are standing strong together. They are to be of one flesh.]
So God made Man and Woman for relationship with each other, in humanity and also in marriage.
4. A Big Switch
Big Switches must be made everytime you hear from the Bible. I will point out a few from Genesis 2 today. Keep in mind though that we know all the ideal relationships in Genesis 2 are now broken because of Genesis 3, which you will hear next week. There are still big switches to make. And then after this, we’ll have question time. Firstly: We must respond to this personally committed God, and we must respond to Him with open arms. The God of Adam is the same God today, He hasn’t changed, unlike our friends, our pals and gals or even our family. This same God has called all of humanity after Adam and Eve into relationship with Him. As you keep coming to Switch, you will hear how God works in our history to keep calling people from everywhere to Himself, even after the Fall, even after we reject His messengers of the Old Testament, even after we crucify His only Son Jesus, He has been calling you. You must not reject this God. You cannot hang up on Him. But you must freely choose to relate to Him. Remember how delicately the God of Heaven made the man of earth? What a privilege it is to be able to hang out with God? What an honour that though you can’t have access to your principal, your lecturer, the prime minister, the President of USA, but you can have access to God because He is the LORD God, a personal, committed and generous God. If anyone in this room doesn’t know how to start a relationship with God, talk with your leaders, talk with your christian friends, ask your christian family. We must invite this God into your life.
Secondly: We must choose on where we stand with God’s command, we must judge whether God’s ways are good, whether His ways are to be our ways. A lot of us have learned a lot about so many of God’s ways, from the Bible, from older christians, from christian teachers, family and leaders. Just the 2 trees in the Garden, we have daily reminders in our head and hearts of God’s goodness to us and God’s warning for our lives. Daily we know that to try to be God, or to take from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will lead to death. And we know that to trust and obey God, or to take from the Tree of Life, will lead to life. Whenever we willing choose our way over God’s way, we don’t actually think God’s way is good, we don’t trust that He is good to us, and we think that we know better than God. Don’t be a tool, don’t be a fool. Know that God’s ways are best, trust that He gives us the best, and obey His good command that leads to life. And if we still foolish rebel aginst Him, ask God for that forgiveness which He promises in the rest of the Bible. We know we are in a sinful world, we experience the death and foolishness of our rebellion everyday, but know that God has an answer in His Bible, and pray for His help.
I’ll end by naming two areas in our lives in which many people need to switch over to God’s ways. The first area is sex, the second area is our attitude to Work on Earth. Firstly, sex and how the idea has been divorced and separated from marriage. From the very first chapters of the Bible6, we see human beings choosing for themselves what is good and evil in sex. God makes it plain that the Man and the Woman in marriage is to enjoy sex in a committed, permanent and exclusive relationship. Sex is a reflection of the spiritual and emotional unity the Man and the Woman shall have. And that unity will be delightful and shameless.
But look at our high school and university and adult worlds. Because human sexual desires are real, the world has used sex in manipulation of humans. So many young girls these days are being used by a market which says to arouse the desire in other people is to be beautiful. So clothing becomes unconsciously a stumbling block for many others who want to reserve their sexual desires until the time where they can be committed to their marriage partner.
Many youth are unconsciously or consciously giving into the lie that sex outside of marriage is nice, easy and essential. Yes it may be nice for a while, but without the public commitment and promises of marriage, people are just manipulating each other for sexual pleasure and the result is usually hurt, guilt, jealousy, anger as well as physical consequences of unwanted disease, pregnancy and hardship. God meant sex to be used in love between a Man and Woman who are committed to each other for life. To just have sex is for a man and woman to use one another for fun, without commitment. In the end, at least one is using or manipulating the other.
We must not be like godless people, who support the manipulation and abuse of other people for sexual pleasure. We will not be abusing the power of sexual desire shamelessly for our own flattery or false sense of beauty in how we dress. We will not give into the shameful use of pornography for gaining sexual pleasure by abusing images of sexual objects and forget that they are God’s creatures who need commitment, relationship and care. God’s way on sex is best, and we must choose it and know that His ways are ultimately for our good.
And on work on earth. Here, we need to switch from a narrow, self-centred focus of work to a God-centred, purposeful and constructive work. Apart from the good work of sharing the good news, Christians are still to care for the earth and work on it creatively for good. That was God’s command to Adam, when He placed him in the Garden as its keeper. Even though our efforts in the world are tainted by the Fall, we are still to take good care of God’s world. We can do this locally at school, here in our community, over in our companies, or collectively as a society, or even as a nation.
Locally we care for the property of our schools, we are involved in work which makes life better for others, we take care in cleaning up our own mess, we use our artistic freedom to lighten up the environment and not just do and dump whatever we feel, whever we feel. In our neighbourhood we can build good relationships, we are to be helpful, polite, not parking our cars such that we cause jams in the church road. In our church community we are to help pack up chairs, setup the chairs, clean up the lunch tables. In our companies we act for their good, we deal fairly, we build other team members up and teach them, we order the work place and encourage others to follow. We don’t just use and waste. In our society, we support good public works, social works. We look to build up those sections that are disadvantaged, we do not support destructive industries like gambling, smoking and pornography. In our nation we make the most of God’s blessings, we don’t consume until all that is left is just waste. We won’t be greedy and overconsume such that we have left over meals, shoes, books, computers and just all that stuff. We help save water and pray for rain for our farmers. And we share all our first-world blessings with those nations who are poor, in need of refuge, in need of money, adoption, and so on. These activities are not God’s first priorities, because He aims to save the whole world from their rebellion and bring them into relationship with Himself through Jesus Christ. But these activities are consistent with God’s orders for Adam and will allow the most important gospel activities to happen locally, nationally and globally. So we are to work creatively for the world’s good, for the gospel’s sake.
1 E.g. at Gen 2, 6, 10, 11, 25, 37
2 Ex 3:14-15.
3 Isaiah 66:1.
4 Gen 1:26
5 Gen 1:26.
6 Gen 6.
Genesis 2
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested [a] from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens- 5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth [b] and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth [c] and there was no man to work the ground, 6 but streams [d] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground- 7 the LORD God formed the man [e] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin [f] and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. [g] 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.
But for Adam [h] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs [i] and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib [j] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
"This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called 'woman, [k] '
for she was taken out of man."
24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Footnotes:
Genesis 2:2 Or ceased ; also in verse
Genesis 2:5 Or land ; also in verse
Genesis 2:5 Or land ; also in verse
Genesis 2:6 Or mist
Genesis 2:7 The Hebrew for man (adam) sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for ground ( adamah it is also the name Adam (see Gen. 2:20).
Genesis 2:12 Or good ; pearls
Genesis 2:13 Possibly southeast Mesopotamia
Genesis 2:20 Or the man
Genesis 2:21 Or took part of the man's side
Genesis 2:22 Or part
Genesis 2:23 The Hebrew for woman sounds like the Hebrew for man.
