Genesis Chapter 2
V1. 1 So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. 2 On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.
Webster had several definitions for the word rest. Here are the two that I considered for clarification in regards to Gen 2:2:Rest:
- Refreshing ease or inactivity after exertion or labor: to allow an hour for rest.
- A period or interval of inactivity, repose, solitude, or tranquility: to go away for a rest.
As I reread the verse in context with all that I know about God I realized that definition did not fit the character of God. In Isaiah 40: we are told that God does not need rest. So if He didn’t need rest why did he take the time? Why did he not continue on?
Those questions lead to the second definition that rest is “a period or interval of inactivity, repose, solitude, or tranquility : to go away for a rest.”
- God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it: God blessed this day as He made it a day of rest. Not only is He assigning this day as a period of inactivity but it is also an picture of the spiritual rest available through the person and work of Jesus Christ.
- 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).
V4-7. 4 This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth. When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. 6 Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land. 7 Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.
- In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens: This is the first time we see the name/title of Lord (Yahweh) in the Bible.
- The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground: When God created man He did not make him out of some make him out of any special element or an additional molecule instead He took the most basic elements to form human man.
- The two things we know that is life giving is breath and blood. God gave Adam (us) our ‘first’ life with breath when He created us and Jesus provided our ‘second’/eternal life with His blood. Not only is our very life dependent on His breath but every achievement and ability is from Him. Nothing we can boost of. And if we spend time degrading our achievement and abilities then we are speaking against Him.
"Pride is self-absorption whether we're absorbed with how miserable we are or how wonderful we are." Beth Moore
- And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Prior to now everything that God had created He had simply spoke then into being but when He it came time to create mankind He became more involved.
V8-9. 8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
- 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 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.
10 A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches. 11 The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found. 12 The gold of that land is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there. 13 The second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush. 14 The third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates.
- The name of the first is Pishon: These rivers were 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. (Remember back to our reason we choose to believe the bible is true that I talked about on 1/16/13. Read about it here)
15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
- Placed him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it: God put Adam in the most spectacular paradise 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.
- Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat: The presence of this tree - presented 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.
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”
- make a helper : “equal but not the same”. My husband can read a tape measure, convert from standard to metric and so many more mechanical calculations in his head that I can’t but I can figure accruals, debits and credits and financial calculations that he can’t. It is all a form of math but different. We have strengthens in different areas and are meant to use those gift together for God’s glory.
- It is not good that man should be alone: God saw something, for the first time, that was not good - the aloneness of man. God never intended for man to be alone, either in the marital or social sense.
- 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. 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.)
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