In Genesis Chapter
1, we find a very broad look at how God made the world; how he gave everything
that he made a function and purpose within his new creation. It’s a picture
painted with a very big brush we might say, now, with Chapter 2, we get the
intimate, more close-up view of how God’s world was created to operate. What we
find is not something totally new or different from Chapter One, but a digging
down and shoring up of what the passage reveals to us. With the combination of
these two chapters, we are given from God, what I like to call our,
“Foundational Relationships”. From this divine revelation, we can see that God
created and desires us to be in relationship with him, each other, and the
world. By the end of this study I hope we will perceive the importance of these
relationships and how they tie directly into a flushing and complete life as a
Christian in the 21st century. We will also discover that when one
of these relationships goes astray, it corrupts the others as well, leading to
many of the problems that we ourselves encounter daily, or discover around us.
Genesis 2:4-9 “These
are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the
day that the Lord God made the earth
and the heavens, 5 when no plant of
the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for
the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and
watered the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life; and man became a living soul.
8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there
he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And
out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the
sight and good for food, the tree of
life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
One of the first
things that we notice about this account of creation, is that God is now
referred to as, “Lord God” instead of simply, “God” as in Chapter 1. Why does
this happen? What is now different? Here we find the intimate name that Israel
would begin to call God later, the name of YHWH, often translated in English as
Lord. This is the name that God reveals to Moses at the Burning Bush in Exodus.
When asked by Moses his name, God tells him, “I am who I am” or “YHWH” in
Hebrew. This name of God is a subject that we will dig into more deeply later, but
for now it reinforces the idea, that this account of creation is describing a
very deep and personal relationship between God and his people.
Next, we are
presented with the great problem, “there was no man to till the ground”. As we
learned in Chapter One, God desires a partner to help him take care of his new
creation, people to be faithful and wise stewards of his work. This causes God
to form man from the ground, to pour life into him by giving him a soul. This
from beginning, makes man different and unique from the other creatures that
God creates. Some of the Church Fathers say, it makes man the “Crown of
Creation”. As the text moves along, we will see how a key relationship grows
from this "tilling" of the ground. Notice that God “puts” man in the garden, he
does not just find his way there, no God himself put him there. He now has an
important task to undertake and preform.
Genesis 2:10-14 “A
river flowed out of Eden to water
the garden, and there it divided and
became four rivers. 11 The name of
the first is Pishon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of
Havilah, where there is gold; 12 and the gold of that land is good;
bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is
Gihon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is
Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.”
The account then
tells us that “a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden”, we could see
this as a description of a river of “life”, with water being necessary for all
life to live and prosper. The author of Genesis is making the point for us,
that all life flows from God, that we really have nothing without his power,
yes, he is the creator and life giver. But the text is also telling us that we
are more than just mere caretakers of what is rightly God’s. Observe two often
forgotten words here present in this short passage. Gold and onyx, why are
these important? Because they illustrate that mankind was created to be “kings
and priests” in creation. With gold being a sign of kingship and onyx becoming
an important item in the priesthood of Israel. All of these different little tidbits
of revelation fit into our roles as God’s faithful people, those of service and
worship.
Genesis 2:15-25 “The
Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 16 And
the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of
the garden; 17 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 die. 18 “Then the
Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper
fit for him.” 19 So
out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird
of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living
creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all cattle,
and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So
the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took
one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; 22 and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made
into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then
the man said, “This at last is bone of
my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was
taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a
man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.”
We are again told
that God “put” man into the garden, reinforcing the earlier reference that God
has something for man to do in his world. Leading us directly into two of the
very important commands from God that become part of our “foundational relationships”. “Till it and keep it”, while together
in the text, they are very different commands and the response that is needed
to fulfill them. First is the task to “till it”, meaning the garden, to take
care of God’s world for him. I think this command is pretty clear, but the
second one of this pair may not be as clear. The command to “keep it” is a
little tricky and we have to figure out what exactly God desires from his
people with this command. The word can in Hebrew mean to “guard” the
garden, but we need to open our Bible a little further to get our minds around
the deeper meaning intended here. The word is used in the Book of Numbers to
describe the service of the priest in the Tabernacle, the mobile temple/tent
that God told Moses to build. It was first and foremost a place of worship, a
meeting place between God and man. Numbers reads, “They shall perform duties for him and for the whole congregation
before the tent of meeting, as they minister at the tabernacle; they shall keep of all the furnishings of the tent
of meeting, and attend to the duties for the people of Israel as they minister
at the tabernacle.” (3:7-8) This can help us to conclude that the “keeping”
of the Tabernacle in like the “keeping” of the garden, it is about worship, yes
worship. One of the key duties that each of us has as God’s created beings, is
to offer him proper worship. With this God gives us a complete picture that
worship and stewardship tie directly together. We take the good fruits of
creation, bread and wine, even ourselves through sacrifice, and offer it back
to God through worship. As we read in Romans “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present
your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (12:1) Showing forth that we are in communion with God and
one another. Reminding us that if we are not caring for God’s world, then how
will we be able to worship him properly. God desires a fruitful and life filled
creation, not one corrupt and run down. This is also the reason that Adam names
the animals in creation, to show forth his dominion and care for the world, it also
demonstrates that because he names the animals, he has a relationship with
them. It may come as a surprise for many, but our relationship with God, through worship, is in a very unique way tied to the “land” or the
created world. This is a subject that we will dig deeper into latter.
Man is then faced
with a problem, if he is to take care of God’s world and worship him, he cannot
do these tasks alone. He needs a helper and a mate to properly fulfill his vocation.
God himself knows this is a key issue and therefor creates the woman, together they
may do what God wishes them to do. Now to fully grasp the relationship between
man and woman, we need to look back at Genesis 1, and see what God’s initial command
was for mankind. Here we find this verse, “And
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have
dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every
living thing that moves upon the earth.” (1:28) Clearly God wants his new
image bearing creature, man, to fill the world and to do this he must be in a
heathy and fruitful relationship with his wife. Man and woman are created to be
together, to love one another, to serve and worship God, lastly to have dominion
and care for God’s creation. With this passage in mind, we find the foundation of how humanity, God, and the world, work together. We discover
the “covenant plan” of God on full display. Meaning for this plan to work
properly all the pieces must function and thrive together. If one part is
removed then the whole thing falls apart.
Let us recap the
three divine commands of creation:
1.
“fruitful
and multiply” – shows man’s proper relationship with his wife
2.
“till and
subdue” – displays man’s proper relationship with creation
3.
“keep”
guard – shows man’s proper relationship with God
With all of this
in mind, we can answer the large and often asked questions, “Why did God make
me? What does he want me to do?” He made each of us to be relationship with one
another through love and mutual respect, no matter if its man and woman, as
husband and wife, bringing forth new life, or simply people as friends, God’s
desire remains the same. For human beings to function properly they must be in
communion with other human beings. Next God made us to worship him. To give him
the time and love that he deserves as creator. We then reflect the God that we
worship back into the world through love and mercy. Lastly, God created us for
is to care for his world, not treating it like a trash can, but as the “very good”
creation that God himself has crafted and given to us. When we hold these three
relationships together, we get the picture of the world as God fashioned it to
be. We get the original blueprint and covenant that God made with man at creation.
God, man, and the world, belong together, not far apart, but in communion with
each other. When we separate these three relationships, then people’s lives and
the world itself return to “chaos”, to the darkness before God gave order and
purpose. We can see this daily on the world around us; think about how
different our times would be if every person who called himself a Christian,
lived a life that was rooted in God’s plan and desires. We would look out and
see a vastly changed world for sure. It would be as Isaiah saw, “for the earth
shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (11:9)
Over and over in
the Bible we find these three relationships at work and as this study and blog
moves along, I will often refer to them. In the next post on the Fall, we will
see the direct results that Sin has upon these relationships and the plan that
God has to begin to deal with this new problem in his world.
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