Genesis 2

        On the 7th day God rested. This doesn’t mean that God was tired or “worn out” from all the “work” He had done. He is perfect, and He is spirit. He is incapable of being tired or physically exhausted like you and me. The verb rested, as it used here, means simply that God ceased from the process of creation. It was finished. All that He had desired to make was done, and He had declared it to be “very good”. (1:31)
         The description of God resting in verse 2 is given as an example to us. God, in His infinite knowledge of the future, knew that man would fall, knew that he would need a day of rest, and so God instructed Moses when he was writing Genesis to describe God as “resting” on the 7th day as a precursor to the law of the sabbath for the nation of Israel. (Exodus 20:8-11)
            Also, this verse is the first place in the Bible in which the Hebrew word “Jehovah” is used to describe God. “…in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens…” Strong’s concordance gives the Hebrew word for “Lord” as the transliterated word meaning “Jehovah”. That word means “self-existent or eternal”. It is the Jewish national name of God. “Jehovah” means “the existing one”. God has always been and always shall be. He has no end and no beginning.
 
            Verse 7: Man did not become a living soul until God breathed into him the breath of life. From my Bible commentary: “In the OT, the word soul, among other uses, refers to the whole person. It identifies something that cannot be defined materially and is therefore distinct from the body. The soul is that part of us that is life. It is incorporeal existence. Death is described as the soul’s departing from the body (Genesis 35:18).” Just as God is three distinct beings in one, so are we, mankind, three distinct parts of one being: body, spirit and soul. (Isaiah 10:18). (See illustration at the end of this chapter.)
            Something interesting to also note here: the proper name, Adam, is not even mentioned until verse 19 of this chapter. According to Strong’s concordance, the Hebrew word for ‘man’ is transliterated as ‘Adam’. The proper name literally means ‘mankind’, referring to all of the human race that he was to eventually father.
 
            Verses 8-14: Eden was not the proper name of the garden. The garden was only a small part of a much larger region of land known as Eden, somewhere to the east. (v.8) Moses then goes into some detail about the river that originated outside the garden elsewhere in Eden and which split into four riverheads that most likely divided the garden into four quadrants. Moses also notes that there was no such thing as rainfall in this new world. Instead, “…there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.” (v.6)
            Moses also notes in verse 9 that God made all kinds of fruit bearing trees in the garden. Two of these trees are given proper names: the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
            Why did God create the latter one? Why command Adam and Eve to not eat of it? Isn’t this a form of entrapment? Wouldn’t it have been simpler and easier to just not have that specific tree in the garden at all? If there was no temptation in the first place, then there would be no Fall, no sin, no broken world, and all of Adam and Eve’s descendants would have lived in paradise in perfect and holy communion with God forever and forever.
            The answer is actually quite simple. The key is in the concept of free will. God created Adam and Eve with free will. He wanted them to choose to worship and commune with Him. If there was no other choice but God, then that is not actually free will. That is not true worship and love. God commanded Adam and Eve to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, not as an elaborate entrapment scheme, nor was it just a test of their obedience. Rather, it was a way to exercise their free will by giving them a choice. God desired genuine, real communion and fellowship with Adam and Eve, but the only way to have that was for them to choose to follow and obey God. Remember, they were created in the image and likeness of God. That means that Adam and Eve possessed the same type of self-consciousness, the same free will, the same capacity for moral and rational discernment as God. Adam and Eve were created in the same pattern of a trinity as God. Mankind is made of three distinct parts: body, spirit and soul. No other creature in God’s creation has these three elements. That is what separates us from the animal kingdom. That is the true definition of the statement in 1:26 – “…Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” Just as God is three distinct beings in one, so we, mankind, are three distinct parts of one whole. God “…breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (v.7)
          Therefore, Adam and Eve needed to have a choice in order to properly exercise their capacity for free will as well as moral and rational discernment. They needed to think for themselves, not just as biological robots. Mankind is the only sentient being on earth that has the consciousness and imagination from which to create all manner of many things: art, music, literature, buildings, civilization, etc. That’s what God meant when He instructed Adam and Eve to have dominion over the earth and all the animals. They needed that ability to not only create and imagine in order to keep and maintain the garden, but also in order to properly commune and fellowship with God.
            But the only way to have that perfect, pure communion and worship was for Adam and Eve to make a choice every day! That tree stood at the very center of the garden and was very likely the tallest and most beautiful of all the trees. Its fruit very likely glistened and glowed in the sunlight and the morning dew, brighter than any of the other fruit in the garden. But God commanded them to leave that tree and its fruit alone. Adam and Eve made a choice every day to obey God and, thus, savor those evening times when they would walk and talk with God.
            Commentary in my study Bible on verse 17: “In the Bible there are 3 deaths: (1) physical death, separation of body and spirit; (2) spiritual death, separation of the individual from God; and (3) eternal death, the final estate of the lost person in the “lake of fire” (Revelation 20:10, 14; termed the “second death”, separation from God forever).” God was clear from the very start: if Adam was to eat of the fruit of this forbidden tree he would die. Adam was free to eat of all the other trees, which shows the freedom bestowed by a loving and gracious God, but not this one. God’s warning and command was clear.
 
            The tree of life: very little is said of this tree other than its location at the center of the garden next to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. See my notes for chapter 3 for more discussion of this tree.
 
            Chapter 2 of Genesis goes into more detail of the sequence of creation events that was summarized in 1:24-27. Here is the exact order of what was created on the 6th day:
           1. Adam.
         2. All the land animals (the cattle, creeping things, beasts of the earth, etc).
         3. God sees that Adam has no “help-meet” and says this “…is not good…”
          4. God brings all the animals to Adam for him to name.
         5. God causes Adam to fall asleep and removes one of his ribs from which He creates Eve.
        6. God brings Eve unto Adam, and Adam recognizes her as his companion.
        7. God commands Adam and Eve to “…Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it…” (1:28)
       In chapter 1, verses 24-27, it appears at first that all the land animals were created first and then God created Adam. But chapter 2 reveals that, in fact, Adam was created first on that day and then God commanded the earth to bring forth all manner of beasts, and creeping things and cattle, etc.
       The reason this sequence is important is because the whole point of Adam naming every land animal and every bird was so that Adam would see that there was a pair of each kind: male and female. God wanted Adam to see that every animal had a companion, but for him there was no help meet. (v.20) God then created Eve and presented her unto Adam, and Adam recognized immediately that she was his companion. (1 Corinthians 11:8-9, 1 Timothy 2:13) In verses 23 and 24, Adam states, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”
        There is much said, much implied, and much significance in both in just these two verses. First of all, Adam was never born of a woman. He had had no earthly parents. Up to this point he had known only God. Yet Adam stated clearly and succinctly the foundation of the institution of marriage and family. If we go back to chapter 1, verse 28, and pair that with these two verses, we can safely assume that God explained to Adam and Eve the basic concept of marriage, family and exactly how Adam and Eve would create offspring of their own.
      The last verse of chapter 2 also says much in one simple, declarative sentence. Verse 25: “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
Put all together, these last three verses of chapter 2, combined with verses 28 and 31 from chapter 1, form a complete picture of the following:
     1. The specific roles of man and woman in God’s perfectly designed world.
        2. The institution of marriage and family.
        3. The picture of innocence in a perfect world.
 
        1. The roles of man and woman:
         God created Adam first. God commanded Adam to care for the garden, and God also explained to Adam what was acceptable to eat for sustenance and what was forbidden. Adam was not allowed to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (2:17) As Paul notes in 1 Corinthians 11: 8-9, there was significance to Adam being created first, as well as his specific gender. “For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.” As I said earlier, God recognized that Adam shouldn’t be alone. He needed a help meet.
        That word, help meet, is a unique term and phrase, found only here in Genesis 2. Strong’s Concordance lists the Hebrew origin of the word meet, azar, as the same root word for aid, or succor. ‘Azar’ is defined as “to help, assist, aid”. The footnote in my study Bible points out that the word help is often used in reference to God, especially throughout the Psalms. God saw that Adam being alone was “not good” (v.18). Adam needed a help meet in order to fulfill God’s command of dominion over the earth. Help meet also conveys the idea that Adam needed something he could not provide himself.
       God created the woman as a complement and a help to the man. Adam saw in Eve his equal and his opposite: she was made, like him, in the image of God, thus she was different from all those of the animal kingdom that Adam has just finished naming and categorizing. But she was also different from him, both in physical appearance and in spirit (for lack of a better word). God’s grand, holy design for man and woman was that they complement one another, each possessing what the other lacked. It’s hard to imagine what this relationship would have looked like in Eden before the Fall; before sin corrupted this perfect, holy design. Today, we know that men are physically stronger than women, more rational and less emotional, driven more by reason and logic, than by feeling. Women, in contrast, are more empathetic and relational, driven more by the need to connect with others, to nurture and care, more sensitive to needs and emotions than the men.
      That is what makes men better leaders, especially of whole communities, than women. That’s what makes women better caregivers and mothers. Masculinity and femininity are two distinct categories, each with its own set of strengths and weaknesses. What the masculine category possesses in strengths is exactly what the feminine category is weakest in, and vice versa. This is precisely how God designed it! Men and women need each other! Together, they form a perfect union!
 
        2. The institution of marriage and family:
        That brings us to verse 23 and 24. Marriage is a holy and sacred institution created by God. He made the man and woman as companions for each other, the two of them fitting neatly together to form one, perfect whole. “…they shall be one flesh.” Not only are the man and woman fit together because of what I explained in point one, but even just physically, sexually, God designed the man and woman to go together. This is why homosexuality doesn’t work, and why it goes against God’s good and perfect design. The only way for mankind to procreate is for the man to inseminate the woman. The woman’s body is designed to receive the man’s seed and her womb is designed to grow and nurture the new child until he or she is ready to be born. Two men or two women cannot, of themselves, make a baby. God designed it that way on purpose.
Not only that, children need two parents – a father and a mother. Those same qualities and characteristics that make masculinity and femininity unique to each gender also work in the parenting roles. Each gender contributes something different to the care, and rearing, and instruction of their children. In order for the child to grow and develop in the best possible way into a normal, healthy adult, he/she must have a loving, stable home that is built and maintained by a father and a mother who love each other and love God. This is the way God designed it from the beginning!
        Adam recognized in Eve that which “corresponded to” him. The woman was his help meet, the one made for him! His act of naming her further illustrates another facet of God’s design for marriage: the man has leadership and authority over the woman and all his household. Just as God brought all the land animals and the birds to Adam to name – illustrating God’s command for mankind to have dominion and authority over all the earth – so Adam also named the woman, both her gender and her proper name later on (3:20).
        God’s good and perfect design for mankind in the garden of Eden was that man would never be alone. He created the woman to be the ideal companion for the man, for the two of them to be the perfect mate for each other. God’s plan from the beginning was for Adam and Eve to procreate, to fill the earth with their offspring. “…be fruitful and multiply…” (1:28) Even after the Fall, God did not change that directive. After wiping out the entire human race, save for Noah and his family, God’s first instruction to them after they left the ark was, again, “…be fruitful and multiply…” (Genesis 9:1) God designed human sexuality to be enjoyed only within the boundaries of marriage, not only as the primary way for man and woman to have children and to “…replenish the earth...”, but also as a way for the husband and wife to physically express their love for each other.
        Sexuality is the one thing that has been most corrupted by sin and our sin nature in the aftermath of the Fall. Our sin nature has twisted and corrupted our natural sexual desire, spawning such depravity as homosexuality, bestiality, incest, adultery, pedophilia, and all other manner of sexual lust. (Romans 1:24-32, emphasis on 26-27) None of this was ever in view when God created Adam and Eve. That is why God’s original design for human sexuality within the bond of marriage is more important after the Fall than it was before. A man and woman who are both virgins on their wedding night, who have waited to share their bodies with one another until marriage, just as God meant it to be, will be free of all the emotional, psychological and physical side effects that premarital sex can cause. Whereas two people who have had multiple sexual partners before marriage will come to the wedding night with a lot of excess baggage – especially the emotional and psychological kind – that will only make their new life together that much more difficult. I’m not saying that a Christ-centered marriage and a godly home are impossible for a couple that was once unsaved and lived accordingly to their lusts but is now redeemed and desires a Christian marriage. My testimony and my current life are evidence that God can and will change a corrupt, deviant sin nature into a good, holy, natural desire that is His original design. But my future marriage will be more difficult because of my wicked past and the homosexuality that once dominated it than if I had surrendered to God much earlier in life and saved myself for my future wife.
        God does not give us rules and instruction to make our lives miserable and kill our joy. We are fallen, broken creatures that have a wicked and depraved nature, and we need the Holy Spirit to help us battle our flesh every day. God gives us rules and structure for our own good. The boundaries he sets are there for our own protection! This is especially true in all matters related to sexuality. The institution of marriage as laid out by God in verses 23-25 is designed to give us true joy, happiness and fulfillment in this life. If we follow God’s blueprint we can’t go wrong! That doesn’t mean that once we’re married that life is suddenly perfect and nothing goes wrong. Quite the contrary, marriage is hard work. We are still sinful and fallen creatures, but if both husband and wife enter into marriage with their primary focus on God and their secondary focus on each other, then God will bless that union, and the couple will know the joy and fulfillment of physical and emotional intimacy as God intended for marriage to be from the very beginning.
 
      (On a more personal note: I am currently as Adam was in verse 20. I look around at all the people in my life, and almost all of them are happily married. Almost all the strangers I meet in my daily life are married. Yet, for me, God has not brought to me my Eve. I am still waiting for the 'help meet' that He has chosen for me.)
 
        3. The picture of innocence in a perfect world.
        Verse 25: “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” God included this last point in chapter 2 for one very good reason: it summed up perfectly the picture of the innocence of mankind and the world around him before the Fall. There was no death, no disease, no inclement weather, no fear of any kind, no hunger, no war, no poverty – none of adverse side effects that were brought about by sin. Adam and Eve had no need of clothes because there was no need to ward off cold (the climate was warm and tropical), no need for physical protection (such as a mosquito bite or scratches from an animal’s claw), and, in a picture of true innocence, there was no shame. Adam and Eve were created for each other, to enjoy each other physically, and there was no need to hide their nakedness from each other. (This is, incidentally, still true today for a married couple. There is no shame in nakedness together on the wedding night.)
       God wanted to show what the world was like before man sinned, before the fall of Lucifer and the temptation of Eve. The nakedness of Adam and Eve as they walked and talked with God, as they ate of the sweet, delicious fruit and herbs and plants of the beautiful, luscious garden, and as they explored the new and exciting world around them, gives us a glimpse of what heaven will be like for us in the New Jerusalem after the old heaven and the old earth have been wiped away (Revelation 21 – 22).