Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

We’re continuing to move through the book of Genesis and today we find ourselves in chapter two.

There’s a transition that takes place in our passage and we are introduced to this idea of “paradise: the garden of Eden.”

What comes to your mind when you hear the word “Paradise?”

I think different people probably have different pictures.

But everybody has something.

The idea of “utopia” exists for every human being even if the particulars of that picture might look different for one person over against another.

We have this innate craving, deep within, for a place where there is no more crying, no more pain, no more brokenness, evil or injustice - the absence of hostility and death.

That’s paradise.

Not only does every person have an idea and craving for paradise.

I think every person would also say that whatever paradise is, THIS ain’t it.

In other words, every human longs for a paradise that they know has been lost.

C.S. Lewis popularized the argument from desire which basically makes the same claim.

“If I find within myself a desire that nothing else on this earth can satisfy, it must mean that I was made for a different world.”

- C.S. Lewis

Paradise and God’s presence are inseparably linked.

People have a yearning for paradise because they have a yearning for God.

So how we rediscover paradise?

When was it given, how was it lost and how do we find it again.

Those questions are addressed by our message today.

The truth is, the world as we experience it today isn’t the way God originally designed it to be.

When paradise was originally given the daily experience of mankind was drastically different than it is today.

Thankfully, the paradise that was lost due to sin and unbelief can today be regained through repentance and faith in Christ.

Read the Text

Let’s take a closer look at that idea in Genesis 2:4.

In it we will discover that divine paradise is about God’s people, in God’s place, fulfilling God’s purpose, under God’s protection.

Genesis 2:4 (ESV)

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.

The first verse of our passage begins with a Hebrew word translated “toledot.”

This is followed by a poetic description of God’s creation of the universe.

The ESV translates it “generations” and in the Greek version of the OT it’s the word “genesis.”

This “toledot” or “genesis” marker is used in this book to designate major sections or transition points in the book.

(Gen 2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 19; 36:1, 19; 37:2)

Here it’s a summary statement of Genesis 1-3.

It’s Moses’ way of telling his reader, “here’s how it all went down when God created this universe.”

Genesis 2:5–7 (ESV)

5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

God’s People

So the first thing we see about Paradise in this passage is it’s a special place for “God’s people.”

Usually the phrase “God’s People” refers to some kind of covenant relationship between God and those who follow him.

(aka God’s people and those who aren’t) That’s not how I’m using the word today.

Rather, in Genesis 2 we see that God has a special relationship with humanity that is different from all the other animals and living things in creation.

This special relationship is put against the backdrop of an incomplete creation.

“No bush.

No plant.

No rain.

No man.”

Genesis 2 opens up with a picture of disorder and desolation.

The earth is desolate, dry and uninhabitable.

“No shrub.

No plants.

No Rain.

No Man.”

Water was springing up but had no direction or structure.

Image a dessert wasteland with no life or beauty.

Or a flooded plain with no structure or design.

That was the earth before God’s creation of mankind.

Moses notes that there was no “man” to work the land or cultivate it’s potential and that’s why God created the man from the dust.

Again, the emphasis isn’t just on what God is going to do (bring chaos into order) but HOW he’s going to do it (creating man to cultivate his garden).

Some people get stuck here because they try and make the creation account in Genesis 1 fit this description in Genesis 2. The two are totally different animals.

That doesn’t mean they contradict one another.

They complement and complete one another but they are not meant to be read as two totally different creation accounts.

Genesis 2 is zooming in on the theological foundations of God’s creation of mankind: where, how and why God created man the way he did.

The theological foundations of this special relationships can bee seen in three different ways: (1) God’s covenant name, (2) the verbs used to describe man’s creation: “formed” and “breathed.”

Covenant Name

This “special relationship” between God and man can be seen in the inclusion of God’s covenant name in Genesis 2.

In Genesis 1 the name of God was always “elohim.” (which is actually a plural form of the Hebrew word for “God” in general).

In Genesis 2, however, the word “elohim” is preceded by the Hebrew “yahweh” (LORD God) which is God’s Covenant name between Him and the people of Israel.

This was the name God gave Moses at the burning bush, “I am who I am.”

Yahweh!

This would’ve been a reminder for God’s people that the who who created the universe is also the one who holds you lovingly in the palm of his hands.

The one who redeemed you is also the one who sustains the universe by the Word of His power.

Important Verbs

The second way this special relationship is highlighted in in Gen 2:7.

We saw something similar in Genesis 1.

Man is both like the creation but also UNLIKE the creation in important ways.

Genesis 2:7 (ESV)

7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

From this verse you certainly see that man is a “creature.”

He is brought from the ground.

In fact there’s a play on words in the Hebrew between Adam (man) and Adamah (ground).

It’s a poetic way of saying man has a symbiotic relationship with the dust.

He is a grounder.

From the dirt.

Formed of Dust

Yet at the same time man is “FORMED” from the dust.

It’s a special word not used to describe God’s creation of any other creature.

It’s used often in the context of a potter and the clay.

God’s creation of man was special and unique.

We see this uniqueness in the creation of certain body parts like the eye.

We see it in the uniqueness of our voices and our laughs.

You can take almost any human organ and say with the Psalmist “I praise you Lord for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Breath of Life

This idea is amplified when you see that God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature...”

The words “living creature” aren’t all that special applied to man.

It’s used often to describe the life of the sea animals and the land animals.

But only man is said to receive the “breath of life” and have that breath “breathed into his nostrils.”

You can’t breath into somebody’s nostrils without kissing them on the nose.