IN THE BEGINNING PART 12

The Potter and the Clay (Verses 4-7)

Here we see the focus of the creation account shift from heaven and earth to earth and heaven; specifically the creation of man, woman, and their home.

The plants this passage is referring to would be those plants of the field that require humans to cultivate them. This would include vegetables and various grains (barley, oats, wheat, etc.). All other plants had been created on Day 3.

Isaiah 64:8 “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

He created mankind in His own image. Humans are moral beings. Even as fallen creatures, we have an innate sense of right and wrong; in other words, we have a conscience. We have emotion, intellect, and will. And being made in the image of God, we are able to reflect His glory in a way that the rest of creation cannot. (Verses 8-14)

A Home, Provision, Purpose, and Prohibition (Verses 8-17)

2 Peter 3:5–6 “For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.”

The Lord provided a home that was literally a paradise on earth. He gave them a perfectly irrigated garden to live. He provided trees and plants that were not only delicious, but also beautiful to look at. He gave them access to precious metals and stones.

The Lord put Adam in the garden to work it and keep it.

Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.””

Genesis 1:28 “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 heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

Before the fall and curse, work was a pleasure and joyful instead of a burden. The Lord gave them so many gifts and blessings, with only one prohibition.

The First Thing that Wasn’t Good (Verses 18-20)

The Lord brought all of these animals for Adam to name and have dominion over.

Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

What More Could He Do? (Verses 21-25)

“The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.” — Matthew Henry

Matthew 19:4–6 “He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.””

Isaiah 5:3–4 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?”

Genesis 1:31 “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

Jeremiah 2:5 “Thus says the Lord: “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?”