Creation and Foundation: Man and Woman

Introduction

In Genesis chapter 1 we saw the grand picture of creation, we saw it much in the same way that we looked at the whole book in the beginning of our study. Here in chapter 2 we take a zoomed in look at day 6 of creation. Day 6 is the climax of creation as we see God creating man and woman. This is not just the climax because it’s the creation of us and we want it to be, it’s the climax because we are the last thing that he created, he has a relationship with us, and he deems us very good.

As we dive into this chapter tonight it will look much like last week, we will look at the story, then we will see the doctrine found in it (particularly tonight the doctrine of man), and then we will talk about our response to all of this.

The importance of this passage to us right now is very great. The foundations established are ones that people are struggling with in our culture, they are trying to play god and when man does this it never works out. Men are trying to become women and women are trying to become men, men are as it says in Romans committing shameless acts with those contrary to nature and women are doing the same, they are even trying to say that there is no such thing as man and woman. None of these issues are new issues but they have become so prevalent and the world wants to push them in your face.

Last week we saw in regards to man that we are made in the image of God. This gives us value, from the moment of conception we have value. Tonight we will add to this that we are created male and female, one or the other and we do not choose, and we will see that marriage is to be between one man and one woman as instituted by God.

Let’s pray tonight as we begin then we can look at the story.

The Story

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.

We start in the first toledot of Genesis, also referred to as “these are the generations of”. This phrase divides up the entire book. This one is a bit different because it is a the beginning it is the generations of the heavens and earth. This section will continue through until we get to the generations of Adam which leads us to the life of Noah.

Genesis 2:5–7 ESV

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, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 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.

In this time things are still described as pretty barren. One way that this is explained is that because it mentions that there was no one to work the ground that it is talking about agricultural land. Either way there is nothing here now and God was watering the land with a mist and he formed man from the dust.

The forming of man was an artistic action on the part of God. Like a potter forms a pot from clay God formed man from the dust. He then breathes life into his nostrils and he becomes a living creature. The very breath in our lungs was put there by God almighty.

Genesis 2:8–9 ESV

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God now makes a place for the man that he has just formed. He plants a garden in Eden. He places every tree that is pleasant to look at and that is good to eat. He also puts two other trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These trees will be very important here in a moment.

Genesis 2:10–14 ESV

A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

The author of Genesis is so kind as to give us some insight to the location of the Garden of Eden. It is located where there is the convergence of these 4 rivers. Now we do not know the location of two of these rivers so that puts it as a challenge to us today. I believe that the location is the southernmost option near the Persian Gulf in the fertile crescent. I have come to this opinion because of a very good video that you should watch that is found on our linktree.

Genesis 2:15–17 ESV

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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 surely die.”

Now that the Garden is completed God places man within it. He gives him the task of working the Garden and keeping it. He is also given one command, do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There are two trees and he is free to eat from the tree of life all he wants, plus all of the other trees within the Garden, just not the one tree.

Genesis 2:18–22 ESV

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens 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. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 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. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

Up to this point everything has been deemed good. The first thing that is not good is that man is alone. So God is going to make a helper fit for him. God brings every animal to Adam and he names them all but none are found suitable to be his helper. Since none were found suitable God causes a sleep to fall upon Adam and he takes one of his ribs and from it he forms woman. Man was made from the dust and woman was fashioned from man.

Genesis 2:23–25 ESV

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.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

When Adam sees Eve for the first time he cries out in poetry. Think about it guys, there is obviously a desire for a woman within Adam and now for the first time he sees one and it is the most beautiful thing he has ever saw. This is like an ancient love note/ pick-up line and at once they are brought into marriage union by God.

This is where we get the biblical foundation for marriage; a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This verse is used throughout the Bible as the foundation for marriage. At this point they are both naked and not ashamed. They are innocent and without the shame of sin. Throughout the Bible nakedness is equated with shame but it all comes back to sin which is not present here in the Garden.

The Doctrine

Just as in the last lesson we want to now turn to what doctrine is taught here in this passage. A doctrine is just a belief and through looking through the whole of the Bible we can formulate these beliefs. Here in this section we want to look at what beliefs or doctrine we see regarding man.

Doctrine of Man

Thus far in Genesis we have seen one other point in regards to the doctrine of man, this point is that we are made in the image of God. This is a foundational point when we seek to understand what the Bible says about us and who we are.

In our passage tonight we are going to add three more points to the doctrine of man so that we can grow to a more full understanding of who the Bible says we are.

Work

Genesis 2:15 ESV

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Ephesians 4:28 ESV

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Along with these verses there are countless verses in Proverbs that tell us to work and to not be lazy. The thing with work is that most people do not like it all that much. It is viewed as a necessary evil. This is not what work is though, it is something good.

Adam is created and is to work and keep the Garden, in Genesis 1 it tells us that he is to have dominion over everything. The thing with these verses is what has not happened yet, look over at chapter 3. What is it? It is the entering of sin into the world! Work was created and commanded before sin.

Now sin does have it’s effects on our work as we will see in the fall but work is what we are to do and it is a means of glorifying God. It says in Colossians 3.23

Colossians 3:23 ESV

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Work is a struggle because of the effects of sin but work was created by God to be a good thing that is glorifying to God.

Gender

The next thing that we see relates to gender. Genesis clearly teaches that God created male and female, man and woman. He creates Adam as a man and there is no helper found for him so he makes Eve as a woman to complement Adam.

These were the only two created and they were meant for each other. There was no asking them what they wanted to be or what they felt like, it was simply you are man and you are woman. Throughout the Bible there is no deviation from this, there is no in between or neither gender people that God brings along later. This is because this doesn’t happen in God’s perfect creation.

Now there are times where there is a mistake in the DNA and a person is born with the anatomy of both, this is because we live in a fallen world. This is not the 1.6 million people that we see in the United States that claim there is an issue. 5% of young adults say that there was a mistake and they were born the wrong gender. There is no mistake, you are what you are born.

Matthew 19:4 ESV

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,

Throughout the Bible this truth has been affirmed, there are two genders.

Marriage

The final doctrinal point that I want to cover tonight is over marriage. Here towards the end of chapter 2 God institutes marriage. He says Genesis 2.24

Genesis 2:24 ESV

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

This verse is quoted numerous times throughout the Bible. Places like Matthew 19.5, Mark 10.7-8, 1 Corinthians 6.16, and Ephesians 5:31. This is God’s biblical design for marriage. A man and a woman shall come together and then they become one.

When God speaks this he talks about their father and mother, this is a tell for us that this is a binding decree from God. They did not have parents, this is just how it is supposed to be. More than just that, in the same way that work was created before the fall so was marriage. Marriage was created in a perfect world that had no sin. There are now difficulties in marriage because of sin but it was created before that.

Notice too what it says about woman here in the text, not from my mouth I’m just the messenger. She is to be a helper fit for the man. This is in the perfect world within the perfect design. Woman is to complement man. There are things that Courtney my wife cannot do and is not supposed to do and that is okay. There are things that I cannot do that she can and that is okay. We complement each other. We are very different but we are equal in God’s eyes. As the husband I am to lead like Christ, as the wife she is to submit to my leadership.

Marriage is to be between one man and one woman in which the man is the leader and the woman is the helper and they are to compliment each other.

Our Response

Now to our final point, our response. There is just one response that I have for you and it has three parts that are the same three that we just covered.

Live in God’s Design

The most freedom and enjoyment in life is found by living in God’s design. When we look at the creation account we see the foundations for this design. There are other things throughout the Bible but the absolute beginning and basis is found here.

Work

The first is work. Work was created by God and is a good thing. What makes it bad are the effects of sin. It says in Colossians 3.23

Colossians 3:23 ESV

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Our work should go forth as worship. We are to work as for the Lord and not man. Whenever you get a job or even at the job that you are at, work hard for the Lord. He created work to be a good thing and we are commanded to do it well and we are condemned if we do not work.

How do we find the most freedom and enjoyment in life through work? This principle was instilled in me from a very young age by my pastor who became my boss. He would explain how my simple task when done well go towards the beautiful creation of an entire house as I worked in construction. Through my work I found satisfaction and freedom because my hard work payed off. I would often work on weekends for farmers too, they would call and ask if I could come at very early or very late hours. Without question I would say yes, I would not ask details or even pay. I would then go and work heartily and do whatever they needed and took pride in that, doing it as an act of worship. I was often payed very well for this too. One time a farmer was paying everyone and he asked me if I could come help him with one more thing while everyone else was leaving after making their $40. I went with him and he commended me for my work, I quoted that verse to him, he handed me a $100 and then showed up at church the next day.

We are commanded to work and it is a good thing from the Lord.

Gender

The next thing is to live within God’s design for your gender.

Firstly your gender that you are and were born with is a good thing given from God. You may struggle with this but just know God who made everything knows what he is doing. Don’t lose sight of this.

You may not like your specific gender roles as given in the Bible but to live within them is the way God intended it to be and it is the best way to live. There are certain things that guys can’t do and that is okay, there are certain things that girls can do and can’t do and aren’t supposed to do but that is okay. Men and women are made to complement each other, not be each other.

There are many so called churches today that are leaving these things behind and working to appeal to the world at the expense of truth. There are churches locally that have tossed these things to the side. This should not be.

God created some of you men and some of you women, that is a good and beautiful thing. Now live like it.

Marriage

Finally live in God’s design in marriage. You all are a ways off from this but there are things that you need to do now.

The first thing to think about is what you should not do outside of marriage. In Genesis 1 it says to be fruitful and multiply. This is a command that is to be followed within the bounds of marriage. Plainly said, sex is to be only between one man and one woman who are married. This is how God created it to be and he created it to be a good and pleasurable thing, but it is to be within his design for it.

Another response that goes with marriage is to homosexuality is wrong. We are all tempted by different things and you may be tempted by the sin of homosexuality. You have to fight that sin just as much as I have to fight other sins. It is not a sin to be tempted, it is when you give in, do not give in. Flee from this temptation.

And as we wrap up this point, some day when marriage is becoming a very real thing for you seek to have your marriage fit within God’s design. Girls be the helper that your husband needs, submit to his leadership. Boys even more importantly, lead well like Christ leads the church.

Conclusion

When thinking about who we are as humans here from the creation story it is helpful to remember a few things about Christ.

Christ was here at the creation of man and woman. He was intricately involved right here at the beginning and he stays involved. He stays so involved that he eventually comes as a man himself. He left his exalted position and took on human flesh, just like us, the ones that he created. Why would he do such a thing? Because he is involved for a reason, he loves us.

Christ loves us and this love compelled God to send him and him to come to this earth as a man for one reason. To pay the price for our sins with his life. He lived a perfect life as a example for us as we saw in Mark, he died as our substitute on the cross, in this he conquered sin and the grave and all the evil forces. He did not stay dead though, if he had we would not be here now. Three days later he rose from that grave, from death to life. It is this resurrection that we are called to proclaim to all the nations and to anyone we can. This is the message that permeates the Bible, here in Genesis we see what we lost and next week we will see why we need Jesus to come so bad. You don’t have to wait till next week to see this in your own life. Don’t wait to turn to Jesus in faith and repentance. He loves you and desires this of you.