The First Man
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God-Breathed Life
God-Breathed Life
Then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
When we began this series I talked about worldview. I told you that is was not just important to know what you believed but WHY you believed it. Worldview is a philosophy for looking at the world. Now more than ever, Christians need a well developed, Biblical worldview.
Today, we hear people throwing around words like sexism, misogynist, and patriarchy all the time. It is hard to keep up with the politically correct buzz words of the day. I did not write the Bible, God inspired men did. So I can't rewrite the Bible. It is my job to simply teach and preach what it says. And the Bible, with great uniformity throughout the Old and New Testament declares that man was made first.
Does this mean that Christianity beats down women. By no means. But it does mean that a Biblical worldview will place value on "maleness" and "femaleness", and the distinctions between the two. (Many millennials are working hard at doing away with gender, etc. I don't believe they knowingly do this to undermine the biblical account of creation, but that is the end result none the less.
A few weeks ago, as we studied chapter one, we saw that God created both man and woman in his image.
Here we see that God formed man out of the dirt, and breathed life into him. Again, no other created being is described in these terms. Mankind is special above all creation, because of this.
God-Provided Garden
God-Provided Garden
The LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He placed the man He had formed. The LORD God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God placed man in this special Garden. Soon Woman will join him. In essence, we can see that God is giving man several things.
A beautiful place to live.
Plenty to eat
a life giving tree.
A death giving tree.
Choice. (There is no love without choice)
God-Mandated Prohibition
God-Mandated Prohibition
The LORD God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”
Only one rule: Don't eat.
Again, we see choice, and the promise of consequences.
A Biblical worldview will always hold that there are consequences (sometimes it takes a while to reap what you sow) for the choices we make.
God-Declared Deficiency
God-Declared Deficiency
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement.”
This is the first time that anything has been "not good." We should pay close attention to this because it is the reason for what happens next.
A helper as his complement. A helper fit for him. a helper comparable to him. Notice at this point that woman is not even mentioned. (We know what's going to happen, but lets don't jump the gun.
God-Orchestrated Demonstration
God-Orchestrated Demonstration
So the LORD God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found as his complement.
Let me point out something about the tremendous intellect of Adam. He gave names to each of the animals. And remembered what he called them.
No animal is a suitable complement to man. (Later on Moses will give prohibition against bestiality, and here we see the rationale for it: no suitable complement.)
Note that God put together a little test here. It wasn't because God didn't know that the animals wouldn't complete Adam, it was that he wanted Adam to know this.
I have thought much about this in the last few months. I believe God will often put things in our paths, or allow things to happen, including rebelling against Him, so that we can eventually get to the place that we realize nothing can be a substitute for a personal relationship with God.
If you are not right with God, and you're living life searching for whatever, Jesus is what you are looking for.
If have been saved, but you have wandered off searching for something, you are going to find the best thing you're looking for right where you walked away from it.