Columbiana County Jail 1/23/2026
Columbiana County Jail • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 4 viewsGenesis 2:15-23 commentary
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Genesis 2:15-23
Genesis 2:15-23
15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
Now we shall dive deep into the creation of man with these verses. The important take away we should notice is after man was created, he had a God-given purpose. God placed him in the garden of Eden with a job to accomplish. God had created a world with work needing to be done. He created man with the mission to do that work. Now, if we truly think about it, logically, God did not need to structure the world in this way. Why do you think He did this? Well, He could have created a world that was fully self-sustaining. He could have made humans simply to live in luxury and enjoy all of God’s creation without having to contribute anything.
This, however, was not God’s design. Even before sin entered into the world, man was created to work. We were created to accomplish God’s purpose. God built that into each of us. Although we will find out later that sin changed the nature of our work and our response to it. We need to understand that work itself is not a curse. It is part of our purpose as God’s creation.
Look at this
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
This was man’s work at first, maintain the garden of Eden. Now this purpose will be lost when man sins, but for those to fellowship with god through Jesus Christ, that sense of purposeful work begins to be restored.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Now we need to read both verses 16 and 17 together. These verses form a complete thought which needs to be read and understood as one statement to be fully understood. so let us do just that.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
This is God’s first negative command to human beings. He tells man what he must not do. This uses the Hebrew root word (tsavah), the first time this concept is used in the Bible.
Even so, the command starts in verse 16 with what man can do. Man is given freedom to eat from every tree in the garden of Eden, except for one tree. One thing you should notice that this statement echoes this verse...
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
that all types of seed bearing plants and fruits from trees were provided for food . God provides. That is who God is, that is built into His nature and identity. We , as His people, are provided for even when we don’t clearly see how our needs will be met. We are provided for even when our God declares some seemingly good things off limits to us, as He does in verse 17. the fact that man disobeys the one, single, simple command we are given summarizes the Bible’s view of sin and salvation.
Look at this verse again
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
in verse 16, we saw the Hebrew word for command “tsavah” used. Even so, the command began with a permission. The man could eat freely from every tree in the garden. God had provided graciously for him. God was not placing man in a tiny set of rules. He was actually locking evil in a small box. God is allowing man to have complete freedom in this new environment, with one exception.
In this verse, the command God gives turns into a negative. This is the restriction. Man must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If he does, he will die. This simple restriction underscores the Bible’s view on sin and salvation. Man will not fall into sin because he fails to keep an impossibly long list of rules. Nor will he fail because the restrictions are too demanding. Given near complete freedom and one single restriction, man will still choose to sin and fall.
Now we know the outcome of this story, so this poses some interesting questions to ask. Why place the tree in the garden in full view of man? Why allow the possibility for disobedience right from the start? If you think about it, this is a brand new relationship and a brand new person, right? So why would He do that?
Of course I have no way of knowing that answer to why in any great detail. However, God doing this tells me some essential things about His character and the way in which He intends to be in a relationship with man.
Look at this..
15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; 16 In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. 17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; 18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. 19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: 20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
From the very beginning, God wanted a relationship based on His provision, our trust, and demonstrating that trust through obedience. God’s proposition to the first man is fundamentally identical to the what He said to Moses in Deuteronomy.
18 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
For the first time in the Bible, we see God describe something as not good. Up to this point, we see God describing everything as good or very good. This included the first man. Everything He had created in this world was perfect in form, function, and potential until this point. Now something was not right.
One thing I find interesting is that at this point, God is completely responsible for the state of the world. Now we know this is not after the fall of man but before it. Now comes an interesting question, why , then, is something God created being called not good? And this is done by God Himself. In short, only God can be perfect. So, anything which is not God can not be completely perfect. And, we have already seen God choose to create through a process of creation and modification.
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
It is not only logically possible, but inevitable, that part of God’s creation will be less than perfect, in the sense that God is perfect.
What is the problem? The man was alone. God did not design human beings to live in solitude. Marriage was actually part of God’s plan for humanity from the beginning, even before sin entered into the world. God declares that He will make a helper that is fit or suitable for man. In other words, He will make another person like the man, another human being with the purpose of being the man’s helper and companion.
The woman is being provided to the man for his good. She is part of God’s provision to him as he is to her. God’s intention and design is for the man and woman to live and work and walk with Him together.
19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
This verse reveals another purpose for man in the world God has made. The man was tasked with using his God-given authority and creativity in order to name the animals. This is giving us an interesting picture. We see God forming the wild animals and birds, bringing them into existence, and then, bringing them to the man to discover what the man would call them.
God seems to be taking pleasure watching the man accomplish this task. It appears that God is not directing the naming of the animals in any way. He is truly leaving it to man to use his own creativity, judgment, and process to come up with these names. It is truly a privilege and honor which God bestows on Adam. Why? This allows him to participate in the work of building and maintaining this new creation.
Another important point to discuss is the act of naming something is very meaningful in the book of Genesis. This act often implies rule over and responsibility for that thing. God has already instructed man to subdue the earth and rule over all of the creatures. Having the man name the animals is another way of giving him responsibility to rule, subdue, and care for the animals.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
God brought the animals to the man in order for him to name them. Whatever the man called them, God allowed that to stand as their name. This is a great sign of honor, since naming something in biblical times was a sign of ownership and authority. God is taking pleasure in watching man use his intellect and creativity which makes him unique in creation.
26 And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
The man gives names to all the livestock, birds, and wild animals.
In this verse, the Bible calls the man by his name for the first time, Adam. Up until now, this unique creature has been referred to as “ha’a’dam”, literally “Man”, now taking on the personal name.
As Adam was naming the animals and birds, he was looking for one that might serve as his helper and companion. It becomes clear that none of the animals are suitable. Adam needed someone who would “correspond” to him. The fact that no animals suits this purpose is an important aspect of Scripture; humanity is truly distinctive , and meant for a truly unique relationship with other people.
21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
In verse 18, God declared He would make a helper for the man. Then we discovered in the following two verses, Adam goes through the process of naming all of the animals that God had created. Adam discovers that none of the animals could serve as a suitable helper for him.
We have discovered in our journey that when God creates, He often does so with the intent of modifying that creation later on. So now God goes to work, taking action to complete His intended design of the human race. He causes Adam to fall into a deep sleep, like anesthesia before surgery if you will. While Adam is asleep, God removes one of Adam’s ribs and closes up the flesh. Think about this, it is pretty amazing that God who created Adam out of dust is now performing surgery on Adam’s body of flesh, blood, and bone.
We need to remember key important things about this passage. It was not God’s intent to perform surgery on Adam to remove an imperfection in his body. However, the intent was to add something essential and beautiful to Adam’s existence. The next point is this speaks to the powerful symbolic connection between man and woman. Keep in mind, God could have created woman out of the earth, but He chose not to. Think of it like this, the exchange of wedding rings, circumcision, communion, and other rituals are real world actions with symbolic importance. In the same way, God’s creation of woman from the rib of Adam is meant to be seen as both literal and figurative.
22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
In the previous verse, we got the description of God’s removal of Adam’s rib. Now God uses the rib to build a woman. Now the ultimate reasons of why God chose to work this way are a mystery to us. Why? Up to this point, the only description of God’s creative process has been forming man and animals out of the ground of the earth. God could have formed the woman the same way, but He chose not to. Most likely, this was to emphasize the nature of the relationship between men and women.
God’s creation of Adam used the Hebrew word “yi’ser”, which represents taking something existing and molding it into shape. In the case of the woman though, the Hebrew root word is “banah” meaning to build. God built the woman from the foundation of Adam’s rib. That word is similar in meaning but carries the sense of “adding” what was not there before.
This origin connects the man and the woman at a fundamental level. They were made from the same stuff, literally. They corresponded with each other. At the same time, this choice of Hebrew words (yi’ser and banah) says something important about the differences between men and women. Man was “formed” from existing material and woman was “built up” from the foundation of Adam’s rib. What does this mean? God added something in making the woman which was not included in that rib. While man and woman are intimately linked, and literally made for each other, they are also created as unique and separate genders. male and female are not interchangeable or replaceable, they are exceptional.
When she was complete, God brings the woman to Adam. God, the Provider, has now given Adam the greatest of all possible earthly gifts, a helper, a companion, a wife.
Look at this
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
God is the giver of all good things and Adam’s response will show us that he was overwhelmed by the goodness of this blessing.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
God had recognized earlier that it was not good for Adam to be alone, so He made a helper from Adam’s rib. Symbolically, this not only represents the intimate closeness of men and women, but also their distinction from each other. God “built up” woman from Adam’s rib, instead of forming her as He had done in shaping dust with Adam. In literal terms, men and women each bring an unique and necessary characteristics to the human family.
Adam’s response to this good gift is delivered in the form of an ecstatic poem. Adam was given the opportunity to name all of the animals, and found that none of them were a good match for him. Now, at last, he finds a creature perfectly suited for him.
Although people have used the phrase “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” to describe close family relationships. For Adam, it was literally true. This woman, as he would call her, was unlike any of the animals Adam had seen in God’s creation. None of them were like him. She was of his very bones and flesh.
The woman, would we will find out later will be named Eve, was like Adam in another way. She would share his unique human relationship with God as one made in God’s image.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Unlike any of the other animals, Adam and Eve and the human race to follow would have the capacity to know God, truth, beauty, and reason. Together and separately, their existence would be defined by their relationship with the Creator.
God designed man and woman to be together instead of being alone.
Next week we will cover Genesis 2:24-25 and Genesis 3:1-5.
