Gen 2:15-25; The creation of Adam & Eve

Bruce Thompson

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So tonight we pick up in our journey into Genesis. The book of beginning. All major doctrines of the Bible have there beginnings in Genesis.

We are all curious about our origin, our ancestry. Where did you and I come from. A whole industry has sprouted to satisfy this urge to know. Some of you have have already sought them out.

Websites like Ancestry.com and 23 and me use DNA analysis to track ones genealogy and even family health traits and genetic decease markers.

If one was to trust our education system we would be told that with out doubt, absolute fact, you and me came from primates and ultimately from the primordial ooze.

Image - evolutionary chart of man

I wanted to give some basic ammo to confront your evolutionist neighbors. Its called “transitional forms.” That is, if we had all these steps in our evolution we should find some links (transitions from one to another), that's why the term “missing link” was coined. These transitional forms or missing links don’t exist.

Well I hope that all who are listening tonight have concluded that’s not the way it happened. God created all things from plants to man as it pleased Him. In fact many, perhaps even a majority, of the original life forms have gone extinct and unfortunately more are in danger of extinction all the time.

So lets get into our story, our history as told by the only one who was there, God.

Please stand;

Genesis 2:15–25 NASB95

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man 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.” 24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Now last time in verse 7; we saw the retelling of the creation of Adam.

Genesis 2:7 NASB95

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

So again we see God forming (yatsar) Adam from the dust. Which is what we are.

Image - Elements that make up mankind

Almost 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. Only about 0.85% is composed of another five elements: potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium. All 11 are necessary for life. The remaining elements are trace elements, of which more than a dozen are thought on the basis of good evidence to be necessary for life.[1] All of the mass of the trace elements put together (less than 10 grams for a human body) do not add up to the body mass of magnesium, the least common of the 11 non-trace elements.

Not surprisingly all these elements are found in the Earths crust. Dust we are and to dust we will return.

But notice Life only comes by the breath of God. The difference between life and death is a very thin line. Solomon in speaking about old age said,

Ecclesiastes 12:6–7 NASB95

6 Remember Him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; 7 then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

One day for all, our “silver cord” shall be broken as well. So before that day we need to ask God to breath into us His Spirit and give us eternal life. We call it being Born again, born from above. In the same way as its easy to distinguish between something alive or dead so it is for those who have been born again.

Let’s continue.

Genesis 2:15–17 NASB95

So we remember that God had given a mandate to Adam back in ch 1,

Genesis 1:28–29 NASB95

28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;

God had given Adam a job, a purpose which was to rule over the Earth and take care of it. We see here in chapter 2:15 the phrase “cultivate and keep” the Earth and specifically the Garden of Eden. The word for cultivate means to labor or serve. The word “to keep” means to have charge of or to guard or protect.

God’s original purpose was for man to rule over the Earth of course this didn’t last long as at the fall (chapter 3) the dominion or rule of the Earth defaulted to Satan.

Now in vs 16-17 God lays one rule.

Genesis 2:16–17 NASB95

16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

Do you ever wonder why God set it up that way? Surely He knew Adam would fall. Well, in God’s wisdom He made Man a free moral agent able to choose right and wrong and unless love is tested you never truly know what you have.

God could have created us to be robots but that’s not what He wanted. Their’s a movie called the Stepford Wives, where women where just fulfilled all of their husbands wishes. But that might sound good to someone but a real relationship requires a choice of ones will. The fact is you can’t make someone love you.

Verse 16-17 are very important to become familiar with. In ch 3 will see another version, the serpents version as told to Eve. More on that when we get there.

In this one rule, notice everything was good to eat of, except this one tree. The HS uses the term “lo” for “shall not” meaning absolute negation when He says “you shall not eat.” Because in doing so you will with absolute certainty die. Literally, could be translated :dying you shall die.

As a natural human being we are born to die. We have a fallen nature inherited from our ancestral Father and Mother.

Now we get to Eve.

Genesis 2:18–23 (NASB95)

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”

This is the first time we see God say something was not good. God did not create Adam to be alone, so he made Him a helper suitable for him. I’ll get back to this in a second. But first;

19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.

20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field,

Here more detail on one of Adam’s responsibilities naming all of God’s creatures. That’s a lot of names..

20b

but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.

21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.

22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

23 The man 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.”

Video- Why did God use Adam’s rib to create Eve? 3:01

Another interesting fact about ribs is that they are one of the prime sources for bone marrow and stem-cells for transplanting.

The Hebrew word for woman is Is-shah, Man is Ish.

There are many interesting parallels here in this picture. Maybe the most poignant is the fact that life was given to a gentile bride by a wound made in the side of Adam.

Another might be that the ribs protect the most vital of organs, the heart, and that remains a key part of the duty of Issah, to protect the heart of her man. It is also interesting that the ribs will allow themselves to be broken in protecting the heart. Something familiar to all mothers I am sure.

And the chapter closes with;

Genesis 2:24–25 NASB95

24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Now Adam and Eve were physically one flesh. Eve was in fact mad from Adam. But her the HS takes the picture out of the physical and moves it to the spiritual. We used to quote from the KJV that a man shall leave and then cleave.. Interesting that “cleave” has a dual meaning, separating and joining. Many problems in marriage are a result of never leaving the father and mother. That’s another sermon..

The becoming “one flesh” is a truth about sexual union that explains much of the mental illness in the world. I believe every person one joins themselves with a little piece of your soul is left. I believe that’s way sexual sin is so important to God.

1 Corinthians 6:18 (NASB95)

18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man (one who practices immorality) sins against his own body.

The great news is Jesus came to make us whole again!

Now, Paul, of course uses these verses from Gen 2 in Eph 5 in speaking about God’s design for marriage and our relationship to Christ.

Ephesians 5:28–32 NASB95

28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

Notice here in verse 25 as we come in for a landing;

Genesis 2:25 NASB95

25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Before the fall, myself and many other believe that they did not know or understand nakedness or shame as they were sinless and covered in light. Glowing if you will. Remember they were spiritually fully alive. All the visions of the angels and Christ Himself on the Mt of Transfiguration their appearance was glowing white. When we are in our resurrection bodies I believe we will be glowing like Adam and Eve.

Video - Creation of Adam and Eve Did Ancient Chinese Know More Than We Do 12:25

At this point they were unashamed. But, unfortunately sin brings about shame. Much more next time in chapter 3.