Genesis 2

Good morning everyone, It is so good to see you all again. Right now we have our kids going back to their teachers in the back that will welcome them into their special class that has been designed for them to learn and grow in a way that makes sense to them. I also want to take a moment to welcome those of you that are joining us online and thank you for being a part of a extended spiritual family this morning Listen, if you are in the area here and are looking for a church home, we hope that you would come and join us on a Sunday morning. I love the technology that allows us to join together online, but I gotta tell you its just not quite the same as when you are here in person, and so we would love to see you anytime.

You know, talking about seeing, wouldn't it be cool if you could go back in time and see some of the historical events that you studied in school. Like, I remember watching Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure when I was a kid and thinking it would have been pretty cool to be able to go back in time and see things like when Columbus came over or seeing when Luis and Clarke explored the US and went from ocean to ocean. It would have been neat to go back and see first hand the events that took place during the Medieval times, or during the old west. I mean to be able to have the opportunity to go back in time and see what happened, vs what you think might have happened would be amazing, right?

Actually, did you know that there are scientist that claim that if we could travel out into space fast enough and far enough, we could “catch up” with the light beams from the past and watch history unfold before our eyes. Now that doesn't mean that we could interact with the past, but we wold be able to see it happening. Who knows, maybe when we are in Heaven we will be able to see some of those things that have happened in the past and be able to see them from God’s perspective. Actually, I imagine that is a little like what God allowed Moses to do while he revealed the story of creation to Moses. I mean, clearly Moses wasn’t alive at the time of the creation of everything, but somehow God allowed Moses to see and write about it for us…So thats pretty cool I think.

Hey, last week we started a brand new series where we are going to walk through the first few chapters of Genesis and understand where we all came from and how we got to the place that we are today. Last week we talked briefly about creation and about how God created order from chaos. I even challanged you to start reading your Bibles because that order was created through God’s words…I hope that some of you picked up that challenge and I hope that you will stick with it and allow God’s word to bring order and calm into your life.

Well, this week is a little confusing to be honest. You see, this week we are in Genesis 2 and there is a bit of a problem happening in Genesis 2. You see, last week we saw the creation of everything. This is called the creation account. However, this week in Genesis 2 there seems to be another creation account. We are going to read it in a minute, but I want to address this and make us aware of this potential conflict of events. You see, this is an example of how some people will point to Scripture and say that Scripture contradicts itself. They will claim that Genesis 1 is a creative story, while genesis 2 is the action creation. They will say that God can’t make up his mind on how he did it so that proves that he didn’t create the world at all. You see, this is an example of the need to actually read these passages in context with the rest of the story of the Gospel and understand that there is much more going on here than a simply creation account. You see, Genesis chapter 2 shows us many things. There is so much going on in this chapter that we could camp out here for weeks easily and really dig into this passage. We aren’t going to do that, but I am telling you this so that you don’t think that after today you already know everything there is to know about Genesis 2 and you don’t need to read or study that chapter anymore. You see, I want you to read this stuff for yourself so that you can understand and grow yourself. I heard someone else say this, and I agree with this statement. Im not lying to you, but I want you to assume that I am and read it for yourself...

Ok, well that is enough, how about we just read the chapter and see what it says and then go from there...

Genesis 2:1–25 (ESV)

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. 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. 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. 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. 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 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.” 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. 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.

OK, so I wanted to read the entire chapter up front because I wanted us to see the full context of what is going on here. There are actually a few things that are significant that we need to address. First of all...

God Rested

What does it mean that God rested? Well, while God has been creating everything, now God created the Sabbath. Did God need to rest? No, he is God, he could have continued on forever becuase he is God. However, he rested and he blessed this day of rest. Why? Why did he do this? Well, if you remember later in the story of Exodus when God gives the 10 commandments to Moses, one of those is to keep the Sabbath. Then later in the New Testament we see Jesus talking about the Sabbath and how God made the Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath. What we see is that even on God’s day of rest…he is creating and providing for us, not becuase he needs to rest, but because we do. That’s not all that is going on here though. Let’s look at this

Creation Story

Now, before we get into this creation story, I want to point our something for you. You see, as you read Scripture you will occasionally come across the phrase that we see in verse 4. “These are the generations”, or some variation of those words depending on the translation you are using. Whenever you see these words, they are signifying a new section of Scripture, a new point being made..a transition. There is also another word that you should take note of. The word LORD. This is the proper name of God as written in our English Bibles. Actually the word in Hebrew would be transliterated as YWHW and the English translated spelling would be Yahweh or Jehovah. . This is the proper name of God here. Anytime you are reading your Bible and you see LORD in all caps, that means this is talking about the creator God…this is his proper name.

So, with that in mind that this is a new section of Scripture telling a new story. Let’s take a look at what is going on becuase its actually pretty interesting. As we move into this new story we read about a new type of creation. However, this is different somehow from the original creation story here. So, when we read that there is no shrub or no bush, what are we supposed to believe since God has already made vegetation back on Day 3. Well, what we see here is God creating the Garden of Eden. We see that there is some location data for us to look at. We see various rivers and streams, two of which are still around today. However, these other we are unsure where they are exactly. Actually, we are even unsure if the Tigris and Euphrates is at the same place as it was during this time of creation. Remember there was a flood that changed everything later in Genesis. So what we see today, is not necessarily the same landscape that God created back in Genesis 1.

However there are some really important points that we see in this passage that I would like to share with you. You see, one of the most common questions that people have is something like, “Why am I here?” “Why did God create me?” “What am I good for?” these types of questions ring true for so many people…Even the question of, “What is the purpose of life?” Right…have you ever asked or wondered about a question like that? Well, listen, I don’t know if you are going to like it, but in this passage I can see

Three Aspects of Life

OK, now that I have your attention, let me show you what I see here, and again…this is not everything that is going on in this chapter becuase there simply isn’t time for me to share everything that I want to share with you about Genesis 2 here. There are truly some fascinating things that are going on. OK, ok, here we go.

Man was made to work

Yeah, you heard me right, and I now I don’t like that anymore than you do, but its Biblical. You see in verse 15 we see that the Lord took man and put him in the garden to work and keep it…Adam was put there to work the garden. Now, at this time, working the garden would be peaceful and enjoyable. I know some of you would not exactly say that yard-work is peaceful, but at this time, it was. Do you know how I know that? At this point, there is no sin…IN Genesis 3 we are going to see that becuase of man’s sin, his origin became his destiny…and it will become unpleasant…But thats for next time. For this week we see that God created man to work and gave him a job to do.

Genesis 2:15 ESV

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

Then we continue into this passage and we can see that

Man was made to worship

I know, you are likely going to ask where it says this, right. Well, look at this together. Man was given freedom throughout the entire garden to do whatever he wanted to do and to eat of any plant that he wanted to eat. God even put it on man to name the animals, which means that man has dominion over all of the animals. Remember that in the Ancient Near East when you named something, that signified your dominion and ownership of that thing. So, mankind has dominion over all plants and all animals. However, freedom without prohibition is kind of meaningless. So, the prohibition against eating the fruit of the “tree of knowledge” gave Adam opportunity to worship God through his loyal devotion. Martin Luther likened the tree to “Adam’s church, altar, and pulpit. Here he was to give to God the obedience he owed, give recognition to the Word and will of God, give thanks to God, and call upon God for help against temptation.” God created man to worship and God gave man a place to worship.

Genesis 2:17 ESV

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.”

Let’s look at this last aspect of life that we can see in this passage.

Man was made for community

Yeah, we can see that even in this short passage. You see God created all of the animals, and then God created man and there was no suitable helper for him. There was nothing suitable to join him in his work. You see, immediately we can see that man is not meant to be alone. There is a song by a group called Tenth Avenue North. That song is called, No Man is an Island, and it is all about how we are not meant to be alone. That we actually need each other, that we were created to be joined together. God created us to be in community with each other. God also created man very intentionally here. You see, man and woman are created for each other, literally. That may not really be cool to say in todays culture, but Scripture is very clear here that man and women are created for each other, not for themselves. We saw last week that God gave a charge to mankind in chapter 1 to be fruitful and multiply and rule the earth. This passage here in chapter 2 is not a continuation of that command, but a natural depiction of that command. Now, do you remember me saying that God is the same yesterday today and forever last week…Well, what was true then, is true today, unless otherwise specified. So, that means that today, the charge of mankind is still to be fruitful and multiply and that is not done under the conditions of same sex sexual activity. In other words, Gods perfect plan is for marriage to be between 1 man and 1 woman, as evidenced right here in

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.

You see, God created man for community and God gave man woman. I love what theologian Matthew Henry said here,

“She was 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

This is the community that God created when he created man and woman.

Here is the deal....God had a purpose and an intention when he created everything. A small part of his purpose has been shown to us through Gen 2, but there is so much more throughout all of Scripture. We cannot get the whole picture with one chapter, but every chapter should show us something, Amen. Now, on the bottom of your note sheet you will see two questions. What did I learn about God, and what did I learn about myself? These are questions you should be asking every-time you read Scripture. So, this morning we read Gen 2,. When you read this you learn that God has purpose, and you learn that you fulfill that purpose. When you read this chapter you learn that God handcrafted man, and you learn that you have the opportunity to worship God or sin against God. When you read this chapter you learn that God created a job, a place to worship, and a family for man and you learn that God has the same for you...

So, whether you are here for the first time or the 100th time it doesn’t matter…my question is the same. Have you accepted God’s work in your life, or are you holding onto your own plans? We live in a world created by God, we are creatures made in the image of God, and we enjoy innumerable blessings from the hand of God. So how tragic is it that so many people leave God out of their lives and become confused wanderers in an unfriendly world, when they could be children of God in their Father’s world.

Listen, I don’t know if Im talking about you or a friend of yours, but something we need to understand as Christians, is the world we live in is increasingly unfriendly and you have friends and family that are searching for what you have, so don’t hide it from them… I know what it is like to go to work in a non-Christian environment, and it’s not always easy to stand up for the Gospel, but it is possible…I actually remember one time when I was praying and thanking God for my lunch and I had a coworker walk up to me and say, “you know the fairy in the sky isn’t going to make that taste any better”. I mean, he was right, my ramen didn’t taste any better, but you know what…that coworker and me are still friends today and we have had multiple conversations about the Lord over the years. We live in a culture where less and less people know who Jesus actually is. I know that sounds crazy, but I have personally talked to people here in the US that had never heard of Jesus prior to our conversation.

You see, you were made for a purpose. You were given a job, and Im not talking about you are paid to do. You have the option to come and worship, or choose to sin. You have been given community right here at LRBC. So, are you personally living your life in a way that is living up to God’s perfect plan?…I have a question that I would like you to consider, a question to inform your own prayer in a moment. Am I living my life according to God, or according to myself? as we close in prayer let me encourage you to go to the Lord and seek his will…seek his plan. In other words, don’t ask God to do what you want, submit your life to God’s plan, whatever that is. If you are here this morning and you are struggling with the idea of submitting to God’s plan and what that looks like, let me encourage you to reach out to me and let’s have a conversation and see how Scripture impacts your life and your situation.

Prayer