The Gospel According to Genesis - Part 2 of a 4-Part Series - “The History of Creation” January 11, 2015
God said to Adam, "I am going to make you a helper, a companion. What would you like your companion to be like?" Adam replied, "Well I want someone that is humorous, witty, intelligent, compassionate, caring, loving, trusting, polite, generous and beautiful."
God paused a moment after Adam's wish list and told Adam that a companion like that 'would cost him an arm and a leg.' Adam seemed a little dejected and then brightly replied: "What can I get for a Rib?"
Today is the second in a 4-part series entitled: The Gospel According to Genesis, and we’re looking at the first 4 books of the book of Genesis.
I’ve gotten some feedback from you the congregation, that there’s interest in going further into the book of Genesis, so more than likely, over this coming year, we’ll be spending more time looking at the stories in Genesis of God’s relationship with humankind.
Today we’ll wrap up the song of creation, which ends with the first few verses of Genesis chapter 2. And we’ll look at the history of creation that the rest of chapter 2 speaks about. Next week we’ll be looking at chapter 3 in a message called “Paradise Lost”, and on January 25 - there’s been a change. Pastor Lee will be bringing a message about the first brotherly relationship, between Cain and Abel, that didn’t end so well, either for Abel or for Cain. That will entitled “Murder Most Foul”.
We need to start first by wrapping up our focus of last week, which was the Song of Creation, the first chapter of Genesis.
If you remember, we spent a fair amount of time learning about how chapter 1 is a song or a poem, and we talked about the importance of WHY it is that we need to know what type of literature the Bible is speaking through - it boils down to the fact that the type of literature determines in part how we understand and interpret the Scripture.
If you missed last week’s message, rather than me spending time now going over the same things, I would encourage you to review the podcast or the transcript of the message, that you can find through our web site, www.catm.ca.
It should help address questions about tensions in the text between chapter 1 and chapter 2.
So the Song of Creation, which fills all of chapter 1, ends here with:
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
So from the grand, from galaxies, to the minute, micro organisms [pics], God completed creation in all its vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
This completes the song of Creation and talks about the 7th day, which we know from later on in the Bible is the Sabbath. It’s interesting to note that our need for sabbath rest, a weekly day of spiritual renewal is rooted in this text.
I suppose the thinking is that if God, who needs no rest, ever, chose to rest from His work, then we, who have limited physical and mental resources, and spiritual lives that need constant renewal, should absolutely rest.
I have a friend who is some years younger than I and not a Christ-follower. He is busily focussed on his career, and a couple of years back he talked to me about his schedule.
It had him working 7 days a week, at least 4 hours a day, usually much more, and breaking only at Christmas and maybe during the summer for a short spell. I told him that while his energy and vigilance was admirable, that he needed to build in some regular time for rest and renewal and contemplation.
A young person, he thought he was near invincible, as I did when I was young, and he ignored my advice. About 4 months later he found himself exhausted and sick and couldn’t figure out why.
He came around to concluding that maybe he should build in some rest to his schedule. He now takes at least a day a week to rest, and rarely gets sick.
The fact is we are created with a built-in need for renewal; a need to spend a day a week not busy with activity, not rushing and bustling about with ‘stuff’ to get done. And, very importantly, we’re built with a god-shaped hole in our lives, that although we can try to fill it with other things, can only ever, truly, be satisfied by the living God.
So the principal of the Sabbath stands, not as something we must rigidly adhere to for its own sake: Jesus did say that the Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27)
But we need to not assume we can go on forever without significant, regular pauses for rest. And we need to not assume that we can do life without a vital connection to God that we intentionally and regularly renew.
Again, if God who doesn’t in the slightest need to rest, actually did rest, then how can we be so arrogant, and ignorant of our limitations, as to assume we don’t need the sabbath.
Warren Wiersbe once said, “The ability to calm your soul and wait before God is one of the most difficult things in the Christian life.
Our old nature is restless...the world around us is frantically in a hurry. But a restless heart usually leads to a reckless life.” Food for thought.
Now after this wrap up in verses 1-3 of chapter 2, of the Song of Beginnings or the Song of Creation, we begin with the history of creation.
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.
I find it interesting that Moses, traditionally believed to be the author, and by internal accounts, definitely the author of Genesis, starts here, in chapter 2 (which scholars believe to have been written before chapter 1)…
Genesis 2 starts not with much focus on the creation of the cosmos, but rather much more locally, in our backyard, so to speak, with a commentary on the most critical thing for us that he was to put his hand to - the earth.
So at this point there was no rain, per se, and no one to work the ground. But rain isn’t the only source of life-giving water.
The whole earth was watered by underground springs.
7 Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
This verse completes what we read last week in the Song of Creation, chapter 1:27: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them”. The Latin for that is Imago Dei.
A couple of interesting things here. The Hebrew for man (adam) sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for ground (adamah); it is also the name Adam. But actually, the word “Adam” in the Hebrew means human being, as opposed to male or man.
We’re also told that humankind did not fall from the stars, we were not created equal with God, we are not inherently eternal, we are not made of gold. We started as dust.
But the point is that just as God made all creation ex nihilo - does anyone remember what that means from last week? Ex nihilo - out of nothing. Just as God made everything out of nothing, we too were made out of nothing, or just bare, rough matter - dust or dirt, maybe clay.
William Jenkyn, an English pastor, said: “Our father was Adam, our grandfather dust, our great-grandfather nothing”.
And left to ourselves, humankind would have stayed as we were, dust. No life, no knowledge or awareness, no emotions, no joy. Just...dust.
But, God formed mankind from the dust of the ground. [Pause]
Great. Job done. We’re here, or there. No. Not at all, yet. God then breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life. Without God’s breath, which is the breath of life, there is zero life.
Chapter 1 indicates that God spoke the Sun, Moon and stars into existence. Look at the magnificent beauty of the night sky.
God did all that just by speaking. Now look at how much more intimately involved He was in creating us. He reached down and took up dust or clay from the ground.
Ground that He had spoken into existence. He took up that dust and formed the body of Adam. But a material body wasn’t all he was. His physical make up was only one element of who he was.
t’s the same with us today. When we always focus on our physical needs or wants or desires, we’re focusing on only one element of who we are.
Humankind was made with an imparted spirit. Isn’t that another wonderfully intimate picture? After God the potter finished molding this beautiful work of art, He leaned down and breathed life into him.
In virtually all ancient languages, including Hebrew, the word for breath, air, and spirit are identical.
So when God breathed into Adam the breath of life, we can also say that God breathed into Adam the spirit of life.
And the truth is, ever since we were first brought to life with the breath of God, we have needed the breath of God, the movement of the Spirit of God, in order to live life as God intends.
Merely existing in the flesh is never, ever enough. And what’s the result of God breathing into us the breath of life? We became a living being. Adam became human.
I’ve always loved [pic] this painting by my father, who although he was an agnostic or atheist until near the end of his life, had an undercurrent of faith in some of his paintings. He had huge respect for the First Nations Peoples. This is his interpretation of God creating man. It hangs in my office.
Moving on:
8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
So God created the first man. But God knew that the man he created needed a place to live, as place to call home.
So into a place that God had planted, a garden in the East, in Eden, God put the man that he had formed. And this is where he was to live and work.
God’s provision of the garden is, when you think about it, a model of parental care. The newly created life is sheltered but not smothered: on all sides discoveries and encounters await him to draw out his powers of discernment and choice.
And here there is plenty of food, plenty of nourishment - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.
God planted humankind in a place that was beautiful to the eye that would fulfill his appetite.
Beyond that, God planted us in a place where there was work, which is necessary for healthy body and mind.
Without work, or without an objective, and a place to direct our energies and focus, we can pretty quickly unravel and begin to act to our harm. Work keeps us moving and it keeps our brains focussed. It is always a good thing.
Chapter 2 verse 10-14 describes some of the geography of Eden. It’s not known for sure where it was. It’s generally thought to have been in what we now call Iraq.
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
Now it’s interesting, for his spiritual awakening, to do with the care of his inner life, Adam is given a word from God that is double edged:
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
God puts Adam in the midst of the Garden of Eden in order to work it and take care of it. He would be its gardener, the one entrusted with doing all that one needs to do in a garden to keep it healthy.
Adam is given enormous liberty within the garden, and he’s permitted to eat from most every tree. We notice that there’s no mention of eating animals. They were not as yet created.
So he’s given huge liberty, and a tiny restriction or limitation. Really, this indicates that Adam is given huge trust, and that trust includes the confidence that he is capable of obeying God both in the doing of what he’s called to do, and in the not-doing of what he’s called to avoid.
I heard an interesting quote this week in our Toastmasters club meeting. It’s from Aristotle who said: “Whatever is in our power to do is also in our power not to do” [Pause]
Isn’t that so with us? We’re given huge liberty with how to live our lives, a huge array of choices to be made and, really, relatively few limitations on our liberty. And always, always, the limitations on our liberty are to do with us not doing those things that harm us or that harm others.
And we come to know ourselves by the way we exercise our liberty. Our character, the kind of person we are or we are becoming, is determined by HOW we exercise our freedom.
They say that teenagers, I would say some, not all, can’t really know who they are until they are out on their own. And go they do, as teenagers or as people in their 20’s typically.
And so much of those first years is about learning who they are, testing the wisdom of their parents’ best advice. Generally suffering when they ignore that advice and benefitting when they follow it. So it is with us and God. So it was with Adam.
Now, was there anything particularly bad about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? [Pause]. Some say there was. I’ve read whole books on how eating the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was really about becoming judgmental toward others, or some such rabbit trail.
Just last week as we explored The Song of Creation, Genesis chapter 1, we read that God saw all that He had made, and it was good. So, yes, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not bad in itself.
I want to suggest that, although there’s lots of interesting things we can conjecture about or guess about regarding this particular tree, the key here is that Adam was to remember that he was the gardener and God is the owner.
Adam wasn’t to behave as the one who called the shots in the garden. There was another, above him.
There wasn’t necessarily anything inherently “bad” about the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but we will unpack that next week.
Remember, God had looked upon all His creation and “saw that it was good.” All God was asking of man was to obey Him. Would he listen, or would he not? If you haven’t read ahead, we’ll be exploring that outcome next week.
We come now to the closing story of chapter 2. It begins with God acknowledging a crucial thing about the man He has made, a key, defining thing about humanity. It’s a simple statement that acknowledges a profound part of our created-ness.
God says: “It is not good for the man to be alone...”. Of course God knew this when He created Adam, but this statement is written like a statement that comes from observation.
As Adam worked the garden alone, without another like him to be with, to converse with, to help him. Alone, Adam did not thrive. Alone, he was missing something critical to his existence. Alone, he was unable, even, to reach his full potential.
Remember that after God created everything He saw that it was very good. The first thing that was not ‘good’ was Adam being alone.
So God says: “I will make a helper suitable for him”.
The solution to Adam’s condition was a helper, designed for him, created for him.
19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
This is quite amazing when you think about it. God forms all the wild animals out of the ground, and all the birds in the sky. He creates them out of nothing, just as Adam had been created.
Then he calls upon Adam to name each animal, freely, creatively. And God didn’t second guess Adam. He didn’t say “platypus...I don’t think so”. Whatever Adam called the animals, that’s what they were called, period.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
For those who love animals, we might look to this passage as the first link in the relationship animals share with humans.
Some of us love our cats and dogs, we find a level of companionship, a type of trust, a kind of mutual give and take in some ways. All that is good, of course...a gift from God. But it’s not enough.
21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he 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,’ for she was taken out of man.” 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. NIV
Again, the only thing that God saw as “not good” in the garden was that man was alone. He then created woman, wife, as a companion for him to meet his needs of communion, companionship, completion and community.
When God created man and woman, He created them to complement each other. God formed woman to round out man's incompleteness, so that physically, socially, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually, male and female would not be competitors, but companions.
And we see here too that the first man and the first woman dwelt together in complete transparency. They were naked, and they felt no shame, no embarrassment, no humiliation. They did not yet know sin.
They had not yet chosen to reject God. They dwelled in perfect communion with God, with each other, and with nature.
This, too, is the good news, the gospel of Genesis. In it we find the picture of God’s preferred state of existence with us. He wants to be near. He wants us to be free. He wants us to appreciate life, beauty, companionship, genuine friendship.
He wants us to enjoy life – not to live only for the enjoyment of life, for our pleasure, but nevertheless it’s not hard to see in the story of creation that God wants us to enjoy living
He wants us, in our freedom, to not vainly aspire to being god, to being boss. He knows that that takes us from the relationship with Him that He intends, that which is for our good.
He gives us enormous freedom, and as a shepherd does, as a good parent does, he gives us some key limitations, and He wants us to obey Him.
Jesus expressed this in a way that made it clear that loving God wasn’t mostly about sentimental feelings about Him. Jesus said: “If you love me, you will obey what I command”.
So all of this, all of this is about the origin story of humanity. It is our story. And for Christians who accept the gift of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world and the One Who died for our sins, this is actually quite personal, or it should become so as we spend time in the narrative.
This is a guiding narrative for Christians. It is a guiding narrative, then of course, for The Yonge Street Mission as well. It’s in our articles of faith, and it’s the “Why” of the mission’s purpose:
“All people are created in the image and likeness of God. Every one of us has value and dignity, and is full of promise and unique potential”.
So, what are we to do with this good news, really the good news of Genesis, that this is our story, tha we are each made in the image and likeness of God, Imago Dei, and that explicitly because of that, we have value and dignity, we’re full of promise and potential?
Well, it needs to be something we consider, I think a lot, as we seek to be more and more like Jesus.
Show “Imagio Dei” video at http://youtu.be/K3IRZPjdpr0
May we value one another and ourselves BECAUSE we are made in the image of God. May our decisions towards ourselves and others faithfully reflect this truth, and may our hearts forever live in humble submission and adoration of our Creator, Jesus Christ. Amen.
