We’re in the second week in a new series, where we are tracing out the story of the Bible. We want to see how all the parts of God’s story fit together. And while the Bible is one of the most widely read books in history, it is also one of the most misunderstood. Much of the confusion results from a failure to grasp the overall message or central theme of the Bible. It is a “forest for the trees” problem. Often so much time is spent in the “trees” of different Bible teachings that we miss the “forest” or the big picture. Sometimes we need to step back to see this big picture.
Series Preview
And that is exactly the aim of this series – to see the big picture of the Bible. To see the Bible is a single story. We’re taking a look at the central storyline of Scripture. Last week, we traveled back in time and examined God before anything else came into existence. And throughout our time, I want to offer a bird’s eye view, if you will. Throughout the 7 weeks together, it will be my aim to unpack these four sentences carefully.
God made the world.
We rebelled against our ruler.
God reentered the world to redeem us.
And God will remake the world.
So climb on top of the observation deck with me and let’s get a better perspective of the bible before us. Turn to Genesis 2 and put a bookmark Revelation 22 for later.
Today’s Scripture Passage
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.
5 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, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—7 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. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 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.
10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 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.”
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 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. 20 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. 21 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. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 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.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
(Genesis 2:4-25)
Everything is as it should be. Everything is as it was designed. In the first chapter of Genesis, the Bible has laid out the creation of everything in a series of 7 days. As we enter into chapter 2, the camera lens zooms “in tight” on the first two people, Adam and Eve. But a shadow looms over the Garden of Eden… Everything in this story is specifically written for you to contrast human life before the Fall and after the Fall. But we’re are getting ahead of ourselves…
Today, I want you to notice God shows His care for humans in three areas… God prepares an exceptional place, a special task, and an extraordinary person for Adam.
1. God Creates
In chapter one, Moses follows a chronological sequence of how everything came to be while in chapter two, we see more of a topical sequence. It’s here that God both prepares a perfect garden spot for man but also we witness God’s creation of humans. I want to call your attention to is the word “create.” This was is used only 8 times in the book of Genesis and each and every time the word “create” is attached to God. Every time we see the word “create” it acts as a trailer hitched to the engine. And God is always the engine of creation. God alone creates. He calls existence out of non-existence. He doesn’t need the help of tools, engineering firms, or the city’s planning and zoning department. He speaks and things come into being.
An artist will start with paint… A flower arranger with start with flowers… And an engineer starts with concrete and steel. Men and women build, design, and renovate. But only God creates!
And there are two objects God creates in our story today that I want to call your attention to…
1.1 God Creates People
There are so many side-streets and cul-de-sacs that we could travel, but we must remember this series is an overview… … a bird’s eye view of the central story of the Bible. “…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.” (Genesis 2:7)
Two things I want to call your attention to in verse 7.
1.1.1 Note our humble origins – we were created from dust.
We were not created from gold dust or diamond dust but common everyday dust. We are made from humble origins.
1.1.2 God also breathed into Adam’s nostrils
Earlier in Genesis 1, we read of God’s creation of humans in these words: “Then 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 birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27)
We are made of humble origins but humanity was also made with unique significance… in the image of God Himself. Think about the remarkable complexity of the human body. Physically, we are the result of two sets of 23 chromosomes which unite at conception. A single human chromosome contains twenty billion bits of information, which corresponds to about 500 million words, or two million pages. At 500 pages per book, this means that a single human chromosome is equal to about 4,000 volumes of information. We each have 46 chromosomes, or 184,000 volumes of 500 pages each! A person develops miraculously inside the mother’s womb, emerging 9 months later with more than 200 bones, each shaped with exquisite skill to perform its function. To the bones are attached 500 muscles, some large, some small, some obeying human will, others acting apart from human awareness. Our brain has over 10 billion nerve cells connected to the body by a complex nervous system. Our skin has more than two million sweat glands, about 3,000 per square inch, to automatically regulate body temperature. In addition, there are the circulatory, pulmonary, digestive, endocrine, and immune systems. In addition there is the eye, the ear, the senses of smell, taste, and touch, and our complex emotional make-up, which al- lows us to feel joy and sadness, delight and disgust, love and hate.
When God breathed into the nostrils of Adam, God showed remarkable love giving us an inherit dignity and worth. And because we are made in the image of God, you should know there are no ordinary people.
1.2 God Creates the Garden
And it’s here in Genesis 2, we are taken to the Garden of Eden: “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.” (Genesis 2:8)
This was an exceptional place. We are told that the Garden of Eden is East and… “A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.” (Genesis 2:10). This was a lush, green, well-watered garden. The garden is abundant and it has everything Adam could ask for. It was a special place.
2. God is a Gardner
Not only did God create an exceptional place for us, but God also prepared a special task for us. Notice at the beginning of chapter 2 it says, “God rested from his work.” We’re also told in the middle of Genesis 2 that God sends the human race into the world to work. He put them in the garden to work it and take care of it: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15) The sweep of Genesis 1, 2, and 3 is to tell us the work we do in the world is actually a continuation and part of God’s work in the world. At the very beginning of Genesis, we know it says, “The earth was without form, and void …” It was chaotic, and the Spirit of God moved across the face of the formless, void, chaotic world and rearranged things so out of it came order and beauty. Here in the beginning of the book of Genesis, we have God had his hands in the dirt. God is a manual laborer, planting a garden, and putting His hands in the dust. And while the garden is beautiful, it was not designed to be a retirement home built in Florida: “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…” (Genesis 2:5)
Adam is to imitate God by caring for the soil, the garden. Adam was to place his hands in the soil and get them dirty. Adam was to work; he was to imitate God. There is a dignity to work – you are working as your Father did. Whether you are cleaning house or assembling pipes, you are bringing order out of chaos. And it really doesn’t matter what kind of work you do, but just that you work.
Something happened to our nation during WW II. So often people become doctors not primarily to relieve suffering, but because they want to bring themselves and their families up in the world. People become lawyers not because they have a passion for justice, but just to bring themselves and their families up in the world.
WW II and the Evansville Plant
But during World War II, one of the great surprises many had in the army was they found themselves, for the very first time in their lives, happy. Why? For the first time in their lives, they found themselves doing something not for the pay, because it was miserable, and not for the social standing, because everybody was thrown in together, but for the sake of getting something done that needed doing. Near where I grew up was the town of Evansville, Indiana, where my mother’s family lived. And there was the old Whirlpool plant, a fixture in that part of the world since the early 1940s. And my grandparents would drive me by the plant and tell me how she worked there for a period of time. It was during WW II, that P 47’s were built there. Interestingly enough, a whole generation of people who, during the war, were forced into a biblical understanding of work. They were forced to do things not for status, because everybody was put together.. …not for money, because the pay was miserable… but everybody knew, “We have to get this done so our society can survive.” They knew it needed to be done. They knew everything they were doing was really paying off for everybody, and they were happy. Right after the war, people went right back to the normal way in which we work.
We work to get status. We work to make money. We work for an identity. We work to make a name for ourselves, and everybody is miserable.
Adam was given a special task.
3. Adam & Eve Had a Choice
God seems to place a pause in the middle of the narrative by calling attention to two specific trees: “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.” (Genesis 2:9)
And then again in verses 15-17: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 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.” (Genesis 2:15-17)
A shadow looms over Eden. In the next chapter, paradise is lost. I don’t want to get ahead of myself you need to know that the tree of knowledge is a tree of decision. God never designed this world for the pain and misery we experience. God’s design was to walk with Him and worship Him. Everything in the Garden of Eden was in harmony. There was a beauty to God’s original design. Everything is as it should be. Everything is as it was designed. As a result of Adam and Eve’s choice, we are all broken. Adam and Eve Had a Choice
4. Relationships Were Simple
Here’s God’s 3rd way He shows His care for Adam… Not only did God create a special place for us and a special task, but God also prepared a special person for us. Let no one say, God is stingy. God gave Adam a special person, his wife, Eve. In the series on marriage from August of 2013, we looked at these verses for God’s purpose on marriage. Adam was fulfilled in every way. You can see the happiness of the first couple in verses 24-25: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:24-25)The relationship between Adam and Eve was so simple!
Country Music and Adam & Eve
I drove this weekend over the landscape of West Texas. With some windshield time, I listened to some country music as my son slept. Had everything stayed as it was here in the Garden, country music would never come into existence ?. It was so uncomplicated. God gave Adam a special place, a special task, and a special person.
The central storyline of the Bible in four sentences:
God made the world.
We rebelled against our ruler.
God reentered the world to redeem us.
And God will remake the world.
The Nadir of the Garden of Eden
Do you what was so special about the Garden of Eden? It wasn’t the trees, the weather, the gold, or the minerals. What made the Garden of Eden so special was the presence of God Himself (Genesis 3:8). God, Himself was there in the Garden.
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 22:1-5)
God sent His Son into the Garden of Gethsemane to get you back to the Garden City of His love.
Closing Prayer
God, I thank you for your care for us. I thank you for designing our world with love and care and beauty that surpasses anything and everything we could have imagined. Thank you for your love for us. Having seen the beauty of this world after the Fall, I can only imagine the beauty of it before Adam & Eve’s fateful decision. Your love for us is amazing.
We long to see your face and to enjoy your presence as Adam and Eve did so many years ago. Bless us with your presence and remove from us the sin that so easily hurts us. Walk with us again through your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
