THE SKY IS THE LIMIT
In March 1997, Dolly of Scotland made headline news. Who was Dolly? Dolly was a sheep. Well, scientists from the Roslin Institute in Scotland tried for more than 10 years to clone a sheep from a single adult cell, it took 277 attempts before they produced Dolly. Times magazine said Dolly "is a carbon copy, a laboratory counterfeit so exact that she is in essence her mother’s identical twin." (The Age of Cloning 3/10/97 J. Madeline Nash)
Genesis 1 tells us that God created the world out of chaos, man was incomplete without God, and man is the crown, the climax, and the centerpiece of God’s creation. Everything God created was good, but creation was complete only with man. What he saw was "good" before now had become "very good." (1:31)
In Genesis 2, in God’s original design, the sky was the limit for man, the possibilities were boundless, there was nothing beyond his reach. St. Augustine said, " Man wonders over the restless sea, the flowing water and the sight of the sky - and forgets that of all wonders Man himself is the most wonderful "
Let us see how God created you and I very good, lavished on us all the best things in life, and given us the directive to obey Him.
MAN IS A PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL BEING (GEN. 2:1-7)
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
4This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens-- 5and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, 6but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground-- 7the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
First, you and I are physical and spiritual beings. We are not heavenly creatures, God did not make us from star dust, moon beams, or a meteor shower, man is dust from the ground, soil, or, the expression from Fiddler on the Roof, a worthless lump of clay.
At the end of life three things await physical humanity: diseases, death, and dust.
Do you know what else comes out from the ground (2:19)? Animals! So man, in a sense, is comparable to an animal.
There was a Jewish story about a king who tested Elijah the prophet with two questions. The first was:
"Why was man created?"
Elijah responded: “The only reason that he made man was that he serve Him with all his heart, so that He should take pleasure in him and in the generations that spring from his loins until then end of days.?
"Why did the Almighty create reptiles?" was the second question.
Again Elijah said, "When man procreated and his number became great he began to worship the sun and stones and wooden idols. From day to day the sinfulness of man had been mounting so that he deserved death and greatly tried God’s patience."
"At that point God looked upon all creatures He had created in the world and said: `Men have life and these creatures have life. Men have souls and these creatures have souls. Men eat and drink and these creatures eat and drink. Therefore, men too are animals and are no better than the reptiles that I have created.?
"Immediately thereafter the Almighty’s wrath subsided and he withheld his hand from destroying mankind. From this therefore, you can see that God created the reptiles, so that He would have some creatures with which to compare man and shame him unto humility."
//Our father was Adam, our grandfather dust, our great-grandfather nothing.
-William Jenkyn
However, we are more than dust, we are not animals, man as male and female are two of a kind. How are we different from animals (2:7, 19)? By the way, animals do have the breath of life (Gen. 7:15, 22), but God Himself breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life (2:7). God has put His spirit and breath in us (Job 34:14-15), there is a spiritual longing in us, in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).
As spiritual beings, we seek answers to the origins of life, our objectives in life, and to order our lives. Animals do not know, worship or serve their Creator. Snoopy the dog one day looked down the ground with his head hanging from his doghouse, then sat up and around, and finally lied flat on his back, thinking to himself: "My life has no purpose...My life has no direction...no aim...no meaning...And yet I’m happy..I can’t figure it out...What am I doing right?"
When God created man, the sky was the limit for man. Not only was man a physical and spiritual being, he was a functional and intelligent creature.
MAN IS A FUNCTIONAL AND A RATIONAL AN INTELLIGENT BEING
(GEN. 2:8-20)
15The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." 18The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." 19Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. 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. 20So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
Was work a punishment for man’s fall? European folk legends describe Eden as a place of milk and honey and free from work. Daniel T. Rogers, a Princeton University historian says that to Europeans "to work was to do something wearisome and painful, scrabbling in the stubborn soil. It was the mark of man entrapped by necessity, and thus men who were not wholly free." (LA Times 9/17/92).
A friend of mine in Australia told me that people flocked to the beach, towing their boats on the weekends, and no money can persuade them to work.
It’s like this eloquent bumper sticker question I saw: "Is it Friday yet?" //And another that says: “Born to Sing, Forced to Work.?
No, we need to work (2:8-9, 15). The garden of Eden was paradise- a lavish garden (2:8), scenic tress (2:9), rippling rivers and streams (2:10), and precious stones (2:12). Man has almost everything, but work is a way of life, it is God’s original plan
A 58-year old woman said this: "A marriage can survive almost anything except the husband staying home all day." (Live and Learn 137)
Why work? In working, we realize our potential, learn to relate to others, and repay God by our service.
Man is an intelligent being. God did not create a robot, man has the right to choose, obedience or disobedience is an alternative, the latter has catastrophic consequences. God created a person, you and I have what we call an individual personality, and personality by definition means having a mind of our own.
16And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
God had placed His trust in man, given him the freedom but to do good, and warned him to favor what is right. So you and I today ponder over things, prioritize them, and pick the right choice. Some things are forbidden, some areas you are free to choose, but our task is to decide on what is fitting.
Moreover, naming animals is a difficult task.
19Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. 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.
For example, do you know the difference between a crocodile and an alligator? A turtle and a tortoise? A frog and a toad? Who thinks a crocodile has a long triangle head and an alligator has a flat broad head? You are right, and you can see all the teeth of a crocodile on the outside of the mouth, whereas you can only see the top teeth of an alligator’s mouth.
Who dwells on land ?the turtle or the tortoise? Tortoises usually live on land or in fresh water. They have legs and were known to run against rabbits. Turtles, on the other hand, usually live in salt water and have flippers for swimming.
Who has dry rough skin ?the frog or the toad? Toads, and they can be found far from water. A frog has smooth moist skin, and lives close to water.
MAN IS AN EMOTIONAL AND A RELATIONAL BEING (GEN. 2:21-25)
21So 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 closed up the place with flesh. 22Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23The 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." 24For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Before woman was created, things didn’t look good at all for man, naming pairs and pairs of animals made him aware of his missing half (2:18). Adam needed someone to do things with, to discuss things with, and to decide things with. Adam was engrossed in work but lonely; encircled by species not his type; engaged in fellowship with God, but not on the same level.
So God gave Eve to Adam in the first marriage on earth (Matt 19:3-6), she was his helper, two was better than one. They were two bodies but one flesh, alike but unlike each other, uncovered but unashamed. Peter Lombard (in 1158) said, “Eve was not taken from the feet of Adam to be his slave, nor from his head to be his lord, but from his side to be his partner.?
Adam was the king, Eve was her queen; he was the man, she was his lady; and he is the head, and she was his side. The word man refered to male and female (1:27), this joint equation was very good (1:31), they were dependent on one another.
A CEO noticed that the gas attendant and his wife were engaged in an animated conversation. The conversation stopped as he paid the attendant. But as he was getting back into the car, he saw the attendant wave and heard him, say, "It was great talking to you."
As they drove out of the station, the CEO asked his wife if she knew the man. She readily admitted she did. They had gone to high school together and had dated steadily for about a year.
"Boy, were you lucky that I came along," bragged the CEO. "If you had married him, you’d be the wife of a gas station attendant instead of the wife of a chief executive officer."
"My dear," replied his wife, "if I had married him, he’d be the chief executive officer and you’d be the gas station attendant." (Bits and Pieces, 1/9/92)
The emotional need of man and wife were met in each other, but couples, like everyone else, need to learn how relate to family members, friends, and outsiders. The command to leave one’s parents were for us and not for Adam and Eve, they were the first man and woman on earth, they were the first parents!
English poet John Donne said these memorable words: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.?
CONCLUSION: God has given us a lot, but He asked from us one thing ?that we obey Him. God’s providence for man was divine fellowship with God Himself, clear specific instructions on how to use his body and mind and freedom, and a helper who provided him love, companionship, and a home.
Do you appreciate what God has done? Bring glory to Him? And just as important --challenge your mind, discipline your body, excel in what you do? God did not intend for us to be couch potatoes, a mind is a terrible thing to waste, God requires a lot from you. Some of you may turn out to be doctors, engineers, and teachers. If not, use your talents, words, or skills for Him. Whether in the arts, science or other operations, the Chinese have a saying, “AAn officer emerges from every profession.
Victor Yap
http://epreaching.blogspot.com/
www.riversidecma.org(For sermon series)
www.preachchrist.com (For Chinese sermons)
