Introduction
One day a group of scientists got together and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. So they picked one scientist to go and tell God that they were finished with him. The scientist walked up and said, “God, we’ve decided that we no longer need you. We’re to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so why don’t you just get lost?”
God listened very patiently and kindly. They He replied, “Very well, let’s have a man-making contest.”
The scientist replied, “OK, great!”
But God added, “Now we’re going to do this just like I did with Adam.”
The scientist said, “Sure, no problem.” Then he bent down and grabbed a handful of dirt.
God said, “No, no, no. Go get your own dirt!”
Who needs the instruction manual? Some time ago, I purchased a DIY computer table. It was a cash and carry purchase. The moment I reached home, I quickly opened it up and started assembling. I had not bothered to read the manufacturer’s instructions thinking that IQ and common sense should do the job. However, before long, I got stuck because the sequence was not right, resulting in not being able to attach the other parts to the whole. It took quite a while and a lot of humility to realise that I needed to read the manufacturer’s instructions in order to assemble the DIY Computer Table the way it had been designed to be. So, humbly I picked up the instructions that I had crumpled and thrown aside. If you had been there you could hear saying, “Aiyah, so simple, how could I overlooked this step and that small part.”
Yes, it was a very simple DIY Computer and though I failed to assemble it, I could simply disassemble the able and do it again and again. But, life is not like a DIY Computer Table where you can simply do it by trial and error. You cannot assemble, disassemble and then reassemble in life all the time. Some mistakes are costly and fatal. The most sensible and yet the most neglected step in assembling the DIY Computer Table was to read the manufacturer’s instructions. After all, they were the one who designed and manufactured the table. Similarly, for life, the Bible is God the Creator’s instruction manual for us so that we may live our lives the way it was intended it to be, according to Designer. When we do so, we are at peace with Him, with ourselves and others.
Genesis 2 is not a repeat of Genesis 1, as some people supposed; it contains a more detail account of the creation of humanity and their original habitat. Perhaps, an analogy may help: Genesis 1 is the BIG PICTURE and Genesis 2 is the ZOOMING IN of God’s creation, particularly humans.
I have entitled this morning sermon “Life as God Intended It To Be” because I believe in this chapter of the beginnings of humanity, male and female, it forces us to ask some hard questions about how are we living our lives in the light of God’s purpose and design for humanity – to display and declare God’s genius and glory!
Completing Creation
• Completing the Work of Creating (2:1–2).
The work of creation has been completed but it does not mean therefore it is able to run on its own without God, depending on its built-in mechanisms. The whole of creation cannot exist for a single moment without God’s sustaining power. In the 17th and 18th Century, there were philosophies that promote the idea that God is either dead or disinterested in the world and its inhabitants.
Paul tells us in Colossians 1:16–17, “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
Interestingly, just as the world was brought into existence by the creative power of God’s word, is thrives on the sustaining power of God’s word. The author to the book of Hebrews asserts: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” (Hebrews 1:3).
A grandfather was trying to impress upon his grandson the truth that the world cannot survive for a single moment without God’s sustaining power of causing the earth to rotate on its axis and revolves around the Sun. The Earth’s rotational and revolving movements ensure that the Sun rises and sets at good time during the day, so is the moon by night, meticulously ensuring the arrival of times and seasons throughout the year. As the old favourite hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” testifies when it says:
• Concluding that Creation is “very good” (1:31)
At the end of each day of creation, God pronounces the quality of creation as “good”. Then at the end of the sixth day, after the creation of man, God pronounces “very good.” What does the pronouncement “good” entails? I suppose the quality “very good” implies that creation is very beautiful and bountiful, reflecting the goodness and generosity character of God the Creator.
• Consecrating (“set apart” or “made different”) the Sabbath, the Seventh Day Rest
Creation: The 7-Day Cycle of Work and Rest (Exodus 20:8–11)
Church: From the Seventh to the First Day of the Week, the Lord’s Day (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2; Hebrews 4:8–11; Revelation 1:10)
Christ: The Unending (Eternal) Rest (Revelation 14:13)
The Hebrew word for “seventh” comes from a root meaning, “to be full, complete, entirely made up.” God “blessed” the seventh day of setting it apart as different from the others. Part of bearing the image of God involves resting as He did. God established the Sabbath as part of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8–11). In Genesis 2, we learn that God instituted the 7-day cycle of work and rest pattern for us to live by.
Though the apostles in the New Testament changed the day of worship from the Sabbath (the seventh day of the week) to Sunday, the first day of the week, the divine principle underlying the institution of the Sabbath at creation as a day set apart for the worship of God is still observed. Since the concept of Sabbath and the 7-day cycle of work and rest pattern were instituted before the Mosac law, they are therefore still applicable to Christians.
It is a sad fact that for many today what God intended to be a day of rest for man’s body and soul has become a day of restlessness; a day of hectic activity. Our is a neurotic age in which people are living on their nerves and they do themselves no great service by passing up this God-given opportunity to pause and bring a little quiet into the turmoil of their noise-rocked lives.
Abraham Heschel has wisely said, “Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things in space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.
Some years back, in a pastors’ conference, I learned that the 7-day cycle is a very good rule of life. A veteran pastor was sharing with us how he ordered his life around the 7-day creation pattern. A piece of advice for those of us who want to implement change in our lifestyle: apply the 7-day cycle to your life. For example, if one of your New Year resolutions is to have a healthier lifestyle through regular exercises, then within the next 7 days, you must have at least exercised once. If the resolution is not carried out within the next 7 days after you decision, chances it will not be done within the next 7 days and so on and so forth. Before long, you and I realise that the year has passed and you have yet to fulfill your resolution and make changes in your life for the better!
Crowning Creation
Now we come to actual creation of the first pair of humans, Adam and Eve.
• Formed in the Image of God, in His Likeness (1:26–27)
Unlike the creatures created by mere “let there be” and “according to their kinds”. Instead, in the earlier chapter we read God says, “Let us make man…” Then in this chapter, we read about God fashioning Adam the first human from a lump of clay.
What is even more staggering is the fact that God makes human beings in His own image, in His own likeness. What exactly the “image of God” in humanity entails has been the subject of debate and discussion throughout the history of the Christian Church. One thing for sure is that the “image of God” in us cannot be physical likeness because Jesus tells us plainly, “God is Spirit….” (John 4:24) There are many instances in the Bible where God is described as having eyes, ears, arms, etc. and that He appeared in the form of a human being. For example, Isaiah 59:1–2, we read, “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”
Such description of God should not be interpreted literally. How then should we understand these passages? The Bible writers are using a kind of language known as anthropomorphism. Wow, that’s a big word! Well, the word is made up of two basic Greek words, anthropos for man and morphe for form. The word anthropomorphism then means describing God’s nature and actions in human terms; it is an attempt to bridge the mystery of God with human knowledge and activity.
The theory of Evolution, originally propounded by Charles Darwin and expanded by subsequent evolutionists, has done a lot of damage not to Christianity but the dignity of humanity. Its basic theory is that human beings as they are today only appeared fairly recent in natural history of the world compared to some other creatures, which have been around for billion of years. Human beings evolved from a single cell life form and through the evolutionary ladder became what they are today. Thus, plotting the evolution of human beings on a tree, we would be at the top like the chimpanzees, swinging from branch to branch, tree to tree.
One preacher, who was dead against the theory of evolution, cried out in one of his sermons: “O men of science give back to me my ancestors in the Garden of Eden, and you may keep yours in the Zoological Gardens.” Actually, evolution is not a fact but a theory. But, the tragic thing about the theory of evolution is that it has become more than a theory; it has become an ideology. As an ideology, it has been the basis for some of the worst inhuman practices the world has ever known – e.g., slavery. In the 1800s, thousands or even millions of African Negroes were trapped or captured, sold and exported to European Continent and New England to serve their white masters. The reason why African Negroes were justified to be enslaved and treated inhumanly as tools and properties by the White Europeans and Americans was the belief that human beings evolved through time, from darker complexion and duller intelligence to lighter complexion and brighter intelligence.
However way we try to blur the lines between human beings and the beasts and birds, there is something mystic here about the image of God in us that makes us endear to God. Thus, in Genesis 9:5b–6, “And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” Whether or not these verses justify capital punishment for murder, it is not the point. It is the “image of God” in humanity that has been given by God as the reason for the sanctity of a human life. There is not a single verse in the Bible that advocates the sanctity of animal life. Only the destruction of a human life is endeared as one of the Ten Commandments. Why? It is because of the “image of God” in humanity.
Yet, today, contemporary society is confronted with a host of issues that hinges on the question of the nature of human nature and thus our dignity. If we are just pure accidents and chances as the evolutionists want us to believe, then it is no wonder that life is cheap today as it had always been in human history. Our rejection of God and what He says about our worth has made human beings being digitized, valued educationally and economically; and yes, politically as well.
The sanctity of life is disregarded in our day. Millions of fetuses are murdered in the name of choice and convenience. Thousands of people are killed through suicide bombings by religious militants. Thousands of Sudanese are being enslaved by their own countrymen because of civil war.
• Fashioned by God from Soil: Divine creativity and human mortality (2:7a)
We read in the first part of verse 7, “…the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground….” The manner in which God created human beings here is being described in anthropomorphic terms (i.e. describing the person and action God in human terms). The Hebrew verb for “formed” is commonly used of the work of a potter with clay (e.g., Job 33:6; Isaiah 45:9; Jeremiah 18:6). The mention of God’s act of creating human beings in this manner has two implications.
First, it conveys the idea of God as a consummate Craftsman, making human beings with care and creativity. God acts as the potter taking clay or soil and forming human beings. It is interesting to note that similarities between God and the potter go deeper than the surface, for no potter makes two potteries exactly the same even from the same lump of clay! This is where science enhances our sense of awe and wonder in that no two persons’ DNA patterns are exactly the same. In other words, you are one of a kind and I am also one of another kind. If God makes each leaf on the tree unique, likewise, how much more will He not make each human being to be unique without double!
Second, God’s act of forming the first human being from soil emphasizes our nature and mortality: we are part of God’s creation and that we are finite, particularly out limited lifespan. It seems that the mention of Adam the first human being coming soil anticipates The Fall in the following chapter where part of God’s judgment on Adam’s sin is to return to the dust from which he was taken (Genesis 3:19).
• Furnished Alive by the Divine Breath of Life (2:7b)
We read in the second part of verse 7, which says, “…the LORD God… breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Unlike the animals, human beings received the breath of life from God. The breath of life is inseparable from the earlier mention of humans being created in the “image of God”, as one commentator observes: “In animals the life principle was given by divine fiat or command in common with the rest of creation, whereas God breathed into man directly and imparted to him His own Spirit thus making him a living soul created in His own image and likeness.”
Perhaps, I may even venture to say that without the “breath of life” from God, human beings will be no different from the animals, but with the reception of it human beings became “a living being”, perhaps, from it becomes he/she, a person capable of relating with God.
In the deepest recess of every human being, there is an innate urge to seek out something and someone to worship. Human beings are religious creatures. The seventy years of communism in Russia and fifty over years Maoism in China have not obliterated the longings of the Russians and Chinese to seek out religions to practice.
Theologians call this phenomenon “God-shaped vacuum in every human heart.” Perhaps, the church father, St Augustine of Hippo in the Fifth Century AD best expresses it: “For you have created us for Yourself and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in You.” There is a void in every human heart that is so shaped that only God satisfies!
Have you ever observe toddlers playing with a kind of toy with holes of different shapes. The toddler must pick up a plastic or wooden block and then try match it with one of the holes with the corresponding shape. Sometimes we witness toddlers stubbornly trying to fit a misfit block into the hole, perhaps, a triangular block into a square hole. Many people try to fill up the “void” in their lives with all sorts of things and relationships that only God can fit perfectly. Sometimes, the misfit may appear to work but only for a while and then leave us hungrier and thirstier than before.
• Fullness of Humanity: “Male” and “Female” (1:27)
While the animals were certainly created with gender differences, “Male” and “female” are mentioned only in connection with humans, indicating the full potential of human relationships.
Humanity is neither male nor female, but male and female! In other words, humanity is incomplete without the coexistence of both genders, male and female. The reason is simple: God intended it so when He says, “It is not good for a man to be alone.” There are two aspects to the statement. On the one hand, God is simply declaring the social nature of humanity, that is, we are designed to live in community, a reflection of the community within the Godhead – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And community implies the coexistence, cooperation and complementation between the two sexes, without which, humanity would be incomplete and impoverished. Our marriages, families and society as a whole will not be in harmony when the two sexes are competing instead of complementing.
On the other hand, God is also declaring the fact that humanity is complete in the coming together of a man and a woman in marriage, becoming ONE FLESH. For it is in the state of marriage that the image of God is best expressed, male and female in His image.
In the history of the Christian Church, there were preachers who taught the inferiority of women on the ground that the image of God in men was original but women’s was derivative because Eve was created out of the rib of Adam. This idea is absurd because did not Genesis 1:27 declares: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Some time ago, my wife and I played a game called “the battle of the sexes.” You know the nature of the game: each gender tries to argue for its superiority at the expense of the other. I was very impressed by my wife’s wits when referring to the Genesis account of the creation of man she finally said to me: “Well, first came the draft, then the masterpiece.” I am pleased with my choice of life partner, for I have married someone who is my equal when it comes to wits! It’s alright with me if some of you disagree with what I’ve just claimed!”
Commissioning Humanity to Royal Service
Two other aspects mentioned in Genesis 2 that reflects God’s image in humanity are tending the Garden of Eden and naming of the animals.
• To Engage in Servanthood (2:15–16)
Having prepared the Garden of Eden as habitat, God put man there “to work and to take care of it”. The two verbs in Hebrew are used later in the first five books of the Bible for spiritual service – for both worshipping and keeping the commandments of God. It is a very important point to note that the physical activity of caring for the garden is described as spiritual service to the Lord.
For human beings, to work is to imitate God, reflecting His “image” in us. To work and to care for the earth involves tool-making, which is godlike! Here, we learn that work is a necessary part of being human, giving pleasure and purpose. Life as God intended it to be for us humans is not one of idleness. Neither is it God’s will for us to be workaholic. As mentioned earlier, if we observe the 7-day cycle of work and rest, we will not enslave ourselves to our work because we set apart a day to lift up our eyes from the results of creation to the mystery of creation, i.e. worship of God.
• To Exercise Sovereignty (1:26; 2:19)
I don’t know about you; I was very puzzled by God’s immediate action after declaring that “it is not good for the man to be alone.” I expected him to commence immediately the creation of Eve as Adam’s companion. Yet, knowing that there was not a single creature that matches and fits Adam to be his counterpart, God brought all the animals before him. Why did God do that?
I think there are two reasons. First, to bring about an awareness of his need for companionship and dependence on God’s provision. Two, to allow Adam the first human to exercise God-given sovereignty by naming the animals. By naming the animals, Adam is symbolically expresses God-given sovereignty over the rest of creation. In the ancient world, as it is today, the right to name another person signifies power and superiority.
Committing Humanity to Trust and Obedience
• Be fruitful and multiply (Positive)
Multiplying the image of God in us to populate or fill the earth. In the Creation Mandate, we do it biologically but in the Redemption Mandate, in Christ, we do it spiritually through preaching the Gospel (Matthew 28:18–20).
• Banned from eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Negative)
The prohibition to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is given tin the context of the goodness of God to protect and preserve humanity from the consequences. Out of the abundance of the all the trees in the Garden of Eden, only one was prohibited. Genesis 2:9 puts the prohibition in context: “And 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, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, it was an outright defiance. It was not because God had been unreasonable and mean with them by not providing sufficiently for them, food that was pleasing to the eye and good for food.
So, the prohibition is given by God to induce trust and obedience from the first pair of humans. Every prohibition or negative commandment in the Bible is always given by God for our preservation and protection. But sadly, we behave like rebellious teenagers, we like to challenge God: “Why not?”, “What if I do so?”, “Will it hurt?”
Celebrating Life in Family and Society
• Community – No man is an island: …it is not good for the man to be alone (2:18a). The idea of companionship and community is commended in Scriptures (e.g. Ecclesiastes 4:9–12). Life is a web of relationships and we accept this as a fact of life!
• Sexuality – Different by Design: …I will make him a helper suitable to him… (2:18b) It is important to note that the word “helper” in Hebrew is the same word used of God as “help” and “helper in the Psalms. Therefore, we must never think that word “helper” in the text here denotes women’s inferiority to men. It is unfortunate that some choose to do so, resulting in making the Bible appear sexist! Matthew Henry has beautifully describe the implication of Eve being created from the rib of Adam:
“That the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam;
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 loved.”
• Parenting to Empower: leaving his father and mother…(2:24a).
One of the important ingredients of a healthy marriage is the “leaving” or gaining independence from the family of origin. In Asian context, particularly Chinese culture, it is harder to break emotionally than physically and economically. The goal of biblical parenting is to train up a child and empower him/her to make godly decisions for themselves. We get a hint here about God’s design for marriage is that the readiness to marry must be preceded by a level of maturity that allows the man to set up his own family.
• Marriage as defined between a man and a woman is God’s idea: …united to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh (2:24b).
Notice that it was specifically mentioned that “he [i.e. God] brought her to the man”. Do you that marriage is made in heaven? Well, then stop grumbling and murmuring about marrying the wrong guy or gal! Husband, do you believe that it was God who brought this woman to you to be your wife and that the two of you shall become ONE FLESH? Of course, the ONE FLESH as expressed in marriage is multi-faceted – physical, psychological and spiritual. Notice, at the most basic and literal meaning of the ONE FLESH in marriage is the sexual intimacy between the man and the woman I’ll stop here because this is NC16 and there are many here who are below the age of sixteen.
Though marriage covenant does not necessary entail extension, i.e. having your own children and family, it is nonetheless clear that the Creation mandate of “be fruitful and multiply” still applies unless for two reasons that I personally think are understandable: infertility and involvement in a unique kind of frontier ministry work where having family (or for that matter even marriage) is a liability.
Nonetheless, whether our marriage ensues in having a family of our own or not, the point is clear from God’s best for us that marriage comes with a vision and mission – that a man and a woman who seek to engage in the most enduring and intimate relationship, which is holy matrimony, seek it goal to live in that state to and for the glory of God! (1 Corinthians 10:31). God’s design for marriage is not for our happiness se but holiness!
Since we live in a time where marriages are in trouble and families falling apart, let me summarily put to you the fourfold God-centred purpose of marriage God has for us His people:
• Transparency: …naked, and they felt no shame (2:25)
Here is a picture of truth and transparency in human relationships: no hiding shame and hurling blame. There is no need for us to wear masks and to manipulate words, situations and people. In such context, in all human relationships, particularly husbands and wives, it is natural for us to love and be loved, to known and be known, to forgive and be forgiven, and to serve and be served. All these blessings in human relationships are intended to be enjoyed to and for the glory of God!
However, after the Fall, everything has been changed! What we will see soon in the next chapter as sin entered the human race is that ministry being turned into manipulation, complementing being turned into conflicting, and devotion being turned into disloyalty. Such is the mess humanity has got into at every level of existence, individual, domestic, national and transnational. Also, every faculty of humanity has been corrupted: thoughts, words and deeds.
Truth for Life:
Listening to God the Life Designer, which aspects of your life do you think you need God’s help to realign to reflect His original intended purpose?
After listening to God the Life Designer, which aspects of your life you need God’s help to realign to life as God intended to be?
• Need to observe the 7-day cycle of work and rest?
• Need to anchor your security, significance, and self-worth in God?
• Need to change your perspective on material possessions in view of your mortality?
• Need to celebrate the fullness of humanity (male and female) in God’s community – i.e., respecting God’s design and delegation of roles and responsibilities between the sexes.
• Need to refocus your marriage in the light of God-centred purposes for marriage?
• Need to parent your children with the goal of empowering them to live godly lives?
• Need to begin to cultivate the habit of speaking the truth in love in our relationships, especially with our spouse and with God’s people?
May God help you and I to realign our lives in Year 2005 so that we may live our lives as God intended it, to and for His glory, until Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, comes again and we shall see Him face to face! Amen.
