Bible Study - Genesis 2

The continued history of Creation

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

The seventh day as a rest for God from his work of creation served as one of the reasons for the Sabbath observation which Moses commanded to the people of Israel (Ex 20:11).

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

The phrase "the generations" here is an important expression. It is a translation of the Hebrew word toledoth, sometimes also translated as "the account" or "the continued history" (in a Swedish translation I regularly use). Sometimes, the account in Genesis 2 is treated as "a separate story of creation", but this is not really a correct understand. It should be more seen as something which repeats and expands part of what was already written, and then explains the continued story as well.

5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Here we see something very interesting: at this early stage, God gave man a task right away: he put him in the garden of Eden to take care of it, and keep it in good shape. If you will, you can call Adam the first gardener in the world.

This tells us an important story. Work is a blessing, not a curse. Sometimes we can get the impression (especially from parts like chapter 3, after the Fall where the efforts of man's work is cursed as a consequence of his disobedience) that work itself is part of the curse of the Fall. However, this is really not true at all. God created us to work, and there is great joy in working. God has put into each and every one of us particular gifts and callings. He has made every one of us be skilled in some particular task or tasks. To put it very clearly: there is something that you, my dear reader, can do better than me or most other people! Once you get a hold of this thing, whatever it is, spending time working on this will bring you great pleasure and you will be able to be a blessing to the people around you.

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

This is the one commandment the Lord gave to Adam (Eve was not yet created at this point): he could eat freely of all the other fruits, but of this particular fruit, he was not permitted to eat. God's plan for man was that he would live in this state of "innocence" if you will - only knowing of good, not evil - forever.

18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

The "help meet" part here is interesting. The literal meaning of the Hebrew text here is "like his opposite". The Amplified bible translates this as "a helper [one who balances him—a counterpart who is] suitable and complementary for him". I think this conveys more of the actual meaning of the text here. This expresses a clear "complementarianism" if you will (at least to a certain degree). Men and women are not intended to compete but to complete each other in a marriage. Does this mean that e.g. only men should work outside of home and the woman should only be working in the home? Not necessarily, not at all in fact. I think these are questions for each married couple to discuss and resolve within their own marriage, as they please. Realizing that the husband and wife are different, that we have different strengths and also slightly different gifts and callings, can play an important part in these kind of discussions though.

I personally like the "one who balances him" part in this and find it very relevant. We can all get a bit unbalanced at times, and as for myself, I think I'm definitely more balanced today than I used to be at the time when I got married, many years ago. My marriage and my dear wife has helped me a lot in this regard.

19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

Again, we see the utter goodness and grace of God. He saw that involuntary solitude is a curse, and he decided to give man a "soul mate" which he could share his life with. It seems like he (God) tried with the animals first, to see if they would fit this purpose. But, none of the animals were "good enough" to be a proper companion for life for mankind. Something better was needed.

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

I think Adam was really, really happy when God created woman. The time of his loneliness was now over. Finally, he had someone who was like himself (but not entirely) to be with.

Verse 24 is a foundational scripture, being referred to by Jesus in Matt 19:5. It's also typically part of the wedding ceremony. There are many truths being told in this verse:

  • Marriage creates a new "thing" of its own - the married couple enters into a new relationship as they are wed. The relationships we have with out parents change, as we enter into this new relationship. Instead of our father and mother being a particular authority in our lives (stronger in some cultures, weaker in others, but still present in most), this is no longer the case. Once we have entered into marriage, our primary loyalty and responsibility is towards our spouse - not our parents. This is not to be interpreted in a way that we should completely abandon our parents or anything like this. I think it's more like this: If we must choose to please our parent(s) or displease our spouse, we should typically choose to please our spouse. If we must choose to spend time with our parent(s) or our spouse, we should typically choose our spouse, and so forth.

  • Marriage between man and woman is God's plan for mankind. Note that in this verse it does not say "domestic partner". It does not say "husband". Marriage between husband and wife has a special place in God's plan, and it comes with a special blessing which is not available for domestic partnerships or homosexual relationships. (This is not to say in any way that living your whole life as a single, unmarried person would exclude you from God's blessings - read 1 Corinthians 7:8, where Paul holds the state of being unmarried in high regard.)

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Sometimes today, nakedness is being exposed in a filthy, ungodly way. There can be parades through our cities, with naked or half-naked men or women, promoting their unhealthy views. Erotic and pornographic content is being published, where nakedness plays a crucial part in making people sexually aroused in a way that God never intended.

This is not the kind of nakedness we are talking about in the Garden of Eden, before the Fall. The man and his wife (please note this emphasis again, it was not nakedness together with any random strangers or a "domestic partner" we're talking about there) were naked together, and it wasn't really a problem at all. There was no shame, because there was no sin. There was nothing to be ashamed about!

To be honest though, I don't think Adam and Eve were completely "naked" in that sense. A common Christian and Jewish understanding is that they were covered with the Glory of God in such a way that they didn't feel naked1. What a blessed state to be in! I believe with all of my heart that God wants to restore each and every one of us to that state of virginity, where we are so fully covered by the Glory of God that there is not a single cell in our body that feels ashamed of who we are. For, if we believe in the Lord and His glorious resurrection, we are truly in Him!

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  1. Note that this is not explicitly stated in the written Word, so we should be careful about making too big a doctrine about it.