Treasures New and Old

Treasures New and Old

Genesis: Chapter Two: In the Garden of Eden

We open this month looking at Genesis, Chapter 2, and the close of the creation week, day seven, where God declared His rest from His creative work. Did God really need to rest? I doubt it. But He established a day of rest every seven days for His creation, the people as well as the land (the Mosaic law required that every seventh year, the land would rest from producing crops).

The term, “these are the generations” in Verse 4 is the Hebrew way of declaring a genealogy. In this case, that of the creation of the universe, the solar system, earth itself, and all that lived on it.

Genesis 2:1-5:

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 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. 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. 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, 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.

  • Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 2:5 is the summary story of the creation of the earth and all else. One could think of the first five verses of Chapter 2 as belonging to Chapter 1.
  • Special note, we are first introduced to the name Yahweh (Hebrew YHWH) alongside the name Elohim in Verse 5. He is called the “Lord God” or Yahweh Elohim. More on this in Genesis, Chapter 4.
  • Generations: Strong’s H8435: “toledah: From H3205; (plural only) descent, that is, family; (figuratively) history: – birth, generations.”
  • Rested: Strong’s H7673: “shabath: A primitive root; to repose, that is desist from exertion; used in many implied relations.” He ceased all of His work. It does not mean He had to lay down for a while to catch His breath or rejuvenate Himself.
  • Hebrews 4:3: “For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”
  • Hebrews 4:4: “For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.”
  • Hebrews 4:10: “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.”

Eden and the Surrounding Lands

    • The rivers compassed the lands about
    • A special garden was in the eastern part of Eden
    • God placed man there
    • “Out of Eden” is not necessarily out of the garden of Eden
    • Mist and evaporation were the hydrological method to water the plants
    • Four rivers flowing from the same source implied a huge spring being replenished continually
    • The rivers in the area today have no bearing to those in Eden of Adam’s day

Genesis 2:6-7: “But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 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.”

These two verses are also summary in nature and capture the essence of man’s creation. God literally molded man out of the ground with His hands as a potter might form a vessel, pot, or bowl. Notice the significant difference this description provides over all the rest of creation that God spoke into existence. Several “God said” utterances were used for all of the other creation days and acts, but when it came to mankind, He took the extra effort and involvement to do it personally. Why?

1) To declare to the angels that were watching that mankind was to be a very special creation; indeed, man would be His image bearer on the earth.

2) God had a special plan for mankind and wanted us to know that His plan all along was all about us within His creation.

3) That the rest of His creation was for mankind just as the Sabbath rest was for man, not man for the Sabbath.

4) To impart into man what the rest of creation did not have: an eternal spirit that was meant to have fellowship with God forever.

Formed: Strong’s H3335: “. . . <H3334> (yatsar) (through the squeezing into shape); ([compare <H3331> (yatsa’)]); to mould into a form; especially as a potter; figurative to determine (i.e form a resolution) :- x earthen, fashion, form, frame, make (-r), potter, purpose.”

Genesis 2:8-14:

And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 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. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah; where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. 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.

Verses 8 through 14 of Chapter 2 provide for us a brief description of the Garden of Eden and its location on the earth. The highlight of the garden is the tree of life which when man later on sinned had to be guarded so that man could not get to the tree of life and live forever in his sinful states. The three of knowledge of good and evil planted also somewhere in the garden that Adam and Eve had access to, is also described here so that we recognize the tests that God was going to give mankind to prove his faithfulness and obedience to God.

Man failed that test, death entered into the world, and every human being since then has suffered under the curse that occurred when God cursed the earth because of Adam’s sin. But I get ahead of myself. Many scholars believe that Eden is somewhere in the Middle East, close to where the rivers with the same names are located. Some of the rivers and names of the areas, like Ethiopia, are the same names with which we are familiar. However, the earth was completely changed due to Noah’s flood, and we can only assume where Eden might have been and that some of the names are the same.

Although some scholars believe that the names of the rivers would have been different before the flood because they were very different rivers. However, because Genesis was written long after the flood, names of rivers in the general area were used that man would have been familiar with at that time.

God Lays out the Test

Genesis 1:15-17: “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 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.”

So now God is going to lay out His test for mankind. First, He gives them a job. His job is to tend to the Garden of Eden, dress it, and keep it. He’s a gardener or, you might say, a farmer. His job is to oversee, manages, and control the garden. But along with this job, God provides a test.

God has freely given to him all that is in the garden for his good and pleasure. There is but one exception. And mankind has struggled with understanding what that exception was. We see pictures of an apple, or other fruits that we are familiar with in an attempt to depict the fruit of good and evil. Some have tried to allegorizing it as something other than a fruit on a tree. Whatever it was, it was evidently good to look at, desirable as a food, and edible as we will see as we dig deeper into the Scriptures.

The King James version of the Bible uses the word commanded. The Hebrew word implies that God adjured him to not only keep the garden, but to never touch the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

We are to remember that the angels watched creation, and the Bible calls them in various places the sons of God. Adam is also called the son of God. We find some of these angels who have fallen by this time (after all, Satan came to them in the garden to deceive and lie to them) are undoubtedly jealous of this new creation called mankind that God specially created with His own hands and then breathed His own spirit into them and has decided to give dominion over the entire earth to them. I suspect some of these angels are very unhappy.

This test, then, may be more than just testing man, but sitting up a much larger test for all the sons of God which, of course, includes the angels.

Genesis 2:18-20: “And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him. 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. 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 a help meet for him.”

At this point, it would be a good idea to talk about God’s name. Genesis uses the Hebrew word Elohim for the proper name of God. Elohim has a plural ending. Sometimes Yahweh Elohim refers to the one God, the creator God, whose other name is Jehovah or Yahweh. Sometimes Yahweh Elohim refers to a group of celestial beings whom we call angels. In order to understand the difference, one has to look at the context.

Here we find Elohim saying, “I will make”, which follows that a singular being is involved. But in Verse 26 of Chapter 1, Elohim says, “let us make”, which clearly implies a plural involvement. In Hebrew, endings are set up differently than in English. For instance, in English one is singular and two or more is plural. But in Hebrew, one is singular, two is a duo, and three or more is plural. This has given rise to many scholars believing that the use of Elohim in Chapter 1, Verse 26 is referring to the Trinity. And once the Trinity is established, we often see Elohim in singular context of God’s name which makes the statement, “I will make”, make perfect sense.

So, God has Adam name all of the animals. The impression we get is that He brought all the animals, male and female together, to Adam one animal group at a time to see what Adam would call them. Whatever Adam called them, that was their name. Some scholars believe that he did that using the traits and physical attributes of the animal groups that he saw in them.

This leads us to believe that when Adam was created, although he had no experience (he did not grow up like all of us do), he had a vast base of knowledge and information provided to him by God Himself at his creation. And obviously, Adam had language although we don’t know what that language was; many speculate that it was a very, very early form of Hebrew.

Alas, Adam is noticing that animals are going by male and female. They all have mates. After he’s finished with this task of naming all the animals, part of his job as keeper of the garden, he notes that there is not a mate for him. Verse 20 is written with the phrase, “there was not found” which implies while Adam is naming the animals, he’s looking for his mate which, of course, he does not find.

One can speculate things about the animals that Adam noticed like horses could be ridden, cows could give milk, chickens could lay eggs, and various other things that would be helpful to man, but none of these were a helpmeet for him. Now we move on to another special creation that God is about to do.

Genesis 2:21-25: “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; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 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. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto this wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”

There’s an old joke that archaeologists dug up the graves of some very old people, one man and one woman. After examining their bones, and their flesh still being well-preserved, they have concluded that it had to be Adam and Eve. Why you ask? Because the man had a missing rib and neither of them had a bellybutton.

Eye was another special creation by God. Like He did with Adam, He formed Eve around the rib He took from Adam when He put him into a deep sleep. There are several implications here that we need to look at.

1. Eve now has a near duplication of Adam’s DNA. However, her DNA would indicate that she is a female. This is something God did while He was forming her as He was making His second special creation.

2. God could’ve taken any bone from Adam or no bones from Adam to create Eve. But God took his rib. Apparently, Adam knew that God had taken his rib because he declared that she was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. The believed implication is that He wanted him to understand that she was to be close to him. More than just another human being. They were to be one flesh as husband and wife today become one flesh when they are married.

3. The fact that He took the rib, I believe close to the heart, tells me that he intended Adam to cherish her. Although she was to be a helpmeet for him, he was to be her protector.

4. We also note, though it is not said in the text, that Eve was also created with knowledge, intelligence, implied experience, and language. Otherwise, how did Adam tell Eve what God had said?

At this point, Adam and Eve are the only two human beings on the earth. They have been given dominion over all the earth and especially the garden. God wants us to understand that they were both naked and not ashamed. That implies that as intelligent and knowledgeable as they were, they were also pure and innocent and obviously without sin.

Please also note a change has occurred in the description of Adam and Eve in Verse 25. God now calls them man and wife. God has brought Eve to him as we bring a bride to the groom today during marriage ceremonies. I don’t know what was said between God and Adam that very important day when Eve was presented to him. Maybe he declared to Adam, “This is Eve your helpmeet”, or maybe He called her his wife, or maybe He didn’t say anything and just simply presented Eve to him. But whatever happened, the changeover in language to include man and wife indicates God has now instituted marriage. Not only the institution of marriage, but He establishes the standard of one man and one woman which is reflected throughout the Scripture. We find in the Gospels that Jesus reiterates to the scribes and Pharisees this standard of one man and one woman.

Some Unique Differences between Man and Other Creatures That God Made:

  • Only one man was made.
  • God breathed into him – special attention.
  • Dust of the earth – Adam/atoms.
  • Living soul – (Strong’s H1320) basar and (H5315) nephish and (H7307) ruash.
  • Immediate intelligence vs. instinct.
  • Fully formed as an adult.
  • Named all of the animals. Not that things were still at the “kind” level – that is, dog kind had not divided into hundreds of breeds. Ant kind needed only have one ant brought to Adam to be named, etc.
  • God tested Adam to see if he could identify a helpmeet among the animals, and there was not one.
  • All other creatures “spring up” or simply appear whereas Adam was formed by God – implying a special loving relationship was certainly intended.
  • Man is in His image and likeness – designed to be a model, a resemblance of God.
  • Adam had an eternal soul –  all other creatures do not.
  • Adam was designed to have fellowship with God – all other creatures were not (angels???).
  • Man was given a job right away – he was to dress and keep the garden.
    • Dress – (Strong’s H5647) abad means to work.
    • Keep – (Strong’s H8104) shamar means to hedge it about, guard it, watch and observe, protect.
  • Note: Adam failed to properly “keep” the garden by allowing Satan to infiltrate and poison Eve and himself. Therefore, Adam did not only sin and accept defeat by joining Eve in sin, he failed in his duty to protect the garden and all that was in it.

Naming the Beasts

  • Beast is the Hebrew chav (Strong’s H2416) – two letters (koph and yod) a two-letter root word that means flesh, whether plant or animal, and could refer to all living things, not just what we call mammals.
  • Fowl means what it says.
  • Fishes? Are they part of chav???

A Helpmeet for Adam

  • Help – (Strong’s H5828) ‘ezer (two-letter root: shin-raush) and it means “help”.
  • Meet – (Strong’s H5048) neged meaning opposite, counterpart, other side, other point of view, a mate to compliment.
  • Jewish tradition is the rib was taken from his left side, closest to his heart.
  • Adam acknowledges that she was taken from his body. “Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” implies either he knew what had happened or God told him.
  • Woman – (Strong’s H802) Ishshah nashiym, and Man – (Strong’s H376) Iysh.
  • Both naked and not ashamed – some suggest that they glowed with a radiance that reflected the glory of God in that Adam walked with God in the cool of the garden and, therefore, would have “picked up” some of His glory as did Moses when his face shone after returning from Mount Sinai.
  • Could eating the forbidden fruit have caused the loss of their glow/light and, thus, exposed their nakedness to them for the first time?

The Principle of Marriage

  • God brought her to Adam (Hebrew bo’ (Strong’s H935) with the intent to abide with). God, in effect, presented her to Adam with the intent for them to live with each other as one entity.
  • Man is to leave the authority of his father and mother and establish a new unit with his wife (ishshah) to whom he is to cleave ((Strong’s H1692) dabaq – to cleave, cling, adhere to keep, hold onto, never let go of, etc.).
  • Marriage was meant to be permanent.

There is a lot more we could say about Chapter 2. There are many books available to Genesis and a description of verse by verse that would be very helpful if one wanted to dig deeper. But these monthly articles aren’t meant to grow old with that kind of depth and only provide highlights of perhaps the more important points that we wish to glean as we study the Scripture.

Maranatha!

Bro. Joe

References

Strong, J. Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. Meyers, R. (2005). e-Sword. [computer software] . Franklin, TN: Equipping Ministries Foundation. (Original work published 1539)

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