Transcript
Walking the Old Paths, Episode 14 transcript
Summary
This episode delves into Genesis chapter 2, focusing on God’s creation of man and woman, the institution of marriage, and the roles of husband and wife. It emphasizes the importance of understanding God’s design for relationships, the significance of being a suitable helper, and the parallels between marriage and Christ’s relationship with the church. The sermon also touches on the perfection of God’s creation, man’s purpose in tending to the garden, and the fall from innocence.
Transcription
And you young people. I can’t stress enough to the importance of praying for a suitable helper for you. Be so cautious in the spouse that you choose to marry. Um, if God is in it, he will give you someone that complements you.
Welcome to the Walking the Old Paths podcast. I’m JP, your host on this journey through the Bible. Each week we embark on a systematic study of the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation.
Welcome back, everybody, to Walking the old Paths. Uh, we’re getting into chapter two here today. And really what we’re looking at is the sixth day of creation, particularly focused on man, God’s height of his creation when he made man. Remember back in chapter one, we read that God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Man is made after the image of God.
You, dear brother, dear sister, are made in the image of God. We have marred that, no doubt. Um, we’re just as guilty as Adam and Eve were in the fall. Um, maybe you don’t see that, but, um, hopefully you will as you study the scripture. Like me, uh, I am more aware of my sin and my fallenness before God the more I read the Bible, the closer I get to God.
And I just thank so much for his grace upon me. You know, Paul said, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” [Romans 7:24]
Paul was quite the Christian, he, 13 books of the New Testament are attributed to him. Um, but yet he looked at himself as the greatest sinner that ever lived. And that is how we ought to view ourselves. We’re not any different than anybody else. We’re not different than Adam and Eve. We too are great sinners, but we have a greater Savior. And praise God for that. Uh, that he did not leave us in that lost condition, but that he saved us.
But let’s get going here now, these first three verses in chapter two, uh, they really belong at the end of chapter one. And I told you this before, but the chapter breaks the verses those aren’t inspired. Uh, they were put there by man to make it easy for us to find, uh, scripture. And and frankly, I love them. It is easier to find scriptures because of it, but sometimes, uh, I don’t know why they chose to put those chapter breaks in there where they did, but this one really belongs in chapter one, and I’ll explain that to you in a second here.
But, uh, and these verses conclude the six days of creation with God establishing a day of rest. Um, the name for God, Elohim is used three times in these verses, but this is going to change when we come to verse four. And that is one reason why I say that these first three verses belong in chapter one.
“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.” [Genesis 2:1-3]
There are three verbs here that describe the completion of this work finished, ended, and rested. Um, this reference here to God’s act of creating and being finished only involves his actual work of creation.
Uh, Jesus said in John chapter five, verse 17. “But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” See, God’s work of creating might have ended on the sixth day of creation. Uh, but he had a lot of work to do with us after that, and particularly so when Adam and Eve sinned, then the work of redemption and of sustaining the earth, because, you know, the whole creation, growth and travail and pain together until now, it’s under stress as well, because of our actions.
Uh, but God’s work here ended on that sixth day, and he gave a day of rest. Um, the Hebrew word translated as rested here is the root word for Sabbath. Uh, it’s shâbath, and it means to repose that is, to desist from exertion.
Ten times we see in verses two and three God is mentioned, thereby connecting him with the seventh day of Sabbath rest. God sets for us an example here of six days of work and one of rest, giving us our seven day week.
Uh, this day of resting would later be given to Israel as a command that they were to follow an Exodus 20, verse eight it reads, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Uh, that command was specific to Israel, as we do not see it repeated in the New Testament for the church.
Uh, the Sabbath command is a good example of what man tends to do with God’s Word in taking it to an extreme, or making it a burden rather than a blessing that it was meant to be. Um, everything that God gives us is for a purpose. It’s it’s not burdensome, but man tends to take things and just make it burdensome.
John Phillips, uh, has a good note on this and his, uh, commentary on Genesis. And he says, and but as with anything else. With which man has to do the Sabbath was distorted and destroyed. Instead of being a day of rest, the Jews, with their genius for religious minutia, encrusted the day with such enormous coverings of tradition that the day became an intolerable burden.
Uh, examples. The Jews had decided to that to carry a loaf of bread from one house to another, broke the Sabbath, or to extinguish a lamp was work, or that it was permissible to lift a child. But if the child had a stone in his hand, the mother had broken the Sabbath by doing work.
Uh, that it was permissible to look in a mirror, but to see a white hair and pull it out was work, or to scatter two seeds was sowing in therefore work, or to pluck a blade of grass was work, or to lift a dried fig was to lift a burden, and therefore was work and the desecration of the Sabbath.
It is no wonder that the Lord refused to keep the Sabbath according to Jewish traditional requirements. And we note that when you read in the New Testament and see Jesus is always entering in on the Sabbath day and healing somebody. Uh, the Jews did not like that because they had taken those commands to an extreme that God never intended them to be. Uh, and Jesus would defy that. Uh, to make his point. And so that’s one thing we’ll know when we get there as well.
But we see here God blessed the seventh day, and he sanctified it. Now blessed, um, in the means and Strong’s, it’s a primitive root to kneel or by implication, to bless God.
So in that word, blessed has a root Hebrew word meaning to kneel. And when we bless God, when you pray to God, do you kneel down. When you do it? You don’t have to. But I mean, there is something in our position that gives respect unto God.
And surely you know when you are going through difficult times. You are more prayerful and you probably are getting down on your knees in a quiet and secluded space to do it.
I don’t know why we only decide to do those things when we’re going through difficult times, why we can’t just get down on our knees and thank God for all of his mercies day by day. Um, but obviously pain always brings us to our knees, it seems, before God,
But we see that in the word here that God blessed the seventh day. Uh, he also sanctified it. Now that word means to set apart. It’s withdrawing someone or something from profane or ordinary use.
Um, as Christians, God has said that he his job of sanctification in us in other words, he has set us apart from ordinary or profane use. When you get saved, you’re not to continue in the way that you lived in this world. But God wants to do a work in your heart to make him more like him, and for a purpose in serving him while you’re alive here on earth.
A lot of times we talk to people about salvation, and it’s a matter of do you want to go to heaven when you die? Well, that is only one aspect of being saved. Um, serving God here on earth, being conformed to his image and likeness, which we have broken in sin, uh, that is an immediate, um, work of the Lord in our hearts as children of God on this earth.
Therefore he sanctifies us. He sets us apart. He pulls us from that ordinary, uh, primitive use. And he wants us to use and wants us for his use to serve him here on earth.
Uh, he also says in the end of that verse we see, because that in it he rested from all his work which he had created and made another. Those are synonymous terms here that are used, created, and made.
Uh, this is the only day that we note that we do not see in the evening. In the morning were like the seventh day. That should by no means indicate that these days any different, but simply serves as a conclusion to the work of creation, and was blessed and sanctified by the Lord as a special day of rest.
It’s not that God needed rest. He could’ve created everything with one word or no words. At in the snap of your fingers, or a blink of your eye or whatever you want to say. But he chose to do it over six days, and he rested on the seventh day.
God has just given us here a model to which we’re to follow, that there are six days that we are to work, and then there should be a day of rest for us. God cares for us. That’s just how it goes. And he shows us these things.
All right. So in verse four we’re going to note here, first of all that uh, we have the first occurrence of the word, the generations of okay. So these are the generations of the heaven heavens and of the earth. When they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
We also have the first occurrence of the name Jehovah. This appearance we note occurs following the creation of man. So we see in your authorized version the LORD God. Now LORD, is capitalized. LORD. Um, they did that to indicate that it was the word Jehovah.
And then you have God, Elohim. And as we have talked about, that Elohim is used or associated with God as creator. And Jehovah now is associated with God in covenant relation with man.
Remember we talked about that Edenic covenant that we first saw back in chapter one, and now we see that this is connected now, from verse four on we see the Lord God.
So we have this covenant relationship with God, Jehovah, and we have God as our creator God, Elohim. So it is Jehovah Elohim. Uh, Strong’s defines Jehovah as the self-existent or eternal one.
And in verse four we see the orders of the heavens and the earth reversed in the second part of the verse to the earth and the heavens. In the first we see heavens and of the earth coincides with Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
But now in the day, the yom, the time or six days of creation, the self-existent creator focuses his attention upon the earth, where man who is made in the image of God, now lives and has his dominion.
So we see that “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.”
So placement of those words is important. It has meaning behind it.
Uh, verses five and six are kind of tricky. Uh, the the definite meaning is a little unknown here.
Uh, let me read that. “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. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.”
So a possible meaning on this and Henry Morris kind of gave an explanation that he thought was fitting for it. On page 84 of his book “as an introduction to the creation of man the account first describes the condition of the world immediately prior to man’s creation. Although to judge from the various translations and commentaries, this passage is of uncertain meaning, a perfectly plausible translation would be somewhat as follows. And he in quotes in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, there was yet no field plant in the earth and no fields shrub growing. Since the Lord God had not yet established rainfall in the earth, and since there was as yet no man to cultivate the ground, but there were water vapors arising from the earth, which kept watering the whole face of the ground.”
So that’s a it kind of gives a little possible meaning of what that really is there. There are some verses that are just kind of hard to understand, um, and how it fits. Um, it doesn’t mean we reject it or even try to reinterpret it.
Um, but you do need a little perspective on what is being spoken of here. And as it’s referring here to the time prior to Adam being created on day six.
Um, Morris gives also here a explanation to the hydrologic cycle of the Earth in the days before the flood that I thought was pretty good. He says “the original hydrologic cycle was thus drastically different from that of the present day. The present cycle, which began at the time of the Great Flood, involves global and continental air mass movements and annual and seasonal temperature changes. It is summarized quite scientifically in such scripture passages as Ecclesiastes 1:6-7.”
Let me just read a few of these here for you. So Ecclesiastes 1:6 and 7 says, “The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.”
Isaiah 55:10-11 says, “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
God says, he sends the rainfall down. And that rainfall waters the Earth, but it returns its way back to the sea to begin all over again. Uh, and he likens that unto his word.
Uh, what I’m doing here with this podcast, what you do with your Bible study, what you do with going out, witnessing when you are giving out the Word of God, you are expecting that it will not return void. And God says, so, So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Uh, Job 28: 24-26, uh, tells us, “For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure. When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:”
And in Job 36:26-29 “Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out. For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof: Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly. Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?”
And last one here is Psalm 135:6-7, where “Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places. He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.”
That is our current hydrologic cycle we have. But it was different, the, as Morris continues here, this present cycle centers around the solar evaporation of ocean waters, transportation to the continents in the atmospheric circulation, condensation and precipitation in the form of rain and snow, and transportation back to the oceans via rivers.
In the original world, however, there was no rainfall on the Earth as originally created the Earth’s daily water supply came primarily from local evaporation and condensation. There was also, as noted later, a system of spring fed rivers, which we will see here in chapter two as well.
God, um, has he’s very creative in how he how he does things. And that is why we can’t take a uniformitarianism approach, um, to Scripture. You know, as we said, you know, there’s different dispensations and God operated differently under those dispensations.
Um, it was until after the flood that this all changed. So just keep that in mind when you’re reading that the Earth operated differently than it does today.
Now in verse seven, “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.”
Now we’re going back to the sixth day of creation, when God created man and we’re taking a little more in-depth look at how God did it. The creation of man was unique to that of the rest of God’s creative work. Here we see that God formed man and then breathed into him the breath of life.
Now the word formed here is, uh, identical here with a word that means to squeeze into shape. The complete word study dictionary defines that word formed, uh, here as a verb meaning to form, fashion, to shape or devise. The primary meaning of the word is derived from the idea of cutting or framing. It is used of God’s fashioning man from the dust of the ground.
So God formed, took man out of the earth, formed him. It says, this is different than how he created other things in Genesis one where he just spoke it. But here he he it’s it’s as if he is physically taking, um, and forming clay into man. And he’s lifeless. He’s just laying there. He’s made. But then he does something else that’s different. And he breathes into his nostrils the breath of life.
But God has a creative work that he explains here and in Psalm 139:16, “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”
Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”
Zechariah 12:1, “The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.”
God also, like I mentioned, it’s like he was taking clay right?
In Isaiah 29:16, t gives us that same expression here. It says, “Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?”
I know people do that today when they say that God didn’t make me, I just happened. I was it’s all by evolutionary processes that this happened. It’s it’s him that was made saying of him that made it: “he made me not.”
Isaiah 45:9 says, “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?”
How ignorant we are of God’s devices, how ignorant we are of God’s creative work!
And it’s still such a mystery in the womb that occurs when a child is formed into you, but God is behind it. He is the one who formed us in the womb. And imagine all these people that reject him, and yet he formed them in the womb.
How utterly ridiculous, how utterly sinful that is to reject the creator. But there is a blindness of part upon him, isn’t there? And that is why we need to preach the gospel. That is why we need to give out the Word of God. That people might know that God is loving and good, and he created us for fellowship with him. And even when we messed it up, he still made a way for us to be saved.
Now, for all other creatures that God made, he spoke them into existence. But here we see the hands-on work of God. Man was not yet alive. God had taken the materials of the earth and formed him as the potter with the clay. So what is man without the breath of life that made him a living soul?
Of John John Phillips, again he says, here, “Suppose we are going to make a human body. We would need 58 pounds of oxygen and 50 quarts of water, two ounces of salt, 3 pounds of calcium, 24 pounds of carbon, and some chlorine, phosphorus, fat, iron, sulfur and glycerin. We bring the items home. So much dust and some water.
“There it is our do it yourself kit for making a human body. The only problem is with the instructions. The human body is so complex and entity that no scientists can comprehend more than a fraction of its composition and functions.
“A mere piece of skin the size of a postage stamp requires 3 million cells, a yard of blood vessels, four yards of nerves, 100 sweat glands, 15 oil glands, and 25 nerve endings.
“Yet the evolutionist would ask us to believe that the blind force of chance produced our bodies. It would be simpler to believe that Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary resulted from an explosion in a print plant.
“The Bible gives us a better explanation. It says, 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.
With omniscient genius, God took that dust, that water, those odds and ends of things, and formed and fashioned them into man. The human body, marvelous and intricate as it is, eloquently testifies to the wisdom and power of God. The evolution preys upon our gullibility. The Bible leads us to worship.”
So God breathed it says here, or is used kind of in a figurative sense of blowing into Adam, the breath of life.
Now, the breath of life refers not just to man, but to animals as well. The phrase is found three other times in Scripture.
In Genesis 6:17 we see, and “And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.”
Genesis 7:15 “And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.”
And in Genesis 7:22 it says, “All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.”
Man is given here, however, a living soul and it’s that word there too is used in a general sense and is again referred to both man and animals. Soul as the Hebrew word nephesh.
It properly just means a breathing creature. Uh Brown–Driver–Briggs defines it as soul, self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion and passion.
So we see here in verse seven, God creates man. He forms him from the dust of the ground. He breathes into him the breath life. He makes them a living soul.
Verse eight: “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.”
Special attention is given here in verse eight to this garden. Uh, the Garden of Eden. And God, it says that the Lord God planted the Garden of Eden eastward. He’s kind of giving us a approximation or a direction here.
So obviously, if he planted this garden eastward and he brought man into it, the man was made somewhere outside of Eden, to the west of that.
Um, so this Garden of Eden was a very definite place. It is not symbolic. It had a geographical location in this, um, uh, pre-flood world.
In verse nine, we saw that every tree is pleasant to the sight and good for food. God didn’t just plant trees that were a value for food, but also trees that were pleasant to the sight, it says.
And that’s one thing we need to notice about God’s creation, is that there’s so much beauty in it, so many different types of trees and plants and flowers. God made it all and God made it for us to enjoy. He obviously enjoys incredible beauty and variation. You look at people. We are very diverse, but yet we’re still man, right?
Uh, black yet red. Yellow, white. Um. Uh, small. Uh, large. Tall, short. We have so much variety in us. Uh, but we are all part of mankind. We all come from Adam and Eve.
Now, there was one tree that were actually two trees. We’ll note here in verse nine that are special. “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.”
The tree here was to give eternal life. Now we see that in Genesis 3:22, after the fall of man, “the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:”
We don’t see back here in Genesis chapter two a restriction on Adam eating from this tree, but he hadn’t eaten of it when he had sinned. So that’s why God had to remove him out of the Garden of Eden.
Um, it makes me wonder that this was kind of a short period before Adam and Eve sinned, that they hadn’t even tried this, uh, fruit from the tree of Life.
Also we see the tree of life is mentioned three times in the book of Revelation. Revelation 2:7, we read, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”
Revelation 22:1 and 2 says, “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
In Revelation 22:14: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
So three times there in revelation we see mentioned here to the tree of Life. Um, that’s going to be a while before we get there. So but there is something kind of unique to that tree is that it bears 12 manner of fruit and it says every month. So according to that, that month, uh.
We right now, obviously, we use our sun or moon or stars to determine time. Then in the new heaven and earth, there is no sun. But there is a way to tell time. And that is by that tree of life that yields her fruit every month.
I find that kind of interesting. We will still have a concept of time, but how we have a concept of time will be different.
But getting back to our study, that tree of life here, which, um, for Adam and Eve would have gave, gave them, uh, enduring life. I mean, they just could have lived forever had they ate of it. Uh, but they had not of it eat of it.
But we see also the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Tree of knowledge was located also in the midst of the garden, near the Tree of Life.
This tree, however, was off limits to Adam. And in verse 17 we see, uh, that prohibition. It was placed there to test the obedience of man. Would man trust God and obey his voice, and live in a perfect world and in a perfect relationship to God?
It is interesting that this tree was named the Tree of Knowledge. Eve said that it was a tree desired to make one wise. You know, man is never content just trusting God. We want to be as gods, knowing good and evil. The same thing can be seen in children. We tell them not to do something, but they can’t just say yes, dad. They need to know the reason, why can’t I?
It’s the same sad story for all of us. We’re just not content with trusting God. We think that we need to have the same knowledge or be unaccountable, uh, to any sort of higher power.
Uh, verse ten, we see here, there, um, there’s a river that went out from Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into foreheads. Now we notice, you know, back in verse six, that the whole face of the ground was watered from the mist that came up.
But in the garden of Eden here we see a source of water, a spring that produces a river, which in turn feeds four other rivers in verses 11 through 14.
Um, but again we see a complement here in revelation to this river coming out of Eden. Uh, I read the verse, Revelation 22:1 “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
So whereas this source of this river in Genesis two is the Garden of Eden in Revelation 22, and a new Jerusalem in the new heaven and earth, we see that the source is coming out from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
And as I mentioned here, that river is then parted and becomes into four different rivers. And it says, “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.” [Genesis 2:11-12]
Um. And verse 13, “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.” [Genesis 2:13-14]
You know, there’s some meanings behind these rivers, but what we need to keep in mind is, again, that this is the pre-flood Earth. Uh, it geographically looks a lot different. Um, even though Moses here is giving us geographical areas associated with each of these rivers, it was likely handed down to him, uh, from Adam, who was talking about it. He knew where these four rivers fed. Uh, hey, he got kicked out of the garden, so he had to roam around. Um, so he knew that.
But however, when the flood occurred, there was a big transformation to the Earth that changed all of that. So we can’t assume that we can know where the Garden of Eden is, because some of these names are the names of rivers that we have today.
They probably were just named, so, um, by, uh, descendants of Adam after the flood, uh, because they, they had heard about them. So, um, otherwise you people will try to trace back. Well, you know, the Garden of Eden is probably located here when we consider where, you know, the river Euphrates is the Tigris. Or whatever.
But verse 15, we see “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” Um, even in the perfect conditions of the new creation and man in his state of innocence, man is given purpose. God puts him into the garden. To do what it? To dress it and to keep it.
Now the word dress there means it’s a verb meaning to work, to serve, or to till and to keep is a verb meaning to watch, to keep, to preserve and to guard.
Um, what was Adam guarding it against? Um, was maybe the idea that there are there was a serpent, uh, that is lurking about, seeking to, uh, destroy and devour and corrupt man’s perfect position with God. Uh, yeah. Certainly that maybe what was meant by that.
But it was created very good. It was perfect. Um, so we’re not sure about that. But definitely man’s job was to dress and to keep. And that has meaning even in as we get into the creation of Eve as well.
Verse 16, “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.”
Uh, verse 16 we’re told that man is given freedom to eat of every tree of the garden, with one exception, that tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And Philip says here, regarding that “the choice was placed before Adam, and necessary choice for Adam could not have been a moral, accountable, being without such power to choose. Without it, he would have been a mere automaton, a puppet on a string. But God did not make a mechanical man. He made a moral man. Once the right to decide was invested in Adam, he became a moral being. With that right, there is always the possibility that his power of choice would be used amiss. So God set the alternatives before his creatures, making the issues clear and plain.”
Adam is not just given the command, but he is also given the consequence of disobedience in that day that thou eatest, thou shalt surely die.
Now MacArthur had this to say about verse 17 to die has the basic idea of separation. It can mean spiritual separation, physical separation, or and or eternal separation. At the moment of their sin, Adam and Eve died spiritually, but because God was merciful, they did not die physically until later.
Moving on here in verse 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. 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 an help meet for him.”
God recognized the need of man. He said, it is not good that man should be alone. He was going to create, or I will make a helpmeet for him. But you know he notices he doesn’t do that right away. It doesn’t do that initially.
He makes the statement that he recognizes Adam needs helpmeet, but and that he’s going to make one for him. But what does he do? He says “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” of it.
Uh, now the word helpmeet means helper. Okay. Verse 19, we see that God is preparing Adam here to see his need of a helpmeet.
Now, my, uh, grandpa on my mother’s side, uh, Grandpa Janson, when he was a young man, he was pretty content, uh, being single and being at home. They were farmers. So he helped out on grandpa’s farm. Great grandpa’s farm.
So what great grandpa did to help grandpa see his need for a helpmeet. He bought him a farm and put him on that. So he was by himself. Well, what did grandpa have to do? He had to do his own clothes. He had to cook his own food. He had to clean his own house. However, I doubt he did much of that.
But grandpa saw his need for a helpmeet, and it didn’t take him too long to find my grandma, and the two became married. He was actually married pretty late in life for that time frame. He was, I believe, 30 years old, and my grandma was 27 when they got married.
So my great grandpa did a good thing for him. He helped him to see his need, that for a helpmeet, and give him the little boost that he needed, uh, to find her.
Um, but we also notice here that in this, that Adam, when he was created, he was created as a fully as an adult, and he was of high intelligence. I mean, God brought every animal to him. And, of course, let’s say this by their kinds. And Adam name them just one after another. Here’s dog and cat. Kind horse kind, cow kind. You know, whatever it was. And, but Adam recognized out of everything that he had made that none of it was suitable for him.
Verse 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.”
Um, man, I mean, it was kind of a joke that dog is man’s best friend. But, uh. No, man, it is not good for man to be alone. A man needs a suitable helper, and there was no animal that was suitable to be a helper for him.
And I know some of you, your big dog lovers. Your big cat lovers. Uh, those are, you know, your companions. Uh, but God meant for us to have a suitable helpmeet.
And so let us introduce Adam’s helpmeet in verse 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; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.”
We have here in Genesis chapter two and verse 21, the first recorded surgery in history. God was both anesthesiologist and the surgeon. And I like what Matthew Henry had to say about this verse. In his commentary, he said that “the woman was made out 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 beloved. Adam lost a rib, and without any diminution to his strength or comeliness. For doubtless the flesh was closed without a scar. But in lieu thereof he had a helpmate for him which abundantly made up his loss. What God takes away from his people, he will, one way or another, restore with advantage.”
This was truly a marriage made in heaven, you might say, where God made a suitable helper for him.
And you young people. I can’t stress enough to the importance of praying for a suitable helper for you. Be so cautious in the spouse that you choose to marry. Um, if God is in it, he will give you someone that complements you and that will benefit you. Um. A man needs a good woman, uh, to be along his side. Particularly those who are in the ministry field.
Um, I have seen pastors with wives that are not a good helpmeet. And it has ended in divorce. Uh, a woman needs to come alongside of her man and be that helpmeet to him. That is God’s design for you.
And we’re going to note some more of those things would take a closer look at that in the next chapter.
Um, but God took that rib out of Adam’s side and made his helpmeet. As Matthew Henry said, it wasn’t taken from his head that she would rule over him, and it wasn’t taken from his feet that he could trample upon her, but it was taken from his side that she could be right alongside of him, near his heart and under his arm. Uh, to be protected and cherished and loved.
In verse 23 here “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 his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
My, when I read verse 23 here, Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. The question is, did God talk to Adam prior to his creating Eve out of his rib or after?
Um, I can imagine after Adam had brought all these, or God had brought all the animals to Adam to be named is like, here’s all the names, but they’re not a suitable helper for me, Lord.
And he’s like, here’s what I’m going to do, Adam. I’m going to put you to sleep. And when you wake up, I’m going to create you a helpmeet that will be cherished by you, that will make that’ll be perfect for you. So he knew where the woman came from, and he called her woman.
The Hebrew word for woman is ‘ishshâh. And the Hebrew word for man is ‘ı̂ysh. So it means that she was taken out of man.
And we observe in 1 Timothy 2:13 it says, “For Adam was first formed, then Eve.”
We have a definite order of creation. Man was created first and an Eve was created second. She was made for Adam.
In 1 Corinthians 11:8 and 9 it says, “For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.”
You ladies have a tremendous opportunity, um, to be used by God in this capacity. What are you doing for your man? God had created you to be to compliment him and to be as helpmeet. When you stand before him at judgment, you’re going to suffer loss or you’re going to get reward, depending on how you filled that role.
Just as us men, we’ll have to one day give an account too of how we loved and nourished our wives. Um, as as similarly as Christ loved the church. Um, all of us have been given a job and a duty.
And I know it’s difficult that when the opposite, when your partner is not performing the way God intended for them to do it, for you to be able to fulfill your role as the husband or the wife. But I want you to remember something. God is not going to pardon you for not doing what he has called you to do just because your husband or wife is not doing what they’re supposed to do.
In fact, if it’s harder, if it’s more difficult to fulfill that role, there’ll be more reward for you then, because it is much easier to do it when the when your spouse is doing what they should be doing. But it is extremely difficult when they’re not. And life is very, very tough.
And it seems that when we as Christians are not following the Lord and doing the things that he wants us, we make life very difficult for those around us.
And you might be making life so much more difficult for your husband or for your wife when you are not following the Lord in his design for your life.
Now I want to observe here quickly before we end this the institution of marriage. Um, God ordained it. And there are two things to be observed if a man and a woman are to be one flesh.
First the man shall cleave, or so leave his father and his mother. There are problems that occur when a man is stays around too close to his family. And problems start occurring between his wife and the the man’s mother. And many people can probably attest to that.
And men, you need to be very cautious. Your wife is now become your helpmeet. And while you’re not to disrespect or disobey your parents, you do need to set some boundaries, uh, for your parents and their involvement in your marriage.
Do not let them come between you and your wife. You need to, uh, nip that in the bud pretty quickly. And don’t allow your mother to get between you and your wife.
Now, thankfully, I had a great mother, and I actually have a really great mother-in-law, too. Uh, when she comes to visit, uh, she’ll be here for a month at a time. Uh. She is a very good helper. She doesn’t get involved in between little marital spats or things like that.
In fact, she’ll counsel my wife, you know, it’ll calm down, you know, and listen to your husband. All this. She gives good advice. She doesn’t ever interject herself and cause problems in the marriage.
And mothers, you can do that in your kids lives if you are not careful. Do not step between the man and his wife.
And this, I think, is why Adam said, and he didn’t even have a mother and a father, right? But he gives us the prescription there that a man shall leave his father and his mother. He is setting forth one of the things that it needs to be observed for a good, healthy marriage, that the the man needs to walk away.
You know, as my grandpa’s great grandpa bought that farm for grandpa, uh, to get him away from the home to see his need for a helpmeet. He also created distance there that he would be able to start create a new life with his wife. And so there’s a lot of biblical wisdom there that we should take note of.
Now, the I want you to note that the responsibility of this falls upon the man. It does not tell them, the woman, that she’s to leave her mother and father to cleave unto her husband. Man, you are the aggressor in the relationship. You are the one that is to take action.
And this also brings with it this aspect that the man is to be the provider to the home. He is to provide for his wife. When the man was put into the Garden of Eden, he was told to dress it and to keep it. Well he needs to do the same thing with his woman, right? He needs to tend to it and he needs to guard it. Okay? You need to be a protector to your woman.
Um, men need to here at America seemed to need to get off the Xbox and and hit the weights or do something and just be more men. Um, and they need to read the Bible and and know what a godly man is. Take some warnings from some examples in Scripture of what it is not.
Um, now we also see that last, let me end with this. That Eve is a type of the church as the bride of Christ. And we see this in the the New Testament.
Now, let me mention, I don’t think I’ve talked about this, but there are types and anti-types in the Bible. And what that means is, is we have a picture of something in the Old Testament that is a figure of the true in the New Testament. So we call that a type in the old. It’s an anti-type in the new.
So Eve is a type or of the church and that church is the anti-type. Let me just read this to you in Ephesians 5:28-32. “So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”
Paul here has given us, um, admonition here to this example we have in marriage, where the man leaves his father and mother cleaves unto his wife. They’re made one flesh, but it is a mystery. That is Christ and his relationship here to the church.
Just as Christ loves and cherishes and nourishes that church, so too does the man need to love and nourish and cherish his wife.
Sometimes it’s difficult because you need to, um, a conflict occurs when two people don’t agree, but the man needs to carefully consider how he is going to lead and the outcome of decisions made.
So in verse 25, we’re going to end here today. “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
Uh, why were they not ashamed? Because they did not know that they were naked until after they sinned in Genesis three and verse seven here. Uh, “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”
I think in the original condition of innocence, that Adam and Eve were clothed with the glory that God had because they were created in the image of God. They were created in perfection, right? It wasn’t until sin occurred that that original state of innocence was destroyed and they realized they were naked.
So that’s just my thought that they had were clothed in some sort of light or glory, but I know we went kind of long here today. Let me know what you think. If you want me to break this up into smaller, um, episodes, and I could release them, you know, two times a week or whatever. If they go along, I can certainly do that. If it’s more manageable, more bite size.
Um, but a lot of work goes into making these podcasts. There’s so much in the word of God. And, uh, please be patient with me. Please offer me some grace if I misspeak or, um, say something that, uh, you have a question on something I say, email me by by all means, so I can clear that up and clear it up on the broadcast. I might not realize that what I even said.
So I just want to do things that are honoring and glorifying to God. I want to, um, properly interpret and divide the word of truth, because one day I’m going to stand before God for this podcast. And what I teach, and I do not want to suffer loss because of it.
I want to give out the Word of God here because I love the Lord and I want to see people saved. I want to see Christians built up in this faith and serving God more fervently, and to know and understand their Bibles. It’s it’s bad how little knowledge most Christians have of the Bible, there’s no excuse for us.
We have the access to the Bible. We have access to good sources that help us to even dive deeper than just the surface. But we need the Spirit of God to teach us. And that’s first and foremost.
As you read the Bible, pray that God opens up your understanding and and helps you to glean from His Word what he wants you to know and and to grow closer to him.
Uh, friend, um, what a privilege it is to expound on the Word of God. What a privilege it is to speak with you each week, and I just pray that you would be blessed by it. Um, I do pray that you would consider being a partner in this ministry, helping it to get out to others. Uh, we definitely want to see it grow.
Um, there are a lot of bad podcasts out there. Uh, that they’re not rightly dividing the word of truth. Um, and we we need to get the word of God out there that is going to be a blessing to someone in this life and in the next.
So until then, friends, I just pray the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits. Amen.