In this lesson, Pastor Dave Capoccia examines the account of the creation of Adam and Eve from Genesis 2:4-25. After making observations on the passage, Pastor Dave considers whether the passage could fit with popular evolutionary theory; whether Genesis 2 truly contradicts Genesis 1; and what the passage teaches us about God, sex, gender, and marriage.
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oh good morning and welcome to Sunday school by this point in our study of Genesis 1 and 2 we have walked through God’s acts on the first six days of creation but God wants us to know more he wants us to know more in particular about man’s creation so even though the fundamental summary of creation ends in Genesis 2 3 God through Moses then goes back to tell us more about the creation of man and woman in the next part of Genesis Genesis 2 verses 4 to 25 and this second description is not alternative to the first one it’s not as if we have two different creation accounts which we can’t really reconcile we just stuck them both in there it’s not an alternative it’s a complementary description it’s an expansion of what has already been said in chapter one and Genesis 2 is incredibly rich with information and application relevant for our lives today so let’s take a look at this new foundational text here’s what we want to accomplish in today’s class on Lesson Four Adam and Eve oh I guess I don’t have my outline slide I thought I did but we’re going to examine the Genesis 2 account we’re going to consider whether this account can fit with an evolutionary View we’ll answer whether it truly contradicts the Genesis 1 account I just asserted that it didn’t but we’ll consider some objections that it does and then we’ll discuss some implications from this chapter for how we must think and live so let’s get to it by praying first all right let’s pray Lord God we acknowledge that you are the Creator you are Mighty you are awesome and the way you created man and woman is truly awesome and instructive so help us to understand helping to be able to teach it and explain it clearly and accurately and God I pray that we would appreciate the implications of it especially for our society today in Jesus name amen all right if you would please take your Bibles and turn to our main passage for today which is Genesis 2 verses 4 to 25.
Genesis 2 4 to 25 on page two if you’re using the Pew Bible gotta love that and let’s see what further details God wanted Israel to know as they were going into the promised land and also for us to know about the creation of man and woman Genesis 2 verses 4 to 25 and I’ll read the passage this is the accounts of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord that is Yahweh God made Earth and Heaven now no shrub of the field was that in the earth and no plants of the field had yet sprouted for Yahweh God had not sent rain upon the Earth and there was no man to cultivate the ground but a Mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground then Yahweh God formed a man from the ground there are four men from man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and Man became a living being Yahweh God planted a garden toward the east in Eden and there he placed the man whom he had formed out of the ground Yahweh God calls to grow every tree that is pleasing to the site and good for food the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil now a river flowed out of Eden to the water of the garden and from there it divided and became four rivers named the first is pishan and it flows around the whole land of havilah where there is gold gold of that land is good the dellium and the Onyx Stone are there name the second river is gihon it flows around the whole Lane of Cush name the Third River is Tigris it flows east of Assyria and the fourth river is the Euphrates then Yahweh God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it Yahweh God commanded the man saying from any tree of the garden you may eat freely but from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die then Yahweh God said it is not good for the man to be alone I will make him a helper suitable for him out of the ground Yahweh God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them and whenever a man called a living creature that was its name a man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to every beast of the field but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him so Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and he slept then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place Yahweh God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man and brought her to the man the man 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 for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed well then let’s start with some basic observations of this passage notice how verse 4 reinforces what we’re looking at in what we just read we see the phrase this is the account of now that phrase all by itself what genre of literature does it suggest this next passage is this is narrative this is historical narrative again it says this is the account actually the word translated account literally means dissent or family or Generations so the phrase would read more literally these are the generations of it’s actually a literary feature in the Book of Genesis ten times we see this phrase these are the generations of as we go through the Book of Genesis and it’s really all throughout just to give you three other examples Genesis 6 9 Genesis 6 9 these are the records of the generations of Noah Genesis 11 27 now these are the records of the generations of Terror Genesis 25 19 these are the records of the generations of Isaac Abraham’s son now what genre is the material in these other passages of Genesis Genesis 6 Genesis 11 Genesis 25.
it’s historical narrative therefore if we have the same phrase over there as we have here that gives us even more reason to understand Genesis 2 as historical narrative the phrase itself suggests that it’s used elsewhere in Genesis suggests that and that’s important this is another reason why we don’t take Genesis 1 and 2 as figurative poetic not historical accounts are there many people who would like to divide Genesis 1 or Genesis 1 and 2 from the rest of Genesis like okay this is where the history starts but we see the same kind of phrasing used here as used elsewhere so Moses treats this account as historical narrative we should as well now there’s the timing though of the account that we’re getting here in Genesis 2. the first actual happening in this passage is in verse 7.
that’s a when we see something actually taking place uh man being formed now on what day of creation was Man created day six very good but if you look back at verses five and six of this passage though these verses don’t describe anything happening they do give us some info related to The Narrative and verse 5 says that there’s something missing from the Earth What’s missing okay rain but before we even get to that yeah shrubs or plants to the field and we might say all plants or maybe just two types of plants now according to Genesis 1 on what day were plants created day three plants created day three Man created day six now as you noted right after we’re told that plants or certain plants are missing we get it a reason for that a four is Supply the word four in the text indicates the author is giving us a reason for what he just said and he says there’s no shrubs there’s no plants at the field four and it gives us two reasons what are those reasons there’s no rain and no one to till the ground no man to cultivate the ground that’s interesting notice also verse six it starts with a another transition word this one but indicates contrast what’s the contrast presented well there’s no rain and there’s no man but there is what there’s a Mist the word can actually also be translated stream so it could be mist or spring or stream coming up from the ground I think I favor stream because we learn later on that there’s a river that goes through Eden but there’s a terrestrial source there’s something within the earth that is watering the whole face of the ground so there’s no rain but there is this terrestrial source plans of the Earth have a mechanism for gaining their necessary water then verse 7 says God creates man so this is interesting verse 5 it sounds like we’re starting on day three because there’s no plants yet or at least there are no two types of plants but verse 7 sounds like we’re starting on day six when man is created hmm how are we supposed to reconcile these two details what day of creation is this exactly well we’ll come back to that in the interpretation step just wanted you to notice those things but do note at least for now the narrative sequence actually starts in verse seven five and six back on information verse 7 narrative starts not more observations notice how the first man is created says Out of the Dust or the dirt or the soil of the ground God formed him now very interesting terms in Hebrew first one thing you might not appreciate reading from the English but the name for man Adam Adam and soil adamawa sound very similar in Hebrew to hear that again that’s Adam and Adama and the root idea between those two words is the idea of redness compare the word or the name Edom which we learned later on in Genesis it means red it’s got that same root that Dom sort of root Edom means red Adam he probably had a sort of redness that looked like the redness of the soil of that area of the world anyways but notice the connection between Adam and Adama and the way that man is made he’s made from the soil even the red soil and the word formed is interesting here that formed the Hebrew verb for formed is also used customarily used for a Potter fashioning a vessel and they often form them out of what clay is it very appropriate terms actually the partial form of this verb in Hebrew just means Potter so God forms like a Potter forms clay a Man Out of the Dust of the ground then God breathed life into this man’s nostrils the breath of life and it says the Man became a living being or we could say a living creature or a living soul the word for soul or creature or being is the word nephesh in Hebrew now there could be some things we might assume about this term uh if we don’t know how certain terms are used in Hebrew seeing that there are three words three main words in Hebrew four describing life describing a living being or living creature there’s nephesh usually translated Soul ruach which means a spirit or breath and then there’s some form of which means life you know right the the toast means to life and those terms are all used of man in the Bible but they are also all used of animals in the Bible animals are said to have nephesh they are said to have ruach they are said to have hayim so as special as man is as he’s being created as a living being those terms understand they don’t just apply to man they also apply to animals and it’s also interesting you may notice in the text from what are animals created they are also created from the ground Genesis 1 24 or Genesis 2 19 In this passage so you might think oh man I thought man was special I mean like God’s forming him he’s got this nephesh is he no different really than an animal also formed from the ground also has the same things that they do well don’t forget what we saw last time there is one thing that definitely sets apart man from animals man according to Genesis 1 is the only one made in the image of God no animal no other part of creation is created in that way but there is something else unique here in Genesis 2 7 because even though the word ruach which is often translated Spirit or breath is applied to both animals and man in the Bible the word for breath here when speaking about the breath of life that God reason to man is a different word it also means breath but the Bible only uses it to describe God’s breath and man’s breath never an animal’s breath or life so there is something even in the terms that describe man’s living quality that is different and man versus animal man’s life Essence his breath his soul is different than in animals though both animal and man receive their life breath from God the Breath of God and man is different than the Breath of God and animals let’s keep observing notice how the garden in the land of Eden came to be and what it was says God himself planted a garden and he put the first man and many trees in it including the Tree of Life the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil another interesting language note the name Eden in Hebrew is also the same word for Bliss so this land of Eden this Garden of Eden it could also be translated The Garden of bliss the land of bliss but notice man is given a role in this Garden he’s not just placing it what’s he supposed to do is to cultivate it and to keep it he’s got a job he’s got work to do and notice the specific command that God gives to Adam in verse 16. this is actually the first time we see the word command in the Bible God commands Adam by telling him you can eat of every tree of the garden except the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil and he warns that the penalty for doing so is death and the day you eat it Bayonne when you eat it you will die now done in verse 18. notice that God identifies something as not good what’s not good for man to be alone now you’ve probably heard this before but it is striking up to now every pronouncement from God about creation has been good good very good I made this good made this very good but now God looks at creation that he himself made and he said there’s something not good something not good and that should get our attention as listeners as readers what is this not good thing in the middle of God’s very good creation it’s that man is alone not literally alone he’s got God he’s got animals around him but he’s without a suitable helper or companion literally the phrase in Hebrew is a helper opposite him a helper corresponding to him God observes this and he says this is not good and in response to this observation notice that God brings some animals to Adam to name them and here we’re told that the animals were also formed by God out of the ground Adam does name the animals but the text tells us oh I should before I say that note Adam doesn’t go and find animals animals are brought to Adam verse 19.
God formed them and then middle of the verse and brought them to the man it doesn’t go and find the animals they’re brought to him and notice not all the animals are brought to him specifically mentioned the cattle the flying creatures and the Beast of the field but among these animals Adam did not find a helper comparable to him corresponding to him so then God does something else God creates the first woman but notice how she is created she’s not created like the man formed out of the ground rather God put Adam into a deep sleep and did some reconstructive surgery God took one of Adam’s ribs or piece of Adam’s side and out of Adam’s own flesh and Bone God builds a woman and what does God do with the woman once he’s finished creating her he brings her to the man he brings her to hanum and then we see Adam’s response see the word now in verse 23.
many have said and I think this is this is correct probably has the idea of at last finally here’s what I’ve been looking for I think you’re getting an indication of what’s going on in Adam’s heart he’s gladdened by this and this is the first section of poetry that we see in the Bible it’s set aside as poetry in your in your translation and I think that’s correct and that also tells us something about Adam’s state of mind he starts speaking in a poetic way at seeing woman and what does he say well he instantly recognizes that the woman came from him and his like him he says she is my own flesh and Bone and he calls her a woman and why is that well the text tells us because she was taken out of man now English shows the correspondence between the words man and woman kind of makes sense right he’s called her woman because she was taking out a man and then you look at those two words and they’re like oh yeah like they’re connected woman has the word man in it so that like it for refers back to how woman was created that works in English but does it work in Hebrew it actually does because even though most of the passage uses the word Adam to refer to man uh by the way kind of interesting that it’s a question in the text of when you should translate it Adam versus man because Adam means man or it can mean Mankind and most the text refers to the man or refers to Adam with that term but when we get down to verse 23 it’s a different word it’s a different word for man when he says she shall be called women because she was taken out of man it’s the word ish which means man or husband and the word for women is Isha so it was actually the same in Hebrew as it is in English where the word for woman actually contains the word for man again a reference to how a woman was created ish versus Isha finally notice how verses 25 mentions nakedness but in a way that’s different from how nakedness is spoken of pretty much anywhere else in the Bible the first men and women we are told were naked and unashamed they had no reason to hide from each other or from God didn’t wear any clothes on the rest of the Bible and today nakedness is often associated with vulnerability shame and the reminder of sin we do wear clothes today now we’ve observed a lot there’s more I’m sure we could observe and there’s there’s much here but with just what we’ve observed let’s go to some important interpretation questions first do the details of this passage fit with an evolutionary understanding of human Origins what would you say not at all this is totally different than prevailing executive Theory as to how man and woman originated the passage says man is made directly from the dust from something non-living he was not evolved from apes or lesser life forms woman is said to be made directly from man’s body she did not evolve alongside him moreover women was made while man was sleeping so that couldn’t have taken a very long time not like man went to hibernative State and a million years later we got woman or 10 000 years later no this account contradicts it rules out Evolution as the way that God made man that’s not what the text says and the text gives itself as history but someone might say hey this passage is just figurative the original audience would have understood that these details are not to be taken literally however we’ve already seen a problem with that objection because this passage claims to be history the actual account of how God created men and women in line with the other history the other records of the generations of in Genesis but we can say more because there are plenty of people who do say you know this it shouldn’t take us literally it’s just figurative that’s not the way the New Testament takes it let me give you some examples New Testament passages that confirm a little understanding of this account of man and women’s creation one of them is First Corinthians 11. First Corinthians 11 7-10 just give you the context Paul is making an argument about how the church should conduct itself when they come together and he makes a specific exhortation about hair and head coverings in the church related to symbols of authority and this is what he says in First Corinthians 11 verses 7 to 10.
for a man ought not to have his head covered since he is the image and glory of God but the woman is the glory of man for man does not originate from women but woman from man for indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake but woman for the man’s sake therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the Angels now we’re not going to follow Paul’s main argument and exhortation there we’re just looking at his support but notice what Paul does say in support of this exhortation he goes back to creation and how men and women originated he says women woman originated from man and that’s what Genesis 2 says that doesn’t make sense naturally you say no no obviously man comes from the woman I mean he has to be born he says not originally woman came from man but listen to another passage further on in First Corinthians First Corinthians 15 First Corinthians 15 verses 47 to 49 and this context Paul is talking about the resurrection and the difference between Adam and Christ as representative heads of their people of those in their lines and this is what Paul says in First Corinthians 15 verses 47 to 49. the first man is from the Earth earthy the second man is from heaven as is the earthy so also are those who are earthy and as is the Heavenly so also are those who are Heavenly just as we have borne the image of the earthy we will also bear the image of the heavenly now again we’re not going to follow what Paul’s saying all together about the resurrection there but notice what he’s using as support goes back to Creation goes back to the first man and he says he came from the Earth came from the ground he was earthy and so are we who have been born as descendants of Adam and then one more First Timothy 2 13 in the middle of making an argument about how men are to be spiritual authorities and teachers in the church Paul says this as support first Timothy 2 13 for its Adam who was first created and then he again that’s exactly what Genesis 2 says Adam was the first human formed and Eve was created afterwards they weren’t created at the exact same time or they were created the same day pretty close together it was Adam first and then Eve so just from these three passages we see they actually all come from Paul but the Holy Spirit God affirms in the New Testament that Genesis 2 is fact it is to be taken as history it is to be taken literally in fact it becomes an argument for how Christians and the church ought to conduct themselves These Are Not Mere cultural items these are not just like funny poetry things that we Embrace that tradition this is historical fact and it has implications for how we live today that’s significant really the ultimate conclusion here is that the details of Genesis 2 account and the corroborating statements of the New Testament do they do not fit with prevailing evolutionary ideas today regarding man so we got we ought again to reject efforts to unite evolutionary theory with creation there should not be integration here Adam and Eve were non-imaginary people mirror symbols of an evolutionary process Adam and Eve are not too early spiritless hominids that God breathed his Spirit into and then he turned them into humids they were like sub-humans and then became humans when God did something special to them no the text can be trusted Adam was the first human he was created not from another creature but from the dirt and then women was created women was created from another creature but she wasn’t evolved she was supernaturally fashioned into a woman from the first man’s own bone and flesh pretty amazing pretty amazing but someone might say but what about the evidence what about the scientific evidence what about all the ape human transition creatures in the fossil record what about these hominids that have been discovered well here’s a good example for how we are to respond to these kinds of scientific claims based on evidence data remember to start with the Bible start with the Bible the trustworthy word of God must be your foundation for interpreting whatever experiences or data you encounter in the world or data whatever you experience in the world information you encounter it doesn’t say anything by itself no skeleton just pops up and says hey I’m an evolutionary transition your presuppositions your assumptions the things you bring to the data they are going to cause you to interpret it the way that you do One Direction or another all data must be interpreted and it must be interpreted according to assumptions according to presuppositions but your interpretations are only valuable they’re only valid if you start with the right assumptions if you start with the right presuppositions and you won’t do that for so many things in life unless you start with the Bible so when you start with the Bible you assume that the Bible is true and then you look at these skeletons and other fossils and things like that we find that they aren’t convincing evidence like many people say that they are they’re only convincing if you’ve already assumed evolutionary framework if you’ve already presupposed that evolution is true because you say look this fits exactly with our Theory but if you start with the Bible you could say well actually this fits exactly with our Theory these fossils that you say are transitions they can be easily explained as merely the skeletons of extinct varieties of ape or early varieties of human beings these don’t have to be transition creatures that fits into your interpretation model but if we start with the Bible we have a way to easily explain these things as well but the Bible is trustworthy by the way hang on a second Mark we might have the impression that there’s so much fossil data out there but really and this comes from Answers in Genesis but this is reliable 95 of the fossils that we have today are of shallow water organisms like coral and shellfish we keep talking about oh the phosphate the fossil data most of it is these marine organisms shallow ones coral and shellfish 95 less than 0.25 of all fossils that have been discovered are vertebrates let alone humans or Apes so very very small amount of the fossil record is human or eight and of that of that 0.25 percent less than one percent of that consists of more than a single bone one percent of 0.25 percent of all fossils consists of more than a single bone of a human or eight what does that mean that means that when you find that tooth or that piece of a bone or something like that and you say this belongs to a human this belongs to an ape this belongs to a transition creature you don’t have a lot of go off of you really have to rely on your assumptions that’s why I say don’t be don’t be scared of people saying like oh what about the fossil evidence it’s really dependent on your presuppositions and you’re not going to come at it with the right presuppositions unless you start with the Bible so I’m not afraid of the fossil record fossil record fits with what the Bible says I’m sure there are some questions there are some things that are very interesting but fossil record is not contradict Genesis 2.
you can say somewhere just just yeah in the history with these assumptions right yeah I think when he came in if I’m not mistaken was made for a pig’s tooth yeah I might have that wrong but there are some very notable frauds that you would think you would do yeah if the fossil record was so compelling yeah there’s a whole that’s a whole nother separate issue but you’re right there have been an efforts to prove The evolutionary View and provide these transition creatures and evidence of evolution there have been frauds outright frauds perpetrated and sometimes it’s it’s not on purpose sometimes people really thought something was one thing and then later they’re like oh actually that’s not you know we thought this was a piece of an ape but it’s actually a piece of a chicken or something like that um it’s really difficult when you only have a very small piece but that’s why again we don’t we shouldn’t be afraid of this thing you know the the Bible is not contradicted by the fossil record and if you want more information about this you can find a lot more in the Answers in Genesis materials their website their books you can find lots more about that lots of videos too but still someone might say wait wait wait there’s another reason we know this must be figurative and that’s because Genesis 1 contradicts Genesis 2. you say it’s history they don’t fit together the Bible can’t have errors in it and if that’s true then one of these passages or both has to be figurative say well what’s the contradiction well people will point to three things mention of missing plants in verse five hey they said there are no plants and man’s being created that’s not what Genesis 1 says plants were already on the Earth or verse 19 mentions that animals were created after Man was created man or God God creates Adam and then in the effort to find him a companion says he formed all these animals from the ground hey isn’t that contradicting Genesis one and come on let’s think about his naming all the animals telling me that can all happen in one day one 24-hour day and have Adam go to sleep and have Eve be formed and have her brought to the woman and brought some Adam that’s too much for one day it’s got to be figurative well let’s respond to each one of those issues there are two main explanations when it comes to the first issue of plants two main explanations for verse five and it’s seeming conflation of day three and day six of creation first option is to say that the creation narrative strict chronology does not resume until verse 7 verses five and six are just giving some background information describing some issues of creation that God was intent to address later in that week the creation week there was no water for day three’s plants plants are formed but there was nothing to water them because there was no rain on the earth yet so God took care of this situation verse 6 by creating a watering Source from the ground the mist or the spring or whatever it was so this is just saying okay there was this problem that God sought to fix and he did that later in the creation week oh there’s another problem there’s no man to take care of the plants well God was going to take care of that too later in the creation week day six man is created and that’s where the narrative really resumes says there’s no man to take care of the plants of the field God created man verse 7 God formed the first man from the ground so say we don’t have to interpret verses five and six is to say this was the situation when Man was created no this was the situation the creation weak and God was dealing with it as the week progressed and man was the ultimate solution for taking care of the plants that’s one explanation second option no has to do with which plants are not yet on the Earth according to verses five and six because it doesn’t say all plants it identifies two types of plants John McArthur Tim Chaffey from Answers in Genesis two persons who have responded to this issue they don’t interpret verse five to mean all plants but just two types we have the shrub of the field and the plant of the field these interpreters say these are two types of plants that did not appear until after man’s creation and or after the fall of Man shrub of the field could be describing weeds and Thorn bushes these are types of plants that thrive in intermittent watering conditions like rainfall while other plants drive and Wither by the way this was kind of like a something that dawned on me probably after I was an adult but weeds are not really a separate kind of plants weeds are just plants right but they’re plants who somehow really have an edge over all the other plants and they just overrun things that’s why you get all the dandelions in your field and you’re like I hate these weeds dandelions are just another kind of plant but they’re really good at reproducing they’re really good at surviving under intermittent watering conditions other plants like they have to have everything perfect otherwise they die so these are just another kind of plant but they’re annoying because they do so well even when conditions aren’t great and they also come with other features that are not nice like thorns and things like that sometimes presumably the world did not see rain until after the fall or after the flood rain is an unreliable watering Source it’s better to have something constant from the ground if there were no rain then you wouldn’t have these over running plants taking out all the other plants taking up their ground so there were no there were at that time no weeds in the field there’s no shrubs no thorny weedy plants that are just going to annoy you because there’s no rain yet what about the plants of the field well plants of the field that is a special phrase used throughout the Old Testament to refer specifically to crops specifically to grain type plants things you plant in fields and harvest as others have noted man was not created in the beginning as a farmer but as a gardener or a tender of an orchard without getting too involved in the explanation here the basic idea of option number two for explaining verses five and six is that Moses is really setting up the audience for the difference between the world before the fall and after the fall at least when it comes to plants Moses says look do before Adam sinned there weren’t all these annoying wild bushes that thrived in rainfall and crowded out other plants because everything was watered from the ground and before Adam sinned man didn’t have to work hard to identify to breed to cultivate crops because God gave men abundant food from the fruit of the Trees of the garden didn’t need to be a farmer but notice in the curse given to man in Genesis 3 18 well two types of plants are mentioned Genesis 3 18 both thorns and thistle speaking of what comes up from the cursed ground both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you and you will eat the plants of the field there it is crops you’re going to be eating plants that you’re going to farm I think that’s significant I think both of these explanations are reasonable they’re both plausible I go back and forth between which one I think is more likely but either way we clearly don’t need to push the button for the nuclear option and just say oh this band’s a disfigurative because there are two reasonable explanations for how Genesis 1 and 2 fit together when it comes to talking about plants what about the animals about the animals of verse 19 doesn’t it say God created animals after he created Adam well here the solution is much simpler if we’re willing to just work with the text to not immediately discount it we can see that actually the Hebrew verb can be very sensibly very accurately translated in the PLU perfect rather than the simple past what does poo perfect mean well in English it just means you add had to the front of it not God formed every beast of the field but God had formed every piece of the field this is not saying that something new happened this is something that had already happened before something else happened and actually that’s the way the ESV and the NIV both translate this passage you don’t say God formed every beast but God had formed so this had already happened it’s not describing a new action from God it’s just referring to how God originally created the animals that were going to be brought to Adam that makes sense again if we’re just interpreting in context as translators who say all right this was what was mentioned in Genesis 1 how should we translate this verb it makes total sense that you would use the blue perfect so this is not reaching this is not going for an explanation that doesn’t really fit no that totally logical totally makes sense now it could be that God did create a special set of animals for Adam to name after God placed Adam in the garden God is capable of that but I think it’s even more sensible to just translate the Hebrew verb performed in the blue perfect had created or had formed rather than formed unlike English verbs Hebrew verbs and also Greek verbs they are much more dependent on context for their sense of time for tense in English we say we got past we got simple past we got future we got future perfect you know all these different things that you can see grammatically oh that’s the tense it’s not the same way in Hebrew past tense verb can sometimes be translated in the present depending on the context or a past tense verb can be translated into PLU perfect that is they had created rather than created so a lot of it is dependent on context so again this is not this is not some crazy thing that some Bible interpreters are trying to just say oh believe this no that’s that’s the way Hebrew works so this is not really an issue but what about the last objection that this is too much for one day naming seems like especially arduous task how could Adam have named all the animals and still have had time for the rest of what’s described in day six well here again the answer should be simpler than it might seem or it is simply than it might seem because Nami didn’t take as long as you might otherwise have guessed and why not can you think of any reason why the naming wouldn’t actually take that long okay so this is under the Lord’s sovereignty and we do see that God actually brought the animals to Adam and that would be a huge Time Saver right and yes God did create Adam in a special way and he’s not yet corrupted so his mental faculties are probably really good at this time Under The Sovereign hand of God are you going to say something Magda that’s the other thing right remember there aren’t that many animals necessarily on the earth and it’s not like he had to name every single animal he came across but the kinds of animals and remember there if kinds more or less correspond to our families of animals that we’ve classified today then there wouldn’t have been that many kinds on the earth you didn’t have to name every dog you came across you just say dog or every cat he came across doesn’t have to say lion tiger you know all those types of things just said cat or whatever the equivalent was whatever he was speaking it may have been Hebrew may have been another language but he called it a name just name the kinds so if you’re just naming the kinds if you’ve got God bringing the animals to you and if you’re not naming all the animals notice the Aquatic animals were not included saying oh why not I’m thinking they’re probably not going to make a great companion to Adam since they live in the water and he lives in the land so they didn’t even make the audition so we didn’t have to name all the animals can’t all the animal kinds it was just the ones that were on land and even among those it was just the kinds not every species not every creature and with God bringing the animals and with uncorrupted faculties he could do this he could do this in a time that wasn’t that long that’s not a huge assumption besides that’s what the text says text says he did it God Did It Adam did it we can believe it this is not unreasonable so in light of these apologetic answers there’s no reason for us to take Genesis 2 in a different way than we take Genesis 1 or the rest of the chapters of Genesis Moses and God’s holy spirit they wrote These words these chapters a straightforward narrative that we can trust in all their details should not seek a figurative interpretation of these passages just to accommodate old Earth evolutionary assumptions but let’s move on from the apologetic aspect of this text to a few other questions of interpretation revealed to us about God and his character what would you say God is specific in naming man and woman God does create man can’t remember if the text says the god names man Maybe but the naming that’s mostly taking place here is Adam naming the animals and then he does name women that’s true but what about God yeah Magda yeah that’s a that’s a good observation we see part of what it means to be made in the image of God that relational aspect man is made in God’s image and yet it’s not good for man to be alone and so this that theme of not just relationship but also even unity and diversity because God does create for Adam someone who is from Adam’s own being is the same as Adam yet distinct from Adam he didn’t create another man for Adam who created a woman as wife like God we humans are designed for relationships but not relationships with those who were completely like us they had to be fundamentally like us but not totally like us and this I believe as an aside is one of the reasons why God’s designed for marriage is heterosexual he didn’t design us for a homosexual marriage relationship because it reflects him supposed to be this idea of unity and diversity and Mankind in general but especially in their marriage relationship so we do see that man is relational and in connection God is relational we can also see that God is loving he cares about the aloneness of Adam he doesn’t say Hey you know that’s too bad for him he notices it he says that’s not good and he does something about it isn’t that an example The beautiful tender kindness of God He does care for his creation he cares for man and that would be encouraging to the Israelites as they’re getting ready to follow God by faith in the Promised Land God is still the same loving and generous God today because even as the men were studying last week God does not change same caring God here in Genesis 2 is the same God who exists today I think another thing that we can appreciate from this passage that God has exalted because man is made from dust far beneath God’s being right I mean how how much lower can you go if you’re literally from the ground it’s God’s image imprinted on us it’s his Spirit given to us that gives our dust value not what we otherwise are or produce it is as the psalmist says and this is kind of like the themed verse for our study Psalm 84 what is man that you take thought of him this is the psalmist speaking to God what is man that you take thought of him and the son of man that you care for him yeah God does care we are butt Dust We are dirt from the ground but our gracious and Powerful God not only made us but he sent us each of us as under rulers of his Grand creation truly I’ve been given an exalted undeserved place but this text doesn’t just tell us about God it tells us a lot about Origins that’s part of the point of these first few chapters of the Bible Genesis 1 tells us where the universe came from and where we came from oh but what other Origins are explained in this chapter and I already gave you one of them already origin of work I won’t say too much about this but notice Adam has given work to do before the fall and that is so different from the way our society thinks about work work is a necessary evil the goal of your working is to stop working so you can retire and just have fun that’s not actually how God designed us work is not part of the curse it has an element of curse in it now it’s toil sum it’s um it has a vaporous aspect to it and yet it’s good God created work as good and as we Christians we discover that we actually go to our work with enthusiasm even if it’s something that’s in most people’s lives not that significant we say I was designed to work I want to work for the glory of God Adam was designed to work he was put in the garden to cultivate it to keep it and also from what Genesis 1 says to rule creation on God’s behalf but what else do we see in terms of Origins here yeah Danny uh more in Genesis 1 but that’s true the the origin of the week the seven day week which is so interesting I don’t know if we ever really think about this right but it’s like something that took place at the beginning of creation still is evident in pretty much every culture of the world where they think about time taking place in weeks which was what God established when he created the world even stay right we may call the days of the week different names but that’s actually a testament of how God created but that’s more of a Genesis one thing what here do we see the origins of explained yeah um Brian that’s right the origin first of all of male and female but also the origin of their marriage Union this is the origin of marriage explained the word marriage of course not actually used in this chapter but we do see words related to marriage especially in verse 24. for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh a husband or an ish shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his Isha his woman or his wife and they become one flesh this is talking about marriage and the verse the phrase at the beginning of verse 24 is actually quite instructive because if we get this whole account about Adam and Eve and how they were created and how they were brought together in marriage and then verse 24 says for this reason that is to say what is about to be explained is all based on what I’ve just shared Moses says and he says and this is why we get married the way that we do today so what’s the reason for that with how God created the first marriage and how did God create the first marriage by literally taking two people or making two people out of one body so when Adam says this is now bone of my bone and flesh in my flesh it wasn’t just being poetic for him it was actually quite accurate it described in literal terms his relationship to his wife but it was also figuratively true this one bodyness that was literally shared by Adam and Eve in their creation and in their first marriage it becomes the pattern Moses says for all marriages husband and wife become one they become one flesh just like Adam and Eve were really one and that doesn’t simply refer to sexual intercourse though that is part of it Adam and Eve were more than that because remember what was the impetus for creating women and for creating their first marriage it was that God said is not good for man to be alone not that or and he needs a helper corresponding to him he needs a helper suitable to him God is not saying it’s not good for man to lack a sexual partner it did not say it’s not good for man to be unable to reproduce he said it is not good for man to lack a suitable companion God created marriage with several purposes but the primary purpose as stated here in Genesis 2 even before God blessed the colorful to be fruitful and multiply was to supply companionship this then is the primary sense of being one flesh it’s symbolized in the physical Union but it refers even more deeply to the intimate companionship relationship that the husband and wife have where another person’s blessings another person’s troubles their whole being it becomes part of the other Mrs y when the Bible speaks about marriage and for a husband caring for his wife or a wife responding to her husband it’s in a way in which um how do I want to say this where when you care for the other you really care for yourself because you’re one flesh after all in a spiritual deeply essential sense there’s no separating the benefit that Adam had and the benefit that Eve had or the loss for Adam and the loss for Eve and so it is for every marriage today and ultimately Ephesians 5 says this is actually the pattern of Christ and his church marriage is a good design from God a gift from God to man but one of the things that’s beautiful about it is that was ultimately looking to what Christ and the church would be the relationship of Jesus to those he has saved they become one with him so that all his blessings and benefits go to them and the Troubles of his bride go to Christ and he takes care of it that’s the gospel we become joined to Jesus and he gives us his righteousness and every blessing in the spiritual places or in the Heavenly places every spiritual blessing in Heavenly places and he takes our sin that he takes to wrath due to us he says that’s now my problem and I’m taking care of him once and for all which is what he did this is what he did we don’t just see the origin of marriage but we do see some qualities of marriage emphasized here in the Genesis 2 account part of how God designed marriage to be we do see that the man has made the leader in the marriage relationship Adam was created first Eve came from Adam when she was created she was brought to Adam names his wife she’s all point to Adam’s headship in their marriage relationship men and women are equal after all they are literally the same bone and flesh both made in the image of God but the leadership role in marriage has been given to the man and God is also determined that that leadership role should extend in the church which is why the New Testament makes clear on the basis of Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 that leaders and teachers in the church are to be men not women we do also see the exclusivity and the longevity of marriage emphasized in this text if Adam and Eve are indeed the pattern for marriage then marriage must always be between what and what one man and one woman one actual man one biological man and one actual woman one biological woman and for how long for life because that’s consistent with the one body metaphor isn’t it body cannot separate from himself if your body decides to separate from itself what will happen to you you’re going to be in some serious trouble and you’re probably going to die If part of your body just like just drops off or something and that’s instructive for the one flesh relationship in marriage Bondi never seeks to separate from itself that’s the opposite of every single impulse that the body has it wants to always preserve itself in all its parts divorce is the slicing of one body of the one body of marriage it makes no sense it only destroys and that’s therefore no wonder that when teaching about divorce in the New Testament like in Mark 10 1-9 where does Jesus go for establishing what marriage is really supposed to be this passage Genesis 2 24.
now of course there are some there are a few situations in which divorce is permitted but that’s never the way that God designed marriage to be it’s not a contractual obligation where as soon as one side doesn’t fulfill this part you say all right that’s it I’m out out of the marriage now God says one body what God has joined together let no man tear asunder along the same lines we see from Genesis 2 that sexual Pursuits outside of one your one spouse they go against God’s design they actually make no sense and adulterers his body is not the body that God joined you to or will join you too if you’re not married yet you go outside of God’s design for one body in marriage you give yourself and you give your future spouse injury First Corinthians 6 18 says flee immorality every other sin that a man commits is outside the body but the immoral man sins against his own body is something uniquely self-injuring about sexual sin and that’s certainly true from the marriage relationship whether you’re in that marriage now or you’re going to be sexual sin it harms the one flesh so many doctrinal implications about marriage here about work about gender so you can see why just making this account figurative as such drastic implications for the Christian faith because suddenly those very important doctrines which relate to how we live our lives today they suddenly lose their basis or their they they’re greatly undermined so many teachings from the scriptures so much of how we’re to live today goes back to just Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.
so that’s why we want to understand it but we also want to stand on it we want to defend it and say no this really is what God Said and this is to be taken the way God meant it to be taken this is history that has implications for how we live today so to summarize what we’ve discussed Genesis 2 hmm is a historic account of men’s and women’s creation and it does not fit with the evolutionary theory of human Origins those have profound implications for how we view men women and marriage today a marriage and one flesh relationship signified by sexual Union they must follow the pattern set by the first man and women anything else we’ll just bring in injury and eventually the angry Judgment of God because God loves marriage that’s one thing you’ll see as you say through the scriptures God loves marriage and he hates things that violate his good design and part of that is because it it really Mars the picture of Christ in the church but even going back to Genesis 1 and 2 when you go against the good thing that God created at the beginning it is such an offense to God that’s why God hates sins against marriage sexual sin and it doesn’t it and it just uh we do injury to ourselves when we pursue those things and we injure our spouses by way of application and I’ll just give these with our last like minute here consider meditating on the following you might take a picture of this because there’s not really time to discuss it but first of all do you praise God for A Generous Heart and his gracious acts in creating man as male and female he did such a good thing God’s design is so good you praise him for it do you submit to his design would you try and go around it try and go outside it what is the best way to contend against the assaults on sex gender and marriage and our culture give you a hints you got to go to the authoritative scriptures don’t rely on scientific surveys I could be manipulated and say oh this is you know this is what’s healthiest for families go to the scriptures and remember that those who deviate sexually they need the gospel they don’t just need to become heterosexual in their desires they don’t just need sexual self-control they need the gospel one other thing this was a point made in our Biblical counseling conference one of the speakers but I think it’s really helpful increasingly in our society people want to identify or they want to Define themselves by themselves they want to look to their own feelings and desires to determine who they really are and so when you don’t affirm that they say you’re denying my identity you are hurting me by denying who I truly am but if we trust the scriptures we know that’s not true say actually who you really are God tells you who you are he wrote in his scripture who you are I want you to see that I’m not trying to hurt you I’m not trying to just contradict your feelings and desires but I’m telling you there’s something that’s happened to you there’s something that’s happened to our world that’s made your feelings and desires go out of order we’ve all Fallen under this corruption and even the sentence of God’s judgment and I didn’t come up with this myself but I know that there’s a reliable word there’s the word of God that tells me it tells you who we really are and I that’s what I want to share with you and that’s why I want to share with you that there’s hope no matter what you feel about your gender or about your sexual desires I want to I want you to know who you really are so that you can have life in God of course before we even tell others about that we’ve got to ask that about ourselves are you joined to Jesus Christ that marriage picture that holds me communicates Christ in the church are you actually part of that are you affirm all these good things about marriage you’re like yep that’s right that’s right people shouldn’t commit adultery shouldn’t have divorce and yet you yourself are guilty of those sins yourself don’t submit to God’s design and that and other areas if that’s the case then you’re not joined to Jesus you need to repent you’d repent and believe thank the Lord there is forgiveness there is cleansing no matter what kind of sins we’ve been part of even sins against marriage and sexual sin but if we have not repented and we do not know the Forgiveness of God we’re not joined to Christ then we are still in Adam and we will die in our sin okay that’s all for today if you have other questions comments come talk to me afterwards but let me close in prayer Lord Your Design is great marriage is a gift but marriage to Christ is an even greater gift so that Lord if we are never married in this world that that’s fine if we can be married to Christ look forgive us for our sins where we do go against your design Lord we thank you though that we are forgiven in Christ we pray for this culture Lord and increasingly as rebellious against you even in such fundamental matters of sex and gender and yet it is just a self-destructive Rebellion we know because we were part of it all sin is self-destructive that God help us to bring the message of Hope not one that’s merely based on our opinion or our preferences Lord but based on your word we need you to tell us who we are because well otherwise never figure it out we’ll just be like the world constantly contradicting one another with various theories you need to tell us what’s true and you do we thank you God that you’re giving us your word help us to believe it help us not to be ashamed of it but to defend it and to proclaim the life-saving gospel in Jesus name amen