Man in the Garden of Eden

Genesis 2:4-17

Genesis is the foundation book of the Bible. It lays the groundwork for all the revelation about God and our relationship with Him. Genesis is essential if we are to truly know God and ourselves. Genesis 1:1-2:3 declared God to be the creator, maker of heaven and earth and all that is in them. It showed man to be the pinnacle of creation, made in the image of God and given dominion over the earth. God’s creation was very good. All of this prepares the way for what will come in the narratives of Genesis 2-3. Let’s begin by reading Genesis 2:4-25,

4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. 21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. 23 And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Today I want to first make some general observations concerning Genesis 2:4-25. Then I want to briefly give some applicable principles for us to remember.

First we need to see that,

Genesis 2:4 begins a new section.

There we read, “This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,” (Genesis 2:4).

The phrase, “This is the history of …” or “these are the generations of…” (ESV), is an important marker in the book of Genesis. The word (תּוֹלְדוֹת towledoth) translated history or generations is used 10 times in the book of Genesis to marks the transition of one section of the book to another.

A phrase using this word divides the book of Genesis into 10 sections beginning in Genesis 2:4 with the phrase, “This is the history of the heavens and the earth …”; then Gen. 5:1, “This is the book of the genealogy of Adam …”; Gen. 6:9 – “This is the genealogy of Noah …”; Gen. 10:1, “Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth …”; Gen. 11:10 – “This is the genealogy of Shem …”; Gen. 11:27 – “This is the genealogy of Terah …”; Gen. 25:12 – “Now this is the genealogy of Ishmael …”; Gen. 25:19 – “This is the genealogy of Isaac …”; Gen. 36:1 – “Now this is the genealogy of Esau …”; and Gen. 37:2 – “This is the history of Jacob.”

What follows each use of this phrase is either a genealogy or a block of narrative concerning the descendants of that individual. These are the people who came from so and so, or, this is the history of the people that so and so produced. That is the idea.

Here in Genesis 2:4 it is not a person who is named, but “… the heavens and the earth …” Then what is described to us in the narrative that follows? Those things which heaven and earth generate. God forms and fashions or causes the earth to bring forth certain things. The earth produced plants, animals and man by the creative hand of the God of heaven. Genesis 2:4 therefore begins the section that runs through the end of Genesis 4. Secondly,

Genesis 2 complements the Genesis 1 creation narrative.

Although critics have often portrayed Genesis 2 as a separate, second creation account that contradicts Genesis 1, Genesis 2 does not in any way compete with the creation account of Genesis 1, but complements it, providing a different perspective and emphasis. Although Genesis 2 emphasizes different features and themes than Genesis 1, both are true. Genesis 1 gives the big picture, Genesis 2 gives the detail especially in regard to the creation of man and woman. Many have pointed out that Genesis 1 is a chronological account while Genesis 2 is a logical account.

Notice that the creation accounts of Genesis 1 and 2 both begin with situations that need resolved. Genesis 1:2 indicates that in its initial state, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.” God resolved this situation by bringing form to the formless earth in days 1-3 and by filling it in days 4-6. Thus He fashioned the earth into a place suitable for mankind made in the image of God to multiply on the earth and rule over the rest of creation.

Genesis 2 recognizes a similar problem. The earth was not suitable for human habitation because there were no plants. Genesis 2:5 takes us back to the time “before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown …” The “plant of the field” indicates plants that grow naturally in the wild. The “herb of the field” indicates cultivated plants.

And why the lack of plants, both wild and cultivated? Genesis 2:5 gives two reasons. One, “the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth” and two, “there was no man to till the ground”. Wild plants are able to grow when there is rain, and cultivated plants are able to grow when man is there till the soil, irrigate and cultivate. The earth was not yet suitable for human habitation.

How did God resolve this situation? Two things: God sent water and God created man to till the ground. Genesis 2:6, “but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.” The word “mist” can mean a cloudy mist or fog or possibly a spring or other source of water. The only other place this word is used in the Bible is Job 36:27 where speaking of God it says, “For He draws up drops of water, Which distill as rain from the mist, Which the clouds drop down And pour abundantly on man” (Job 36:27-28). In that verse the mist seems to refer to the rain clouds. So Genesis 2:6 might simply be saying that God caused it to rain so that the earth would bring forth the wild plants. Whether it was a mist, a spring or another source of water, the point is that God resolved the situation by providing water to grow the wild plants on the land.

God resolved the situation for the cultivated plants by creating man in Genesis 2:7, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” We’ll talk more about this verse in a moment.

What I want you to recognize is that as Genesis 1 emphasizes God forming and filling the unformed and empty earth, Genesis 2 emphasizes God supplying what was initially lacking from the earth. In Genesis 2 God supplies water that was lacking for plants to grow, the man who was lacking to cultivate the ground, and later in the chapter God supplies woman as the mate that was lacking for Adam. In Genesis 1 God is the great designer and creator. In Genesis 2 God is the provider of what is needed. This is the main purpose of the setting of the garden of Eden with its rivers (Gen. 2:10-14). The garden before the fall where man lived, the source of irrigation, and the refreshing life and abundance it brought lay in the provision of God. God supplied everything needed for men to live joyful and productive lives under God’s sovereignty for God’s glory.

Thirdly we need to see that,

Genesis 2 emphasizes God’s nearness.

Moses brings out this theme of God’s imminence in several ways. First, by the name of God. As we read Genesis 1 and 2 you may have noticed that Genesis 2:4 introduces a new name for God. In Genesis 1 God was Elohim, the mighty God, the infinitely great and exalted One, the creator of heaven and earth who spoke and made things by the word of His power. God is separate from and above His creation. Now in Genesis 2:4 we read, “This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.” LORD God is Yahweh Elohim. Moses will use this name for God 20 times in Genesis 2 and 3.

Yahweh is God ‘s personal name as the covenant God of Israel. It is the name by which God later revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush (Exo. 3:13-16). It comes from the Hebrew verb “to be,” so that God tells Moses His name is (Exo. 3:14), “I am who I am.” It means that God is the self-existent one, the eternal God, the absolute Being of all beings. By linking these two names Moses is telling Israel that their God, the God of the covenant, who led them out of Egypt, is the same Creator God who made man and desires to bless all who obey Him. The God of creation is thus also the God of history and salvation, known by His people.

Another way that Moses emphasizes God’s nearness is the anthropomorphic language that he uses of God. The LORD God “formed man of the dust of the ground” (Gen. 2:7); He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7); He ” planted a garden ” (Gen. 2:8); He ” took the man and put him in the garden of Eden” (Gen. 2:15); God “brought” animals “to Adam to see what he would call them” (Gen. 2:19); God performs surgery on Adam (Gen. 2:21); He “made” or more literally “built” a woman out of Adam’s rib and “brought her to the man” (Gen. 2:22). Later in Genesis 3 God is “walking in the garden” (Gen. 3:8); He “called to Adam” with His voice (Gen. 3:8, 10); He “made tunics of skin, and clothed” Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:21); and God “drove out the man” from the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:24).

In Genesis 2 man is at the center of God’s interest and activity. You might say that God is so near in this account that He gets His hands dirty. The picture (in Gen. 2:7) is that of a potter taking the clay and carefully molding it into “a living being.” “Breathed is warmly personal,” one commentator has said, “with the face-to-face intimacy of a kiss” (Kidner).

The fourth thing I want to point out about Genesis 2 is that,

Genesis 2 sets the stage for Genesis 3

Almost everything God does in Genesis 2 prepares the scene for the events of Genesis 3. Things that God created good and helpful to man in Genesis 2 turn out to be against him after the fall of mankind into sin. In Genesis 2:5-6 God provides water for plants to grow and the man to cultivate them; in Genesis 3:18 the ground will bring forth “thorns and thistles” for men. In Genesis 2:7 “the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground”; in Genesis 3:19 God says that man will return to the ground from which he was taken, “For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” In Genesis 2:8 “the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden”; in Genesis 3:23, “the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden.” In Genesis 2:15 God put man in the garden “to tend and keep it”; in Genesis 3 the ground is cursed for man’s sake and his work will now be sweating, painful toil (Gen. 3:17, 19). In Genesis 2:19 Adam exercises dominion over “every beast of the field” by naming them; in Genesis 3:1 it is the serpent, a “beast of the field” that tempts the woman and both her and the man submit to his lies (Gen. 3:6). In Genesis 2:25 the man and his wife were naked but not ashamed; in Genesis 3:10 the man says to God, “I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Genesis 2:9, 16-17 describe the trees which will be the scene of the temptation in Genesis 3. After planting the garden in Eden and placing the man there, Genesis 2:9 says, “And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Then after giving the geography of Eden and the rivers that flowed from it (Gen. 2:10-14), Moses relays to us the significance of the trees in Genesis 2:16-17:

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

These trees indicate first, the very broad permission that God gives to the man, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat”; then second, the single prohibition that God commands, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.” There is no indication that this was a magical tree. It contained no poison or secret physical ingredient in its fruit to stimulate the human brain or cause man to be evil. It was a test of obedience and trust. God gave a clear commandment, “you must not eat” of it. The only way that man could eat of that tree was if he directly disobeyed God. If man would have obeyed God he would never have experientially known evil. He would have continued to know only good. But as soon as he disobeyed God, he came to know evil because evil is disobedience.

God made the consequence of disobedience clear (Gen. 2:17), “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Literally the Hebrew is doubled to show emphasis; that is, “dying you will die.” In the Bible human death is not a cessation from existence, but a separation. The scriptures describe three stages of death: (1) spiritual death, that is, separation from a right relationship with God through sin (cf. Gen. 2:17; 3:1-7; Isa. 59:2; Rom. 5:12-21; 7:10-11; Eph. 2:1,5; Col. 2:13a; James 1:15); (2) physical death, separation from the physical body (cf. Gen. 5); and (3) eternal death, separation from the life of God forever, called “the second death” (cf. Rev. 2:11; 20:6,14; 21:8). In a real sense Genesis 2:17 refers to all three. Spiritual death as a result of sin brings physical death which for those who are not saved results in eternal death.

We will see more about the consequences of sin when we get to Genesis 3. Next time we will look at God’s creation of woman from man and the first marriage in Genesis 2:18-25.

In conclusion today let’s remind ourselves of some truths about God from this section (thanks to Steven Cole):

1. God created us to relate with Him.

We saw that Genesis 2 portrays the nearness of God to man. God created man and put him into the garden to relate to Him. We were made to know God, to love Him, to worship Him, to serve Him, to obey Him, to reflect His likeness. The reason that we all don’t know and love God today is because since man’s fall into sin in Genesis 3 our relationship with God is broken. Sin separates us from truly knowing God. Death is the penalty. But here is the good news of the Bible: God sent His own Son Jesus Christ to pay the death penalty for our sin so that we could be reconciled to God. And God raised Christ from the dead so that He could give the gift of eternal life to all who believe in Him. Do you have life in Christ?

2. God created us to work with Him.

God planted the garden in Eden and put Adam there “to tend and keep it” (Gen. 2:15). There was physical work. God also assign man a “mental job” in naming the animals (Gen. 2:19-20). So even before the fall, God gave man good work to do, both physical and mental work. Work itself is not the curse of sin. It is the good gift of God where we exercise our God given dominion over His creation for His glory. In the New Testament letter to the Colossians Paul wrote to some who were slaves (Col. 3:23-24), “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”

3. God created us to be morally responsible to Him.

God created us with the freedom to choose and the wisdom to understand the consequences of that choice. He created us good, commanded us to obey Him, and warned us of the consequences of disobedience. And even though we are now part of that fallen human race, every one of us is still morally responsible to God. He is not only our creator but also our judge. God calls everyone—every nation, tribe, tongue, and people—to repent and to “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water” (Rev. 14:7).

If you have believed in Jesus Christ, your sin has been judged at the cross; you are a new creation in Christ; you love Him with all your heart; your life is not your own, it is Christ’s; and your reward is in heaven.