Last 5 Days
Creation, Provision and Prohibition
4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. 5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up — for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground — 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is 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 his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
There are hundreds of creation myths in the different cultures, but it is difficult to find credible creation stories that tell of the relationship between the Creator God and the creation of man. Some of them are similar to the biblical accounts but contain much folklore of tales and stories.
When we read the biblical account of creation in Genesis, there seems to be two accounts, not one: (1) Gen. 1:1-2:3, we read one account, and (2) when we read in Gen. 2:4 - 4:26, there seems to be a second account. Scholars explain that the first passage is a general account of the six-day creation which ends with God rested on the seventh day (2:3). Then the second account is like a spotlight that focuses specifically on the creation of the first man and woman, the beginning of human history and the fall of mankind.
Verse 7 is such a wonderful and precise description of how God made man into a living being. He first formed man from the dust of the earth, and then breathe into him the breath of life. Thus a human being has both the body and the spirit. The Bible says that what God created in us will return to their rightful places: the body returns to the dust, and the spirit returns to the Lord who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7) This is a solemn reminder that we are only sojourners on earth. One day, we will return to our heavenly home.
Verse 9 introduces the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Here, they are the trees of permission and prohibition respectively. But in chapter 3, they will become the trees of attraction and contention where Satan would use the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to cause doubts in the minds of the first woman and the first man.
Our God is both a wise and loving God. And this passage is also about God’s faithful provision for our needs. He had created man, and in the flesh, he needs food. So God caused the gemination to take place in the ground to produce the tree (with its fruits) for food (v. 9).
Furthermore, they are pleasant to the eyes. Different one of us have different taste buds. For some of us, when see a fruit that is green, it immediately reminds us that it’s sour. But for others, the green is pleasing to the eyes, such as the green kiwi fruit. For me, I don’t just see the fruit, I feel it to see if it is super hard, or it is slightly soft. And when it is a little soft, although it may appear green on the outside, it could be really sweet inside.
And in His wisdom, God also provided four rivers, Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates to flow into the garden to water the trees (vv. 10-14).
Also, God wants the man to work the garden and keep it. He became the first farmer! But together with the provision, God also gave a prohibition: The man was not supposed to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If he disobeyed, the consequence would be death. Interestingly, the man was NOT prohibited to eat from the tree of life! What we could learn from this is that our good and wise God always desires us to live and not die. But if we disobey him and go our own way, thinking we know better than Him or we can be independent of Him, then we are deceived, like Adam and Eve were later deceived by the devil.
The passage in verses 18-25 relates another important provision of the loving and wise God to Adam. It is interesting that there are two parts in the procedure of the creation of Eve. Verses 19-20a seem to be an interjection. But I think when God brought every beast of the field and every bird of the air to parade before Adam for him to give them names, perhaps it was also a time for him to see that they were all in pairs, and hopefully, it might heighten his sense of loneliness and cause him to want to have a companion.
So, what was not good – that man should be alone (v.18), God promised His provision. This time God would make a helper that was fit for him, and verses 21-22 describe to us the second part of the creation of Eve. This time the “raw material” was not earth but the rib of Adam. He took it out after performing the first ever anaesthesia, and then shaped the rib into a woman and brought her to Adam. Thus, Eve became the climax of God’s wise and loving creation, in answer to God’s promise to provide for the need of Adam.
Verses 23 reminds us of the reason that when a man and woman are married, they are to leave their parents and cleave to each other and become one – because she is his bone and flesh. This is the most intimate and sacred of all relationships on earth. Today, when the institution of Marriage is under siege by moral liberalism, we do well to uphold this sacred institution. It is a foundational pillar of society, and if it were to crumble, society itself will gradually give way to all sort of wiles and wickedness. May God help us!
Dear Loving, Wise, Almighty and Creator God, we give thanks for your creation. Day by day, and night after night, the heavens, the earth, and all creation give praise to your Name. You have also provided for all our needs, and in your wisdom, you have set boundaries and prohibitions, not to restrict us, but for our good and our growth. May we trust you and not disobey your words and your will. And in this way, we might continue to experience your love, goodness, grace and mercy in our lives. In Christ Jesus’ Name. Amen!
