Genesis 2:4-25                                                   Lesson 3
Key Verse: 2:8

      "Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and
       there he put the man he had formed.

In Chapter 1, the author of Genesis proclaims God the Almighty Creator of
the heavens and the earth, the Sovereign Owner of all things. He created
all things for his own pleasure and glory. On the 6th day, he created man
in his own image. Man is the crown of his creation. So in chapter 2, the
writer looks again at the 6th day of creation and gives us deeper insight
into the mind and heart of God the Creator. He not only created all things
for his own pleasure and glory, but he also created a world in which man
could be happy. God who planted the Garden of Eden is God who wants mankind
to be happy. Many people don't know how to be happy. As we study this
chapter, we can discover what we really need in order to be happy.

1. God Forms man (4-14)

      Heaven and earth had been created, but the world was still sleeping,
waiting for God to make a man to take care of it (2:4-7). Verse 7 says,
"And the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."
God made man out of the dust of the ground. In Hebrew, the word "Adam"
means "man", but its original meaning was "dirt" or "soil" (2:7). Men are
indeed dust. They are weak. Man's body came from the dust and it will
return to dust. We have nothing of which to be proud. We must stand humbly
before our God. Once Abraham stood before God and prayed,"I have been so
bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes"
(18:27b). We have nothing valuable in ourselves to boast about.

      But this verse (7) also teaches us that we are valuable. God himself
formed us out of the dust of the ground; God breathed his breath into the
man he had formed out of clay and man became a living soul. God breathed
his own breath, his Spirit into us, so we are living souls. We have
physical life and we have God's life, spiritual life. He made us a little
lower than God and crowned us with glory and honor (Ps 8:5). We must live
our lives on a higher level, on a spiritual level, in fellowship with God.

      When God made man he made him with a physical body; he gave him a
spirit or mind and he gave him a soul. There is a very close relationship
between the mind and the body. When the body is sick, one's mind becomes
tired. When one becomes tired in his mind and spirit, his body becomes
weak. But the indestructible soul is not affected by these things. When the
soul becomes sick, it has no feeling. Sickness of the soul is like leprosy.

      Man can never be satisfied with only those things which satisfy his
physical desires; he has or is a soul. His spiritual life must be nurtured
and satisfied. He must know God and have fellowship with him in order to be
really  alive. The joy of the soul is real joy.

2. God made the Garden of Eden.

      Read verse 8. "Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in
Eden; and there he put the man he had formed." The important point of this
verse is that God made paradise for man. He put man there because he wanted
man to live there and be happy.  In planting paradise on earth, God made
very clear his second purpose in creation: He wants man to be happy.

      Read verse 9. "And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of
the ground---trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the
middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil."

      Paradise is beautiful. Eden is made of pure gold and all kinds of
precious stones, such as onyx, and aromatic resin (2:12). Perhaps there is
no one who can adequately describe the beauty of Eden. John received God's
revelation and wrote the book of Revelation. He saw Eden---the new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. "It shone with the glory of
God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a
jasper, clear as crystal" (Rev 21:11). "The twelve gates were twelve
pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was
of pure gold, like transparent glass" (Rev 21:21).

      Also in Eden were trees good for food. People must work hard to make
a living in this world. Even beautiful young girls, who should be treated
like angels, must find jobs and work like factory laborers. But in Eden,
there was no worry about how to make a living.

      Read verse 9b. "In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." God made the tree life and the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These trees have to do with man's
spiritual life. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil has no meaning
until God gives instructions concerning it, but we can know that man's
spiritual life is essential to his happiness.

      The tree of life is in Eden. There are many sorrowful and tragic
things. This is because all men despair before the enemy death. He leaves
no room for hope. In Eden, i.e., paradise---the new heaven and new
earth---there are no tears, no death, no suffering, no pain (Rev.21: 4).
Why? Because the tree of life is there (2:9b).

      So, in the beginning, God gave man paradise. Man cannot live without
paradise. Men seem to have many wants and desires, but we can put them all
together and say that man wants paradise. Many people have sought to
recover paradise by building a utopia on earth. But paradise is a gift from
God.

      The river which watered the garden divided into 4 headstreams---the
Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris, and the Euphrates. These flowed out of Eden,
the source of life and blessing, to all the world. It was God's desire that
the happiness of Eden fill his earth.

3. Adam's Bible (15-17)

      Read verse 15. God put man in charge of the garden to work it and
take care of it. Here we can verify the fact that God is the owner and
master of his world and that men are stewards whom he has set over his
world. God created man for mission, now he entrusted his mission to man.
Man needs mission to be happy. A man without any mission is miserable, for
his life is meaningless. God gives to every person his own small garden to
take care of. It is the garden of his own life. It is the garden of his
home and his working place. God wants mankind whom he created to live as
responsible stewards of the garden he made for them.

      God also gave us his word of command. Read verses 16 and 17. "And the
Lord God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the
garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.'"

      These words are called "Adam's Bible." This command, in the original
language is given as an absolute command. There is nothing relative about
the words in verse 17, "You will surely die." God's command to Adam is not
relative. It demands obedience. When it is obeyed, man lives in eternal
blessedness. When it is disobeyed, the result is death. People who enjoy
sinning, complain about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they
ask why God put it in the garden. But there are two very important reasons
why God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden:

First, he wanted to establish the order of love

      God created this world with an amazing and mysterious order. Basic to
this order is the relationship of God, man and material things. When God
created the world, he brought order out of chaos. He made everything to
exist and move according to the inner order which he put there when he
created it. Mountains act like mountains; the sea acts like the sea. The
seasons come and go in their created order. If the mountains acted like the
sea and the sea acted like the mountains or if rocks grew legs and walked,
then the world would be so confusing that we couldn't live in it. The
greatest mystery of the universe is this amazing order. It is this order in
the created world that makes all scientific research and technological
progress possible. Man can begin to understand this world because the world
is created in an orderly way, and God gave man a rational mind with which
to understand it.

      But there must also be order in the relationship between God and man.
God created the world by his word. Then he speaks a word of command to man
and that word is obeyed, then the right order of relationship between man
and God is established. When this order is destroyed, man's happiness is
also destroyed. So it is right to speak of this order as the "order of
love." Our happiness depends on how we look at this commandment which God
gave Adam. How we look at this commandment is a measure of our faith. Our
view of the world depends on how we view this commandment. God gave the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil as a sign of this order. And this
order is the order of love.

Second, he gave man freedom

      The Lord God commanded, "You are free to eat from any tree in the
garden;" This seems to be an unnecessary command, but it is not. It reminds
us that the garden belongs to God. The beautiful and delicious fruit are a
gift of his grace. He wants us to know this so that we can be thankful. He
does not want us to take his blessings for granted; he wants us to be
thankful. It is God's will for us that we rejoice in all things, that we
pray without ceasing and that we be thankful in all circumstances (1Th
5:16-18).

      There is not only a positive command; there is a negative one as
well: "But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (17). Many people
complain because God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the
garden: "Why didn't he only put there trees that are pleasant to look at,
and whose fruit is good to eat?" "Why did he have to put that tree of the
knowledge of good and evil there and force men to spend their lives in the
torment of the conflict with temptation too great to endure?"

      Such people don't know much about life. Perhaps they want a life that
offers plenty to eat and no problems. But a man who lives only to eat and
who has no problems cannot really be called a man. Even though a lion in
the zoo has a peaceful life and plenty to eat, he cannot be called happy.
In the jungle, a lion must hunt for food. Sometimes he goes hungry.
Sometimes he must fight for his life. But a lion is really a lion when he
is living as the king of the beasts roaming the jungle, not when he is
sleeping with a full stomach in a cage. A person who has no ultimate
freedom of choice is like a lion in the zoo. So God gave man the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil and commanded him not to eat from it. When
he freely obeys God's command, the order of love is established in his
life; he has a right relationship with God and a right relationship with
all created things. He can be truly human and truly happy.

Third, The Holy Commandment

      Read verses 16 and 17 again. "And the Lord God commanded the man,
`You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will
surely die.'"

      This is a holy commandment which establishes a right relationship
between God and man.  God is the one who commands; man is the one who
obeys. Man the creature can meet God the Creator only on these terms. A
man's relationship with his horse is normal and right when he climbs on its
back and rides it. It just wouldn't work the other way. When man the
creature begins to take his relationship with his Creator lightly, sin
comes into his heart (3:7). He looses contact and communication with his
God.

      Furthermore, this holy commandment in man's heart becomes a fixed
point from which he can find direction for his life. It is an unconditional
commandment. In this commandment is the power to maintain the order of the
universe as God created it. Man has unlimited freedom because he has
freedom of choice to obey or disobey this commandment. On the other hand,
man is a lump of clay. He is weak. So men need a fixed point in their
hearts. Peter compared this fixed point to the morning star. Long ago man
had to cross the ocean without a compass. So the morning star became the
fixed point by which sailors could set their courses and find direction. So
this holy commandment is the morning star by which men could find the way
of life. In my heart there must be a holy word, an unconditional command
from God. What is the holy commandment which you have received from God?

4. God establishes the family (18-25)

      Read verse 18. "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be
alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.'" Eden was beautiful; it
seemed to be a perfect paradise. But God looked and saw one thing that was
not good. Man was lonesome. So God said, "It is not good for the man to be
alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." So after Adam had worked
hard all one day, doing God's work, he fell into a deep sleep (19,20). God
took one of his ribs and from it he made woman, and he brought her to Adam.

      God created a woman to help the man fulfill the mission God had given
him. She was to be his companion, his friend. She, too, was created in
God's image, out of Adam's rib. So she was a part of him, a continuation of
God's creation of man. No suitable helper could be found for Adam among
animals because the animals could not share man's spiritual life or his
mission. They could not think or reason or communicate with him on his
level, and they could not help him produce children in his image.

      The man was not so concerned about his lack of a suitable helper. God
was concerned. The man welcomed the animals God created and brought to him.
He gave them names. He was their shepherd. God was the one who saw man's
need and understood it and filled that need in his own way at the right
time. God knows us better than we know ourselves, and he is ready to give
us the best co-worker, and lead us into the most fruitful life.

      The man welcomed the woman God brought to him. God himself united
them into one flesh and thus created the first family. Adam was very happy
as he worked with his co©worker to till the soil and take care of the
Garden of Eden. He was so happy that he made this confession of love: "This
is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman',
for she was taken out of man" (23). We can see from this confession that
man and woman are not separate entities. They are united into one body. A
home is built on this confession of love and on this union of personalities.

      Jesus commented on this first marriage by saying, "What God has
joined together, let not man separate" (Mk 10:9). Verse 25 implies that
they were free and innocent and uninhibited in their relationship with one
another. There were no artificial barriers and no competition between them.
They joyfully served God and loved each other and were happy.

      God created the family and showed us that man is basically a social
creature. The family is the first building block of society. It is a part
of God's perfect creation. The family was not created to be an end in
itself, however. When a man leaves his father and mother and makes a
life-long commitment to his wife, it is so that he can be an independent
and responsible servant of God, working together with his wife to fulfill
his mission and glorify God.God gives man happiness as a gift and a
blessing.

      In these first two chapters we have seen that God created the world
and brought order out of chaos. God is glorified and man is happy when the
basic creation order is established and kept. In chapter 2, we learned that
man longs for paradise, and God wants him to have it. We must continue to
think deeply about two things: What kind of God is the God who created the
heavens and the earth? Who am I that God should create me and say, "It is
very good"?