GENESIS

Notes on Genesis 2

Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

The Sabbath was actually made for the benefit of man whom God created. While it is very dangerous to lay around and never work or get any exercise, it is also dangerous to work constantly with no rest. In the spiritual realm, we need God and although we should be mindful of God and worship Him every day, there should be a day set aside to concentrate wholly upon Him and get some physical rest at the same time. This is good for us both physically and spiritually. We need God.

God had to be strict with this law because if He had not insisted on the Sabbath observance, servants and slaves would have never had any rest or relief. Again we see that we need physical rest but more importantly all mankind needs the rest spiritually. Worshiping God is what brings us joy and gladness of heart. It also reminds us of His word and commandments that keep us safe from the ugliness that sin will bring into our lives. Sin, will steal, kill and destroy our very souls.

Jesus Christ fulfilled the law. Jesus is our spiritual rest. The Holy Spirit is like a Sabbath to those who have believed in Jesus. Our bodies still need a day of rest though as well as our spirit needs a day to just worship God. We can and should worship God every day, but it is great to meet and worship with others on our day of rest. After working six days, and have a rest the 7th day is awesome when we spend that time in the Lord's presence. It is good and necessary to set aside a day to gather in the name of the Lord to worship. When we gather in His name, it is a testimony to those who see us; that we believe in God and His Son, Jesus our Christ. This too may be why God was so strict about this law. Jesus is the only way to salvation. Meeting together to worship and celebrate Him refreshes us physically and spiritually.

Under Christ we do this, not because we have to but because we love to. We now do things because we love Him and want to worship in His presence with other believers. How restful this is when we take the time to just rest and worship. We must avoid forgetting that we have been saved from sin and try to go back under the law and establish our own righteousness apart from Christ. This is bondage. If righteousness came by the keeping of the law, then Jesus would not have had to die for our sins. God saw that there was no one that was righteous and no one could live perfect, so He sent Jesus (the Son of God) to do it for us. When we receive Him, we are given the Holy Spirit as individuals to lead us in the paths of righteousness which comes by faith in Christ. Christ Jesus is our Sabbath and our rest. He is the new and living way. We can't be righteous apart from Him.

Genesis 2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

The earth was once watered by a mist instead of rain. Some say that there was no rain before the flood in Noah's day.

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 soul.

Both our physical life and our spiritual life comes from the Lord. Who are we to boast against God and criticize His ways? In Him we move and exist. Without Him we die both physically and spiritually. When the body dies the soul and spirit still exists. Dying spiritually does not mean that the soul and spirit disappear. They will exist somewhere. To die spiritually means to lose one's soul for eternity and live apart from God in a place called hell.

Jesus came to deliver us from this curse. Our bodies will still die but our soul is the part that needs to be saved. Without Jesus and faith in Jesus, the soul is lost and cursed forever. He took that curse for us so that we can be free from the curse. That curse comes upon all who break the law of God in any point. Sooner or later we would break it. We need a savior. It had to be a sinless one who kept the law of God in all points. This Jesus did. Just by believing in Him and receiving the Holy Spirit He gives, we are made free from the curse and can have eternal life.

God created us to live forever. Death came upon us because of sin and disobedience.

Genesis 2:8 And 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 made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

God gave Adam things to do. They didn't just lie around and become bored. They had things to do which they enjoyed doing before the fall.

Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

This was a test I believe. God does not want puppets. He wants us to love Him and live for Him with a willing heart. We have a right to choose good or evil. Adam could have been obedient and not have allowed sin to come upon us. He chose to listen to the wicked one and that choice cost not only His physical life to one day be taken away from him but also the sin separated him from God. God and sin do not dwell together. To get this back for us, God had to literally send an intercessor. He had to allow His own Son to come into flesh and become a man capable of sin. This Son had to live among us yet without sinning in any point. This perfect Son of God had to die in our place and take the punishment of sin which He did not deserve to die for. He did not sin at any time. That was the only way to reverse the curse that came upon Adam.

I personally believe that if Adam had chosen to refuse the temptation of Satan, mankind would have multiplied and lived forever without ever dying physically. There would be no sin and animals would roam the earth and not harm anyone. This is how it will be when Jesus returns.

Genesis 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.

God is good. God saw from the beginning that Man would not be made to live alone.

Genesis 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him.
21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto 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 shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Children can dwell with their parents until and if they marry. After they marry it is best for them to leave their homes and start a new home with their wives or husbands. A person should not need to feel that they have to leave home if they do not marry. This business of leaving home and going out alone is not necessarily the right thing to do although the world teaches us that we should do this. God created families and if at all possible, we should not feel we have to leave if we are content to remain with our families being in an unmarried state. When one marries, however, it is time to leave to avoid the conflicts of having two households trying to dwell together. However, these opinions are my own and not necessarily the commandments of God. The part about a man leaving his father and mother and cleaving to his wife (notice He said wife, not wives) is a commandment from the Lord for our good.

Genesis 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Sin is a state of the mind. They did not know that they needed clothes until sin came upon them and they recognized that they were naked and were ashamed. We should always be ashamed to be naked now that we live this side of the fall. To have no shame is not natural except perhaps for a newborn innocent baby. Since we are no longer innocent, we have to cover ourselves. There is a reason for this that is very important. Wickedness and sin has entered the human race. Now it is not safe to live in a manner that is not modest. Men have problems with lust enough without us making it worse by exposing body parts that should be covered.

I'm not talking of legalistic religion here but common sense. As we will see in later chapters, once Adam and Eve sinned, God made clothes for them. Now they had to be covered. Being clothed with animal skins was a type of covering leading to what was to come later when the blood of Jesus was shed so that we could be clothed with His righteousness that would cover our sins. That is why there is no other way to be saved from sin except through Jesus who is God who came in the flesh and became one of us.

Someone had to reverse the curse and save us from sin. Animal sacrifices were only a picture of what was to come. It pointed toward the perfect sacrifice to come. Sin condemned all mankind to death both spiritually and physically. The Son of God came to reverse this and give eternal life to all who receive His free gift which comes by faith in Him and what He did for us. DC

Genesis 3