The Beginning of Relationship | Genesis 2:4-20
Genesis: The Beginning of Everything
The Beginning of Relationship
Genesis 2:4-20
Read Gensis 2:4-22
As we read Genesis 2 we are reminded how this account of creation is a detailed look at the last day of creation found in Genesis 1:24-31. Genesis 1 teaches us HOW God created the world and Genesis 2 teaches us WHY God created the Earth. We get to witness the intentionality God has
The Point: The Garden of Eden was a paradise built in the middle of God’s creation; it was a place to commune with God, to worship Him and to glorify Him. It was the beginning of humanity’s relationship with God.
- God created an expanse of water which covered the Earth—this water created a beautiful, warm earth full of lush vegetation and life.
“Then God said, ‘let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.” –Genesis 1:7
“…[T]he Hebrew word translated expanse is elsewhere used to describe a thin layer of gold that completely encompasses an idol (Isaiah 40:19), the implication being that the expanse completely encompasses the planet, which therefore suggests that the planet is conceptualized as a sphere.”
--The Moody Bible Commentary -Genesis 1:7
Imagine a water wrapping the entire Earth. This shows us two scientifically accurate things about the garden of Eden and this early created earth: The Earth is a sphere and the Earth used to a warmer on average.
“A Smithsonian Institution project has tried to reconstruct temperatures for the Phanerozoic Eon, or roughly the last half a billion years. Preliminary results released in 2019 showed warm temperatures dominating most of that time, with global temperatures repeatedly rising above 80°F and even 90°F—much too warm for ice sheets or perennial sea ice. About 250 million years ago, around the equator of the supercontinent Pangea, it was even too hot for peat swamps!
Geologists and paleontologists have found that, in the last 100 million years, global temperatures have peaked twice. One spike was the Cretaceous Hot Greenhouse roughly 92 million years ago, about 25 million years before Earth’s last dinosaurs went extinct. Widespread volcanic activity may have boosted atmospheric carbon dioxide. Temperatures were so high that champsosaurs (crocodile-like reptiles) lived as far north as the Canadian Arctic, and warm-temperature forests thrived near the South Pole.
It is still uncertain where all the carbon dioxide came from and what the exact sequence of events was. Scientists have considered the drying up of large inland seas, volcanic activity, thawing permafrost, release of methane from warming ocean sediments, huge wildfires, and even—briefly—a comet.”
--NDAA/Science and Information for Climate Safe Nation, Smithsonian Institution
“Water vapor is Earth’s most abundant greenhouse gas. It’s responsible for about half of Earth’s greenhouse effect — the process that occurs when gases in Earth’s atmosphere trap the Sun’s heat. Greenhouse gases keep our planet livable. Without them, Earth’s surface temperature would be about 59 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius) colder. Water vapor is also a key part of Earth’s water cycle: the path that all water follows as it moves around Earth’s atmosphere, land, and ocean as liquid water, solid ice, and gaseous water vapor.”
God’s Holy Word is describing this greenhouse gas effect as the expanse of water covers the earth.
“Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD 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.”
--Genesis 2:5-6
This time of earth was full of life, teeming with animals that no longer exist today (dinosaurs and other creatures) because it was a warm, lush greenhouse. As we look at the description of the garden of Eden we can see how the garden rested upon a mountain.
“Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight 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 water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold…the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush…The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria, and the fourth river is the Euphrates.”
–Genesis 2:9-11, 13-14
- Eden is the first temple built for humanity to spend time with God; to glorify God.
“Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed…The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there…Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.”
--Genesis 2:7-12,15
This text shows us that the garden of Eden is built in the midst of a larger world—God created the entire Earth. There are rivers flowing from Eden meaning that Eden is elevated, its on a high place, Eden is built on a mountain. This mountain language is important because mountains have significance throughout God’s work in the Bible. Shrines for God are typically build on mountains, Shechem (Abraham), Mt. Sinai (Abraham, Moses), Mt. Hermon (Transfiguration). We can see this when looking another part of God’s word, Ezekiel 28:12-16. Look at this imagery given in Ezekiel 28:13
“You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets,
Was in you. On the day that you were created. They were prepared.”
--Ezekiel 28:13
This piece of scripture describes the beauty of the garden of Eden. The land itself and the land surrounding the garden was full of gold, onyx, beautiful stone like jasper, lapis, turquoise and the emerald—the garden was beautiful, it was royal, it was kingly. There is another place that is described in a similar way in scripture:
“Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne. And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads.”
--Revelation 4:2-4
“Old Testament
a precious stone, probably a ruby, set in the breastplate of the high priest”
--Collins Dictionary
We have these lands, Haviliah, Cush, Assyria teeming with life, beauty and valuable resources. Haviliah has onyx, gold and bdellium which is useful for building, economy and trading. BUT according to Ezekiel, the most precious of jewels, jewels fit for the high priest, for the king, are found in the garden of Eden. Just as Heaven is a place of worship for Jesus on the throne, the garden of Eden is a place of worship for God, the king on the throne of the Universe.
When it comes to the location of Eden it is consensus among scholars that the world changed drastically after the major global flood of Noah. The earlier science article called this major, singular continent, Pangea, but after the flood Pangea would break into many continents.
- Adam and Eve are the first priests. They are to take care of the God’s Holy Temple and to build a relationship with God and each other.
In Genesis 2:16-20 we see how God forms the very first marriage on Earth, the marriage of Adam and Eve. God creates Adam and begins a relationship with Adam. Adam is given a command, a rule: “Do not eat from the tree of knowledge of God and evil.” He is told that he can eat from the other tree, the tree of life and have everything else in the garden, but this one true is set a part, it is the part of temple that belongs to God and only God, the holiest of holies.
God is beginning what we now call relationships. God has created humanity to be in relationship—to be in community. Adam builds a relationship with God after God literally breathes life into him; this plays in the “Created in the image of God’ Humans have been made differently than animals since we have been birthed by God’s breath.
God then charges Adam with a specific task: to work with Him in the garden, to cultivate the garden, to maintain God’s holy dwelling and temple and to name the animals. God has given work to Adam—remember this is before sin enters the world. Work is a god given privilege—God wants humanity to do work.
“The ideal state of sinless man is not one of indolence without responsibility. Work and duty belong to the perfect state.”
--H.C. Leupold
God gives Adam a specific commandment before He makes Eve.
“The LORD 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.’”
--Genesis 2:16-17
Eve will be eventually made to be a helper for Adam—here Adam is made first. This shows that God has built men and women to work together in relationship—men and women compliment one another. It also shows us that Adam knew of God’s commandment and Eve didn’t, Adam had a certain responsibility to lead and shepherd Eve but we all know that Adam failed at this task when Eve at from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in Genesis 3.
“Out of the ground the LORD 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 whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The 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.”
--Genesis 2:19-20
God had made a helper for Himself—Adam was God’s helper, God’s partner, working with God, cultivating this glorious place of worship and doing ministry with God. But Adam needed a helper, a special helper, a helper made in the image of God that is not like the animals—Adam needed a wife, a partner, someone to compliment him in life.
This is the beginning of relationship. Of God’s relationship to creation, humanity’s relationship with God, Men and Women’s relationship together in Marriage, and humanity’s relationship with nature. All of creation is God’s community made to glorify God.
“Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for ]sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are [b]sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And on their mind I will write them,”
--Hebrews 10:11-16
The Point: The Garden of Eden was a paradise built in the middle of God’s creation; it was a place to commune with God, to worship Him and to glorify Him. It was the beginning of humanity’s relationship with God.
Questions:
1. Did you know that Science and the Bible are so closely tied together?
2. When you think of the word "relationship" what comes to your mind?
3. How can we cultivate a relationship with God in our lives?