Welcome to the MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my 215th episode. In this episode I’m bringing you another edition of Bible study content I’m creating for my church. This content is every bit as professionally produced as my normal episodes on MHB — and my intent is to continue cross-publishing them for your benefit. So without further delay I bring you: Summit Bible Study.
Hello Friends and thank you for listening to another Bible Study. Today we’re moving forward with our study of Genesis by opening chapter two. In the previous chapter we were given a glimpse into the six days of God’s creating the universe and everything in it. Chapter two focuses specifically on God’s creation of humanity. So we had a 30,000 foot view of all of God’s creative work in chapter one, and now we’re going to zoom in to a much higher resolution of the creation of Adam and Eve.
Before that happens, this chapter opens with God’s blessing of the seventh day — which becomes the Sabbath day of rest. We discussed how God created and prepared the Earth to be a habitation for humanity. This creation and preparation was an act of God’s love. The same is true of the Sabbath itself. God’s ordination of the Sabbath was not because He needed to rest, but because He knew human beings would need to rest from their own work. Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” The purpose of the Sabbath is so that human beings may find rest, spiritual renewal, and physical relief. The Sabbath was never meant to be a burdensome law given to restrict human well-being — which is exactly how the Pharisees used it.
This chapter brings the creation of man into focus as the central climax of God’s creative work. Verse 7 in particular gives us a sense that everything God has created has built up to this seminal moment when He formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed life into his nostrils. We’ll read a description of the Garden of Eden and see God place the living man there under rules of a covenant. The chapter closes with the creation of woman from the bone of man and her marriage to him. This union in the Garden of Eden is the very first marriage. It’s also God’s ordination of the institution of marriage as a means of sanctification and multiplication for all generations thereafter. Let’s begin our study by reading verses 1-3:
Gen 2:1-3
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.
2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
When we think about the hosts of heaven, this idea is describing all of the celestial bodies God created in the universe. Stars, planets, moons and all the rest of it. When we think about the hosts of Earth, this denotes all of God’s creatures whom He generated to inhabit the planet. In each case the hosts of heaven and Earth are so numerous they basically can’t be counted. But when God settles the kingdom of His creation on the seventh day, these hosts are marshaled, disciplined, and under His sovereign command. Remember, God knows each star by name.
Even today one of God’s titles is the Lord of Hosts. He is still just as sovereign over His creation as He was in the moments after He finished it. God uses His creation to advance His will, whether that comes in the form of defending His people or bringing destruction onto His enemies. And sometimes God uses His creation in ways that remain utterly mysterious to us — ways we may not fully understand until we are glorified in the kingdom of Heaven.
This opening passage also reveals the completeness of God’s creative work. The heavens and the Earth were finished. God’s work is always perfect even if we aren’t able to grasp the perfection of it just yet. Nothing can be added to God’s work and nothing can be taken from it. The completeness of God’s work is important because it uncovers a sometimes misunderstood biblical principle. Often we think of faith as taking bold, blind leaps forward and trusting God to work everything out. While I understand the nobility of this sentiment, and I absolutely believe in God’s sovereign will to work everything out, this kind of faith misses an important nuance of what Jesus taught.
Jesus taught that we should count the cost before beginning to build. He taught this principle in the context of discipleship, explaining how if a person isn’t willing to sacrifice to be His disciple — this person shouldn’t even begin the project at all. The point I want to highlight is that careful due diligence does not run in cross-purposes to faith. In fact I would argue wild, uncontrolled decision-making has more in common with pride than it does with true faith. Humility drives careful preparation and attention to important projects. God brought His creative work to completion, but if we’re not careful we may fail to finish our own enterprises.
The seventh day in the creation account commemorates the Lord’s Sabbath day of rest. It was a moment where God took satisfaction in the work of His own hands. The triune God is infinitely content in Himself, He needs nothing and He didn’t need the creation in order to provide something He lacked. Rather the creation was an outward expression of God’s love given from the immeasurable depths of His own completeness. He did not rest as one who is weary from work, He rested as one who was well-pleased with the instantiation of His own goodness and the revelation of His own glory in the things He had made.
The seventh day also marks the day in which God ceased from all creative work — even up until this very moment. The work of God’s providence is constant insofar as He never stops preserving and governing all of His works, but He did stop creating. This is why the conservation of matter is a physical law of the universe. There is no process — nothing at all which we can do — to create new matter ex nihilo or from nothing. Only God was able to do that and He stopped doing it on the seventh day. He also settled the permanent course of the laws of nature. God can and does perform miracles which escape the laws of nature, but the laws of nature themselves were completed on the seventh day and have remained unchanged since.
We might also think of the Sabbath as the official beginning of God’s kingdom of grace in regard to humanity. God rests as He appreciates the goodness of what He has made. He sanctifies the seventh day and goes on to instruct us in the fourth commandment that we also should observe this Sabbath and keep it holy. God demonstrates this rest so that we might realize our need to take rest in Him. The Sabbath was made for man, and so if we fail to take the Sabbath seriously, we should expect deleterious consequences to our spiritual well-being. We rest to honor God because we have a duty to do so, but we also do it because honoring God is good for our souls.
Today humanity is so quick to adopt any means of self-care or any new kind of therapy. Buy when Jerusalem was spiritually sick in their defiance of God and faced impending destruction — God reminded them to observe the ancient ways of finding rest for their souls. Speaking through the prophet Jeremiah he said, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” He’s telling them to observe the Sabbath and take time to remember who their Creator is.
So much of our own culture’s spiritual sickness could be ameliorated with recourse to this ancient tradition of stopping what you’re doing and remembering the sovereign lordship of Jesus Christ. People who are spiritually malnourished often scramble to find new and innovative ways to draw closer to God — but in reality God Himself has already appointed a means for this and that’s observance of the Sabbath. God would not bless the Sabbath day and command us to keep it if it were not one of His primary methods for reminding us of His presence and blessing us as well.
The only reason the Sabbath became a holy ritual of the Church is because God Himself demonstrated it and then commanded us to follow suit. It’s not possible to disregard the Sabbath as unimportant without simultaneously depriving yourself of all common sense. If God Himself, who never gets tired and never runs out of energy, took rest from all His work on the seventh day — then who are we to suggest we don’t need to do this? If God Himself, who is the very essence of omniscient wisdom, sanctified the Sabbath and commanded us to do it — who are we to suggest we know better? We pay homage to other traditions simply because they’re old or multi-generational — but no tradition is as old as the Sabbath.
The Pharisees abused the Sabbath and used it to crack down on people for unrighteous reasons. As Christians today we understand we don’t want to become like Pharisees. But I do think it would be useful if we would at least make space for all of us to collectively observe the Sabbath. Perhaps more businesses should close on Sundays so their workers are able to worship Jesus Christ at church. At the very least, observance of the Sabbath on Sunday (and I’m only picking Sunday because that’s the Lord’s day when the saints assemble in church) should be badge of respect. We should be inspired by people who obey God and set apart the Sabbath for worship.
A good church will dedicate all of their worship services to praising God for His redemptive work in Jesus Christ our Savior. But a really good church will also remember to praise God for what He’s done as our Creator. As Christians, I think we’re more comfortable with our relationship with God as our Savior than we are with Him as our Creator. A Savior is nice because He redeems you and pulls you away from destruction. A Creator is more challenging because God having created us also means God has full authority over what we should be doing with our lives. Many people wish to someday die into the arms of their Savior, not so many wish to live under the purposeful gaze of their Creator. In order to be a healthy Christian we must do both, and the Sabbath helps facilitate this practice. Let’s continue by reading verses 4-7:
Gen 2:4-7
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven.
5 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.
6 But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.
7 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.
This passage marks the first place in holy scripture where see our God referred to as the LORD or Jehovah. This name of God is also sometimes called the tetragrammaton which is when you see the all capital letters YHWH, often pronounced “Yahweh.” In the first chapter of Genesis God was called Elohim, and this name appeared more than 30 times. Elohim is one of the Hebrew names for God and it means all-powerful Creator.
More of God’s character is revealed to us with this compound name Jehovah-Elohim because it means all-powerful Creator God of perfection. This title shows us that, not only is God all-powerful to begin His works, but He’s also all-powerful to finish them. The perfection communicated by the name Jehovah is a kind of completeness. The name indicates God is entirely self-actualized. Nothing had to happen to cause God to exist and God’s existence does not depend on anything.
His eternal self-existence makes God utterly unique from any other person or phenomenon we know of — including idolatrous mythological gods. Not only is God self-actualized in this way, but the actuality of every part of the universe (down to the smallest quark) is entirely dependent on Him. This is what apologists mean when they refer to God as the Prime Mover or the First Cause of all things.
An easy way to think about this is to imagine sitting in a chair. The chair’s purpose only exists because it’s being upheld by the floor underneath it. The floor is being upheld by the foundation. The foundation is being upheld by the ground. The ground is being upheld by bedrock and tectonic plates, etc. You can follow this path of dependence all the way back to God — whose eternal upholding of all things depends on nothing. That’s what it means to be self-actualized and this self-actuality is one of the primary characteristics communicated by the name Jehovah. God gives being to all things and so it makes sense He is called Jehovah when the creation of the heavens and the Earth is finished.
As you’re reading the creation account, it can be easy to confuse your timelines if you read both chapters 1 and 2 as chronologically linear. They are chronological insofar as the seven days are concerned — but beginning in verse 4 of chapter 2 we see the narrative jump backwards by one day so the creation of humanity can be carefully expanded upon. This jump is the delineation between what is called the Priestly account of creation and the Yahwist account of creation. The Yahwist account is what we’re studying today.
So when you read that, “no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted…” this is specifically referring to the sixth day before humanity was created. It is beginning with this part of the sixth day where the rest of our studies in chapter 2 will examine the creation of man at a higher resolution.
We spoke before about how, in the pre-Fall created order, the green plants and fruits of the Earth were given as food for man and animals. We also noted how the Earth did not bring forth the vegetation from its own resources — but that the fruits were given life by the power of God’s spoken word. The foliage is mentioned at the beginning of this account because of its significance as the food source for man. We might take a moment to appreciate the sovereign authority of God’s word — even the plants and fruits of the Earth cannot grow without their dependence on it.
The same is true for grace in a person’s soul. You cannot become more Christlike on your own resources anymore than the vegetation could grow without God. God is the one who sanctifies your spirit and makes you more like Jesus. Your Christlikeness is the work of God’s own hands.
In verse 5 we read, “God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.” God’s sovereignty over the growth of the plants extends equally to the provision of rain itself. Rain is a gift from God. If some place is experiencing a drought, it’s because God has not sent rain there. If some place is experiencing too much rain, it is God who is causing it. When speaking to a rebellious Israel in Amos chapter 4 God says, “Furthermore, I withheld the rain from you while there were still three months until harvest. Then I would send rain on one city And on another city I would not send rain; One part would be rained on, While the part not rained on would dry up.”
God’s authoritarian control over nature raises some questions about natural disasters — why would He allow or even cause such things to happen? It’s worth noting how even in the aftermath of such devastating circumstances it is often Christians who are serving to rescue victims and provide emergency supplies. Here’s how I deal with such questions: If I’m not able to explain how or why a certain event or natural disaster can be worked together for good — I don’t even try in regard to the actual event. I would not call a specific hurricane or flood a good thing if I can’t see how it is good. But I do know that God is in control of all of it and God is good — and therefore He must work it together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
We know God tends to work by second and third order causes. For instance, today God continues to cause plants and crops to grow using natural processes like rain and humanity’s efforts at farming. But God is never restrained by these natural causes. Part of why He caused plants to grow before the sun existed or before the rain fell is to demonstrate for us that He is not captured by any of these things — He governs them. God is able to do as He pleases even if His movements break the laws of nature.
None of this is to suggest we should just sit back and wait for God to act. Rejecting the common means God has given us for doing such things as growing crops in order that we might see God do it by way of miracle is a form of testing God. Testing God is strictly prohibited in the scriptures. God’s sovereignty over nature simply expresses that when our own means fail us, we should continue to trust God and His powerful provision.
We know God is faithful to provide for what He planted and so we should trust — even when there is no rain — that He will find some other way of watering it. In this instance He caused a mist to rise from the earth and water the entire surface of the ground. He could have brought torrents of rain from the sky in some spectacular tempest — but instead He chose to use a gentle mist.
God often uses the weakest means to achieve seemingly impossible ends. He uses this method because it points more people to the excellency of His power and glorifies His name among them. If God achieves a great thing through a weak vessel, I’m more likely to believe it was God who did it. I’m also more likely to understand how His power is not contingent on the power of others including myself. The mist watered the earth without spectacle, and in the same way God often waters His Church, sustaining it, without making any noise.
Verse 7 begins to reveal God’s creating humanity in greater detail. You might think of a human being as a microcosm of the entire creation insofar as we consist of both heaven and earth. Eternal spirits indwelling mortal bodies which were fashioned from the dust of the earth. Scripture says human beings are fearfully and wonderfully made. The value for human life is a foundational tenet of any Christian’s worldview. We must value human life because human beings are God’s most complex creations and God Himself is infinitely valuable. We are shaped from the dust which is worth nothing, but the breath of the Almighty has given us life — and that makes us worth everything.
It’s fascinating to contemplate the omnipotent creative power of God. He made the universe from nothing. Then He made the most valuable creation in the universe from next to nothing — the dust of the ground. If we follow the narrative literally we might expect the dust of the ground to be moistened by the mist at this moment when God shaped man from it. Paul writes to the Corinthian church that the first man (meaning Adam) is from the earth, and the second man (meaning Christ) is from Heaven.
The human body is so tightly connected to the earth that scripture often uses one to refer to the other. Psalm 139 calls our mother’s womb the depths of the earth. And in Job we see our final resting place — such as a grave or a tomb — used interchangeably with our mother’s womb. We are the clay and God is the sculptor. Some vessels are made for glory and some vessels are made for destruction — but all vessels come under the authority of the potter. All of us are made of dust, we come from dust, and to dust we shall return in death. That is the natural condition of man without God. We have nothing at all to be proud of.
When God creates man we see a change in the verb used. Scripture says God formed man, which implies a careful and exacting process. This may not have been an instant creation like that of the cosmos. The verb used here denotes a potter shaping His vessel on a wheel. Scripture says we are the clay, God is the potter, and all of us are the work of His hands. This is not simply referring to our physical bodies either — God has shaped our personalities, our strengths, our weaknesses, our tendencies, and even the unfolding of our lives. Psalm 139:15-16 read, “My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.”
The only sensible way for us to respond to such careful creation is to present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is our spiritual service of worship. We should steward our bodies well because scripture says our bodies are living temples indwelled by the Spirit of God. God remembers our mortal frame and He knows that we are dust. He doesn’t expect us to live lives of supernatural strength incongruent with the bodies we have.
Our mortal bodies, such as we experience them now with all of their shortcomings and diseases, will not be preserved into the kingdom of glory. Rather God, by His almighty power, will give us glorified bodies. Scripture says God “will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” When we spend eternity in the direct presence of God we will no longer need to experience the pain and suffering which comes from inhabiting a mortal frame.
One of the most important lines in the entire creation account comes when God breathes the breath of life into man and he becomes a living being. Our source of life did not come from the earth or from earthly things. Our souls came from the divine, heavenly substance of the breath of God. Each one of us is like an intersection between Heaven and Earth. Our spirits are made from heavenly things while our bodies are made from earthly things. The heavenly essence of our spirits is the cornerstone of why human life is valuable. We are not immediately comparable to anything else God created.
Since we are image-bearers of God, we are uniquely accountable for sin. You’ll often hear well-intentioned — although I would say theologically mistaken — pastors suggest animals can’t go to heaven because they aren’t covered by the righteousness of Christ. The issue with this claim is the postulate that animals have sin which needs covered to begin with. Animals kill each other and rape each other, but I don’t think it’s possible for animals to sin because animals do not have the law of God. Sin means to miss the mark, and you can’t miss the mark if there is no mark.
You may have also heard that animals can’t go to heaven because they have no souls or somehow lack consciousness. This is an even more fallacious claim than the first, both biblically and experientially. When you take an animal as a pet, assuming your conscience isn’t seared by corruption, you’ll form a love-bond with it. This bond with an animal is not a sign of spiritual immaturity or an indication you fail to value human life properly. Much to the contrary, this human-animal connection is recognized by God Himself in scripture when He speaks to David through the prophet Nathan concerning the man who had a pet lamb who was, “like a daughter to him.”
To suggest animals lack souls or consciousness is violative of an axiom of our own experience which tells us consciousness is necessary for navigating this space we all inhabit. If you doubt this axiom, try losing your own consciousness and report back. But it’s not just experiential evidence, scripture itself uses the Hebrew word “nephesh” to describe the higher order animals — this is the same word used to describe human beings as ensouled. It is well past time for properly educated Christians to put to rest the false dichotomy suggesting a love for animals means you don’t value human life — or that you can’t acknowledge humanity’s superior worth while also harboring eternal love for an animal. Both things can be done at the same time and in many cases should be done at the same time.
Satan is evil and has been a liar from the beginning, but I would go so far as to say I don’t think it’s possible for Satan to sin either. We know sinners cannot stand in the direct presence of God, but at the beginning of Job’s story we see Satan standing in God’s presence in heaven. I think this is made possible because Satan is not made in God’s image. And so while humanity is uniquely valuable because we are image-bearers of God, we are also uniquely accountable when we corrupt this image with our sins. This eternal essence is also why humanity’s idolatrous worship of the creation is such an offense against God.
Your spirit came from God and He gave it to be put into your body. The final chapter of Ecclesiastes describes death by saying the dust of your body returns to the earth as it was, and your spirit returns to God who gave it. God is both the former of spirits and the Father of spirits. So when we call God our Father we’re not merely trying to use mortal language to describe a relationship. It’s not wrong to suggest God is your Father in the most literal sense when it comes to your spirit. Your spirit originated in Him. He made it and He gave it, and when it goes back to Him it’s really just going back home.
Our souls should long for God in the same way we long for home when we’re away on a long trip. Just before Jesus took His last breath on the cross He shouted out, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Ministers do the same thing at graveside committals today when a person dies and is buried. Often they use a traditional phrase from the Book of Common prayer which reads, “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” As this indicates the final resting place of our mortal bodies. Many times this is followed by the same words Jesus said, “Father, into your hands we commit his or her spirit.”
Your soul is the divine center of consciousness. The soul is the man and the soul is the truest essence of your being. Your body is simply a conglomeration of dust and clay without it. Your body needs your soul like a kind of life support. The breath of life given by God is so powerful and beautiful and it takes something loathsome and turns it into an object of love. We are repulsed by a decomposing corpse and yet we cannot survive without the touch of a living person. The difference is the soul given by the breath of God. That’s how magnificent and powerful it is.
We see its magnificence and power on full display in the prophet’s vision found in Ezekiel chapter 37. God orders Ezekiel to prophesy over the valley of dry bones — resurrecting all of them to life. After this marvelous occurrence God said to Ezekiel, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.’ “Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. “Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. “I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it.”
God gave us our souls, and when we die we must give an account to God for how we used them. What did we do with such a miraculous gift? How did we steward the only eternal part of us? What does it gain a man if he sells his soul for the entire world when all of us know we are destined to lose the world too? Jesus warned His own disciples including an entire crowd of people when He said, “”If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
God’s primary concern is always the eternal well-being of our souls. Sometimes this comes at the expense of our bodies and sometimes we must sacrifice temporary desires in service to it. But we can trust in God that we do not store up treasure in heaven without cause. We can trust that careful stewardship of our souls is not a temporary vanity lost to death. Our bodies are shaped from the dust of the ground, and I think Christ paid homage to this when He used clay to anoint the blind man’s eyes and restore his vision. Our spirits are breathed into us by God, and I think Christ reminded us of this when He breathed on His disciples and gave them the Holy Ghost. Let’s continue with verses 8-15:
Gen 2:8-15
8 The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.
9 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.
10 Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers.
11 The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
12 The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there.
13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush.
14 The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
What’s fascinating about the Garden of Eden is how it was crafted to satisfy the whole of man’s existence. The physical body was given sustenance in the garden itself. Adam’s five senses would never be so well-provided for as they were in the paradise of God. His spirit was also cared for because he was in covenant with God. He was able to walk in God’s direct presence. God dignified humanity with such high provision despite knowing what we were about to do with original sin. This is the same God who cried out from the cross, “Forgive them Father for they know not what they’re doing.” God’s love and God’s grace are so much more than we deserve.
Today we have the scriptures so we have the benefit of understanding God’s redemptive story was foreordained from eternity. But Adam and Eve didn’t know that. They ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil because paradise wasn’t sufficient for them. They wanted more. They wanted to be like God. There are two principles we can learn from this: first is that covetousness is dangerous enough to destroy paradise. If you’re constantly looking for the next best thing you’ll never notice the gifts of God right in front of you and eventually you will lose them. Second is that striving to be like God without submission to Jesus leads to the Fall of Man. That one is important to remember, because virtually every authoritarian nightmare history has endured was caused by a set of people who thought they could force open the doors to utopia without submission to God.
When a person first becomes a Christian they can’t tolerate all spiritual truths at once. They have to be started on more elementary truths which Paul describes as the spiritual milk which must come before spiritual meat. One of the ways God teaches us is by walking us through patterns of heavenly things rather than expecting us to understand the heavenly things themselves. This is why Jesus taught spiritual truths in parables. It’s also why the Mosaic history as well as the rest of the Old Testament builds a foundation upon which the New Testament is understood. We can think of the Garden of Eden this way — it was a type of Heaven, although it was not Heaven itself.
The Garden of Eden was like a microcosm of the heavens and the earth God already created for humanity. It was an assemblage of His natural creation rather than a man-made castle or work of art. Those kinds of artifacts didn’t enter the creation until the Fall of Man — the first of which was clothing. Part of what motivates the pathological utopians of today is a longing to return to the innocency of being able to live in perfect congruence with the natural world. This is no longer possible because of the Fall. The natural world is no longer the Garden of Eden.
Part of what inspires worship of God’s creation is the simple fact that human beings are unable to replicate anything remotely similar in terms of its grandeur. Perhaps the most famous ceiling in all the world is that of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo, one of history’s greatest artists, spent four years painstakingly working on it. Even so it presents zero comparison to a clear, starry night sky or a beautiful sunset — and those natural phenomena are literally here today and gone tomorrow.
Christ pointed to this truth when He was teaching His disciples to seek first the kingdom of God before worrying about clothing or other daily needs. He said, “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!”
Adam’s first residence in the Garden was far better than any palace a human architect could build. While post-Fall nature is replete with predators, death, disease, and destruction — the beauty of God’s creation remains. Despite such majesty in the natural world, it’s very easy for humanity to slip into a state of taking it for granted. Often we simply overlook the beauty of nature and fix our gaze on human creations. We do this because man-made designs gratify our sense of pride and satiate our lust for luxury. I’m not saying godly people need to go outside and sleep on the ground — it’s true the post-Fall natural world is constantly trying to kill us and protection like clothing and shelter are actual needs today. But a constant pursuit of material abundance and a relentless desire for increased luxury is idolatrous.
The Garden of Eden was constructed by God Himself. It’s possible the construction took place on the third day of creation or it’s possible He did it in an instant after breathing life into Adam. The important truth is that it was designed by God. This means the space was all-sufficient for man’s pleasure and delight. God created it to be a type of Heaven for His beloved humanity and so we may assume there was no other place like it in all the universe — nor is there any place like it today.
In order for any place to be paradise it has to be designed and given by God. Human beings have never been able to replicate it and never will be able to replicate it. Our attempts at doing so always result in bloodshed because, in service to our fake utopia, we need to remove or destroy any individuals who function as proof to its imperfection. I can draw you an historical analogue from the 20th century.
The Soviet’s efforts at communism weren’t working for individuals and families throughout Russia. Instead of admitting communism was a failed system — Stalin chose to imprison these individuals and wipe out entire families who functioned as proof of communism’s imperfection. He put them in gulags where they were forced into slavery. He used slave labor to help artificially improve his country’s anemic productivity. When journalists from the West came to check on things, Stalin built fake villages staffed with Soviet actors in order to present a utopia that didn’t exist. It wasn’t just Stalin either. The most murderous ideologies across the span of history are born of human effort to replace God and build their own paradise.
When God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah to rebuke faithless Israel He says this: “Who is among you that fears the LORD, That obeys the voice of His servant, That walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, Who encircle yourselves with firebrands, Walk in the light of your fire And among the brands you have set ablaze. This you will have from My hand: You will lie down in torment.” It’s a grave warning to anyone who rejects God in service to their own perceived independence.
Something to remember about the Garden of Eden is that it existed on a pre-Fall planet Earth. So the rest of the planet was likely much, much more pleasant than it is today. Listen to what Paul says happened to the creation with the Fall of Man: “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”
So as marvelous as God’s creation is today, it’s not comparable to what it was before corruption. Adam inhabited a planet free from these things, but still God chose to give him more and create a space especially for him. God’s generosity in this moment is a reflection of the distinguishing favors which He will bestow upon His chosen people in eternity.
The Garden of Eden was a part of planet Earth in its highest perfection. It would have had all the conveniences without any of the pains or irritations we experience today. The name Eden in Hebrew means delight or pleasure. The exact geographical location of Eden is unknown, although a description of the rivers has led some people to believe it was in Mesopotamia. It’s fun to surmise various locations, but we should never get caught up in our search for it. There is an eternal paradise which awaits us and our primary concern should be for it.
The trees inside the Garden would have delighted even the most discerning arborist. Scripture says the garden was populated with every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food. You can imagine trees of majestic height, beautiful colors, and trees which bore the most delicious fruit. I myself as well as many of you listening to this are from the western Pennsylvania region of the United States. The name Pennsylvania means Penn’s woods. People travel from all over the country to see the trees of western Pennsylvania during the peak of their autumn colors. We love trees, and great forests are one of the natural wonders we look towards to experience a general revelation of our Creator God. The Garden of Eden had the best of all trees.
The trees in the Garden represent proof our God cares about pleasure and prosperity. For some of the trees, their entire purpose was for the viewing pleasure of humanity. Could Adam survive without beautiful trees? Certainly he could, but mere survival was not the life God designed for Adam in paradise. God loves human pleasure that is consistent with innocence. That’s why Adam exists in paradise before his fall from innocency.
Today, this kind of pleasure is most similar to that of a small child. Except in tragic circumstances, most children are as yet unexposed to the corruption of the world. They’re able to laugh and play as if none of that matters. As if none of that even exists. God does not call us to the naiveté of children. At some point we must mature and square off with the evils of this world — if for no other reason so that we might protect the innocent among us.
But God does call us to child-like faith. To maintain the unquestioning faith of a small child while integrating the strength of a realist adult is to adopt the most Christlike mode of being. We are called to pick up our cross and follow Jesus, but we are not called to worry while we do it. As we walk through our lives, if we’re blessed enough to experience the abundance of God’s providence such that we inhabit a type of Eden — it is during these moments we should be most careful to serve God joyfully and remember Him in everything we do.
Counted among the extraordinary trees of Eden were two special trees which were unique among them all. The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life was the focal point of the middle of paradise. Its placement symbolized the garden’s dependence on it. Paradise was paradise because the tree of life was there. It’s symbolic of the eternal truth that Heaven is the direct presence of Jesus Christ. To eat from the tree of life in the Garden of Eden granted everlasting life in paradise — just like whoever partakes in Jesus Christ is given everlasting life in Heaven.
The purpose of the tree of life in the Garden was not so that Adam could eat from it and seize everlasting life for himself — God stopped him from doing this after the Fall. It was there as a covenantal seal expressing Adam might continue a life of happiness and bliss, extending ultimately into eternity should he remain innocent and obedient.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was forbidden for both Adam and Eve. God warned Adam that the day he eats from it, surely he will die. When most people read the name of this forbidden tree they jump straight into the knowledge being imparted by consumption of its fruit. I understand why they do this, but I actually think we can reverse the nominal significance one additional step.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is called such because it represents the very first moment, the very first object, by which God revealed moral good and moral evil to Adam. It is morally good to restrain yourself from eating its fruit. It is morally evil to consume it. This revelation of moral duty was given to Adam well before the serpent persuaded Eve to eat. This matters because it shows us the Fall of man was not caused by the substance of the fruit — rather it was caused by direct defiance of God.
Throughout scripture this same presentation of a choice between good and evil is given to mark inflection points in God’s covenant with humanity. With Adam and Eve it was resist the fruit and live, eat the fruit and die. With Moses it was the blessing and the curse set before God’s people Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 30. Obey God’s law and live, violate God’s law and die. Then finally in the gospels Christ reveals the most important choice all of these other covenantal revelations were always pointing to: Believe in Jesus and be saved, disbelieve in Jesus and be condemned.
There was a river which flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. We know the Garden was well-watered everywhere because scripture describes the land of Sodom as being similar to the Lord’s Garden in this respect. God takes care to sustain the life of His creation, and those who live upright lives are compared to trees which have been planted by streams of water.
Just like Eden was a type or a foreshadow of Heaven itself, so this river is a foreshadow of the river of life which emanates from the throne of God in Heaven. The true river of life which we will see when we pass into glory infinitely surpasses the river which flowed through Eden. Psalm 46:4 says, “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High.”
The river flowing out of Eden split into four rivers which were named Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. You may have heard of the Tigris and Euphrates as famous Mesopotamian rivers between which was the Fertile Crescent. This is the same region where the kingdom of Babylon would be constructed. When the Jews were taken into Babylonian captivity, scripture recounts them lining the banks of the Euphrates and weeping over the Jerusalem they lost. While Jerusalem was located in the Promised Land, the ancient Israelites and we ourselves today have more reason to weep over the paradise lost by Adam.
This passage makes a point to mention the gold and the precious stones which were found in the land of Havilah. What I find interesting is that these commodities were not found in the paradise of Eden. To live in holy communion with God undisrupted by sin is more valuable than gold or precious stones. In fact it’s so much more valuable that the usefulness of these commodities is no longer considered in Heaven.
In Heaven God’s provision is so constantly abundant there is no longer any need for trade. Listen to how Isaiah describes it when God speaks through him to the exiled Israelites: “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost. “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance.” In Heaven you’ll enjoy feasts unlike anything you’ve experienced on Earth and you won’t have to pay for any of it.
God formed Adam out of common dirt outside the Garden of Eden. It wasn’t until the man was formed and given life that God placed him in the Garden. This is important for two reasons: first, like we’ve talked about, Adam’s composition from the dust of the ground communicates his worth originates in God rather than in himself. Second is proof that Adam knew what the world was like outside of paradise before he was moved inside. Adam understood the delights of paradise were a free gift from God — he knew life could be otherwise.
Sometimes you’ll hear people say appreciation comes from knowledge of what life could be like without a certain blessing. I think this is true, but Adam’s example reveals to us that even such deep appreciation doesn’t inoculate us against the temptations and deceptions of sin. Just because we know how much we have to lose doesn’t protect us from losing it. Faithful obedience to God is the only protection we have against the corruption of sin.
Adam was not born inside of Eden and so Eden was not Adam’s natural home. He couldn’t claim God evicted him from his home because Adam had no natural right to Eden. Being created outside of Eden and then being moved by God into paradise should have made Adam realize God is the only one who can satisfy him and make him happy. The God who created Adam is the same God who planted the tree of life for him and settled him by it. One of the most important lessons to learn from Adam’s mistake is the same God who formed our bodies is the God who is the Father of our spirits. No one else and nothing else is able to provide for the well-being of both the way that God can.
Often you’ll hear readers of this text incriminate Eve since she is the one who had discourse with the serpent, she is the one who first ate the fruit, and she is the one who gave it to her husband. While Eve is not innocent in her own right, as we’ve expanded on just how much Adam knew in advance I hope we’ve illuminated his culpability in the matter. But it gets even worse than this. Since Adam was created outside the Garden and moved inside the Garden by God Himself, Adam lost all claim to the possibility that he was in the wrong place or that there was some better place for him. God Himself led the way for Adam to his new life in the Garden.
Nothing in your life will undermine a good thing quite as effectively as fantasies of a better thing. This is the prime suspect in the dissolution of most marriages. It’s much easier to take good things for granted if you aren’t clear as to whether God has led you to those things. Uneducated Christians will even claim God is leading them to divorce their spouses because God wants to bring them into a happier life. Many, many people have left great careers because of some misapprehension that God is calling them to something better.
You might be asking, “But what if God truly is calling me to something better?” My answer to that is I really don’t think He is. I think it’s your fantasies playing tricks on you and speaking vanity in the name of the Lord. I think if we take an honest evaluation of our lives up to this point we’d see how each time God didn’t give us what we wanted, and how each time God brought us into what was best for us, we didn’t even realize He was doing it. And we’re thankful that He did it when we look back on it. So how can you make movements and decisions to pursue God’s call if you don’t even realize when God is moving you through the inflection points which lead you to His best for you? How can you pursue His call when you don’t even recognize His life-altering inflection points for what they are until years later when you look back on them?
I would argue God’s written command for you to be faithful and obedient right where you are is superordinate to that feeling you have which is telling you to move on. The problem with labeling your fantasies as the spoken calling of God and then following them as such is that your fantasies are infused with your sin. It’s not possible for you to fantasize what’s best for you in sharper resolution than God’s actual knowledge of what’s best for you. Your own projection into the future is so clouded by finitude and sin that — again if we’re honest with ourselves — once God brings this future into actuality you’ll realize you never saw it coming. It is a mistake to claim authority over your own future such that you declare what is and isn’t possible for God to bring forward.
I believe you will end up just exactly where God wants you to be if you remain faithful and obedient to do the work He’s already commanded us to do in scripture right where you are. We do not need a fresh revelation to know the will of God — we have the express will of God written for us in the scriptures. It’s already there and it’s absolutely a command for you specifically. You’ll end up exactly where God intends for you to end up because, like how He placed Adam in the Garden, God Himself will be the one who moves you where He wants you to go. Again you probably won’t even realize He’s doing it until years later when you look back and see how it was Him the entire time. Psalm 47:4 says, “He chooses our inheritance for us, The glory of Jacob whom He loves.”
Notice how God’s placement of Adam in paradise included directives for Adam to work. Adam was in charge of cultivating the Garden and maintaining it. Remember when I was talking about free food in Heaven I didn’t say there would be no purposeful work to accomplish — I said there would be no necessity for economic trade. None of us are called to be idle in this life or the next. Periods of rest and sleep are necessary — but while we are alive we must put our hands to the task of advancing the work God has given us. God has given us souls and bodies so that we have something to work with. God has given us habitation on planet Earth so that we have something to work on.
Understand this: even the wealthiest among humanity didn’t have what Adam had in paradise — and still Adam had to work. Adam had a great place to live, he had a family, he had dominion over his surroundings, and he had an intellect with which he could contemplate the beauty of all these things. Oh and he was also perfectly innocent of sin at this moment when God ordered him to work. All of that means there is no goal in life which will absolve you from your God-ordained purpose to work. You should not flee from it. Work is a good, divine aspect of our relationship with God.
This doesn’t mean all of us need to drop what we’re doing and become ministers. Most secular jobs afford plentiful opportunities to advance kingdom-interests and live a life of communion with God. As long as your job is an honest trade which isn’t causing you to sin, at minimum you’re able to do this job as if you are doing it for the Lord. Scripture says this opportunity to serve God in your daily work is even available to slaves.
In the third chapter of Paul’s letter to the Colossians he said, “Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.” So even slaves are expected to do genuinely good work with a genuinely good heart and they’re able to do this if they focus on the truth that God is the One whom they serve.
The scope of Adam’s work was essentially animal husbandry mixed with gardening and a bit of rudimentary biology. He was tasked with naming the animals, after all. While there were no thorns or thistles in the pre-Fall created order, there was left room for man-made industry. Part of the perfection of Eden was the opportunity it presented for Adam to accomplish work. He could express his creativity in the way he shaped and tended the Garden. Most importantly, the Garden so assuredly reflected its Creator that Adam could put his hands to work while His heart meditated on God. Work was an integral part of what made the Garden paradise. Adam’s experience would have been less-than and he would not have been satisfied had he been deprived of work.
In the same way that we cannot live deprived of work, we also cannot live deprived of government. God gave Adam dominion over the other creatures He created — but He also reminded Adam who the true King is. Faithfully remaining under the God’s governance is a requirement to inhabiting paradise. Adam’s placement in the Garden came packaged with God’s very first legal injunction against him. “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Paradise would not have been paradise without the rule of law — even before man fell.
Living in obedience to God gives us a sense of purpose which is prerequisite for all the other comforts we might experience. If you are deprived of purpose then no other good thing will be able to satisfy you. You’ll spiral into neurosis filled with anxiety and resentment — and these will crystallize into a depression which gets darker each time you acquire something that’s supposed to fulfill you and it fails to. You’ll think there’s something wrong with you when really there’s something wrong with the false god you are serving.
God designed us such that we cannot be idle for long without negative consequences. Doing nothing is not an option for a good life. He also designed us such that our spiritual well-being is contingent on our subservience to His law. Doing whatever we please is not an option for a good life. A good life is better than a happy life. A good man is better than a nice man. And the risk of adopting a good purpose is better than the perceived safety of no purpose at all. It’s better to be convicted and sanctified while serving a good God who loves you than it is to be totally alone, enslaved to sin but confused as free, serving idols which can’t say anything at all.
And I think that’s where we’ll end this study for today. We ran a bit long but I thought it best to avoid breaking up this passage. Part of the beauty of podcasting these studies in audio format is that you can pause to take a break whenever you like and you don’t need to find over an hour of spare time to sit down and watch it or show up in person. You can listen to these while you’re going about your God-ordained work. Thank you again for all the feedback you guys have given me, I always love hearing how this work is helping you. Remember to share it with your friends and you can even use it in your small group if that’s your thing. Thank you all for listening and I’ll see you in the next one.
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