Read with Me
Genesis 2:4-9 (HCSB)
These are the records of the heavens and the earth, concerning their creation at the time that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. No shrub of the field had yet grown on the land, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not made it rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground. But water would come out of the ground and water the entire surface of the land. Then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
The LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He placed the man He had formed. The LORD God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Listen with Me
Some teach that Genesis 2 is a second version of the creation story, differing in several important ways. They point especially to the fact that in Genesis 1, the term “Elohim”, “God”, is used, while in Genesis 2, the term used for God is “Yahweh Elohim”.
But this is easily explained. Elohim is the plural of the term El, which means not only “God”, but is derived from the root meaning “power”. Thus, when the focus is on God’s creative power, He had Moses used the term Elohim alone.
But “Yahweh”, “the Lord”, is God’s personal name which he revealed to Moses and through him to the Israelites. It is a name that communicates a personal relationship. In Genesis 2, where the focus is on God’s interpersonal dealings with the first created human pair, God had Moses use both names together to communicate not only His power in creating mankind, but the fact that He created them to be in relationship with Him.
The words at the start of verse four, “these are the records”, is a phrase frequently used to bridge two sections of the narrative. It implies that the Author is now going to explain what happened to the world that He had created in Genesis 1. This more in-depth picture begins back on day 6 before God created mankind male and female, and it intends to show in more detail how He did that.
The picture that it paints is that before man was created, plants grew in an uncultivated state, precisely because no human had yet been created to cultivate them. Even though it had not yet rained, the plants that grew wild after God created them on day three (Genesis 1:11-13) had plenty of water because the ground was still very moist, having been raised up from the water only three days earlier (Genesis 1:9-10). There were also subterranean water sources that spilled out through springs, which flowed into streams moving through the valleys, ultimately combining into the rivers that are described in verses 10-14.
It was in that wildly growing world that God formed the first man from the ground. This was a much different process than the one He had used to form the animals earlier in the day when He simply called them forth en masse from the earth. Even though the first human was formed from the same substance as the animals, he was fashioned by God’s hand as an individual, the only one of his species.
The man God had created was at first dead inert tissue. But then God breathed His own breath, His own Spirit into him, and brought him to life. And he was not just physically alive, but spiritually alive as well, able to see God, to hear Him, and to have a real relationship with Him.
God took the men out of the wildly growing jungle that covered most of the land and placed him in a garden He Himself had prepared as a home for him, where everything the man would need to eat and drink would be immediately at hand. This beautiful garden space included two specific trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, both in the center of the garden. The first would allow the man to continue to live forever. And the other would provide the opportunity for the test of obedience that is essential for all human beings to pass if they want to live in God’s presence.
Pray with Me
Father, it is evident that the same careful planning and execution You used in creating the rest of the earth and the universe was used in creating the first human being. He was not an afterthought, but the central focus of all Your creative efforts. And You carefully provided all he would need to grow and thrive forever. Lord, help me to read this with my spiritual eyes wide open, so that I can see clearly how I myself need to live in order to live forever in Your presence. Amen.