More information about creation
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📚Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them 📖. 2 📚And on the seventh day God completed his work which he had done; and he ceased 📖 on the seventh day 📖 from all his work which he had done. 3 📚And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified 📖 it, because in it he had ceased from all his work which God created and did.4 📚These are the accounts 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 📚no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no shrub of the field had yet sprouted. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground. 6 But a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
2:4-6 It is obvious that conditions in the early earth were very different from what they are now.⚜
2:6 The Hebrew of this verse is very difficult and might be translated in other ways.⚜
7 📚And the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
2:7 This is the second account of God’s creation of man. It does not contradict the first account but gives added information. Man’s body is composed of elements found in the earth (Gen 3:19). In the Hebrew language even the word for man (Adam – see v 20) is very close to the word for ground (Adamah). But man is not mere body. See Eccl 12:7; Ps 31:5; Luke 16:22-23; Acts 7:59; 2 Cor 5:6-8; 1 Thess 5:23; Heb 12:22-23; Rev 6:9-11. In the creation of man’s body God used previously existing material. But we cannot say that He used previously existing materials when He brought plant and animal life into existence. He does not tell us either that He did or that He did not.⚜
8 📚And the LORD God planted a garden toward the east in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
2:8 To some extent we can identify the location of Eden from the information given in verses 10-14. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow through present-day Iraq into the Persian Gulf. Nothing is known about the rivers called here Pishon and Gihon. They may no longer exist. The Cush mentioned in verse 13 is not the land we call Ethiopia today, but another region of the same name located in the neighborhood of Iraq.⚜
9 📚And out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; also the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
2:9 We do not know what the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil were like. We know only what resulted from eating their fruit. The fruit of one gave life. Eating the fruit of the other gave a specific kind of knowledge. This was not wisdom itself but a knowledge of good and evil that would come from experience. The trees themselves were both good (Gen 1:31). God never made anything evil.⚜
10 📚And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became four head streams. 11 📚The name of the first is Pishon. That is the one that goes around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 📚And the gold of that land is good. There also are bdellium and the onyx stone. 13 📚And the name of the second river is Gihon. This is the one that goes around the whole land of Cush 📖. 14 📚And the name of the third river is Hiddekel 📖. This is the one that goes 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 cultivate it and to keep it.
2:15 God did not create man for idleness.⚜
16 📚And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 📚but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die 📖”.
2:17 God is the Creator, the Lord of the universe. He has a perfect right to give commands to His creatures, and to test their love and obedience. He gave the first man only one command – that they must not eat the fruit of a certain tree. The command might have been about something else – the meaning would have been the same. The meaning can be expressed in these words: I am God; you are man. It is your privilege and duty to love me supremely, trust me completely and obey me gladly. If you do not do so you shall die.⚜
18 📚And the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him”.
2:18 This refers to a specific man, Adam. The definite article is used. It is a general principle that a man needs a wife but it does not always apply (Jer 16:1-2; 1 Cor 7:26-27). In the case of the first man it was necessary for him to have a wife if there was to be a human race. But it is not necessary for any specific individual now to marry, because perpetuating the human race is not an issue.⚜
19 📚And the LORD God formed every beast of the field from the ground 📖, and every bird of the air, and brought 📖 them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that became its name. 20 📚And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But as for Adam 📖 there was not found a suitable helper for him.
2:15-20 The picture here is beautiful – God and man at peace, in fellowship and communication. Man knew God and walked with God. God’s plan had man in a garden, surrounded by beauty, in the midst of plenty, with pleasant work to do. And man was created for a very high purpose and destiny. He was the ruler of God’s earth (Gen 1:28; Ps 8:5-6).⚜
2:20 Man from the beginning had the gift of language and the ability to use words rightly. God gave him this gift when He created him.⚜
21 📚And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs 📖 and in its place closed up the flesh. 22 📚And with the rib which the LORD God took from man, he made a woman, and brought her to the man.
2:21-22 Woman, too, is not a product of evolution but a unique creation of God (1 Cor 11:8-12).⚜
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 a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
2:23-24 From the beginning God ordained marriage as one man, one woman (Mark 10:7-8; Eph 5:28-33). “Woman”– in Hebrew the word for woman sounds very much like one of the words for man (man – “ish” or “eesh”; woman – “isha” or “ishsha”).⚜
25 📚And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.