Genesis 2:8-25

Genesis 2:8-25

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Life in God’s Garden

8 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 the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field 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 was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to 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 closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to 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 a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

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

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ge 2:8–25.

• Transcript

  Hey, good morning. Good morning. Good morning Welcome to Coffee and devotion is gonna jump on the computer and make sure everyone is able to join us live. Let me jump over here and make sure everybody is able to join us live send out the text message. It's going well have to let the servers catch up. Well, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions. It's so good to have you. As we're every day we get together. Have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together and this year, Lord willing, we'll make it from the book of Genesis, the Book of Leviticus. I'm so glad to be with you today. Why do I have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get into the Lord's word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the statement. Lord, we thank you that you are a gracious God. A God who is creative and a God who speaks to us. Lord, we pray for Your Holy Spirit this morning that you would work in our hearts that we might understand your word, and that you would apply it to our lives into our hearts in Jesus's name, Amen. All right, we're at Genesis chapter two beginning of verse nine. Genesis Chapter Two beginning of verse nine or sorry verse eight, and we'll read through the end of the chapter. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden there he put the man whom he had formed, and out of the ground the Lord made every tree grow that is pleasant to the site. And good for food. The Tree of Life was also in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden and from there it parted and became four riverheads. The name of the first is p. Shan. It is the one which skirts the whole land of Hava where there is gold and the gold of that land is good. But Gilliam and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is given. It is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush the name of the third is her DECO, and it is the one which goes toward the east of cerium. The fourth river is the Euphrates. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden, to tend and keep it and the Lord God commanded the man saying Of every tree of the garden, you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day you eat event, you shall surely die. And the Lord God said, it is not good for man, that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him. out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field 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 was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man he made into a woman and he brought her to the man. And Adam said, now this is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and we're not ashamed. Well, we need to ask ourselves a, what is this about? Be what's the best verses summarizes and see, what are we called to do in response to these words a first A What is this about? One? God has formed the world he's filled his creation with his creatures. And so now he's the story narrows in zooms in if it was a movie, it would be like there was this big, broad, wide lens and now it's moving into a telephoto lens zooming in on just Adam. And so he, he's created this now he creates the garden. When he shows the garden there's there's a waterfront and rivers that are flowing out of this garden and there's all sorts of trees and in this garden are two specific trees that are named the tree of life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And so as he's talking about Adam, these, as there's this one instruction given to them, right if we if we look at verse 15, through 17, right, God, put them in the go or put the man in the garden. He said, every tree of the garden you may freely eat. There's a full buffet, or you can eat whatever you want, man. I don't know about you, but I love going to buffets are you gonna try this and try that you can have all this stuff God says but there's only one not allowed to his by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in that in the day that you eat of it. You shall surely die. Or as the Hebrew says dying, you will die. This is with absolute certainty. Right? So this is this is this agreement this this command. This is how God has said I've created my world I've created you know, I've put you in this garden. There's this. There's this job you have where your job is to be the gardener Your job is to be the horticulturist your job is is to care for this garden that I've put you in and you get all this stuff. There's only one condition and that condition is donated the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The consequence of breaking this agreement between them would be death. And the this is what theologians all the parts are here for a covenant and so this is what many covenant or many theologians call the covenant of works. Adam, do these good works, and you will live Adam, if you do this, this work that I don't want you to do, you will die. And so the covenant of works is set in place. But God looks on man and and he sees that it's not good for Adam to be alone. He sees the first man that he's created and he says Well, I don't there's nothing comparable for him. He doesn't have a companion and so so the Lord brings us marching trail of animals Adam ready, he brings an animal to Adam and he has Adam name the animal whatever Adam names it, that's its name, but it's like the Lord is saying, okay, is this going to be enough? This is gonna be enough. I mean, I'm sure that Adam was overjoyed when a dog came, and he said, Oh, I liked this one. But it's it's still not. It's not the same. It's not comparable. And so Lord puts Adam in this deep sleep and and he takes one of his ribs and from his rib. He creates a new creation. Now there's a point here and I'm gonna come back to it about Eve being taken from Adam's rib and we'll talk about that in a minute. But there's this beauty that comes up from from this and that this poetic part right when when God brings Eve to Adam for the first time, says now this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of my will will miss the poetry here. When it's you know, bone of my bone and flesh my flesh sounds similar but man a woman don't sound too it gets a sound a little bit similar but it's a she shall be called E Shaw. Because she was taken out of man or, and so it's this beautiful exclamation is like from his heart. It's overflowing as she was taken from me, and so she's going to I'm Isha. And she's ishaah This is beautiful. And I'm so glad to see her. And so this the Lord is Jesus Christ himself. This is one of the reasons why I believe in a literal Adam and a literal six day creation, that because Jesus Christ Himself points back to this verse when he talks about marriage. This is God marrying Adam and Eve. God has done the matchmaking dot gods that the creating Gods now brought woman to man had man is so excited and and they they're married. And he says, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And Jesus says what God has brought together let no man separate. This beautiful picture here. of see it's not just God as this tyrant of the creation that he's made, but he's interacting and loving Adam and Eve. He's created this first family. He's put them in a beautiful land he's he's put them where the rivers flow out, and there's gold and there's Onyx. That where they could take vacations and they could go to Cush and they can go to have a lot and they could go to these beautiful places. But the the Lord is caring for them. He didn't just set the wheels in motion and walk away and didn't care at all but he gave them this good work to do. He gave them this covenant to be a part of and they were both naked, the man and his wife and we're not ashamed that there was this intimacy between them in an innocence that they could walk freely in the garden. And there was no shame that they had because there was no sin in the world. So they could enjoy one another fully freely without any hindrance. Something that we don't know at all. Maybe just in a little taste at times and our marriages and our relationships, but this, this type of deep, emotional and physical intimacy, this innocency between them, the Lord Himself created and so there's this there's a theologian, who wrote one time that that woman wasn't taken out of man's head that she would rule over him. She wasn't taken out of man's feet, that he might stomp all over her but she was taken from his rib, that she might always be next to him and nearer to him and beside him. This picture of intimacy The Lord gives her Isn't it beautiful? When we come to passages like this, that we see God, caring and loving for people, the story's not going to end even when we get into get into chapter three, and we read about the rebellion of people are going to still see that the Lord is still carrying. The Lord is still loving the Lord is still involved in creating intimate relationships, both between people, and also speaking to people himself. He acts as a father he acts as one who cares for his creation, loving them. Well, so what is this about this is this is about life in the garden. What's the best verse to underline? Well, I think in my Bible, I would underline verses 15 through 17. I think that's a very important part of the Bible. And they would also underline verses 23 and 23, probably through 2523 and 24, certainly, but most likely 25 as well. What would you do in your Bible? How would you underline this? What do you think it's at the heart of this passage? Well, last see calling what are we called to do? When we can thank the Lord, right, if you're married, go and be amazed by your spouse. Go love them. Go speak with them. They'll realize that the Lord has brought you two together and that no one should tear you apart. There shouldn't be anybody who gets split in between your relationship actually, that's one of the points here, right this Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined his wife right this in the old language was leaving and cleaving leaving your parents household and being one new home, right? Not even your in law should be getting in between you and your wife. But there's a way to honor your parents. While also loving your spouse. And so cling to your spouse, love your spouse, care for your spouse. Because this is the Lord's will and has a picture because this is how God pictures Jesus Christ in the church. He's the bridegroom, and we're the bride. And he loves His church. He cares for his church and nothing's going to get between him and his bride. Let's go and pray. Lord, we thank you so much for the grace you have shown us in who you are, and in your care for us. Lord, we thank you that you did not just create the whole world and go away but that you have come and you continue to be sovereign. You continue to love Lord, please teach us to rest in you. Please teach us to love you. Please teach us to follow you. In Jesus's name, Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you may walk in the peace and grace of Jesus Christ. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Transcribed by https://otter.ai