October 19, Genesis 2
Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. - Genesis 2:7
If Genesis 1 is the big, wide-angle picture of all Creation, Genesis 2 zooms in for a closeup of how human beings came to be. It’s not a different story; it’s an intimate look at our deepest roots.
In chapter 1, we read that the first human beings were made in God's image, after his likeness. Now we are told a little more about how God did it. The dual nature of our being is here. God formed a physical body from the same materials as the earth itself. But God himself breathed life into that body. This infusion of life from the spirit or breath of God himself is unique to humans in the creation narrative. No other living creature came to life like the first human being did. When Eve was created from Adam's rib, she was from him, a being of his own essence, distinct from all the other creatures God made and Adam named.
The goodness of God shines in the details. God provided the man and the woman with a paradise home with all the food they would need to sustain their physical bodies. God met their need for companionship by giving them one another in the prototypical marriage. He gave them responsibilities to work and keep their garden home. He gave them a comfortable climate. He gave them access to the tree of life in their innocent state. He commanded them to be fruitful and multiply, building into them the ability to bring more people into the world through their union. He also gave them a prohibition: Do not eat from the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
God allowed Adam to exercise his God-given dominion over the other creatures by letting the man name them. He gave him the gift of language (how else could he have named them?). He gave him a suitable companion to share his life. He gave them intellect, emotions and all the other higher faculties that distinguish humans from the rest of creation.
Are these things myth? Is all this information allegorical instead of factual? Jesus quoted from the opening chapters of Genesis to clarify God's design and intent about marriage. Paul referred to creation to describe the relationship between husbands and wives, as well as Christ and the church. If the Son of God, the Word made flesh, dealt with this information as factual and normative for the race, who are we to dismiss it as a myth? If the most prolific inspired writer of the New Testament treated this Genesis information as factual, do we dare dismiss it as fanciful?
These matters of our origins are inscrutable to our finite minds. If God conveyed what we need to know about all this by figurative speech, it was kind condescension to explain it with word pictures we could grasp. The concrete facts behind the images are clear, even if the exact methodology of how God did them are conveyed in poetic language. Our God is Almighty God for whom nothing is too hard. We and our world exist because God willed it to be so.
We must not dismiss this report as fable, myth or fantasy. God endowed us with gracious gifts. As Creator, he has absolute right to command us to do or not to do according to his will. He warns of dire consequences that will follow disobedience, but does not remove the opportunity for us to choose to love and obey him. These ideas will affect us and apply to everything that lies ahead in our Bible study. These lines are the foundation for understanding who we are and how we should live. Let's not take them for granted.
Copyright © 2021 by Michael B. McElroy. Used
by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—October 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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