The Creation of the Family; Genesis 2:18-25

 

The third story of creation tells of the creation of the family It has three parts: Adam’s relationship with the animals, the creation of Adam’s wife, Eve, and how the family continues to be created today.

God stated that there was one thing about creation that was not good. He said it was not good that Adam was alone. God said that He would make Adam a helper, someone to help him to work the garden and keep it. Creation was not yet complete.

One of the ways of God is that He shows us what something is not, then He shows us what it is. First God brought all the animals to Adam for him to name. In giving each animal a name, Adam was entering into a relationship with it. Knowing the animal’s name gave Adam a relationship with the animal. After naming all of the animals, Adam was still alone. God had shown him that the animals could not be the help he needed. God had given Adam a desire for a deeper relationship than the animals could be to him.

God caused Adam to go to sleep. While he was asleep, God opened up Adam’s side, took one of his ribs out, fashioned a woman out of it, and then healed the place He had opened up with flesh. When Adam woke up he saw his wife, Eve, and exclaimed, “Finally, someone I can know intimately and that can know me as one. She will be called Woman because she was taken out of Man.” The first family had been created. Adam and Eve became husband and wife in God’s presence.

 Then God stated that from that time forward, the family would be made of one man and one woman. Every time a man leaves his family and cleaves to a woman who has left her family, a new family will be created. Husband and wife would know each other in the most intimate way without any shame. Their relationship with each other would be unique and creative with new life being the fruit of their love for each other.

 The family was the crown of all creation, revealing God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit with glorious love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

 

Lessons from the Story of the Creation of the Family

·         Only God can create a family by bringing a man and woman together by His design and purpose.

 

·         The family is made of a husband and a wife, created to be together as one and to help each other in the calling that God has given for His own glory.

 

·         The family, as God created it to be, is the way that God established for us to be obedient to God’s command to be fruitful and multiply, to subdue and have dominion over all of creation.

The Creation of Adam; Genesis 2:4-17

The second story of Creation is the creation of Man. There was a whole universe created within Man. Some have even called it the second creation of creation. It is found in the Genesis 2:4-17.

There was a unique situation on the earth at the dawn of creation. It had not yet rained upon the earth. The earth was watered by springs and a mist that came up from the ground. This meant that there were no storms.

Then God formed man from the earth and breathed into Adam His own breath, His Spirit, and Adam began to live and became a living life. The first thing that Adam saw when he opened his eyes was the face of God who had just breathed His Life into him. Adam and God had a personal relationship with each other; a face-to-face relationship. Adam’s life was Life with God.

God had planted a garden on the earth and called it Eden, which means delightful. The most beautiful and delightful place on earth was the place that God prepared for Adam to live. In the garden God planted the most beautiful trees and plants from all of His creation for Adam to look at and enjoy. The fruit trees in the garden were the sweetest and most nutritious of all the plants and fruit trees on earth. It was all for Adam to enjoy. In the middle of the garden there were two special trees; the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God gave Adam something to do for Him that was related to the command He gave him in the first story. God told Adam to work the garden and to keep it. These two words, “work” and “keep” are important. The first one is also translated as “serve” and “worship” in other places. It is used mostly to describe the work of the Levites in the Tabernacle and the Temple.

In other words, the work that Adam was to do would be an act of worship to God. He would be serving God as he worked in the garden, which would glorify God. It would also be an act of worship. As he worked in the garden, he would be worshipping and adoring God, the Creator of the garden. The Garden of Eden was the worship center of the earth.

God also told Adam to keep the garden. This word means to recognize the great value of something. Adam was told to guard the garden because it was his home. He was to take special care of it because it had such value. It was a place to worship God. It was a place to meet with God and glorify Him.

All of the earth would be blessed by the garden. All of the main rivers of the earth flowed out from a huge spring in the garden (the opposite of today’s earth; small streams and rivers flow into larger ones). Adam’s work would bless the whole earth. The command given to Adam in chapter one to subdue the earth and have dominion over creation would begin in the garden. As Adam was obedient to God in his home, the rest of creation would be blessed. Adam would learn in the garden how to work and keep all of creation. As he would be faithful with little, he would be given more. The Garden would grow until it encompassed the whole earth. The earth would then become the worship center for the whole of creation!

God gave Adam one more command: “Eat from every tree of the garden, but do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”  Here was the greatest blessing of all. Remember from the creation story from chapter one; the blessings of God are found in the commandments of God. This command from God carried the great blessing of where to go for the knowledge of good and evil; not from a tree, but from God. Solomon would end up praying for this in 1 Kings 3:9, but Adam was given the first opportunity of it with this command.

With this command, God gave Adam the blessing of how he would govern the garden, the earth, and the whole of creation; under the authority of God’s Word.

Lessons from the story of the creation of Adam:

·         God provides what we need before we need it. He planted the garden for Adam, then put him in it. God gave the command Adam would need in chapter three to counter the lie that would come from Satan. God is always working upstream in our lives to provide for us before we have needs.

·         The calling of God for each person in His Kingdom glorifies God and is to be valued above all else in life. Our work is an act of worship and brings glory to God.

·         God’s Word is the source for obedience to God’s commands. The command to be fruitful, multiple, subdue and have dominion over the earth would be accomplished by trusting God’s command for the knowledge of good and evil.

The Creation Story

Genesis 1-2

The creation story has three parts: the creation of the heavens and the earth, the creation of the man, and the creation of the family.

 

The story begins with God, Who is eternal. God created everything there is. God created the beginning. Your first memory verse is “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

 God created by speaking everything into being, into existence. First God said it, then He did it. This is one of the ways of God because God is faithful to His own word. God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” And God saw that the light was good. God could see Himself in His creation. God is good.

 Then God separated the light from the darkness and He called the light day and the darkness He called night and there was the first evening and morning of the first day. God created time when He created the first day. And time is a trinity; it has yesterday, it has today, and it has tomorrow; it has past, present, and future.

God spoke again and said, “Let there be a sky and let there be an earth.” And God separated the sky from the earth. He called the sky heaven and the earth He called earth. The waters in the sky were separated from the waters on the earth. This was the second day of creation.

On the third day, God said, “Let the waters be gathered together and let dry land appear.” It happened just like He said and God formed the oceans, rivers, and lakes. He called the waters that He gathered together, Seas, and the dry land He called earth, and it was good. God also said, “And let there be grass and plants and trees, and fruit trees, each one with seeds to multiply with. It was all just like He said and it was beautiful, just like God.

On the fourth day, God said, “Let sun and the moon and the planets give the earth its signs, days, and seasons, and times.” God created months and years that are still in place today.

God created the fish of the seas and the birds of the air on the fifth day. He also blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters, the sky, and the earth. This was the first blessing of creation and God saw that it was good, just like Him.

On the sixth day, God created animals, both wild and tame animals, and all of the insects that creep along the ground. God also created man on the sixth day, in His own image and likeness, to rule over all of creation. God blessed them, which was the second blessing of creation. There will be more about the creation of man in the next story.

On the seventh day, God created rest by finishing the work of creation. He blessed the seventh day and called it holy. This was the third blessing of creation and the first thing that God made holy, just like Him. It was a whole day set apart just for Him. This one day made all the others holy. This is one of the ways of God; through one, many are blessed.

Lessons from the Story of Creation

·         Everything that God created is like Him, it is good. When you see creation it should remind you of how good God is so you can honor Him as God, the Good Creator of all there is. When you see creation it should teach you to be grateful to God for all that He has made. Thanking God for what He has made and thanking Him for what He has given you to see, and to do, and to enjoy in creation is the purpose of creation. All of creation reveals the glorious goodness and generosity of God. Let’s honor Him and praise Him and thank Him for everything that He has made. You can thank God for your life.

·         God blesses with His commandments. In creation there were three things that God blessed and each one had a commandment from God. The fish and the birds were blessed with the commandment to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the waters, sky, and land. Man was blessed with the second blessing and told to be fruitful and multiply on the earth and to subdue the earth and have dominion over creation. The third blessing came on the seventh day with the command to rest from work. The commandments of God are blessings from God. When we obey God’s commandments we enjoy blessings from God.

·         God’s creation is ordered around a complete circle. After the seventh day, a new week begins. After thirty or thirty-one days, and new month begins. After twelve months, a new year begins. God’s creation reveals that God is perfect and complete, like a circle. Whatever God starts, He completes. This is one of the ways of God.

·         There are three ways of God seen in the creation story: First God says it, then He does it. God chooses one to give to many. And whatever God starts, He completes.

 

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Genesis 1:1