Covenant

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

God as the Central Actor in Creation and Human History

Oftentimes the charge of God being a moral monster is brought against him. He's accused of charging the Israelites with what seems to be random, unfounded murder of so-called innocent men, women and children all throughout the Old Testament.

His commands are often seen as depriving men and women of any real joy and pleasure in life where he desires them to live in agony and misery by forbidding drunkenness and sexual immorality, covetousness and a host of other things while taking great delight in man's miserable existence.

But is this really the God that Scripture shows us? Most, I hope, if not all of you I trust would answer with a resounding no, of course. But the question is how does God relate to man? Do you have an answer for that question?

At the very basic foundational level, what is man to God? Over the last few weeks we have worked our way through the creation account, the making of heaven and earth, of the vegetation, the animal life.

We looked at the man being made in the image of God and the mandate given to humanity of exercising dominion and concluded last week our study with the study of the seventh day on which God rested from all his work.

As we continue now in Genesis chapter 2, I believe we're given an answer to the question of how does God relate to his creation in the very beginning of the history of mankind? I believe we'll see that three things, three aspects of perhaps how God relates to man.

First, that God is the loving maker of man, a personal relational maker. And that he is pleased, secondly, to dwell with man. And then lastly, that he is most certainly Lord of man. So if you haven't already, I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 2, beginning in verse 4.

As we pick up here in verse 4, as a way perhaps of setting the scene, the focus of the text, you'll notice right away, begins to shift a little bit. And we move from a bird's-eye view of creation that we've seen up until now to what theologians call the garden narrative.

The shift is indicated when it says, These are the generations of the heaven and the earth, when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. This phrase right at the onset here, These are the generations of, is the first of 11 so-called Toledots in Genesis, which somewhat form the structure of the whole entire book.

They're commonly used throughout the Old Testament to introduce a list of descendants, or perhaps a tribal genealogy. We see it used in this way in Genesis 5, when it introduces a list of Adam's descendants to us, as well in the chapter following in chapter 6, it introduces Noah to us and gives us a brief biographical sketch of him before the narrative then continues with a flood.

And so here, it's used as a conclusion of what has come before and an introduction to the narrative that is to follow. We're about to get a closer, more detailed look at the creation of man on day 6. Adam's history, really man's history, the history of mankind is about to unfold before us.

It begins with Adam being made, being placed in the garden, continues with his fall into sin, and then the effects of that fall being passed on to future generations in Cain and Abel. Now I looked at this, and what's most fascinating, even in these opening verses of this account, is that God, and not man, remains the central figure.

Look just with me briefly at some verses, and try to catch this one phrase that's repeated over and over. In verse 4, it says, In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. Then in verse 5, For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land.

Verse 7, again, Then the Lord God formed the man. Verse 8, And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden. It keeps going. Verse 9, And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree. Verse 15, The Lord God took the man.

And 16,.

The Lord God commanded the man. The Lord God is at the center of it all. In short, without God at the center, there is no human history. He is at the center of every man's being and life. He is the key figure right from the beginning.

And so with verse 4 serving as this transitional phase, from the general to the specific, now the story begins to unfold. Read with me verse 5 through 7. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up.

For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land. And there was no man to work the ground. And a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. 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. This is where we begin to see this first aspect of how God relates to man. Moses quickly sets the stage for us in verses 5 and 6. He describes the condition of this land before man was fall.

He called the land without bush and any small plants because it had not yet received any rain. Simply covered by a mist rising from the ground. Now we have to perhaps stop here just for a minute because this is a point where Scripture has often been under attack and being accused of being contradictory.

After all, remember vegetation was created on day 3 and man on day 6. So how can there be no bushes or plants now by the time God makes man? The word for land in verse 5, though it's the same word translated as earth in the opening verses of this book, is best understood here in the sense of land as in a region or a country.

Consider the context here. This entire chapter is dedicated to the creation of man and his habitat. We're no longer looking at a creation in the chronological order but the specifics of day 6. And then later on in verse 8 you'll see that the Garden of Eden is said to be in the east of the land that is mentioned here in verse 5.

And of course, even in verse 5 it says that man was needed to work the ground for these plants to grow. These plants referred here are dependent on man working the ground and the Lord sending the rain.

They're dependent on man exercising the dominion that he was given. While the ones that are mentioned earlier in chapter 1 yielded their own seeds according to their own kinds. Commentator Kenneth Matthews points out that the bush and the small plant of the field in verse 5 he referred to the plants that are mentioned in chapter 3 that after the fall will bear thorns and thistles.

And so with that stage, with that stage, if you will, being said, verse 7 is when it gets interesting. 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.

Man is created. But the focus is, I don't think it's on man, but it remains on God. Notice who the maker is. Of course, we already know that God, Elohim, made man in His image. But here in the text, if you notice, it doesn't only say Elohim, it doesn't only say God, it says Lord God.

In the Hebrew, this is Yahweh Elohim. You may have picked up on this. Moses has already used it three times since verse 4. He's showing us by using Elohim, the glory and majesty of God as the creator and by adding Yahweh, which is the causative formation of the name that God introduces Himself to Moses with in Exodus 3.

He's telling us that the same majestic, all-powerful, self-existing God who made all things is the one and only personal God known as Yahweh. It's the same God that made a covenant with Abraham, with the Israelites on Mount Sinai, as well as the New Covenant.

At the very foundation, the maker of man is a personal and relational God. So what does He do? He forms the man of dust from the ground and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature.

This is in stark contrast to the pagan religions of the time and their understanding of the creation of man. These ancient Mesopotamian religious accounts, they speak of some of these so-called lesser gods that were under such heavy duties and labor that they had to revolt against it and call on the mother goddess to create mankind for them.

According to some of these accounts, the deity Geshtu is then slaughtered and from his blood and flesh mixed with some clay, a figure is formed in which these lesser gods then end up spinning. One more account speaks of, it's called Enki and Ninmah.

It tells of mankind as being created from clay, but there's a little twist in the account. Some rival gods find themselves in a drunken orgy and make humans with all manner of defects, and the chief of them being crippled.

In each of these accounts, these small gods made humanity in order to work for them, to relieve them of their labors and their burdens that they were under. The true God of the Bible, Yahweh, Elohim, as Moses calls him here, is nothing like this.

We don't see a needy and overburdened God who has lost his mind and drunkenness and who needs someone to relieve him of his labors. Even the language used here when it speaks of God forming man is the one that's used of a potter and his work.

God is depicted here as a master craftsman. He skillfully makes man. It's not a careless act of God. He's a precise potter. Man is his clay, and all of mankind are the work of his hands. And he gives this empty vessel the breath of life.

It's simply a phrase that refers to life, to being alive. It's the same thing that's being used at the end of chapter 1 when it refers to the animals. Derek Kidner had an interesting insight commenting on the breathing of the breath of life into man.

He says, Breathed is warmly personal with a face-to-face intimacy of a kiss and the significance that this was giving as well as making and self-giving at that. Yahweh, Elohim, relational covenant-making God, creator of all things, wonderfully, intentionally forms man out of the ground.

He's not a distant monster that forms a creature and then simply turns his back on it. He has an inherent affection for man as part of his very being. I think that ought to humble us. A pile of dirt has no might, no excellency.

It is lovingly and carefully formed with a very affection at the heart of who God is, by the same God who made all things. It ought to humble us. It most certainly humbled Abraham when he interceded for Sodom.

What does it say? It says, Abraham answered and said, Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. I am but dust and ashes. Ecclesiastes says that all are from dust and to dust all return. Apart from God giving life to man, he is absolutely nothing but a dead pile of dirt.

Humble yourself before your loving, affectionate maker. A second aspect of how God relates to man is found in verses 8 -14. It's the fact that God desires to dwell with man. He is pleased to dwell with man.

Let's read verses 8 -14. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east. There he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon.

It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Delium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.

And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. God prepares a place. He prepares this garden in the land of Eden. Again, ancient Sumerian mythology is helpful for contrast here.

It also has a concept of this garden of God, what they call it, the idea being that it is a deity's residence on earth. They describe it as a land that is bright and pure, a paradise where no sickness or death exists.

There is a water source that transformed this previously dry land into a literal garden of the gods. The mother goddess, Ninhursa, ten sacred plants there, and various other deities call it their home.

I like these gods and these stories. The God of the Bible prepares a place. Notice, it is not for himself, but for the man. Eden comes from a word that means delight or pleasure. This is exactly what this place is, a place of order.

It is a place of beauty as well as luxury and everything that man ever needed. Notice the abundance that God provides in it. It says, every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. Can you imagine a place where every which way you look, you get to see with the eyes unstained of sin, the full beauty of God's creation?

The fullest expression of his creation before sin entered the world. God has given so richly to man here. So much so that he even gives the tree of life. In verse 22 of the next chapter, we gain some more insight.

We read that it is a means of preserving life for man forever. While Adam and Eve trusted God by eating of this tree, instead of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would enjoy eternal life.

It served as a reminder to them of the blessings of life that God so freely and so lavishly had given to them. Opposite of that tree stands the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which later in verse 17 is said to bring not life, but cause death.

If man in disobeying God eats of it, and attempts to attain a wisdom and knowledge that belongs to God alone and not to man, in so doing he defies his maker, making himself God in his own eyes. Now verses 10 -14, they give us a description of this land of Eden and where the garden was located.

There is so much debate and discussion about where this place might have been. The fact is, scholars have no idea where it really was. But the point is that it was a real place on earth. A place that, as our text says, has plenty of water, had precious metals and stone.

It was the right place, the perfect place for man to exercise his dominion mandate and enjoy God and his creation forever. Now what is really interesting about this description is that some of these elements are repeated in a couple of other places in Scripture.

In the book of Ezekiel, for example, throughout chapters 42 -47, Ezekiel is given a vision of the temple. And in the opening verses of chapter 43, the prophet sees the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east, entering the temple through the eastern gate.

I just want you to notice some commonalities here, and we'll get to it. Notice that the garden was planted in the east of the land. And likewise, in Ezekiel we read that the temple had water flowing from it that turned into a mighty river, giving life to the trees on both sides that were bearing fruit and whose leaves were not withering but provided healing for all.

Similarly, the garden here has an abundance of water, with every tree in it that was good and a delight to the eyes of man. The land of Eden had these precious stones and metal. It specifically mentions gold and onyx.

Think back to the instruction of how to make the temple in 1 Chronicles 28 -29. We read about these utensils within the temple being made of solid gold, and of course the Ark of the Covenant was overlaid with gold, and its lid, the mercy seed, was made out of pure gold.

The onyx stone was put in Aaron's ephod, which also was made of pure gold, as well as the high priest's breastplate. I suggest to you that these commonalities in the language between the garden and the temple indicate the presence of God.

God's resting place among men was the temple, and the garden at the beginning was the blueprint for that temple. Reformed commentators and scholars have seen this great continuity and overlap between the creation account and God's resting in the building of the temple as His resting place.

Richard Barcellas, our brother's lecturer, writes, God's resting place is the temple. There He dwells. Earth is His footstool, and His throne is in heaven. Israel's temple was a replica of the original creation.

I think Psalm 78 verse 69 seems to substantiate or affirm this, when it says, He built His sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth which He has founded forever. In a sense, Eden was Earth's first temple, a special place where God was pleased to dwell with man.

And despite man's disobedience, cutting himself off, separating himself from God in this glorious state, God in His good grace and His abundant mercy has again prepared a place where man can dwell with Him again.

Then, in the second half of Revelation 21, through the beginning verses of chapter 22, I know we're jumping a lot, but you'll see this. We read of the new Jerusalem. And again, we notice some of these common recurring themes from Genesis to Ezekiel to Revelation.

The city is said to be made of gold. Onyx stones are part of the foundations of the wall of the city. John is again shown a river running from the throne of God through the middle of the street, with both sides having a tree of life that bears much fruit.

Of course, we know this place can only be entered in Jesus Christ. Early in Revelation, Christ says, He is the one that grants to eat of the tree of life. I think this is amazing. I don't want to just disregard it or think of it and say, Yeah, I know this and move on.

Think about this seriously. God, when He made man, He loved him so much. We often have this high view of God's holiness, of His justice, even of His wrath, but I don't think we often have a high view of His love.

And so He loved man so much that right from the onset of man's existence, He was pleased to dwell with him. And then when man sinned, and by extension through Adam, all humanity, each one of us, when you by your own doing were separated from God, the second person of the Trinity, who was Himself, as we have heard, involved in the very act of creation, becomes flesh.

What does He do? He takes on this poor, earthly state with all its limitations of hunger, of thirst, of tiredness. Leaving the glory that He had with the Father, He leaves it behind to redeem His people, to redeem you, to bear your sins and secure again for you a place where you get to dwell with God and enjoy Him forever.

God loves man. God loves you so much that He sent His only Son. If you're here, if you're not a believer, let these truths melt your heart. Let them lead you to repentance and turn from your sin. Believe on that Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and don't reject this love that He has shown to you in Jesus Christ any longer, that you may remain separated from Him.

He desires for you to dwell with Him and enjoy Him and behold His glory forever. God is a loving maker of man, and He desires to be with His people that He so affectionately loves. We see this in Genesis, and it will be the same at the very end when Christ returns.

God as Lord Over Man and the Covenant of Works

So lastly, for a third point, we see that God remains Lord, that God is Lord over man. Verse 15 -17, The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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. Immediately we notice that God is Lord over man. He is the one that puts him in this garden. He is the one that gives him the task of working and keeping, of tending the soil and caring for it.

God has not made man to be an idle creature. He has given him work to do as the Lord. He gives him work to do. Even in the garden before sin entered the world, work was ordained by God. And as such, it is a matter of obedience for us, obedience of service and worship of God when carried out faithfully.

It is an assignment given by the Lord to us. It did not enter the world after the fall, but was certainly severely distorted by it. And so it's hard and burdensome and most certainly on some days not enjoyable, but is a creation ordinance.

You must give yourself to that as part of your obeying the Lord that gave it to you. Paul, when he writes his second letter to the Thessalonians in the third chapter, says, if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.

If you're able, whether it be homemaking, raising children, or some work outside the home, you ought to give yourself to working. The Lord has made you to work and given it to you as a gift. Persisting in idleness, not at all wanting to do any sort of work, what Proverbs calls a sluggard is being disobedient to God.

Work is a consistent way of serving God faithfully. Too often we think that maybe we're not properly, effectively, faithfully serving the Lord unless we're filling some prominent role within the church.

The basic command given to Adam was to work the ground. Matthew Henry puts it this way, the sons and heirs of heaven while in this world have something to do about this earth which must have its share of their time and thoughts.

And if they do it with an eye to God, they as truly serve him in it as when they are upon their knees. This concept of God being Lord over us is further established in verse 16, in his giving man a command.

It's the same phrasing that we often find actually in the Pentateuch when laws are given to Moses or when God seeks faithful obedience from Noah, for example, when he was called or commanded to build the ark, or Abraham when he was called to circumcise Isaac.

So up until this point, all that humanity has known is blessing from God, unrestricted freedom. Yet, as a creature, he still remains subject to the Creator and he must live within the boundaries set by him and he's expected to obey the Lord's word.

And so this very first and only prohibition is given. It says, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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.

God gives this creature a good command. It is good because he allows Adam to eat of every tree that was created for him for food. And it is good because the prohibition serves to preserve Adam's life.

This has often been called by theologians the covenant of works, a covenant between God and man that promises blessing when it's being obeyed and that Adam will live and punishment of death if Adam disobeys.

Of course, we know that Adam will break this covenant when he, together with Eve, eats of this fruit and desire that which God so clearly prohibits here. He rebels against his Lord. He disregards his good, loving, and life-preserving command to him.

And so doing as a federal representative for humanity plunged all mankind into sin and death. Brothers and sisters, we must understand that we cannot take God's command and His word lightly. Adam may have done so, and look at the consequences.

A seemingly small act of disobedience brought death to every man, woman, and child. You must take your will and you must submit it to the word of God in every area of your life. Don't think you can neglect certain parts of it here and there maybe where you're not quite agreeing when it comes to respectable sins.

As Lord, God must be obeyed completely. None of His commands is too small or too insignificant to be disregarded. And they're all given for your good. Adam failed to obey. Each and every one of us has failed to obey.

And so we deserve death or glory be to God because Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, the second Adam, did not disobey. He obeyed perfectly on your behalf. But this does not give you a license to keep on sinning so that grace may abound.

Rather, you ought to seek to please, to serve, and to worship your Lord by being obedient and conforming your life to His word. And then knowing that as the Apostle John says, that when you do sin, you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and it is His obedience, it is His righteousness that is the foundation for you not receiving death that all of us most certainly deserve, but that we're given life.

And so, in closing, as the story of humanity begins, understand that it begins with God, a personal God that formed man out of dust that has set His most loving affection on him by the very nature of His being.

And that God is pleased to dwell with man. He is Lord of man and ought to be obeyed for the good of man. Let's close in prayer. Oh, Heavenly Father, first and foremost, we thank You for Your Word. That You have revealed Yourself to us in it.

And through it, we get to know this loving God that You are. This God that has so affectionately, carefully, wonderfully formed us. And that God has a desire or He's pleased to dwell with His creation, not only temporarily, but forever.

And that God is our Lord for our good and for His glory. Lord, we truly stand in awe of You. You have shown us a goodness and a kindness and grace that is unfathomable, of which we deserve none. You are a most glorious and good God.

Thank You for who You are and for who You continue to be until we dwell with You in Your presence. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Thank you for listening to another sermon from Grace Fellowship Church. If you would like to keep up with us, you can find us at Facebook at Grace Fellowship Church or our Instagram at Grace Church, Y-E-G, all one word.

Finally, you can visit us at our website, graceedmonton .ca. We pray that you have been blessed by this recording. God bless you and we hope to see you soon.