Genesis 2

Genesis 2 Opens With the Seventh Day and the Basis for the Sabbath

So tonight we'll be looking at Genesis chapter two and it begins by covering day seven. So last week we saw the six days of creation in chapter one and now day seven, this is the day where God does what?

God rests. And of course this becomes the basis for the Sabbath day in the book of Exodus. But most of Genesis two is really just a retelling of chapter one. We're just given a lot more details in chapter two.

In particular, we're given the specifics of how God created man from the dust of the earth. We're also told why and how he created Eve because it wasn't good that the man should be alone. God created her to help Adam.

Also we see that she was made from his rib and obviously their relationship, just like the seventh day will be the basis for the Sabbath, their relationship will be the basis for marriage going forward.

So let's just go through chapter two verse by verse. Verse one says, thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished. So everything that God created, it was all finished by day six.

So everything's finished. And that's why we usually say it's the six days of creation, not the seven because God didn't create anything on the seventh day. So he rested. Verse two, and on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had done.

And he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had done. Now, why did God rest? Did he need to rest?

Was God tired?

I mean, that was a lot of work,.

Just creating the whole universe and everything. God must've been tired, right?

No.

No, obviously God doesn't get tired. He's not a man in the sense that he would need to rest. So there's another purpose here. And the purpose is really to establish a pattern. And that pattern was for the children of Israel, but really it's a pattern, I think, for all of God's people for all time.

For the past 4 ,000 years, if not 6 ,000 years, God's people have followed the pattern of you work six days and then one day is for rest. More on that in a moment. But while it says that God has finished his work on day six, there is a sense where God is always working, right?

On day seven, it's not as if God wasn't doing anything. God is always working. In the gospel of John 5, verse 17, Jesus said, my father has been working until now and I have been working. So even though it says he's resting, it's true, he wasn't creating anything on day seven, but what was God doing on day seven?

He was, you could say he's upholding the creation. He's sustaining the creation. So God is no longer creating, but Hebrews 1, verse three tells us that Christ now upholds and sustains the creation, says by the word of his power.

But again, the whole comment about God resting is to establish this pattern. So let's go to Exodus 20, and we'll see when the Sabbath day is established. Commentator John MacArthur says this about verse two and the Sabbath day.

God certainly did not rest due to weariness, rather establishing the pattern for man's work cycle. He only modeled the need for rest. Later, the Sabbath ordinance of Moses found its basis in the creation week.

That's Exodus 20, eight through 11. So I told you Exodus 20, right?

Okay.

MacArthur continues the Sabbath, which again is the seventh day, was God's sacred ordained day in the weekly cycle. So sacred, meaning it was set apart. Therefore, the seventh day should be treated differently.

And this is, again, the whole basis for the Sabbath. In the New Testament, Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man. So Mark 2, 27. And in Colossians 2, 16, we read that the Sabbath, I think it's pretty clear based on Paul's words, the Sabbath is not part of the new covenant.

The Sabbath is part of the old covenant. It's given as part of the 10 commandments. So let's read that Exodus 20, eight through 11. So this is God giving Moses and the children of Israel the 10 commandments, the law.

He says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days, you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, your God. In it, you shall do no work, you nor your son or your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Now, can I get a volunteer to look up Colossians 2, 16?

Is someone willing to do that? All right, Larry, Colossians 2, 16. So again, the seventh day, this is establishing the pattern and the Sabbath is a command given to the nation of Israel.

Okay.

So this is a commandment for them to follow. It is a law, just like in our country, we have laws that are on the books. And if you break the law, there's a penalty for breaking the law, right? So in Old Testament Israel, if you broke the Sabbath day, if you went out and worked, let's say a guy went out and he picked up a bunch of sticks and he worked on the Sabbath, what could happen to that man?

He could be killed. In fact, he was killed. There was a guy who, after the Sabbath law was given, he went out and he worked and they actually put him to death. So this was the law of the land. So the Sabbath was a big deal.

Anyone who's ever read the gospels, you know that Jesus and the religious leaders of Israel, they're constantly sparring about the Sabbath, right? So does the Sabbath, we know it's a commandment for them.

What relevance does it have for us? Read Colossians 2 .16, if you would.

So let no one judge you in food or in Sabbaths.

Okay, so Paul says to Christians, New Testament Christians, don't let anyone judge you concerning the Sabbath or what you eat. And there's a lot of verses that we could look at about the Sabbath and the dietary laws, just like the sacrifices.

These things that were prescribed in the Old Testament are not necessarily binding for us. So how do we apply the Sabbath? We all understand what the Sabbath was for the Israelites, right? Yeah, it's set in stone, it's a law, you have to keep the Sabbath.

But what about for us? What's the application for us? See, here's the thing, the pattern is still there. The pattern still rings true, if you will. Is it a law, is it a commandment for us? Is the Sabbath a commandment for New Testament Christians?

See, we would say no, because if you say yes, then you say, well, then that means everyone should be in church on Sunday and you shouldn't go to work. Well, here's the problem, Sunday isn't the Sabbath.

The seventh day is Saturday, Sunday is the first day of the week. So that would be one problem. So the application for us is it's still what God has laid out that we should work for six days and rest one day.

And isn't this kind of the way that our society has been? Even if you have a five-day work week, you go to work for five days, and Saturday was kind of a day you worked around the house or worked outside, but Sunday was still the day of rest.

But Sunday is obviously not the Sabbath. So Sunday, what do we call Sunday? Yeah, so we get the Sabbath for Old Testament Israel. For us Christians, Christians disagree on this subject, typically Reformed Christians.

So these would be Presbyterians and Reformed Baptists. They tend to view the fourth commandment as still binding. So they call Sunday the Christian Sabbath. Okay, there are verses, Acts 20, verse 7, 1 Corinthians 16, to John in Revelation 1, 10 mentions the Lord's day.

I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. They believe that the New Testament pattern is to observe the Sabbath now on Sunday. So they call Sunday the Christian Sabbath. And a lot of Reformed people, they would say, yeah, you should not go to work.

You shouldn't mow your lawn. You shouldn't, and that's kind of the way most people were. Most Christians were like that before the latter part of the 20th century. Baptists and non-denominational churches, we don't call it the Christian Sabbath.

I don't believe it's the Sabbath. I do believe it's the Lord's day. And I still think that's the pattern that we should see this one day Sunday. It's Christian tradition. We should see it as different, but it's not a binding commandment where people are punished for not observing it.

But still I encourage everyone to be in church on Sunday and not go into their place of employment, but we don't make that a law. Okay, so that's typically how we've handled it.

Linda.

In a sense that what we didn't say was, which is what our Sunday is supposed to be about.

Right.

Being in church is supposed to be worshiping the Lord, honoring the Lord on Sunday. So that's similar to the Sabbath, what was supposed to happen on the Sabbath.

Right, the Israelites in the wilderness, they didn't go to church on, I mean, they didn't have a church, number one. They didn't even go to synagogue on Saturday. They didn't have a synagogue. It really was just a day of rest and personal worship perhaps.

But as Jewish history went on, then the synagogue system developed. And yes, they went to synagogue on Saturday. And it was sort of like us today with going to church. So it became a day of rest and worship.

So again, I still think that that's a good pattern. And one thing, again, all Christians will disagree on this, but one thing we have to say that I don't think anyone can disagree on, this will be the last thing I say about it.

But this new attitude towards Sunday where Christians kind of see it just like any other day, it has been very detrimental to local churches. So it's not good, that new attitude. But that's all I'm gonna say about that.

Yes, Marcus.

Well, Hebrews 10, 25 says, "'Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together "'as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another. "'And so much the more as you see the day approaching. "'All right, look, come, let us reason together again.

"'If you're going to gather together, "'well, then you all have to pick a day "'and you all have to not be working to get together.'". It seems clear to me that it's something that needs or must be done.

Yeah, and this is something that's, I know I said I wouldn't say anything else, but you opened the door for it. But people

I didn't say. I wouldn't say something.

I've heard people say, well, yes, one day out of seven, but I can't do Sunday. So Tuesday is gonna be my one day out of seven. The problem is the church doesn't meet on Tuesday.

That's the problem.

So, all right.

Verse three says, "'Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, "'because in it he rested from all his work "'which God had created and made.'". So, difference. There is a difference between Old Testament Sabbath and New Testament Christian Sabbath, or as I prefer, Lord's Day.

Any questions before we move on, or comments?

All right.

Good.

Moses, Inspiration, and the Authority of Genesis

Let's go to verse four. This is where God goes back and he starts filling in the details that were not given in chapter one. Verse four says, "'This is the history of the heavens and the earth. "'When they were created in the day "'that the Lord God made the earth and the heaven.'".

So, who is writing this?

Moses.

Moses, right.

Genesis is one of the first five books of Moses, also known as the Pentateuch, or the Torah. It's called the teachings, or it means the teachings. So, Moses is writing, but here's the thing. Moses wasn't around back then.

How does Moses know? How does Moses know all this information?

Inspiration.

Inspiration. We believe that, you know, based on 2 Timothy 3 .16, that all scripture is inspired by God. We believe that the Holy Spirit is inspiring Moses to write. And based on some statements in Exodus, there were times where God was just audibly talking to Moses saying, hey, write this down, and God was dictating.

So, this may have been dictated, may have been just inspiration of the Spirit. We don't know exactly how all of it worked, but this is God communicating this to Moses in one way, shape, or form. So, it's the writing of Moses, but it's also the word of God.

Marcus.

And in addition to being called the Pentateuch, of course. Right, right. Because we're not under law, we're under grace.

Right.

Because we've all broken the law.

Yeah, you think of the law as the Ten Commandments. Well, the Ten Commandments is the law, but the law wasn't just 10 commandments, it was 613, I think, total. But sometimes, yeah, the first five books are called the law, even though Genesis isn't really God giving all of the law to the children.

It's just a title that the Jews used for the first five books.

And also, before the Ten Commandments, there was only one commandment.

Yes.

Of the tree.

That's what we're gonna get to.

If you eat of the evil, thou shalt not eat. That was just one law.

True, there is a law in chapter two that we're gonna get to in just a moment. But I would say the main reason we believe that Genesis is the word of God is because that's what Jesus believed. I mean, we're Christians, so whatever Jesus affirmed, I mean, that's really where we're getting our belief system is from Jesus.

Jesus made several references to Genesis through Deuteronomy during his ministry. So let's go to this next section, verses five and six. We see originally that there was no rain in the world. Verse five says, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground, but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

And that's the way it was until what event?

Yeah.

No rain until the flood, because we talked about the atmosphere, how it was different, right? The firmament. So they never saw rain until it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. So a completely different atmosphere.

And we'll get to that in chapters six through nine, where the firmament will be broken up and then the earth is flooded. But right now, here in Genesis two, and for the first, what, thousand years, I guess, there was no rain and everything, instead of being watered top down, everything is being watered bottom up.

So the earth was very, very different before the flood. Verse seven, we see the creation of man. Man, the way he was made is different than the way God made everything else. Man gets some special attention, right?

We see that man is not spoken into existence. Man is formed from this preexisting matter, the dust. And God doesn't specifically say that he used his hands, but we get that sense that God, does God have hands?

Some people picture it like Jesus was there forming Adam. I don't know about that, maybe. But man is made from the dust of the earth and God makes man different. Look at verse seven, and the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and then he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being.

Does anyone else have a different word for that?

Soul.

Right, so if you have the King James version, it says man became a living soul, correct? All right, so the Hebrew word nephesh, it refers to breath or a living being that has breath. But what's significant, or what is, let me ask you, what is significant about Adam being made from dust?

Is there any symbolism there? Should we read into that, Marcus?

Oh, well, the soil is full of vitamins and minerals. Things are becoming physical here. I guess that's why I use that, more personal, more, I don't know.

Okay, I like that.

More close.

Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 15 for a moment. But yeah, the way God does it, it's more personal. So Eve is made from Adam, okay? Adam was made from the dust, Eve is made from Adam. So this question, which came first, the chicken or the egg?

The chicken.

The chicken comes first. God made, and this isn't something that we dealt with last week, but one of the reasons why I believe that the earth is young, it's the literal reading, that people say, yeah, but the earth, it looks very old, and the universe looks very old.

I agree with that. I mean, the earth may, in fact, look 4 billion years old. I mean, I don't know how you judge between 1 billion, 4 billion, or 13 billion. I don't know how you tell that. But even if we grant that the earth looks very, very old, when everything was created, it was created mature.

So God didn't make the egg or the embryo or anything. He made a full-grown chicken, a full-grown man with signs of age. So I have no problem with the idea that the earth looks much older than it is.

It's just not a problem biblically, Marcus.

Yeah, the thing that confused me for a while was, well, we know that science and telescopes and things like that have indicated that there are stars whose light travels such distances that it has to be measured in time, in light years, and we see them when, in fact, they don't exist anymore, just the light that they did.

So not only did God make a full-grown chicken when he created everything, he created light coming from what appeared to be a star that was billions of light years away or whatever. So this is where the scientists, I guess, get these astronomical numbers.

And astronomical, I guess, is the right word, isn't it?

And, you know, don't we have to recognize this? I'm not saying I don't believe it, but when they say a star is 200 million light years away and the star is this big and it's made up of this gas and this gas, and you are sort of taking that on faith a little bit, right?

Because they don't really know that for a fact. I'm not saying I don't believe them or that they're wrong. I'm just saying you don't know that for certain. So there is faith involved, whether it's faith in God's word or faith in what these men and women are saying.

But let's look at 1 Corinthians 15, 47 through 49. So Adam is the creature made of dust. And Paul references that here, 1 Corinthians 15, 47. He says, the first man was of the earth, Adam. He said, made of dust.

The second man, who is Jesus, is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust. So that's us. And as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are heavenly. Now, who does that apply to?

That's those of us who have been born again, born from above. Then Paul says in verse 49, and as we, talking about believers, as we have born the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man.

So Adam is the man of dust. And being made of dust, it may speak to the lowliness of man. The psalmist writes about God. What is man that he is mindful of him? Like we are below God, right? Let's go back to Genesis 2, because one thing about man, it could also speak of his frailty.

I mean, Adam is perfect, you could say, or at least he's innocent, but he's not perfect in the sense that Adam can sin. And a matter of fact, we don't even know how old he was, like how many days went by from the time Adam was created to the time he fell.

It almost seems like it was a day or two. Could have been years. We don't really know. But Adam has, I don't wanna say he has a flaw in the design or that he's weak, but he's susceptible, right? So the dust may speak to frailty, to make of that what you will.

Because after man quickly falls into sin in the next chapter, he's going to die and he starts the dying process. So Adam, here's the thing, here's the point I'm building up to. Adam was created with the potential to sin.

Do we agree with that? Was Adam made with a free will? Did Adam have free will? I believe he did. Adam had, but that free will gave him the potential to sin. Now, a lot of people believe, and I don't disagree with this, but a lot of people believe that God created him or he created us this way so that we could love God in return.

God loves us and the free will gives us the ability to love God in return, because if God just programmed us to love him back, then it's not real, right? You've heard this kind of talk. So it's necessary that man has a free will to choose to love God in response, okay?

But with that free will comes the possibility of not loving God in response. And whatever God makes is lesser than God. So it has that potential to go astray, which we know that's exactly what happens, yes.

And sometimes we like to blame Adam, but I'm glad he sinned. I'm glad it didn't get all the way down to me, because I would have.

Well, yeah, Adam was our representative. I mean, that's the whole purpose of why Paul was talking about that in 1 Corinthians. There's the first man, Adam, who he's the head of the human race, but then there's the second man, Jesus, who is the new head of a new race, the children of God.

Okay, so again, Adam has the ability to sin. One way that I believe that Adam was different than Jesus, I mean, there's many ways. I don't personally think Jesus had the capacity to sin. I don't, like in theory, Jesus could have, but Jesus is divine, right?

We believe Jesus is divine. Is it possible for God to sin? I don't, it's not possible. So here's a theory. If you disagree with this, that's fine. Bear with me. This is my theory. I believe it was God's plan to allow man to sin.

God knew it was gonna happen. It's not that he wanted it, but God knew it would happen, but in the process, God would redeem man so that we could become like God and truly like Christ. Are we like Christ right now?

Are you like Christ? To a degree, but you're not really like him. So God created us with this potential to sin. The only way man can have a free will without the potential to sin is if we're redeemed, because in the new heaven and the new earth, is there gonna be a potential to sin in the new heaven and new earth?

No.

So God is doing something for man to make us like him. We're created down here. God's up here and we're down here, but in the process of redemption, we're brought, we're not at the same level of God, but we will be like Christ.

Let's just read this passage, verses eight and nine. It tells us about the Garden of Eden. One person said that God loves his son so much, he wants to create millions and millions and millions of copies of his own son.

And that's what he's in the process of doing.

I like that.

But it says here, the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground, the Lord God caused or made every tree grow that is pleasant to the site and good for food.

And the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Some people said, well, why did God put the tree there if he knew at, this was all part of the plan, I guess.

Verses 10 through 14 gives us the location of the Garden of Eden. It mentions the rivers, not gonna go through all of that. But we know where the Garden of Eden was, generally speaking. It's in the land known as Mesopotamia.

So that's modern day, what? Turkey. Turkey, Iraq, that general area. We don't know exactly where the Garden of Eden was, but that general area in the Middle East. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormons said it was in Missouri, I think.

He's way off, way off. But as for Adam, another thing that made it possible for him to sin, as Marcus mentioned, God introduces a commandment. Because what is sin? Sin is the transgression of God's law.

If there's no law, if there's no rules, then man really can't sin because there's no law to transgress. So the fact that God made a law or one commandment, you could say it made it possible for sin to enter it.

Now, God is not the author of sin, of course. We always have to be clear and say that. But he did give God, or God did give mankind one rule. And here it is, verses 15 through 17. Then the Lord, God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it.

So Adam had work to do, it was good that he had work. Nothing wrong with work. Verse 16, 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 that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

Die.

And notice God says this to who?

Amen.

Adam.

Where's Eve as of this moment? Not only is she not there, I don't even think she exists at this point, but she certainly isn't there. So we all agree it's given to Adam, okay? That's gonna be important for next week.

So just keep that in the back of your mind. But now the way things are, man now has a test. Okay, God isn't tempting man to sin, God tempts no man to sin. But God does test people. So don't tune me out here, but who's gone to Bible college or seminary or taken some sort of Bible class?

All right, who has heard of the term passe paccare and passe non paccare? Or who's familiar with these terms? Okay, we got one hand. All right, so these are Latin terms used in theology. I think this will be helpful.

You don't really need to learn the Latin, but this is the way people talk about it. Adam, again, he's presented with a test. Will he obey God and not eat the fruit or will he disobey? So this is the test.

Adam is currently in a state of innocence, right? All right, so Adam has what we would say the passe non paccare, a Latin expression meaning that Adam was able not to sin. Everyone agree with that? So think of it this way, passe means like possibility, paccare, think of the word like peccadillo, it's doing something wrong, sin, and then non means not.

So the passe non paccare means Adam, before the fall, he has the ability not to sin. So he doesn't have to sin, he has the choice. He can either choose to sin or choose not to. Pretty simple so far, okay.

So Adam doesn't have to sin. He truly has what you would call a free will. Adam had a free will. However, after chapter three, after the fall, once Adam sins, he loses that ability to not sin. So now Adam, from chapter three onward, and really all of humanity, we have, when we're born into this world, we have the non passe non paccare, meaning that mankind is not able not to sin.

I know this is kind of complicated. Meaning that mankind, in his natural condition, after chapter three, mankind, to put it another term, we have to sin, we don't have a choice. We can't not sin. It's why, because it's in our nature.

So this is true for every person born into this world, people are born sinners, that's the way we put it. Original sin, the sin nature. So your unbelieving friend, your unbelieving coworker, they can't not sin.

They don't have that ability. That doesn't mean they have to give in to every single thing, but they can't stop sinning. They literally do not have that ability. However, once a person is born again, once a person believes on Christ, receives the spirit of God, they are once again restored to that position that Adam had.

And they once again, we once again have the ability to not sin. So you understand the difference. An unbeliever can't stop sinning. But a Christian who has the Holy Spirit, we have been restored to where now we do have the power by the Holy Ghost to not sin.

So at least in theory, we could, again, in theory, we could just live the rest of our lives without sinning.

Now, what's the problem?

We still have the human flesh. And like Jesus said, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. So we do end up giving in, but the spirit gives us that ability, the passe non peccare to the ability not to sin anymore.

So the Christian who says, well, I just can't help it. That's not really true. And you telling yourself that makes it worse because you're sort of giving yourself an excuse. Well, I can't help it. Well, actually we can through God's help.

Now in eternity, once we are with the Lord with our new resurrected bodies, and we don't have this sinful flesh anymore in eternity, in glory, we will have the non passe peccare, meaning we will not be able to sin.

So now we have the ability not to sin, but once we're with the Lord, and certainly once we have the new body, we can't sin anymore. So that'll be the situation in Revelation 21 and 22. If you read Revelation 21 and 22, it's like a return back to Eden almost, right?

There's a lot of comparisons between Genesis and Revelation. Well, you don't have to worry about, oh, it's just gonna happen all over again, and man's gonna rebel. It will not be possible in glory because man has been redeemed.

So that redemption process puts man in a position where we have will, we have free will, we can love God, we choose to love God, but the possibility of sin has completely been taken away, and that is really the ideal because we don't wanna go back to the Garden of Eden.

We don't wanna go back to innocence because in theory it could happen all over again, but it won't. So this was the plan all along, God knowing what would happen beforehand. He created man knowing Adam would fall.

So this was God's plan from the foundation of the world that we would be like Christ. And like I said, like Christ, not having even the possibility of sinning. And potentially that's what Peter was referring to in 2 Peter 1, 4, when he said that we are partakers or become partakers of the divine nature.

The Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge, and Adam's Test

Okay, let's look at verse 18. We'll try to finish this up. So all of that to say this, the stage is set. The drama of redemption is gonna be carried out. Everything that God made is good. He says it's very good, but the first time he says something is not good is here in verse 18.

It says, the Lord God said, "'It is not good that the man should be alone. "'I will make him a helper comparable to him.'". So last week God created man, what in his own image. So presumably when it's God speaking here, it's God speaking to the son saying, "'It's not good that Adam be alone.'".

Because you say God wasn't alone. In eternity past, God was with the father, son, and spirit. There was fellowship within the Trinity. God is a relational being even within himself. And God has created man to be and to have relationships.

So it's not good that man should be alone. It's really not good for any human being to be alone. Okay, that's not to say that every human being has to get married, but it's not good for people to be alone.

Like in prison, they use solitary confinement as a punishment. So it's not good for us to be alone. God doesn't need us, but we do need him and we do need one another. Verses 19 through 20, Adam names all of the animals who don't have time to cover that.

Verse 21, Lord says, "'But for Adam, there was not found "'a helper comparable to him.'. "'And the Lord 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.