Walk in the Bible - Genesis 2

Genesis - Chapter 2

    

     Genesis 1 - 2  starts with the ending of Chapter 1. Interestingly enough, it shows

 GOD making heaven and earth perfectly. There's no flaw, nothing missing, it's all perfect.

In the Canaanite myth of creation, there are wars and death, lying and scheming. Heck

when it came time for the Canaanite deities to create man, they deliberately made him  

flawed. GOD's version is  peaceful and benevolent. 

  

     Then, despite the fact that GOD's a spirit, it shows him resting on the day after everything 

was made.  Now, the Bible says this is the seventh day.  The number "seven" would have been 

understood in the time of the Ancient Hebrews as "perfect". Totally symmetry, He makes heaven 

and earth perfectly, then he rests on the perfect day! 

     Now, God didn't rest because HE was tired, he's spirit, and therefore can't be tired, or hungry or 

cold or anything you or I would feel.  He did this to show us that WE need to rest and not just work all 

the time.   This was directly in opposition to what the Canaanite and Egyptian religions taught.  They 

taught  that we had to constantly remind the gods to remember us and make the land fertile so we could 

grow food for ourselves and our family.   In fact, verses 3 - 4 also emphasize that point.  

     

    It shows that GOD watered the ground without any human intervention or reminders. The Canaanites had ritual prostitutes of Astoreth who's job was to have ritual sex with "worshipers"  in order to 

remind the gods to make their land fertile.  The Egyptians didn't have any  cultic  prostitution, per se, BUT the pharaoh WOULD masturbate into the Nile to ensure fertility of the land by the gods in the coming year.  God was showing us that he didn't need any of that, he was fully capable of taking care of the Earth without us. He didn't need us , not as slaves, nor as someone to work the ground, in fact, in verses 8 - 9 , it shows GOD planting trees and plants ahead of the humans he would create, so that they would have food ready for them. 

     

     This , once again , is in direct opposition to the Canaanite religion , where the gods worked the 

lands for themselves, then got tired  of it and made humans so they could pass on that task to them 

instead, and they didn't even leave plants for them, the humans had to do this for themselves!  None of 

this would be for GOD's consumption, again, he's spirit , and doesn't need food, but we did. So he chose to create food solely for our benefit!

     

     Verses 10-14 describe the river flowing out of Eden, and that the river was the source for the Garden 

of Eden. That river in turn was the source , literally , of life for the known lands at that time.  Just as 

the river in Eden was the source of life in Eden, GOD is the source of all life in this world. It's 

described with great detail, unlike the Canaanite or Egyptian myths, where no detail is really given about the creation of the world, except for a a bit here and a bit there.  Now, I know what you're wondering, if we have this detail, why can't we find Eden?  Remember that the world would flood soon, and that would cause those four named rivers to be changed or removed from their original foundations! 

     

     In Verse 16, we see GOD bringing the man into the already created Garden of Eden. The man didn't have to till the ground or plant any seeds, the garden was already created for him. All he had to do was to maintain this garden, which is far easier than starting it from scratch. He was literally giving man  an easy job, a light yoke (as Jesus said in his Sermon on the mountain). Even the rules he gave the man were pretty easy! He could eat anything in the garden, except one thing, just one thing!

     In Verses 18 - 19 we see GOD start the planning for man to have a "helper", Eve. Before he does that  however, he gives man authority over the animals in the newly created world by having him give them names. Remember, in that period of time, giving something or someone a name showed your authority , your ownership over them. That's just what GOD was allowing the man to do, have authority and ownership over all of the animals HE just created!

        

     Verses 20 - 22 show GOD causing Adam to sleep and creating Eve from his rib. Now, some scholars say something OTHER part of Adam was used to create Eve, and that's still in dispute. What we do know, is he took a part of Adam to create Eve, now, this is GOD, who could create the world by just his word, so why use a part of Adam?  This is to show that man and woman are one flesh and because both were created from mud, it was to show that they were not gods, nor could they be. This is pretty important, in Egypt, where they came from, the Pharaoh was believed to become a god in the afterlife. In Canaan, where they were going to , it was believed that your dead ancestors joined the gods in the afterlife. GOD was making an emphatic statement that HE was GOD, we were not, we weren't made with any part of him other than his breath. That's it!

    

     Verse 23 - 24 shows Adam not only accepting Eve, but understanding, even though he was less than one full day old, that Eve was literally part of his flesh, that they were literally one body.  Now, he doesn't give her her name, but says what she is. So at this point he doesn't show authority or ownership over her.  He's perfectly fine with GOD having that authority over himself and the woman.  

        

     Verse 23 & 24 also shows us that in GOD's eyes, men and women are equal, which must have been a mind-blowing thing to say during that period of time , especially in this society.  This society was a patriarchal society, in other words, men had all the rights , women were just possessions to be owned by their father or their husband when they married.  This is pretty much how it was in Canaan  to be sure. However, GOD is emphatically stating this isn't true. Both genders are equal in his eyes, and both are literally the same body. This is likely what Paul referenced later on when he said that husbands were to love their wives as if they were their own body, because that's just what they are ! 

     Verse 25 gives us a "GOD's-eye view" of what we are supposed to be like , in him. NO shame, no guilt, accepting ourselves and others, no body issues, non dirty jokes, no lewdness. Nothing like that. Just like Man and woman were in Eden. Naked and not ashamed.

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In summary, this shows us that GOD wants to take care of us, even going as far as modeling the behavior he expects from us. He wants to give us an easy burden (easier than what the world would give you anyway! ). He wants you to see everyone as equals, because that's how he created us to be, and he wants you  to realize that you, yourself aren't GOD, that's his job. He's GOD and only HIM. He's our author of life and as Jesus put it, our water of life too, and he wants us to stand, just like Adam and Eve before him, freely and without shame.

If you still hold shame, if you know you don't stand before GOD without it, then drop me a line. I'd like to talk to you !