Call to Worship (Jeremiah 18, Psalm 139)

We come with praise for the wonderful works of God.

Even before we speak, God knows us completely.

The Holy One knows us and sustains us, even in our moments of

confusion and doubt.

Who can count the thoughts of God?

They are more than all the sands of the desert.

Like clay in the hand of the potter, we are shaped into vessels of

divine will.

We come with praise for the wonderful works of God.

Invocation (Jeremiah 18, Psalm 139)Creator of people and nations, you are beyond our

knowing, yet closer to us than our every breath.

You are before us and behind us, surrounding us with your

love, and fashioning all of creation in the secret depths of

your heart.

With every thought, with every song, and with every

prayer, turn these fragile, earthen vessels of our lives, into

the Spirit-filled body of Christ.

Amen.

Genesis 2:15-25 FIRST THINGS

First Things“First Things” is the theme for our coming lessons. We will see

not only the first days of creation, but also how God formed his

people Israel as the first nation, and then how their first freedom

came about.

First ThingsThe study's aim is to discover what God did and purposed when He

created mankind.

The study's application is to learn to embrace God's relationship

patterns so that we can experience His blessings in life and to

bring our thinking and actions into conformity with God's

established plan for mankind.

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First ThingsMoses wrote Genesis. Inspired by God, he recorded things that

only the Creator could know. Because of this, Scripture gives the

only definitive account of creation. Each day is described in

Genesis 1. Today’s text provides more details about what

happened on the sixth day, when the Lord created land animals

and the first humans (1:24-31). .

First ThingsIt explains in particular God’s relation to men and women.

The Lord declared, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our

likeness, so that they may rule over . . . all the creatures that move

along the ground” (v. 26).

Genesis 2:18-20For everything God created, He said it was ‘good’. Yet one thing

was not good!

“It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper

suitable for him.”

Woman can provide the perfect counterpoint for man. She can

meet his physical, emotional, and social needs, as he can hers.

Together they are able to reproduce and carry out their

responsibilities in the world.

Genesis 2:18-20God placed Adam in charge of all the animals. Naming them was

his first duty.

James E. Smith points out that this process “enabled man to

exercise the gifts of language and reason, manifest his sovereignty

over all creatures, and discover for himself his loneliness. . . .

Adam saw clearly that for him there was no suitable helper among

the animals” (2:20).

Genesis 2:15The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of

Eden to till it and keep it.

Genesis 2:15When God created Adam, God gave Adam a beautiful and good

garden in the midst of His creation.

God also gave Adam the responsibility “to till” the garden (to sow

seeds and reap food in perfect conditions) and “to keep” the

garden (maintain the good and beautiful condition of the garden

Genesis 2:15The garden would be a place where he could grow mentally,

physically, and spiritually.

Over time he could learn how to till the garden and produce a

variety of good foods.

More importantly, he could learn more about God and himself in

communication with God.

Genesis 2:16And the LORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of

every tree of the garden;

Genesis 2:16God created people in the image of God, which included the image

of the Son of God (see John 1 and John 17:5, 24). God has the

ability to make moral choices and God gave people the ability to

make moral choices too.

Genesis 2:16By giving Adam a good and reasonable command, God enabled

Adam to live as a person who could freely make moral choices and

choose the consequences of his moral choices.

Adam could exercise all of his attributes as a person created in the

image of God.

Genesis 2:17but 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 die.”

Genesis 2:17God withheld from Adam only one thing, one tree in the garden.

God made only one law for Adam to obey or disobey as a person

free to make ethical or moral choices. God told Adam the

consequences if he ate of the forbidden tree.

Genesis 2:17God withheld from Adam only one thing, one tree in the garden.

God made only one law for Adam to obey or disobey as a person

free to make ethical or moral choices. God told Adam the

consequences if he ate of the forbidden tree.

At this point, we have no record of Adam having any personal

knowledge of what death truly was.

Genesis 2:17Adam knew “good” by experience, and “good” was all he knew by

experience. If Adam disobeyed God, he would know “evil” by

experience.

Adam could choose to keep good in the garden or he could choose

to bring evil into the garden.

Genesis 2:18Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be

alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”

Genesis 2:18God was not alone, because God the Father, God the Son, and the

Holy Spirit communicated with each other, loved each other, and

worked together before and after God created all that exists. God

wanted Adam to have someone like himself as a companion so he

would not be alone.

Genesis 2:18The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit worked together in the

creation and redemption of human beings. God wanted people to

experience this same joy of living and working together with others

similar to themselves.

Genesis 2:18Lesson: When we need someone and no one is there Jesus is

always at our side (2 Tim. 4:16-17)  

At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me.

May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me

strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all

the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth.

Genesis 2:18Reflect:

God never intended for man to be alone. What causes ‘loneliness’

in this life and how do we impose it upon ourselves?

Genesis 2:19So out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the

field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see

what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living

creature, that was its name.

Genesis 2:19Though God had already made plants and animals (Genesis 1),

God wanted to teach Adam about what it meant to be creative and

create so Adam would also be creative and create.

God took the ground, the dust of the ground, to make animals and

birds so Adam could watch the process of creation.

Genesis 2:19God wanted to help Adam develop his imagination and reasoning

ability. God wanted Adam to discover that he needed someone

more like himself in order to have a real helper and partner.

Genesis 2:20The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and

to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a

helper as his partner.

Genesis 2:20God may have taken “years” or “a long time” helping Adam

develop his mind and understanding. God is so great that He could

also do in a day what would take us thousands of years to do or

wait a thousand years for us to learn.

Based on all Adam learned about these animals, Adam concluded

that none were equal to him in the image of God or fit to be his

helper and partner.

Genesis 2:20Lesson: God gives us companions to help enjoy the work of our

hands (Eccl 4:8)

There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There

was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his

wealth. "For whom am I toiling," he asked, "and why am I

depriving myself of enjoyment?"

Genesis 2:20Reflect: Our wise God often allows us to recognize our deficiencies

so that we might appreciate His provision and seek Him (Gen.

2:19-20)

That is the power of confession.

Genesis 2:21-23The Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. Although

Adam had been made from the dust of the earth, Eve was made

from Adam’s side (1 Corinthians 11:8).

When Adam awoke, God brought the woman he had made to him.

Adam experienced a new sense of completeness with this perfect

companion that the Lord had provided for him.

Genesis 2:21-23C. F. Keil wrote, “She was formed for an inseparable unity and

fellowship of life with the man, and the mode of her creation was

to lay the actual foundation for the moral ordinance of marriage.”

Genesis 2:21So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he

slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with

flesh.

Genesis 2:21God did not want Adam to experience pain. God created Adam

with the ability to experience pain, but pain would not come to

Adam until after he disobeyed God.

Genesis 2:21Lesson: God's omnipotence is displayed by His ability to create

however He chooses (vs. 21)

Which is harder for you: to believe that God has all power or to

accept His answers as given? Why?

Genesis 2:22And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made

into a woman and brought her to the man.

Genesis 2:22Perhaps God allowed Adam to watch Him create the woman out of

Adam’s rib.

Adam would know that part of himself was within the woman as

created by God. Because God taught Adam about what God was

doing, Adam could exclaim that the woman was bone of his bones

and her flesh was like his (from the ground).

Genesis 2:22Lesson: God's provision is always exactly what we need (vs. 22)

How is it that we miss His provisions if they are exactly what we

need?

Genesis 2:23Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of

my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one

was taken.”

Genesis 2:23Adam also expressed the emotion of appreciation at least, if not

love, to God and to the woman who had come from a part of him

and would be his partner.

Just as Adam named the animals, so he would name the woman,

Eve.

Genesis 2:24Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his

wife, and they become one flesh.

Genesis 2:24This is God’s plan (Luke 17:27). Marriage is to be monogamous.

Instead of remaining under the protective custody of his parents, a

man leaves them in order to establish a new family unit with his

wife.

Genesis 2:24Based on the creation of men and women, both created in the

image of God, they can be partners.

Husband and wife are of one body, just as the Church is one body

(Eph. 5:28-30)  

In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He

who loves his wife loves himself.  After all, no one ever hated his own body,

but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- for we are

members of his body.

Genesis 2:24Reflect: God's creation of woman forever symbolizes His designed

oneness for a husband and wife (vss. 23-24)

How has culture changed our view of that ‘oneness’ in marriage?

Genesis 2:25And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not

ashamed.

Genesis 2:25God created Adam and Eve, man and woman, as husband and wife

to be able to stand before each other as partners and be

unashamed.

Just as the animals and birds need no clothes other than the

clothes God gave them, so in the garden of Eden Adam and Eve

only needed their skin covering as the clothes God gave them.

They did not know shame or the emotion of feeling ashamed

because they did not know evil by experience.

Genesis 2:25Consider: Only the forgiveness of God can restore man's sense of

innocence (vs. 25)

What part of your innocence would you like to have back?

ConclusionThe phrase "and God saw that it was good" appears at various

stages of his creative work (Genesis 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25). The

assessment of the creation as "very good" concludes the entire

account (Genesis 1:31).

However, we now learn of a situation that is not good: the fact that

the man should be alone.

ConclusionSomething of the purpose for the creation of woman is already

hinted at even before her creation takes place. She will complete

the man, helping him become what he would not be capable of

becoming were he to remain alone.

Benediction (Luke 14)Holy One of life and grace, you have shown us the cost of being

your people.

We give you thanks, for the crosses that are ours to bear, and for

the strength to carry them.

Help us follow the path of Jesus, who shows us the way.

Amen.

Blessing (Psalm 139)The Holy One rejoices in our repentance, reshaping us into vessels

of love and service.

In the grace-filled love of Christ, we are forgiven.