- God’s final act part 2
- God’s final act part 1
- Working together part 2
- Working together part 1
- Hope fulfilled part 2
- Hope fulfilled part 1
- Hope promised
- Kings and Prophets
- The Law of Moses part 2
- The Law of Moses part 1
- God’s message to the world
- The Fallout
- God’s response to our choice
- The Fall
- Paradise
- Creation: The Big Picture
by, Isam Itson III
Genesis 2:7“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.”
The story of Creation recorded in Genesis 2: 4 – 25 is focused on God establishing his order for our lives in relationship to each other. This story paints the picture of how God intended us to live together on the earth. This story begins with an empty landscape and God forms the man from the dust of the earth and gives the man the breath of life. The man owes his form and existence to the attentive work of the God of Israel.
In this passage God is identified as the Lord God. When we see the word Lord used to identify God in our Bibles we know that the original Hebrew used the word we pronounce Jehovah or Yahweh. In this chapter the words Lord God are used to translate the Hebrew words Yahweh Elohim.
Yahweh is the word that God used to identify himself to Moses as the God of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We can also translate yahweh as “I am he who exists” or “I am he who will be”. God speaks of himself as I am. We humans speak of God as He is. Yahweh combined with the title Elohim, identifies the supreme almighty God of all life and order in the heavens and the earth as the special God of the people of Israel.
“And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.” Ge 2:8. After Creating the man, God planted a garden. The next verses describe an enclosed space that God filled with beautiful fruit trees and watered by a river that flowed out of the garden and then branched into the main rivers that would eventually sustain civilized life across the earth.
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” Ge 2:15. So God formed the man, brought him to life, prepared a well watered garden filled with fruit trees, and then appointed the man as the caretaker for his well ordered creation. God made the man to cultivate the earth. God made the man for an orderly and meaningful life, accountable to God. So far so good.
But there is one problem in this ideal life for the man. In Ge 2:18 God says, “It is not good that the man is alone, I will make a helper suitable for him.” Our orderly and meaningful lives on earth can only be fulfilled in cooperation with other human beings.
Helper is the translation of a Hebrew word that is generally used for military assistance. The idea is that without their help, the nation is doomed. Helper conveys the idea of a champion. The man needs a hero to march in and save the day. The man needs a helper suitable or fit for him. Another person that is equal to him and absolutely necessary to the fulfillment of his God given life. Without this champion the man will not be able to fulfill his God given purpose to cultivate God’s life and order in the garden. So God made the woman.
As we continue reading, God draws the woman out from the side of the man and presents her to the man as his life cultivating partner. The man sees that she is just like him and that they are now able to work together under God’s covering. God gave the man and woman to each other as husband and wife to help each other fulfill his divine purpose for humans in the earth. They are God’s gift of life, hope, and help to each other.
“And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” Ge 2: 25. They were open to each other without fear of rejection, abuse, or exploitation. They had faithful love, mutual respect, and relational harmony with God and each other. The husband and his wife were honored by God with a well ordered and meaningful life. God made them to fearlessly cultivate the earth together under his divine covering.
This is human life as God intended. God caring for the humans. The humans fulfilling theirroleas God’s caretakers over the earth. Everyone and everything provided for by God, or covered by God. The humans honoring God and each other, and blessedby God with life, purpose, and provision. This story reveals that we were made for a life of spiritual, social, and material well being and fulfillment, together, under God.
In response
1. How do you express honor and gratitude to God in your home and workplace?
2. How do you express honor and appreciation for the people God has placed in your life?
3. Do you view the contribution of other people as absolutely necessary for the fulfillment of God’s purpose in your life? If yes, how do you express their value to you? If no, why not?