The American Wisdom Series

 #2225

We now come to the eighth day, the seventh having passed away.

Genesis 2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
Now, you will find that in just about every commentary of the Bible extant,
that the creation which follows is presented as a parenthetical insertion,
a more detailed account of the creation of man which we read of in chapter 1 beginning in verse 26.

This false assumption will lead to great difficulty in explaining how it is
that in chapter one the animals are created first, then man,
while here in chapter two man is created first and then the animals.

Which is it?

The answer is BOTH.

There are two separate creations, of should I say, one creation and one formation.

We begin to "see" in the next verse.

[5] And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
Do you recall that in pamphlet #2223 we noticed there was no mention in chapter one, whatsoever, of a farmer, a man to till the ground and plant seeds?

The sixth day man was given dominion over the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea.

There were only hunters and fishers.

And so here on the eighth day,
following God's day of rest (Sabbath),
God says that He has "no man to till the ground".

It is significant that eight, in Biblical numerics, means "new beginnings", because God is about to form a new man for a very, very special purpose.

[6] But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

[7] And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

There are several important things to notice in this verse:

First, the Hebrew word for "formed" is yatsar, meaning to "mould" or "form" as a potter.

It is not the same word as "created" in Gen. 1:26, which is bara.

Secondly (and this is crucial to our understanding), the word "man" used here is

" 'eth-ha adham", with the article and particle, and means "this same man Adam".

 It means a specific man, not mankind in general.

Again, if you are fortunate to have a Companion Bible, it will document this for you.

Lastly, we see God "breathed" into Adam's nostrils the "breath of life".

The word translated "breathed" is naphach, which means to "inflate",
as in He inflated Adam's lungs.

But the word translated "breath" is neshamah,
which means "divine inspiration", "intellect", "soul" or "spirit".

So God not only inflated Adam's lungs with "air",
but placed in him his "breath of life body", i.e. his spiritual body.

The apostle Paul makes it very clear in 1 Cor. 15
that there is a flesh body and a spiritual body,
and Adam, had both when God was finished forming him.

[8] And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
God did not tell this "man" to go forth and replenish the earth, did He?

Instead, He prepared a special garden and in it placed this "same man Adam",
whom He had formed.

[9] And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Do you see that in addition to the trees in the rest of the garden,
there were two specific trees present in the midst of the garden?

Do you know what or who they were?

Verses 10 through 14 describe the geographical location of Eden
which we shall discuss in more detail when we get to chapter 6 in Genesis.

[10] And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

[11] The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

[12] And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

[13] And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

[14] And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

[15] And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Our Father now has a man to till the ground, an husbandman, a gardener.

His name is Adam and he is given charge to dress and maintain Eden.

[16] And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Adam was told that he could eat of every tree of the gerden.

Hum! Is He is talking about spiritual food or physical food?

[17] But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
But, there is a "tree" in the midst of the garden,
which has the knowledge of good and evil, that Adam better stay away from,
or it will cost him his life.
It's pretty clear He's talking spiritual food here!

As you may already know, Adam falls short and disobeys God,
and dies at age 930, just 70 years short of one day.

Shortly we will discover and document who the tree of the knowledge of good and evil really is, and in doing so, we will shatter one of Satan's biggest and most prolific lies.

 For some, it may well be one of most interesting Bible studies they have ever read.
 

We are now in the eighth day.

God has just formed (not created as in chapter one) a special man to "till the ground"
and has placed him in the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it.
Why this special formation

of this individual man?

Because it would be through this man,

'eth ha Adam, and his soon to be formed wife, Eve,
that the Messiah, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, would be born.

It is God's plan to offer salvation to all mankind through Jesus Christ, (God Himself, born in a flesh and blood body just like we are in now.

It was God's plan from the beginning.

And so, we better be prepared to expect that Satan will try his best to thwart this plan of God and to destroy this woman and her offspring!

If we keep this objective (to destroy the seed line of Christ) in mind throughout the Old Testament, as we read it, we will better understand the events that took place,
like when king Abimelech took Sarah,
after Abraham told him that she was his sister,
and when Judah took "foreign" wives, and produced "non-qualified" offspring, etc.

Let's now look in on Adam and see how he is doing.

Genesis 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
Oh, the poor boy is lonely.

This particular verse should easily be understood by all those who have gone through puberty, i.e.
Adam needed a woman.

The fundamental things of life remain, "As Time Goes By".

[19] And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
These are the domestic animals, or better said, the "farm animals"
that were created to compliment the "man to till the ground"
whom our Father had just formed, i.e. Old McAdam, the farmer.

You will find, if you care to check it out,
that in chapter 1 verse 24, God brought forth the beasts of the "earth",
erets in Hebrew, meaning the "earth at large" or "wilderness", i.e.
the wild animals (wild kingdom I like to call it).

But here in chapter 2 verse 19 he formed every beast of the "field",
sadeh in Hebrew, meaning "country" or "field", i.e.
field animals or farm animals.

Once again, notice that these animals were created AFTER this individual man was formed whereas in chapter one the wild animals were created BEFORE mankind.

These were separate creations.

[20] And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
This verse reveals that dog is not really man's best friend!

So don't let anyone fool you into believing that line.

  Genesis 2:21] And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

Adam was the first human being to under surgery.

The Hebrew word translated "rib" is tsela,
and it is derived from the root word tsala,
which means "curve", not rib.

And so it is that women are more "curvy" than men.

[22] And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Some would speculate that the "curve" taken from Adam was in fact his DNA,
which it may well have been.

Although DNA is very "curvy" (if you've ever seen a model of it),
not much in the way anesthesia and surgery would be necessary to acquire it.

I truly love this aspect about God's Word,
when not much in the way of details is supplied to an event or occurrence,
and we are left free to speculate and use good common sense.

[23] And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
While we are on the subject of speculation,
do you suppose Adam witnessed the formation of some of the domestic animals
that his Father formed and brought to him?

It would certainly make the reality of this verse profoundly more impressive to Adam,
knowing that this time God used material and substance taken directly from his own body.

Think about it!

[24] Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Ephesians chapter five will document the spiritual aspect of being one flesh,
and that husbands and wives should love each other as much as our own flesh.

But even so, it is true that when a man and a woman "cleave" together,
their combined flesh becomes "one flesh" in their child.

[25] And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
They had no reason to be ashamed for they had committed no sin.

Neither would any husband and wife, standing before each other naked, be ashamed, unless perhaps one of them had been unfaithful!
 
 

OK, it is now time to "grow-up" and mature in the Word of God.

                 Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Who is this serpent who was more subtle, meaning wise, than any other living, created being, human or otherwise, in the garden? ... a literal "snake" standing upright like we see in the Bible story books?

Please!

Perhaps when we first begin reading the Bible
and have only gotten to chapter 3 of Genesis,
we might not be quite sure who this serpent is.

But if we read the whole Word of God,
there can be no doubt who he is and what he looks like.

Rev. 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
That "old serpent" in the garden was Satan himself, not disguised as a snake, but the creep is a "snake", in the figurative sense, of course!

I've done business with some snakes before and they really are cunning and conniving.

Anyway, this old serpent has perpetuated a lie,
a tradition, about the "snake" and the "apple" long enough.

It is his plan to deceive a Biblically ignorant people with such trot,
"because it ministers to the acceptance of his lie, the hiding of God's truth,
the jeers of the infidel, the opposition of the critics, and the stumbling of the weak in faith."
(Companion Bible, appendix 19, last paragraph.)

Again in Revelation 20 we see who that serpent was.

He is to be bound during the millennium for 1000 years.

Rev. 20:2
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
The apostle Paul also made it clear who this serpent was in 2 Cor. 11:3:
2 Cor. 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
The Greek word for "serpent" is ophis, which means "an artful, malicious person; (figuratively a snake).

Satan was beautiful and charismatic and charming,
truly a glorious "angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14).

Let's repeat Gen. 3:1.

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Notice that Satan is about to tempt Eve with God's Word.

He is mis-quoting God!

Remember he tempted Christ in the wilderness with God's Word.

It is his MO, his greatest method of deception.

By mis-quoting and twisting the scriptures and causing people to believe the "letter" of what is written,
instead of the "truth" of what is written, he is able to perpetuate mass deception on an uninformed populous.

[2] And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees (plural) of the garden:
Note: trees (plural) It appears there were many spirit beings (Trees) in the garden in addition to theTree of Life (Jesus) and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? (Satan)"
Eve knew that she and her husband could freely partake of all the trees in the garden.
She also knew that there was a special set aside "tree",
in a specific geographical location (in the midst of the garden),
that they had better stay away from.
[3] But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Satan has now brought into question the Word of God.

So Eve, in her reply, omits the word "freely" (preceding 'eat thereof'),
adds the words "neither shall ye touch it",
and alters the certainty "thou shalt surely die"
into a contingency "lest ye die".

[4] And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
Satan now contradicts the Word of God and tells the first of many, many lies, for he is the father of lies (John 8:44).

In pamphlet #2226 we will go back and spend some time on verse 3,
documenting the true identity of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil",
who dwelled in the midst of garden.

We will also examine the Hebrew origin of the word translated "touch",
because there is about to be a seduction in the fig grove.

Don't miss it!

Read Pamphlets #2226 through #2229We'll find out what really happened in the garden!

To study the 1st. 11 chapters of Genesis word for word: (live link to) All 11 chapters in one complete study

To study the Bible is the noblest of all pursuits; to understand it, the highest of all goals.
We pray that with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, you accomplish both.
This "American Wisdom Series" pamphlet

is

Published by:

Rhine Publishing Co.