I see trees of green, red roses too,
I see them bloom for me and you,
and I think to myself, what a wonderful world.
And if you were here last week, you’re thinking to yourself, ‘The Rector has picked up last week’s sermon. Are we going to hear it all over again?’ You’ll be relieved to hear that it’s not the same sermon again. But perhaps as I read Genesis 2, you were thinking that it seems awfully similar to Genesis 1. After all, it’s another telling of the creation story. So what’s going on?
Think for a moment of watching football on TV. When a goal is scored, they don’t just show it from one angle - they show it from one side, then the other, then from behind the goal, and from overhead. You get a bigger picture when you see it from different angles. And that’s part of what’s going on here. But also, while it looks as if it’s the same old story again, this is a new departure - the story is going somewhere.
You can tell that by the start of verse 4. ‘This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.’ The way that line starts is the way the writer of Genesis divides up his material. You see, we’re so used to chapters in the Bible - so it seemed strange that last week we read a chapter and a bit. But Genesis is divided up by the places where it says ‘This is the account of...’ (or ‘These are the generations of...’ in the ESV). There are eleven of these, each time indicating a new part of the story, the next stage of God’s unfolding plan. (e.g. 5:1, 6:9 etc)
And what do we find in this account of the heavens and the earth? We find that the subject is God. It’s all about what the LORD God did and is doing in his world. God is active, working, creating, fulfilling his plans and purposes for his creation. He’s putting the patterns in place in God’s big design. And he is providing all that we need.
But that’s maybe to get ahead of ourselves. Because as we begin the chapter, people aren’t around yet. We get an idea of the timeframe in verse 4-6. The shrubs and plants of the field haven’t sprung up yet. They’re ready, they’re full of potential, but they haven’t grown up yet because: ‘for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.’ (5-6) Maybe that sounds like paradise - no rain and no men. But of course, there are no women either! Not yet!
That’s all about to change, though, as God makes man. ‘the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.’ (7)
Can you remember what we saw last week? How did God create everything else? How did light come about? God spoke, and it was so. He said something, and it happened. His words were powerful. But here, God gets his hands dirty. He formed the man from the dust of the ground. He scoops up some mud, like a child playing with plasticine or playdough, and forms the man.
And that’s not all - he also breathes into his nostrils. This isn’t the Sistine Chapel image by Michaelangelo (as seen on the opening of The South Bank Show), you know the one, the finger of God touching the finger of Adam and zapping him into life. No, God gives the kiss of life, breathing life into his creation, this first man.
And God is the God who provides. He provides a home for the man, in the Garden of Eden. When you hear Eden, you think of paradise - and so this is God’s Ideal Home Exhibition and the Chelsea Flower Show all in one. All kinds of trees are there - ‘trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.’ And right in the centre of the garden are two special trees - the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The paradise God provides is also supplied with water - a river flowing from Eden, dividing into four headwaters (slightly tricky to pronounce); and there is even gold, and resin and onyx all provided.
God provides a home, and water, and work. You see, the man isn’t in paradise just to lie back and take it easy. He’s there ‘to work it and take care of it’ (15). The man’s task is to work the ground, to extend the kingdom of Eden into all the world, and to take care of it - to guard it and keep it. So work isn’t something that only started after the fall (even though it can sometimes feel that way) - work is part of God’s plan. [Next week we’ll be thinking about the idea of vocation in work and ministry]
God has provided a home, and water, and work, and food. In Eden, though, there aren’t any juicy steaks or chicken dinners. The food is hanging on the trees: ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’ God provides the fruit as food - and God also provides a warning, a barrier. There’s an abundance, but there’s one tree he can’t eat from. Just one restriction in a garden full of trees. This is God’s only commandment - will Adam obey or not?
We’ve seen how God has provided so much - a home, water, work, food, his good command - and you could think to yourself, what a wonderful world, what a perfect paradise. And you’d be right. The echoing chorus of last week - And God saw that it was good - could come again. But suddenly, right in the middle of Eden, there is something that is not good. Verse 18: ‘The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”’
Remember that we’ve been made in God’s image - for love and community as well as for God’s plan and purpose - and so it’s not good for this man to be alone. He needs a helper, someone to share in his work and his world. And so the search is on. God brings all the beasts of the field and the birds of the air to the man. The man names them, exercising authority over them. Can you imagine what that was like? After he has named them all, aardvark to zebra and everything in between, he has come to the end, but ‘for Adam no suitable helper was found.’
So again, God takes the initiative, and performs surgery. He causes Adam to fall into a deep sleep, takes a rib, and makes a woman from the rib. Matthew Henry, writing in the 1700s, said this: ‘Women were created from the rib of man to be beside him, not from his head to top him, nor from his feet to be trampled by him, but from under his arm to be protected by him, near to his heart to be loved by him.’
And then comes the moment of meeting, when the man and the woman are introduced. And for the first time in the Bible, the man speaks:
‘This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called woman
for she was taken out of man.’
It’s the original love poem, for the very first love story. And do you see how man and woman are so intimately connected? Bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. And our English words with the common part of ‘man’ in both - man and woman reflect the Hebrew words ‘ish’ and ‘ishah’. Equal but different; the complementary nature of male and female. And that’s reflected in God’s plan for marriage, as we see in the next verse:
‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.’ (24)
God’s pattern for marriage is one man and one woman living faithfully together for life in a public covenant. The two become one. And in our New Testament reading we see that Jesus, when asked about marriage and divorce, refers back to this verse as the foundation for the Bible’s teaching on sex and marriage. Marriage is God’s idea, his plan. And so the man and his wife were naked, but felt no shame.
In Genesis 2, we’re still marvelling at the wonderful world God has made; we get a glimpse of God’s perfect paradise; and in a sense, we wish we were there. We know that paradise has been lost, but God is still the same God, who is a generous and gracious provider. And here we see the ways in which God provides - a home, and water, and work, and food, and companionship, and marriage.
When you realise just how much God has given to us, it should move us to praise and thanksgiving - to say thank you to God for the many, many ways in which he has provided.
So let’s do that; let’s pause and take a moment, quietly, to thank God for his provision. Let’s pray.
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday morning 8th September 2019.
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