Darkness isn’t mentioned in Genesis 2. Or Genesis 3. In fact, we don’t get this word again until Genesis 15, when God makes covenant with Abram. It starts in darkness, and then God shows up. That is the story of our relationship with God.
Genesis doesn’t tell you about sin and death until after it establishes that you are beloved.
God is asking you to trust Him in the story.
Why?
And out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
Genesis 2:19-20 (NASB)
I’m not sure, but perhaps it’s tied to this:
Now concerning everything which I have said to you, be careful; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth.
Exodus 23:13 (NASB)
The creeping things point to the serpent of Genesis 3. The serpent points to all the false gods.
But WE are given God’s name in Genesis 2:4, right before the Tree of Life is described:
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
Genesis 2:4 (NKJV)
God’s name and the Burning Bush seem linked, both in Exodus and in Genesis.
I wonder if Moses was given a vision of the Tree of Life, barely obscured by flaming swords (Gen 3:24).
So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Genesis 3:24 (NKJV)
Perhaps the imagery is that the Tree of Life can only be accessed by Fire. This could point to following the Pillar of Fire, or being refined by Fire, or perhaps being “burned in the Fire” as a Living Sacrifice.
It could be many things, but it seems to be linked… to dying.
And the Lord God commanded the man, “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 from it you will certainly die.”
Genesis 2:16-17 (NIV)
Perhaps the man wondered, “what is death?” And shortly after, God causes him to fall into a slumber. A sleep so unnatural that the man must have wondered, “what’s happening? Is this death?”
So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh.
Genesis 2:21 (NIV)
And after death, there is a new life. Eve’s name means… life.
when no shrub of the field was yet on earth and no grasses of the field had yet sprouted, because God יהוה had not sent rain upon the earth and there were no human beings to till the soil, but a flow would well up from the ground and water the whole surface of the earth — God יהוה formed the Human from the soil’s humus, blowing into his nostrils the breath of life: the Human became a living being.
Genesis 2:5-7 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS, 2006)
The key is in the word “טֶרֶם” (terem). Some bibles translate it as “before,” but the Rabbis say that this word gives us a tension of “almost, but not quite,” like the way one waits for the green signs of life to break through the surface of the ground. There, but not yet.
טרם יהיה בארץ WAS NOT YET IN THE EARTH — Wherever טרם occurs in the Scriptures it means “not yet” and does not mean “before.” It cannot be made into a verbal form, saying הטרים as one says הקדים (verbal form of קדם) and this passage proves that this is the meaning and not “before” as well as another (Exodus 9:30), כי טרם תראון “that ye do not yet fear the Lord.” Therefore you must explain this verse also thus: “No plant of the field was yet in the earth” at the time when the creation of the world was completed on the sixth day before man was created, and וכל עשב השדה טרם יצמח means “and every herb of the field had not yet grown.”
Rashi on Genesis 2:5:1
In this reading, God “brings forth” plants in Genesis 1, which points to seeds breaking open below the surface, waiting until someone can till the ground in Genesis 2, or perhaps as early as day 6 of creation in Genesis 1. This view is perhaps helpful for anyone who needs reconciliation between the timelines of the two chapters. It seems to work.
But maybe Adam isn’t us. Perhaps he represents God in the story, and it’s a story of God making something specifically for Himself.
We are the suitable helper.
It feels like an echo of Genesis 1 when God created humanity. Perhaps Genesis 2 tells us how He felt about us in the words of Adam when he sees the woman.
So the woman is made just like the man to be suitable for him as well. Equal.
Perhaps Adam’s waking revelation of another life made from him tells us that in waking from death, we will be joined with another. Complete.
And perhaps the waking tells us another thing: If Adam is like God, his own sleep/death tells us that God will die and rise to be united with his bride, too.
A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.
Genesis 2:10-11 (NIV)
“But Josh, there’s gold in the New Heaven and new Earth. It’s in the Revelation!”
Yes. I know. And Jesus said “with God, all things are possible” in the same story. And gold will likely have a different meaning in a world where there is no scarcity. Just like in Eden.