1. To work and care for the world.
2. To name the things God puts before us.
3. To recognize the Image of God in other people and love them.
Love your neighbor. That’s what solves the “not good” problem.
The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
Genesis 2:23 (NIV)
Genesis 2:8 gives us our first cardinal direction to give us a sense of orientation. The garden is eastward, or on the east end of Eden.”East” will be a repeated theme throughout the text. Everything seems to move east.
The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.
Genesis 2:8 (NASB)
This Hebrew word “qedem” seems to carry an “origins” connotation with “East.” It seems to connect direction with time. East is the past.
qedem: East, ancient times, antiquity, front, before
“East” also feels very connected to “In the Beginning…”
Also, I wonder if this is related to the Hebrew language being written right to left. From “East” to “West.”
5:1, 6:9, 10:1, 10:32, 11:10, 11:27, 25:12, 25:19, etc, etc. SO MANY!
They appear linked to blessings. It shows the blessed ones receiving blessings: their offspring.
This is the book of the generations of Adam. On the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.
Genesis 5:1 (NASB)These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
Genesis 6:9 (NASB)Now these are the records of the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and sons were born to them after the flood.
Genesis 10:1 (NASB)
But the FIRST time this word “generations” (tôlḏôṯ) is used, it’s in an odd place, used in an odd way. It doesn’t appear to describe a blessed people at all.
It’s here, in Genesis 2:
[a] This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven.
Genesis 2:4 (NASB)
The footnote for [a] says: “Literally: These are the generations”
It’s a “genealogy of the heavens and the earth.”
In the same way the blessing of a generation show the blessed (the parent) and the blessings (the children), perhaps we humans are meant to be a blessing to the heavens and earth God created.
Guest Author @Randallthetrue from Twitter/X:
Genesis 2:15-20
Here God put man in the garden and said it is not good for him to be alone. Then God proceeded to create animals and send them to man to name one at a time. My question is how long did that take? What was man learning from it? Why did God do that before He made women?
Remember once God was done with all the animals none were a suitable helpmate. Obviously, God knew that would be the case but He still put man through all that prior to fulfilling the purpose, which He already had the answer. I can only assume it took many many years to name all the animals prior to woman being made.
To begin with God told man to serve and keep the garden the God said man needs a suitable helpmate. I see this in my life. God says He wants something for me then proceeds to take me down a road that seemingly has no relevance only to connect it all later.
I think if He made women first man would not have said “bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.” Anyways this leads to many thoughts maybe more later on.
Genesis 2 hints at this as well.
The heaven and the earth were finished, and all their array.
On the seventh day God finished the work that had been undertaken: [God] ceased on the seventh day from doing any of the work.
Genesis 2:1-2 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS, 2006)
We have a day of rest every week, and while we could get lost in a cycle of week-in and week-out, it’s written in a way to show us that rest is a finality. It is FINISHED. It points to a future forever-rest.
Gen 2 gives us a clue.
The words that I highlighted in the first post are the same word: “finished.” Kala.
But they have different forms in the text there in the passage. They mean different things.
The first instance of “finished” is in the pual form. This idea of completion. “It’s done.” God finished it, perhaps the way one might finish a task or an assignment.
But the second instance is in the piel form. It carries a more… ominous meaning. It’s not just being done, but having brought something to an end. To fulfill. In some instances, to destroy in its finality.
Perhaps this points to a future newness. A new heaven; a new earth.
A final Sabbath.
So the heavens and the earth were finished with all their forces.
Genesis 2:1 (John Goldingay, The First Testament)
What I love about this translation (John Goldingay, The First Testament, A New Translation, is it uses the word forces.
This opens up many lines of thought.
First Question: What forces is it talking about? I can think of many such as gravity, air currents, electricity, life (breathing and so on), photosynthesis… there are many.
Next the Scripture states that says God rested. but what is interesting is the forces He instituted did not stop. When He spoke them into existence they were always there. They never stop for the Sabbath. Mankind was told to take a Sabbath and in a different way the fields of the earth were told to be Sabbathed as well.
Some of our Christian theologies argue that nothing “not good” could have existed before the fall. But here, the text points out that the man was alone, and that being alone was “not good.”
But also, Gen 1 says it was dark and chaotic. God made that, too.
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Genesis 2:18 (NIV)
Some of our Christian theological perspectives are broken.
The text says God created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1:1, but God also created the chaos and the darkness in Genesis 1:2. Fortunately, He brings light and order in Genesis 1:3. That’s the correct framework.
Some of our theologies teach “God made it good, but we broke it with sin, so now we have to repent in order to be forgiven,” but this idea doesn’t flow from Genesis. I don’t think this teaching is correct.
Believing that God will heal us and bring us light is the good news.
And Genesis 2 can be read like this: “the kingdom of heaven is also like this…”
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 (NIV)