The Seventh Day
1 And so the heavens and the earth were completed, with all their adornment. 2 And on the seventh day, God fulfilled his work, which he had made. And on the seventh day he rested from all his work, which he had accomplished. 3 And he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. For in it, he had ceased from all his work: the work whereby God created whatever he should make.
Man and Woman in the Garden
4 These are the generations of heaven and earth, when they were created, in the day when the Lord God made heaven and earth, 5 and every sapling of the field, before it would rise up in the land, and every wild plant, before it would germinate. For the Lord God had not brought rain upon the earth, and there was no man to work the land. 6 But a fountain ascended from the earth, irrigating the entire surface of the land. 7 And then the Lord God formed man from the clay of the earth, and he breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
8 Now the Lord God had planted a Paradise of enjoyment from the beginning. In it, he placed the man whom he had formed. 9 And from the soil the Lord God produced every tree that was beautiful to behold and pleasant to eat. And even the tree of life was in the midst of Paradise, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 And a river went forth from the place of enjoyment so as to irrigate Paradise, which is divided from there into four heads. 11 The name of one is the Phison; it is that which runs through all the land of Hevilath, where gold is born; 12 and the gold of that land is the finest. In that place is found bdellium and the onyx stone. 13 And the name of the second river is the Gehon; it is that which runs through all the land of Ethiopia. 14 Truly, the name of the third river is the Tigris; it advances opposite the Assyrians. But the fourth river, it is the Euphrates.
15 Thus, the Lord God brought the man, and put him into the Paradise of enjoyment, so that it would be attended and preserved by him. 16 And he instructed him, saying: “From every tree of Paradise, you shall eat. 17 But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in whatever day you will eat from it, you will die a death.”
18 The Lord God also said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. Let us make a helper for him similar to himself.” 19 Therefore, the Lord God, having formed from the soil all the animals of the earth and all the flying creatures of the air, brought them to Adam, in order to see what he would call them. For whatever Adam would call any living creature, that would be its name. 20 And Adam called each of the living things by their names: all the flying creatures of the air, and all the wild beasts of the land. Yet truly, for Adam, there was not found a helper similar to himself.
21 And so the Lord God sent a deep sleep upon Adam. And when he was fast asleep, he took one of his ribs, and he completed it with flesh for it. 22 And the Lord God built up the rib, which he took from Adam, into a woman. And he led her to Adam.
23 And Adam said: “Now this is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh. This one shall be called woman, because she was taken from man.”
24 For this reason, a man shall leave behind his father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife; and the two shall be as one flesh. 25 Now they were both naked: Adam, of course, and his wife. And they were not ashamed.
This is an interesting chapter. Not just for what it says but how it says it. You see, the first few lines explain God’s seventh day. It is the end of His work week. As such He decides to make the seventh day holy because it is the day he rested.
The rest of the chapter is set like a “flashback” in a story. It gives much greater detail of day six’s creation. We see that god creates man from the dust of the ground. This is where we get “Man you were made from dust and to dust shall you return”. We also see that God breathed life into man. That breath put a soul into Adam. We should thank God each day that we are alive for He gives us the soul for our lives. Without His miracle, we would not exist.
God then takes man and puts him into the Garden of Eden. There are two tress that stand out, The Tree of Life and The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Now, we are talking about the Garden of Eden here. Plenty of arguments go around about whether or not the Garden of Eden is real or not. People say we cannot take things literally they are symbolic. But with the description provided, it is clear to any reader that the author meant to convey the Garden of Eden as a REAL place.
The description provided about the river and where it runs and divides into four separate rivers that run through places would be easily recognizable for the peoples at the time of the writing. Tigris and Euphrates our still known today even if Mesopotamia may not be (see Mesopotamia in the dictionary below to know what it is today).
God can make mistakes, believe it or not, in this passage we see here that God recognized that something He created was not good. He saw that it was not good for man to be alone, and that none of what else He created was complimentary to man. Each animal was mated to its own kind and Adam had no one to mate with. God decided to fix His mistake by taking a piece of Adam and creating Eve.
Certainly, God could have created Eve from dust the same way He created Adam. But He did not. He created Eve from Adams body. This gives us the idea that husband and wife are together as one. Where the woman helps the man, and the man nurtures the woman.
“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.”
― Matthew Henry, An exposition of the Old and New Testament Volume 6
At this point in time of creation, there is no sin. Thus, out of all humanity over the eons, Adam and Eve were unique and without sin. Because of this, they were unashamed of anything. They were as innocent as we think of a newborn child today. They knew nothing of sin, good or evil, and therefore had nothing to hide or be ashamed of in front of God. They lived in heavenly bliss in the Paradise known as the Garden of Eden.
What is NOT said in this passage is how this creation was made known. I mean, let’s face it, the words themselves indicate to us that no human was around when God created all of this. That means this portion of history must have been made known by God Himself. Probably done so directly to Adam or Moses, who then accounts for it here.
Adornment – a thing which adorns or decorates, an ornament
Ascended – to go up – rise through the air
Assyrians – an indigenous ethnic group native to Mesopotamia
Bdellium – a fragrant resin produced by a number of trees related to myrrh, used in perfumes
Blessed – made holy; consecrated
Cush – exact location unknown – commonly believed to be Ethiopia
Ethiopia – a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa
Euphrates – fifteenth-longest river in Asia and the western of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia
Germinate – begin to grow and put out shoots after a period of dormancy
Gehon – a river encircling the entire land of Cush
Irrigating – supply water to (land or crops) to help growth, typically by means of channels
Hevilath – exact location unknown – commonly believed to be southern Saudi Arabia, Armenia
Mesopotamia – between two rivers (Tigris and Euphrates) – now eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and most of Iraq
Onyx – the parallel-banded variety of chalcedony, a silicate mineral
Paradise – a land of luxury and fulfillment containing ever-lasting bliss
Phison – to date – this river has never been clearly located
Tigris – the eastern of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia
Tree of Life – the source of life, a force that connects all lives,
Tree of Knowledge (of good and evil) – the “forbidden tree,” placed in the garden of Eden
Sanctified – set apart as or declare holy
Sapling – a young tree, especially one with a slender trunk
Woman – an adult female human being
God is all powerful and never wearies, then why did God rest on the seventh day?
The truth of the matter is He did not rest. The word rest is an inaccurate interpretation of the Hebrew shabat. The real meaning of shabat is to cease or stop. Thus God did not rest, He stopped creating. All He created was good and He finished His work. It is unfortunate that things get lost in interpretation. God had a cessation of work, not a reinvigoration after work. God did not just rest from work, He made a purposeful stop of work.
This is where the laws of Moses came up with the Sabbath. There was to be no work on the seventh day (Saturday). Israelites were to cease their work on the Sabbath. This is also where the concept of a seven-day week came from.
Where is the Garden of Eden?
I keep wondering about this. It probably would not make a difference if I knew the exact location, after all, God has guards there that will stop anyone from entering it anyway. But still, wouldn’t it be nice to know where it is just the same, even if you could not enter it. At the very least if would prove what the Bible claims in terms we could comprehend.
With that in mind I often try to figure out where it would be based on the descriptions in Genesis. This is probably a futile effort though. While the names may be the same in modern day, the location may not be. You see, God flooded the earth, and Noah named the new rivers. All the rivers of the day were wiped out in the flood. New ones were created when the waters receded. How are we going to possibly conclude that the current rivers now were the same ones back then?
Why do we equate responsibility with consequences?
You are probably wondering what the heck am I talking about this for? It is actually really simple. We see in chapter two here that actions have consequences, and we are responsible for our actions. God gave Adam specific instructions, delineated what could and could not be done, and what would happen if he disobeyed. It is a lesson we should all learn from. Yet, in today’s society, there is hardly anyone who cares anymore about consequences and doing what is right.
“From every tree of Paradise, you shall eat. 17 But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in whatever day you will eat from it, you will die a death.”
God, on the sixth day, speaking to Adam