Male and Female - Genesis 2:4-24

Genesis 2:4 – 24

Genesis 2:4-24 teaches us a lot about God’s intent and purpose for the creation.  In fact, there are eight really good points for us to chew on that I will briefly highlight here but welcome further questions and feedback on.

1. This chapter tells us mankind’s purpose for existing.  Why are we here?  God created us to be the lord and steward of all his good gifts.  To enjoy the creation and manage it.  God wants creation to be tamed and cared for.  The earth needs us.  It needs us to pick fruit, tend gardens, clip grass, do landscaping, manage forest, tame animals.  God also wants culture.  He wants food, language, music, you name it.  We are here to enjoy and take delight in God’s precious creation.  This is the First Great Commission.  And it is the Commission that Jesus Christ is restoring us to.
 
2. The opening chapters in Genesis also lay out the idea on the image of God.  God made man in his image.  We are not told exactly what this means and in many respects this image has been lost in Man’s rebellion, so in part we will not fully know what the image of God means until Christ returns.  But a large part of being in God’s image is that we share in God’s attributes that no other creature has.  Mankind has been set aside for this.  It also means that as God rules, we represent his gracious rule to the rest of God’s creatures.

3. Creation also teaches us that mankind is limited.  We need to rest, eat, catch our breath and things like that.  But we also have a limit before God.  We are dependent upon God for every good thing.  I am not my own person.  To be a creature of God means that we have a master who has established a way of life that we are to live as creatures living in God’s will.  This is established in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  This tree is the altar upon which Adam and Eve worship God by respecting the fact that God is God and they are not.  Every time they respect that tree they respect the limit that God has wired into us.
 
4. It is good that we are limited and dependent.  In a society where we are called to not rely on anyone this might be a hard word to hear.  But it is good that we are dependent on God but also on each other.  I need other people to survive.  I need others to do things that I cannot do.  C.S. Lewis depicts this thought in his book, “The Great Divorce” when heaven is shown where resources are scarce but because everyone is rightly related to each other there is more than enough.  Hell on the other hand, has people having all resources at their disposal so that they need no one and in fact lead miserable, self-appointed lonely exiles.  It is good that we need God and each other.  To be a creature is to be limited.

5. Creation has a Design.  God established a rhythm to our life and to the creation’s life.  God created time and order. God made the seasons and the stars so we can reckon time.  Having just made it through covid lockdowns, time seemed to just be nonexistent.  But time is real and God designed our creation to mark and show time.  This is for good order so that things may be done in good season.

6. Men and Women & Marriage.  Genesis 2 shows us the relation between man and woman.  We are created differently and have different tasks.  These differences are hardwired into how God has made us.  The two sexes are fundamentally different and this is good and complimentary.  Men cannot do what women can do and women cannot do what man is called to do.  It is a curse upon creation when this does not happen, as we see in Genesis 3.  Together, man and woman make up humanity.
 
7. The Nature of God.  This text shows us that creation is God’s purpose.  God does not create out of necessity.  He creates because he wants to create.  God doesn’t need us for his survival or even for company.  God doesn’t even need our worship, our time, or even our talents.  We need to do them because we are creatures, but God doesn’t need our existence for any reason.  Period.  God has no lack, no deficiency.  How God is depicted in the opening chapters is that he chooses to create because he wants to.  God made room in His existence for us.
 
8. Creation is Good.  The physical world is not an accident but intended to be made by God.  The material world is God’s plan for us.  The physical universe is God’s and in Christ he has redeemed it and one day he will restore it.  You will live on a rejuvenated earth with a restored body forever.  Our job is to embrace the world as God’s gift creation.

There, 8 points for you to consider more closely as we continue to ponder God’s creation and the work that Christ has done for it out of great love for you and for the Creation.