The first thing that Strikes me in Genesis 2 is that on the 7th day God rested from all his work which he had made, and therefore "God blessed the 7th day, and sanctified it."
-Wherein does the blessing of Keeping the Sabbath day holy come? In the fact that God's WORD (see blogpost for Genesis 1) blessed and sanctified it Above all other days.
The second thing worth noting in Genesis 2 is that I feel like the Entire chapter- or at least a large majority of it is pointing to the fact that Everything that was created was created Spiritually first, and in Genesis 2 the physical, earthly matter of it All is then being formed.
vs 1: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and ALL THE HOST OF THEM."
vs 5: ""And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew..." "For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground."
In Genesis 1 we read about the creation of All these things, plant, animal, man. So how is it that they were created and seen that they were good Then, but now are uncreated? Is Moses confused? I don't think so.
7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.Genesis 1 is the Spiritual Creation and Formation of All things; Genesis 2 is the Earthly coupling of Earthly matter with the matter of the Spirit of man, animal, plant that has already been formed.
19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
vs 7 says "And man became a living Soul". Soul meaning body AND Spirit joined together. And is it possible that "The breath of life" which God breathes into man in this verse is maybe Something as simple as putting the Spirit He has already Created into the Body which he has now formed?
"The breath of life" is indeed Spirit, after all. Dust turns to dust and earth can crumble away. But Spirit is what Stays.
Which now brings me to the third, and to me lately, Particularly significant part of the Chapter:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
The word "meet" has had particular significance to me lately each time I come across it in scripture. To me, it means Something along the lines of equal, but it means equal in the things I lack. It doesn't mean perfect, It actually contains within it the meaning that it is NOT perfect, but it is Perfectly sufficient in its purpose. It means "meet" me at the point where I can't do it myself.
A quote I got handed in an Institute class for church a little over a year ago (and oh! it's SO good!) says This about the meaning of the phrase "help meet"; -In reading this remember what it says in verses 19 and 20 of Genesis 2; "Every beast of the field, fowl of the air was formed "but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him":
"Society would have us believe that a help meet is a person of lesser stature—a subject, a subordinate.
An examination of the word itself yields an altogether different meaning. The Oxford English Dictionary lists its meaning as "even with or equal to." The original Hebrew text is even more enlightening. The word that has been translated as "help meet" is a combination of two root words: ezer and k'enegdo.
The word ezer also combines two roots: the first meaning "to rescue" or "to save" or "as a savior," sometimes coupled with the concept of majesty, and the other meaning "strength" or "to be strong."
The second Hebrew word, k'enegdo, is identified as meaning "equal."
Suppose we all, male and female alike, had been raised to read Genesis 2: 18 as follows:
"It is not good that man should be alone; I will make a majestic, saving power, equal with him, to be his companion."(Beverly Campbell, "Mother Eve", April 2, 1993, at the 11th annual conference of Collegium Aesculapium in Salt Lake City, Utah).
I would add to her rephrasing of that verse, the "strengthening" aspect of the word ezer which she refers to as well, and also reiterate that rescuing aspect; therefore the verse would read:
""It is not good that man should be alone; I will make a majestic, rescuing, strenghtening power, equal with him, to be his companion."
In Genesis 1 at the end of the post I said that God was telling us that we are All the same,
In Genesis 2 God is telling us that one of the things we are All the Same in is that we need an "help meet" for us; and not Only that we need one, but that He has created One for us as well.
God is telling us not only that it is not "good" for man to be alone, but perhaps Even more Significantly the reason it is not "good" is that we Cannot do it being alone.
Even prior to The Fall God sees that man does not have a help meet for him and that it is not Good for him to be alone. How much more then, after the fall, do we need this "majestic, saving, [strengthening] power, equal with us to be our companion"?
And is it possible, that God forsees the additional need as soon as He gives the caution to Adam that in eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil "Thou shalt surely die." And in the next verse, directly following, seemingly without a beat, God then says It is not Good for man to be alone, I will make an "help meet" for him.
'T'was Eve that ate the apple"And who's to say what would have happened had Eve not been in the picture altogether? Perhaps Adam would have taken of the fruit himself at some point in time and then Been Lost Forever. God Paves the way for the human family to Be Saved through bringing Eve into the picture.
"T'was a he-devil who tempted her."
21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Man, animals, plants were physically formed "out of the dust of the ground", but Woman was "taken out of Man"; thus a companionship between the two, which is not there amongst any other companionship on earth, is set from the Very beginning of the world.
Man needs woman, and woman needs man, and God sets a physical symbol of being "taken out of man" as an indicator of that Spiritual Reality.
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