Genesis 2

The creation of God was all very good. There were three days of created realms and three days of created rulers over those three realms. Then came the seventh day. Above all the rulers in all the realms of creation is the one Creator, the God of the seventh day. He rests on His great throne as the Ruler over all. There should be no doubt that He will accomplish all of His great purposes. As a sign of His sovereign authority, He put His seal on the seventh day. He set that day apart from all the other days, as His day, the day of the Lord, the Lord's day.

In this second chapter of the Bible, God gives us a much closer look at the important events that fit within the sixth day, the day of the creation of mankind, who were made male and female in the image of God. There is more to tell in this story, and it will be important for us to hear it if we are to understand the society that God created on earth, our place in that order, and the Lord's intention to have a special relationship with His people over the course of the generations of mankind.

Man is presented as a creature of God within a given environment, the garden. God planned that man would cultivate the ground, making this good environment even more fruitful. Man was created out of the dust of the ground. There is an appropriate humility for us in this fact. If there is anything praiseworthy in us or in our labors, all the glory should be given to God. We have life because God, the God of life, has breathed into our nostrils the breath of heaven.

The garden was a paradise environment for man. The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were in the midst of the garden, but we are not told immediately of their meaning. There was the water of life in that great place, and the glory of gold and precious minerals. It was the cradle of life for a bountiful heaven and earth. It was a gift for man, a gift that required man to be a good caretaker for the glory of the one Creator who is God over all and is forever blessed.

God gave a commission to Adam. The man was to work and keep the garden of Eden. The garden had a bountiful provision for man in the fruit of many trees, yet there was a warning. God would not permit man to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The penalty for disobedience was certain death.

The garden was truly lovely, and life was so close by in a second great tree, yet something was “not good.” The man was alone. There were many creatures, and the Lord showed them to Adam, and gave him the right to name them. But there was no help for man, no help like the help of the Name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Though God was with the man, there was no one of his own kind who could be to him just the right expression of the heavenly aid of God. This was not good. Man needed a companion who would be like him, but who could also stand across from him as someone who was not entirely like him. He needed a suitable help for true and deep intimacy, fellowship, and fruitful togetherness.

Man would not solve this problem. God alone would provide. After showing man the depth of the need, and displaying all the other creatures who were clearly not the answer, God put Adam into a deep sleep. The Lord took something from man's side. From Adam's rib the Lord formed the woman.

When God brought her to the man, Adam was greatly pleased. He said, “This one! Now! At last!” She was from his own bone. His flesh needed to be opened up for her to be brought forth as the Lord's highest and best work of creation. She was the difference between the “not good” of the man's aloneness and the “very good” that came at the end of the sixth day. She was taken out of Man, but she was different from man. She was woman.

Because of this great need to correct the problem of aloneness, because of the bountiful solution of this problem in the sacrificial gift of woman to man, because of the obvious and celebrated rightness of this blessing, the world would never be the same. As of this moment there were no children, so there were no mothers or fathers. Yet there would be future generations, and the way those generations would move forward for the expansion of the number of mankind would be through the Lord's gift of men and women for each other as lifelong partners. A man from one family would leave his father and his mother and he would cling to a woman from another family who would be his wife, and the two would be one flesh. For now, for this first man and this first woman, everything was right. There was no sin, only the fullest good will, and no one had any reason to be ashamed.

One day sin would come into the world, and mankind would stand in desperate need of a much fuller sacrifice. One rib would not do for our atonement. A full life would have to be given for our sake. God the Son would come to His people as the Husband of a bride, and He would die the death that was necessary for the restoration of eternal well-being. In this willing sacrifice, He would show forth the fullness of marriage. Our Husband has now come to us, and He has rescued us from certain destruction. It is our great privilege to love Him and to serve Him with all that we are and all that we have. This restoration, an even fuller paradise of Christ and the church, is a central part of the purpose of our God. He is able to make all things new. We rest in His Son, and we wait for the fullness of the coming Day of the Lord.