Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Genesis

Genesis 2:4-7 10/14/01

Introduction: For those of you who are married, I want you to think back to that first time your realized you were in love with your spouse. That could be pretty far back for some of you. The Whalens just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary, the Crawfords their 51st, Kathy and I, the Joyces, Jamindars, Sculthorpes, McCullough, Nagels, Driscolls and Wileys all are over 20 years, I believe. That is really saying a lot about the strength of Christian marriages.

 I want everyone who is married to remember what you were like when you first fell in love. Men, does this ring a bell?

     Sound familiar? When men are in love they become easily distracted. They will often stop what they are doing just to get a chance to see the love of their life, give them anything, do anything to please them. Men do things when they are in love.

     Women, on the other hand, remember things when they are in love. They remember that first glance, that first date, the first dance and 'our song', that first kiss...even the first time you were late to pick them up. And they make holidays out of them.
'Dear' your wife says, can you believe that this is the 15 month anniversary of our first date?'....'ahhhh of course dear'. Then you run out and buy something because you totally forgot that immensely important date in your married life.

     Please don't take this too literally, but in a similar way, this is what we find in chapter 2 of Genesis. In Ch. 1 God has just created the world and all that is in it. And He, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells Moses about it and Moses writes it down.  Then, it is almost as if God stops what He is doing to ponder, to think deeply about His great love...humanity, represented by Adam and Eve.

    If there is a 'male' aspect of God (please don't take this analogy too far) then it is here in Chapter 2 that God tells us what He has done for man and woman, his greatest creation and the object of his deep love.

     If there is a 'female' aspect of God (again, don't take this too far) then it is here in Chapter 2 that God reminds us of a few...6 in fact, significant firsts in the relationship between God and the jewel of his creation, man and woman.

     I have read Genesis 2:4-25 over and over again in preparation for the next few messages and what I read between the lines is a description of the great love God has for mankind.  The depth and completeness of God's love means all the more when we consider that in the next chapter Adam and Eve, the objects of God's great love, stab him in the back, as it were by rebelling, and sinning against him.

Trans: Turn to Genesis 2:4 where we will find a list of love's first, a testimony of God's great love for Adam and Eve...and for you.

The First Man (Genesis 2:4-7)
Read: Genesis 2:4-7

    A. Day 3 and Day 6

        It seems from this opening text that Moses got confused about the days of creation. It sounds like God created man before he created plant life. Well, we know from Genesis 1 that God created plant life on the 3rd and man and woman on the 6th day. We also know that Scripture can not contradict itself, so Moses must have something else in mind here. And he does.

     Genesis 1 is basic chronology...this happened, day 1, this happened, day two and so on. There a logical sequence in the description of creation in ch.1. Ch.2 is not a chronological description of creation but a topical discussion of how creation relates specifically to mankind.

     The beginning text is not saying that plant life was created after man and woman. But that when God created plant life, on day 3 there were two pieces added later....a mist that covered the ground so the plants would have water and man to be a gardener.

     I believe, God, through Moses is showing us our relationship to the earth, as humans, which he will further explain in these opening verses.

    B. Elohim and Jehovah Elohim
     There is a second thing I want you to notice in these opening verses. There is a different name for God used here. In ch. 1 the word used for God was exclusively Elohim: meaning Sovereign Creator. But in ch. 2 we find the compound word Jehovah Elohim used for God.

     This is significant. God is not just Elohim: Sovereign Creator  but He is also Jehovah: the God of relationship, of covenant. Jehovah is God's personal name. Remember this is an account of God's love toward humanity and one of the first ways He shows his love is by using a name that denotes relationship, personal relationship.

    C. Man is formed from dust
     And since this is a relationship that God was preparing with mankind, God took special care when creating man. Man was formed (as a potter molds the clay) by God's own hands. Man was not made by some impersonal force nor did he crawl his way out of some primordial ooze. God specifically and willfully made us by hand.

     And he used the dust of the earth, plain dust. An image of lowliness, humility..but not evil. God created all things, even dust, and said that is was very good. Scripture says from dust we have come and to dust we will go.

ILL: The story is told of a young boy who excitedly came  to his mother and said ' Mom, is it true that we are made from the dust and that after we die we go back to dust?' She said 'Yes, it is.' 'Well' he said 'I looked under my bed this morning and there's someone either coming or going!'

     Each man, woman and child, regardless of their national origin, cultural background or religious preferences come from the exact same substance...dust, and we will return to dust. This has great implications when we think of the Jihad from fanatic Muslims who say Americans are infidels, the superior race of Hitler's Germany who said Jews were not fully human, and the African American slaves in the pre civil war United States who were told that they were nothing more than property.

     This text tells us that no one has more worth than another. Gen. 2:7 levels the playing field while evolution puffs up our pride by saying that some of us are better than others because we are more fit to survive ...garbage..prideful and sinful.

     Dust would have meant something to the children of Israel as they were wandering in the wilderness (which is when Moses wrote Genesis). They would have had plenty of dust on their feet, clothes and even in their hair. It was annoying and they would have been reminded of their relative insignificance before God and the rest of creation.

    D. God breaths life into man.
     But the text also says that God breathed life in the man. Only God can give life, and he did so, but more than just life, man distinct from all the animals , has a spirit. All other life was created by the simple command of God. But His personal interest in and love of man is demonstrated when God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life.

 Ruach: Hebrew for Spirit or breath is the same word used in Gen. 1:2 for 'the Spirit of God hovering over the water.'

     This is a most wonderful thing  Breathing into man's nostrils is meant to express the closest possible contact and relationship between God and man. God's intimate, personal, loving concern for mankind is made abundantly clear.  Man begins his life intimately connected with His God. He is born wrapped in a blanket of love, formed by the breath of God. God has given to man a part of his own Spirit, his own life. And man was made a spiritual being and with that given the capacity to serve and have fellowship with God, his creator.
 

     What kind of life did God give? Eternal life, a life that goes on and on. All humans have eternal life. God's breath is not temporal, it is eternal and that has not been diminished or tarnished in the Fall. Man was to live and breath forever, eternally before and in the presence of God....Because God so loved humanity.

     The Fall, which we will look at in a few weeks, brought about a change to man's eternal life. Instead of spending it in the presence of God, sin brought about man's separation from God, both temporal and eternal. All men and women still live eternal lives, but those who do not have their relationship with God restored through faith in His Son Jesus Christ, will spend that eternity in Hell, tormented for their disobedience, rebellion and willful sin. But that was not God's intention when He breathed life into man. He desired relationship and intimacy ...what we gave him was rebellion and estrangement.

Conclusion
     God's list of firsts in his demonstration of love was to create the first man who must live within the tension of his high and low birth.

     On the one hand, God created man from the common dust of the ground an image of lowliness and humility.

     On the other hand, God, Jehovah-Elohim reached down and perhaps placed his loving hands on either side of Adam's head and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life...God's life...eternal life.

     Perhaps this is what is meant by the image and likeness of God in man. And that places mankind higher than any other created thing.

 Ps 22:6 states 'I am a worm, a reproach of men'

 But Ps. 139:14 encourages us with ' I am fearfully and wonderfully made.'

     Gen. 2:4-7 reminds us of our origins so that we remain humble before God and one another, yet it shows us that we can achieve greatness as children of the One True God. We can be united in a personal, loving relationship with not only Elohim: Sovereign Creator, but Jehovah-Elohim: The personal God of relationship.

     Do you have such a relationship with God? You have eternal life just by being human: God breathed into you His life.

     What will you do with it? Live it for Him in obedience, and love through trusting in Christ as your personal Savior? Or live it by a life of denial, disobedience and distance from the One who created you, leaving you eternally separated from the unimaginable blessing of his constant presence?

     Genesis 2:4-7 is God's first, first in a long list of acts of love on your behalf.  He created you to enjoy fellowship with Him.
Are you enjoying his fellowship or hiding from his presence?