Introduction
Genesis means "beginning." The book of Genesis is a book of beginnings (our world; humans; sin; salvation; etc.), and is foundational to the biblical world-view. In our study of Gen. 1 last week, we saw how it emphasized that humans are somehow higher than the rest of the created order. Whereas other creatures multiplied "after their kind," God created humans "in God's image" (re-read 1:26-28). What does this phrase mean? Chapter 2 focuses on the first humans and unpacks this distinction.
What does it meant to be human? How are humans similar to/different from the rest of nature? How are humans similar to/different from God? This is one of the most pressing questions of our day, as we will soon see. In a post-Christian culture, powerful voices give very different answers to this question, and their voices are creating a philosophical and ethical and cultural tsunami. The average American has no clearly thought-out answer to this profoundly important question, and so is subject to the conforming force of these other voices. Genesis 2 gives several answers to this question. Let's look at some of them . . .
Humans are both material & non-material
Read 2:5,6. I take this to be simply a description of the landscape (of what later became the Garden) prior to humans' arrival.Read 2:7. Here we read a concise but tremendously significant statement about humans – we have a material base, but we also have a non-material aspect – a soul or spirit.
Humans are made materially of 11 elements. We share this physicality with the rest of the plants and animals. Unlike later Greek thought and Gnosticism, our bodies are not "prison-houses" of our souls, an obstruction to our spiritual development. Humans are embodied spirits, and so even in the next life we will have real physical bodies that are suited to life in God's eternal kingdom. Unlike our current desire to overcome our bodies' limitations to be more "connected," optimal communication requires bodily presence.But humans are more than material – God "breathed the breath of life" into Adam so that he became a living nephesh. Although nephesh can mean simply a living creature, the verse indicates a special act by God to differentiate humans from other merely material creatures. God is spirit/not material, and He created humans in His image with a non-material aspect as well as a body – and therefore capable of consciousness and of relating to God as well as to other persons. Thus, nephesh should probably be translated "soul."Read 2:9-14. The author goes out of his way to describe Eden as a historic place with a real geographical location. It lay "toward the east" of the original audience's homeland. Its river divided into four rivers, two of which still exist. The rivers flowed around regions with which the original audience was familiar. The author notes certain mineralogical features that still characterized some of these regions ("the gold of that land is good").
But notice how the Garden is described (2:9a) – as containing trees that not only bore fruit that was good to eat, but also that those trees were "pleasing to the sight." The trees were beautiful, and God obviously gave Adam the capacity to appreciate their beauty. That is, God designed humans to have an aesthetic sense. If humans are only material, trees' utility (food) is all that matters. God expressed His aesthetic sense when He said about His creative work "It was good/very good," and He instilled this into humans.
This is one of the profound differences between humans and other (even higher-order) animals. Dogs don't respond to a Rembrandt painting or a Beethoven symphony the way we do – they evidently just see smears of color and hear sounds.
So our aesthetic sense is not just some evolutionary accident that is without ultimate significance. This is something to glory in! God's creation has incredible beauty, and He has given us the faculty to appreciate this beauty, and to infer from it that God must be supremely beautiful (Ps. 145:1; 147:7,8,16).
But we are not only aesthetic beings. Hedonism (sexual, artistic, culinary, etc.) is another form of dehumanizing reductionism. We are more than this . . .
Humans are designed to work
Read 2:15. Adam wasn't put in the garden to just lay around admiring the trees while fruit dropped into his mouth! Neither did he have to get a job as a punishment for disobeying God. He was created to work (in the image of the God who worked and is still working) – to be productive, to accomplish something so that the garden was better because of his presence in it. 1:26 (read) is not a license from God to exploit and rape nature, as many have charged. Humans are stewards of God's creation, to care for the environment and bring it to its fullest potential as well as to provide for our needs (refer to Schaeffer, Pollution and the Death of Man).
So this is part of what it means to be human – to work, to be productive, to accomplish, and to enjoy what we have accomplished (Eccles. 5:18,19). Yes, there is now a negative aspect to our work since the Fall – we'll discuss that in a couple of weeks. But this image of God remains with us. Yes, we need to rest and recreate – but if your picture of the ideal life omits cultivating an enjoyment of active and productive labor, you'll be disappointed because you're confused about who you are.
This is why we should pursue excellence in our jobs – not just to make money, not just "work to live," but even more so because God designed me to work and do it before Him, affirming His design (Col. 3:23). This is why working hobbies are good and therapeutic (GARDENING; WOOD-SPLITTING). This is why our culture's view of retirement is unbiblical and unhealthy.
And of course, those of us who know Christ can also get involved in His work of sharing God's love and truth with others in what we call "ministry" (see Jn. 4:34), in which we can all be involved in regardless of our age, health, etc.
But we are more than workers. This is why reductionistic ideologies (e.g., Marxism) and workaholic lifestyles are ultimately unfulfilling and dehumanizing.
Humans have free will & moral responsibility
Read 2:16,17. We'll discuss the significance of the names of these two trees next week. Right now, we need to notice that the opportunity to revolt against God's will (along with the consequences for doing so) was a feature of the good world. If God didn't want humans to revolt against Him, why did He put the second tree in the Garden? Because a key part of being human is having freedom to choose. There is no morality in a robot universe, nor is there any love – because love requires the capacity to choose between moral alternatives. Therefore, in addition to God providing abundant food and satisfying work, God gave a moral boundary, giving humans the opportunity to freely choose to love and trust Him.
Therefore, because humans are created in God's image, we reject all forms of determinism (chemical, psychological, environmental).One implication free choice is full responsibility for the choices we make (not God, other people, or our circumstances). Most importantly, we are responsible to God for our choices – and therefore we have true moral guilt before Him (see below). Another implication is that we may not dictate the consequences of our choices (2:17 infer both of these). We teach our children this from a very early age because their lives will be set on fire if they don't learn it. Yet many in our culture are miserable because they prefer the short-term relief of denying their responsibility to the long-term sanity that comes from affirming it.
Our range of freedom has been restricted by the Fall, especially in the moral area (Jn. 8:34). But the Bible teaches that in one crucial area, God has preserved our freedom – the ability to choose to return to Him. And if you choose to return to Him and follow Him, He will increase the range of your moral freedom (Jn. 8:31,32; GOSPEL).
Humans are designed for scientific inquiry
Read 2:18-20. God is doing at least two things at once here. God didn't name the animals for Adam – He had Adam name them. His naming of the animals was not simply random labels. It probably involved careful observation and then selecting a name that described this animal and differentiated it from others. Through this exercise, God introduced Adam to the discovery of the complexity of His universe, understanding how it works and is inter-related, and forming categories in his mind that corresponded to external reality. In other words, He introduced Adam to scientific inquiry.
Because we are finite, we can never have exhaustive knowledge. And now because of the Fall, we tend to use our minds in unproductive ways (2 WEEKS). But despite these limitations, the image of God remains in our marvelous ability to learn, and in our delight in learning. This is why scientific investigation is good, and why it grew out of the biblical world-view rather than from animistic or pantheistic cultures (60% of Nobel Peace Prize winners are theists), and why it points to an intelligent Creator.But we are more than scientific inquirers. God had another reason for having Adam explore the Garden . . .
Humans require human community
Remember, this exercise began with God's verdict that "it is not good for the man to be alone" (2:18). Alone in what sense? Alone in the sense that he did not have another helper (friend, partner – emphasis in on equality) who was like he was – he did not have another human being to relate to. This is what God wanted Adam to become aware of as he named the animals. Read 2:21,22. And this is why Adam broke out in song and poetry when he met Eve (read 2:23-25). Here (especially 2:24b) is something very deep – unity and diversity in relationship, or human community. Adam and Eve are diverse in that they are separate persons and genders – yet they are a unity in that they can have a relationship in which they know and are known in a deeply intimate way. They discover their true humanness not in isolation ("alone"), but in community.
How is this the image of God? How can this be like God, if there is only one God? Is not the essence of God that He is a solitary, powerful individual (e.g., ALLAH)? Not according to 1:26a (read). As we noted last week, this is probably the first hint of what the rest of the Bible reveals – that God is unity and diversity in relationship (explain grammar). God is a community of love relationships. This is why Jesus could say Jn. 17:24. This is what 1:27 means (read) – not that God has gender, but that human community (especially the marriage relationship) we "image" who God is – unity and diversity in love relationships.If you don't understand this and affirm it, you're going to violate your design and really screw yourself up! Much of the pain of human existence is rooted in either neglect of or perversion of personal relationships with other humans.
When we rip our sexuality out of its proper context (life-long heterosexual monogamy), there will be serious pain and damage (Rom. 1:27b). What began 60 years ago as the "sexual revolution" has unleashed a tsunami of dehumanizing damage to our society. But God can heal us of this damage, as we return to Him and His design.
No amount of aesthetics or work or intellectual activity will ever make up for personal relationships. Research continues to confirm that "it is not good for humans to be alone," and that relationships with other people is essential to human flourishing.The thread running through this entire chapter that integrates who we are as human beings is to be in relationship with a speaking God (1:28,29; 2:16,17). This is the axis around which all the rest was to revolve. Here is the heart of the matter: Humans became separated from God by mistrusting His Word (NEXT WEEK) – but (because of God's love and mercy) we can be reconciled to God by choosing to trust His redemptive word (read 2 Cor. 5:20,21). Will you choose to be reconciled to God (EXPLAIN HOW)?
Conclusion