“Who are you? Why are you here?”If I gave you a pad of paper and five minutes, it's be interesting to see what sort of answers we'd come up with. Why are you here? Because God willed that I should read blogs? Good Calvinist answer. Because it appeared in my in-box? Good honest answer! But if we moved onto the who-are-you question, things get a little harder. It's not as easy for some people to define who they are.
This is one of the most important unanswered questions for so many people today. That fact that they remain unanswered questions goes some way to explaining why there is a massive statistical blip in fatal single-vehicle car accidents involving men between 17-25.
This is one of the most important unanswered questions for so many people today. That fact that they remain unanswered questions goes some way to explaining why there is a massive statistical blip in fatal single-vehicle car accidents involving men between 17-25.
Why cutting and self-harm is such a feature of the culture of young women between 14-25.
Why successful men and women turn to unfaithful sex and excessive alcohol.
Why kids join gangs and do whatever it takes in the hope of forging an identity with this new-found family.
Who are you?
Why are you here?
Simply lacking an answer can have a devastating effect on people.
Who are you?
Why are you here?
Simply lacking an answer can have a devastating effect on people.
John Calvin said it really well – “Our wisdom, insofar as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”1
We need to have a knowledge of God before we can begin to understand ourselves – but just as importantly we need to have a knowledge of ourselves so that we can see our place in God's world and in God's great heart.
We need to have a knowledge of God before we can begin to understand ourselves – but just as importantly we need to have a knowledge of ourselves so that we can see our place in God's world and in God's great heart.
We need to understand something of God's holy justice and righteousness before we can understand why He cannot and will not tolerate our sin.
We need to get a grip on how much God loves us to understand how hurtful that sin is to him. And we need to understand our place in his heart and our own helplessness in sin before we can understand how painful and expensive grace is to God the Father...
We need to get a grip on how much God loves us to understand how hurtful that sin is to him. And we need to understand our place in his heart and our own helplessness in sin before we can understand how painful and expensive grace is to God the Father...
We need a knowledge of God to begin to understand ourselves. And we seriously need to have a knowledge of ourselves if we're going to understand God better.
I think we need to hang on tightly to that thought when we read Genesis 1-3.
I think we need to hang on tightly to that thought when we read Genesis 1-3.
Genesis 1 gives us some knowledge of God. We see God exercise His power, His authority, his creativity. We saw that last week. There's no chaos, there's nothing random. You are not an accident – he made it all, he controls it all.
Genesis 2 gives us some knowledge of ourselves – as we should be. This is one of the very few places where we see man and woman exactly as they were made by God – sinless, blameless, walking with no barrier between man and woman, no barrier between man and God. Naked, not ashamed. We get to learn some things about what we were supposed to be.
Genesis 2 gives us some knowledge of ourselves – as we should be. This is one of the very few places where we see man and woman exactly as they were made by God – sinless, blameless, walking with no barrier between man and woman, no barrier between man and God. Naked, not ashamed. We get to learn some things about what we were supposed to be.
Genesis 3 is where we learn about God and man when evil, temptation, sin and separation rip up the picture. It's where we learn how we blew it all to hell.
Genesis 2, however, hides in a bit of a valley between the mighty picture of creation in Chapter 1 and the blackness of sin's presence in Chapter 3. But it should be looked at on its own terms. Let's go to chapter 2v 4.
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up - for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground - then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
For me, this is one of the most beautiful images that I've ever read. It's all virgin land, it's well-watered, even though there's no rain. And God descends upon His newly created earth, stoops low and scoops, moulds and forms with His hands... a human. Back in Chapter 1 we see a change in God's language – instead of let there be..., He says let Us make.... And here He makes.
He formed the man of the dust from the ground. And then God does the most extraordinary thing. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life... and the man became a living creature. Not like mouth-to-mouth, from one equal to another. This is how you resuscitate a tiny baby... breathe into the nostrils. This is a really tender picture. Man's first-ever breath was the breath of God. The word for breath – ruach in the Hebrew, pneuma in the Greek – is exactly the same word for Spirit. Man's first breath is the Spirit of the Living God.
Think about the sense of smell for a second. Smell is the unsung gift, the unsung sense. It is the sense most keyed to our memory. A baby instinctively bonds – and knows – its mother and father by smell.
My dad has been fixing aircraft all of my life. He'd come home from work, reeking of burnt jet-fuel and hot oil and metal and hydraulic oil... and there's something in that smell that still – all these years later – still stirs me, subconsciously but physically stirs my heart. If I have to drive any of you to the airport, you'll see me do it. I'll wind down the window and get great lungfuls of the air. It makes my heart feel good – that smell of my father still has an effect. Took me ages to work that one out – I just thought I was a mad pyro with a thing for kerosene – but the smell of my father still has an effect.
And with this strange and beautiful act, the first thing that Man ever smelled was the breath – the Spirit – of the Living God. Man is born by the breath of God. And when we read this, our memory should be doing a little tap-dance now...
Flesh gives birth to flesh but Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying You must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is blowing. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.2
Flesh gives birth to flesh but Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying You must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is blowing. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.2
Wow. Every time I read it. Wow... Our first birth was when God first filled our lungs – and our being – with His breath, His pneuma, His Spirit, and we became living beings. We must be born again... no longer dead in sin but alive – brought back to life, resuscitated like that tiny baby – in Christ, by the Spirit, to God's great glory. Wow.
Genesis 2 tells us about us. We are most highly treasured in God's heart. We are made – fearfully and wonderfully made,2
This is how God loves the world, Jesus says to Nicodemus. He sent His only Son... on a rescue mission that would see His only Son murdered, butchered, slaughtered... so that whoever believes in him will not perish.. Don't ever, ever forget that. That's how much God loves you. We are made – fearfully and wonderfully made, and the breath of the Almighty has given us life.
And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.4
God has already made plants and animals, but for His most precious creation He plants a garden. He does the ultimate Backyard Blitz, and gathers together such a collection of botanical wonder... not just to provide this human with physical provision to keep him nourished and alive, but to please the man. Not just in taste and smell, either - pleasant to the sight and good for food. How strange. I never noticed that before – pleasant to the sight. He didn't make it just for His own pleasure, but for the man's pleasure as well! He designed us to... be pleased, to be able to be happy, to be content, to be stimulated by beauty. I wouldn't have ever thought of that.
But it makes sense, doesn't it? One of the things that I love about being a daddy is when Fiona and I do something (make a wading pool, build a bike, set up the Christmas tree – whatever) and then stand back and let the kids just discover. Their faces tell enough of the story... and watching them totally encompassed in that wheeee!!! kind of joy is priceless. Is that how God feels when we enjoy His goodness? Wow...
God has already made plants and animals, but for His most precious creation He plants a garden. He does the ultimate Backyard Blitz, and gathers together such a collection of botanical wonder... not just to provide this human with physical provision to keep him nourished and alive, but to please the man. Not just in taste and smell, either - pleasant to the sight and good for food. How strange. I never noticed that before – pleasant to the sight. He didn't make it just for His own pleasure, but for the man's pleasure as well! He designed us to... be pleased, to be able to be happy, to be content, to be stimulated by beauty. I wouldn't have ever thought of that.
But it makes sense, doesn't it? One of the things that I love about being a daddy is when Fiona and I do something (make a wading pool, build a bike, set up the Christmas tree – whatever) and then stand back and let the kids just discover. Their faces tell enough of the story... and watching them totally encompassed in that wheeee!!! kind of joy is priceless. Is that how God feels when we enjoy His goodness? Wow...
Who are you?
Why are you here?
We're here to enjoy every good thing that God has willingly, gladly, generously given us. God has given us the ability to feel happiness, to love beautiful things, to taste and go WOW, to smell and to smile. God's master plan was for us to be a happy people, and to KNOW that we're happy. And that our outrageous happiness brings a pleasure to His heart.
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of tat land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It os the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
We get a little geography lesson here. There are two familiar names, the Tigris and the Euphrates. They both, of course, flow through Iraq – Baghdad is built right over the Euphrates. Doesn't look much like Eden now, does it? What a strange, bitter irony that these two rivers of the Paradise would later be the rivers of Babylon, where the children of God's covenant promise would weep for the memory of a promised home.
We get a little geography lesson here. There are two familiar names, the Tigris and the Euphrates. They both, of course, flow through Iraq – Baghdad is built right over the Euphrates. Doesn't look much like Eden now, does it? What a strange, bitter irony that these two rivers of the Paradise would later be the rivers of Babylon, where the children of God's covenant promise would weep for the memory of a promised home.
The Tigris starts up in the Ararat Ranges, the Euphrates flows through Turkey and Syria before it gets to Iraq. So what's this about the four rivers coming from a common source? And where are the other two rivers? The Pishon and the Gihon are lost to us – either metaphorically or physically, or both. There are lots of opinions in lots of commentaries, but the truth is, we don't know.
What we do know is what we see, and what we're told. We get a reminder that it's not just Eden where the goodness is – nothing has spoiled creation yet, so we get the geographic reminders that there's good gold and onyx and bdellium (a kind of resin related to myrrh). These are all very valuable trading commodities in the Ancient Near East. There are things of great value outside Eden too. Four rivers going out from Eden, downstream of the trees of righteousness, going out into the whole world. And – that said – there's the sad, wistful reminder that we'll never find Eden until there is a new heaven and a new earth; Eden is lost to us.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.7
Before there was sin, before there was labour, before there was slavery and bosses and exploitation and mortgages to repay... there was work. There's an enduring image of Eden being some sort of luxury nudist retreat for people with access to a lot of hair-conditioner. And that is a fiction. Adam gets his hands dirty – but that's okay, because so did his Creator. God makes the earth, God comes to earth, God makes Adam out of the earth, Adam works the earth – he tends it and takes care of it. Remember verse 5? We had a hint – no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain and there was no man to work the ground... The language is actually quite agricultural: fields, work it & keep it – tend and keep would be closer translations. So what does this say?
Adam worked – not for food, because all the best food in the world was at his fingertips; the Lord had surrounded him with food.
Before there was sin, before there was labour, before there was slavery and bosses and exploitation and mortgages to repay... there was work. There's an enduring image of Eden being some sort of luxury nudist retreat for people with access to a lot of hair-conditioner. And that is a fiction. Adam gets his hands dirty – but that's okay, because so did his Creator. God makes the earth, God comes to earth, God makes Adam out of the earth, Adam works the earth – he tends it and takes care of it. Remember verse 5? We had a hint – no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain and there was no man to work the ground... The language is actually quite agricultural: fields, work it & keep it – tend and keep would be closer translations. So what does this say?
Adam worked – not for food, because all the best food in the world was at his fingertips; the Lord had surrounded him with food.
Not as God's slave – the God who made the universe and made Adam and made the Garden of Eden for Adam's pleasure doesn't need anything that man can make by work.
Not for a wage, not to repay a debt to his Creator... God gave Adam authority, responsibility and satisfaction. And that's an odd one to talk about, because our society's idea of Paradise is sitting on a cloud eating Philly cheese, or lying on a beach at Surfers... but, either way doing absolutely nothing.
I like mowing the lawn. I love the lawn-mowing etiquette here, too. (I was a bit concerned how early was too early to fire up the Victa – but I figured when the neighbor across started in with an angle-grinder, I was probably right to go...) I'm not a huge fan of having grass being blown up my nose and sneezing like the dickens, or stone-chips whacking me on the shin. But there's a pleasure, a satisfaction, a good feeling inside when I switch the mower off, have a short shower and a long icy-cold bath... then go back outside with a cup of tea and go aaahhh! Watching the birds come and eat, smell the new-mown smell. There's satisfaction in work that we're not remunerated for. Sometimes it's something physical, sometimes it's donating time to help a neighbor or a good cause... and that satisfaction is a gift from God. God's now given Adam authority, responsibility and satisfaction.
The curse that we'll see in Chapter 3 wasn't being made to work. The curse wasn't being turned out of a five-hundred-star lazy-town resort. The curse wasn't being made to work. Adam was a worker from the start. The curse was having to survive by his labour – which we'll see clearly in Chapter 3 – not the work itself. God wanted Adam to be a fulfilled, content, satisfied man.
I like mowing the lawn. I love the lawn-mowing etiquette here, too. (I was a bit concerned how early was too early to fire up the Victa – but I figured when the neighbor across started in with an angle-grinder, I was probably right to go...) I'm not a huge fan of having grass being blown up my nose and sneezing like the dickens, or stone-chips whacking me on the shin. But there's a pleasure, a satisfaction, a good feeling inside when I switch the mower off, have a short shower and a long icy-cold bath... then go back outside with a cup of tea and go aaahhh! Watching the birds come and eat, smell the new-mown smell. There's satisfaction in work that we're not remunerated for. Sometimes it's something physical, sometimes it's donating time to help a neighbor or a good cause... and that satisfaction is a gift from God. God's now given Adam authority, responsibility and satisfaction.
The curse that we'll see in Chapter 3 wasn't being made to work. The curse wasn't being turned out of a five-hundred-star lazy-town resort. The curse wasn't being made to work. Adam was a worker from the start. The curse was having to survive by his labour – which we'll see clearly in Chapter 3 – not the work itself. God wanted Adam to be a fulfilled, content, satisfied man.
Almost all of the unemployed people that I've talked to in the last couple of years would give pretty well anything to get employment, and not just for the money. I suspect that one of Satan's dirty tricks is to keep some people from being fulfilled, content and satisfied by denying them the opportunity to work. There's something to think about next time you find yourself muttering about the unemployed.
Who are you?
Who are you?
Why are you here?
We are made – fearfully and wonderfully made, and the breath of the Almighty has given us life. Nothing less than that.
We have been made in God's image, in God's great pleasure to enjoy – to enjoy the good things that God has been so pleased to make for us.
Do we feel like we're getting some answers to these two big questions?
Okay. Last stop.
Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.' Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of he heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whateverthe man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not a helper fit for him.8
We are made – fearfully and wonderfully made, and the breath of the Almighty has given us life. Nothing less than that.
We have been made in God's image, in God's great pleasure to enjoy – to enjoy the good things that God has been so pleased to make for us.
Do we feel like we're getting some answers to these two big questions?
Okay. Last stop.
Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.' Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of he heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whateverthe man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not a helper fit for him.8
Last week we saw that at the end of each phase of his creation, God looked and declared that it was good. 1V4, the light was good. V10, land and sea was good. V12, the veggies were good. V18, sun and moon – good. Birds & fish & animals & creeping things – good, At the end of the sixth day, v31 – VERY good.
So what's this? 2v18 It is not good... It sounds out-of-place, doesn't it? What went wrong? I've made enough things from beds to bikes to rebuilding 747 engines. You follow the instructions, you stop every now and again and check it and say “OK – that's good.” Then you finish, look at it and say very good. Then you find seven bolts, a packet of washers some weird springy things that you swear you've never seen before... you look at the instructions, look at the engine and say, “oh. Not good.”
So what's this? 2v18 It is not good... It sounds out-of-place, doesn't it? What went wrong? I've made enough things from beds to bikes to rebuilding 747 engines. You follow the instructions, you stop every now and again and check it and say “OK – that's good.” Then you finish, look at it and say very good. Then you find seven bolts, a packet of washers some weird springy things that you swear you've never seen before... you look at the instructions, look at the engine and say, “oh. Not good.”
What had God left behind? What did he skip in the IKEA make-a-world kit?
It is not good that the man should be alone. I think that God is signalling very loudly that he hasn't finished yet. He declared things good in chapter 1 when they're completed – and when it's ALL finished, it's very good.
But at this point, it's not all finished, is it? There's all the plants and creepy-crawly swarmy things, birds, and beasts – all being paraded before Adam, and Adam having to come up with names for them all...
Note that carefully, by the way. That's the first demonstration that God meant it when he gave man dominion over the creatures. We saw it last week – God naming Day, Sky, Sea, Earth, because he had the authority to give things names. He bestows that authority to Adam, and Adam begins to take up that responsibility that God has laid on him.
After he's seen all the animals there is to see, there is still no animal that is a fit companion, no animal suitable as a helper – no animal to match Adam, the human that has been hand-crafted in the image of God and filled with the Spirit.
I think it's a mistake to read it & think that what God does next is... some kind of filling-in a gap in his plan, of God scratching his head & saying, 'I should really do something about that.' No. Adam has just seen how unique he is in God's plan, in his own design, in the authority given to him alone, and now he knows it.
I think that it's also a mistake to think that Adam as getting lonely or bored or in any way dissatisfied. I don't think Adam was going up to God, saying “that porcupine I tried to hug – it's not working out so good. Worse than the jellyfish...”
It is not good that the man should be alone. I think that God is signalling very loudly that he hasn't finished yet. He declared things good in chapter 1 when they're completed – and when it's ALL finished, it's very good.
But at this point, it's not all finished, is it? There's all the plants and creepy-crawly swarmy things, birds, and beasts – all being paraded before Adam, and Adam having to come up with names for them all...
Note that carefully, by the way. That's the first demonstration that God meant it when he gave man dominion over the creatures. We saw it last week – God naming Day, Sky, Sea, Earth, because he had the authority to give things names. He bestows that authority to Adam, and Adam begins to take up that responsibility that God has laid on him.
After he's seen all the animals there is to see, there is still no animal that is a fit companion, no animal suitable as a helper – no animal to match Adam, the human that has been hand-crafted in the image of God and filled with the Spirit.
I think it's a mistake to read it & think that what God does next is... some kind of filling-in a gap in his plan, of God scratching his head & saying, 'I should really do something about that.' No. Adam has just seen how unique he is in God's plan, in his own design, in the authority given to him alone, and now he knows it.
I think that it's also a mistake to think that Adam as getting lonely or bored or in any way dissatisfied. I don't think Adam was going up to God, saying “that porcupine I tried to hug – it's not working out so good. Worse than the jellyfish...”
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of the ribs and closed up the place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
He brought her to the man. Not an afterthought, not an improvement on the original design (despite what the funny emails say). Not made from the clay that Adam's walked on, but made from Adam. Made from the bones that hold his heart. Shaped, like Adam, by the hands of God. And He brought her to the man. Who gives this bride away?
And the man knows instantly who she is, where she has come from, and the words are of such longing fulfilled; This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!
At last! One flesh! One flesh – it's not a yucky kind of morph, it's not a euphemism for sex, it's completion. Bone of my bone. Flesh of my flesh. The two become one flesh. It's completion, it's fulfilment, it's the delight of God to give his most precious creatures this happiness beyond expectation and experience... but such a perfect creation that Adam knows her straight away.
And the man knows instantly who she is, where she has come from, and the words are of such longing fulfilled; This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!
At last! One flesh! One flesh – it's not a yucky kind of morph, it's not a euphemism for sex, it's completion. Bone of my bone. Flesh of my flesh. The two become one flesh. It's completion, it's fulfilment, it's the delight of God to give his most precious creatures this happiness beyond expectation and experience... but such a perfect creation that Adam knows her straight away.
Who are you?
Why are you here?
We are made – fearfully and wonderfully made, and the breath of the Almighty has given us life. Nothing less than that.
We have been made in God's image, in God's great pleasure to enjoy Рto enjoy the good things that God has been so pleased to make for us. We have been made to revel in His creation, in His company. There's that great clich̩ that we're made for relationships, but it's absolutely true Рwe are! We're made for a relationship with God, we're made for a relationship with each other, we're made for one unbelievably special relationship with another human being.
Genesis Two is a glittering gem. Remember kaleidescopes? I always wanted to get inside it and be surrounded by it all, I wanted to live in a kaleidescope. I was a strange kid... but this is our kaleidescope. I want to live in Genesis Two, I want to go there, I want to stay there. But I can't, can I? Something happened that resulted in Eden being hidden from us. Eden's gone. We'll deal with that next week.
Here, we get a picture of God creating perfection. One day at the end of days, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and they will be made perfect, and those whom Jesus rescued will be with him, praising God for ever and ever. This earth has still got so much beauty, but it is so tainted, so poisoned that it's hard even to hold the image of Eden in our minds without a little bit of cynicism “It can't be that good” “What's the catch?” It is that good. There is no catch. This is what God intended all along, and this is what he wanted us to be, and this is what he WANTS us to be.
I want it.
I keep hearing that phrase “the church is the bride of Christ” and now I finally see its intimacy! Bone of his bone. Flesh of his flesh. Brought to Christ by God, and enjoying each other forever in the love of the Father.
That's who I am.
That's why I'm here. Genesis 2 is where God tells us about us – and it's a love song.
All Scripture taken from the E.S.V. - the one my church lovingly calls the Eastern Suburbs Version.
1 John Calvin; Institutes of the Christian Religion, I.i.1
2 Psalm 139:14
3 John 3:6-8
4 Genesis 2:8-9
5
6
7 Genesis 2:15
7 Genesis 2:15
8 Genesis 2:18-20
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