From the Start - Part 6 (A Genesis Sermon Series Part 7)

Go ahead and turn. You know where we are.

We're on page 2, Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

We are going to cover a lot of ground this morning, though.

Yeah, quite a bit. So I would encourage you if you

are not normally in the habit of turning to the text, maybe pull

it up on your phone. We're going to have a good

number of verses that we're reading for this morning's text

when we get to that point. So Genesis chapter 2 will be in

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

verse 4 is where we'll be at this morning.

Late last year, 20 year old James Clarkson won AUK lottery

jackpot worth about 9.2 million U.S. dollars.

The National Lottery app on Clarkson's phone first notified

him that morning that that he'd won the UK National Lottery

Christmas Day drawing. When he got to his parents house

that morning they they called the National Lottery line as

soon as it opened in order to confirm the win.

Was this really happening or was it just a dream?

News of the windfall spread fast and his family all celebrated as

at his grandma and grandpa's that evening with roast beef

dinner and champagne. But by Monday morning he was

back at work on blocking drains for his parents business.

He said I need to have a purpose in life.

Plus dad wouldn't let me not work anyways.

I know people might think I'm mad to still work, but I want

to. And of course there will be some

nice holidays in between. Clarkson believes it's important

to have a reason to get up in the morning, and rightfully so.

Work is part and parcel to the human experience and it's

command is found here in this morning's text.

So this morning, if you're able, would you stand as we read from

Genesis chapter 2, beginning at verse 4, reading all the way

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

through verse 20. So it's going to be a moment.

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 the 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.

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 sights and good for food.

The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the

tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and they're

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

that land is good. Delium and Onyx stone are there.

The name of the second river is the Guihone.

It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Kush.

And the name of the third river is the Tigris.

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

Poshone. Oh sorry, I lost myself.

Verse 14 OK And the name of the third river is the Tigris which

flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the

Euphrates. Verse 15.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to

work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the

man, saying, You might, you may surely eat of every tree of the

garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you

shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall

surely die. Then the Lord God said, It is

not good that 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 the heavens, and brought them to the

man to see what he would call them.

And whatever the man called every living creature, that was

its name. The man gave names to all

livestock, and to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast

of the field. Before Adam there was not found

the helper fit for him. He may be seated now.

Again, this morning leading up to this, I have already cut out

about 1/3 of my sermon that I could have delivered.

There's a lot that could be said this morning in this passage.

Some of it will be said in coming weeks, but we're not

addressing every single little detail here this morning in this

passage. But as we begin to look into

this passage, there are a couple points that I want to make.

First of all, some critics will look at this text and assert

that chapter 2 is a is a second completely different creation

narrative. It's it's their way of

discrediting what we read in chapter 1.

They don't want to believe that God created everything, so they

adopt the position that these are two different creation

accounts. In chapters 1 and 2.

The logic goes like this. If there are two different

accounts, they can't both be rights If they say different

things, which means you can't trust the Bible and then you get

to throw the whole thing away including Jesus.

That's how their logic goes. These are not 2 separate acts of

creation. What's happening is Genesis 2 is

zooming in on the 6th day of creation.

Chapter one said that God created all living creatures and

and humans, but but chapter 2 gives us a bit more insight into

what some of that might have looked like, what the conditions

would have been. Second, those same critics also

examine the language for God in chapters one and two.

You see from chapter 1 verse one up through chapter 2 and verse

3, God is simply stated using the Hebrew word for God, that is

Elohim. However, in chapter 2, verse

four and throughout the remainder of chapter 2, this

changes. Instead of writing only Elohim,

Moses writes Yahweh Elohim. Now this is significant because

this is the very first time in scripture that God's actual name

is used. In English, we see it written as

Lord, God with Lord in all caps. Anytime you see the word Lord in

all caps, it's a reference to God's name, Yahweh.

The scribes, you see, had such high respect for God's name that

that they didn't want to write it down and instead they

inserted the word Adonai, the Hebrew word for Lord.

Then the translators of our English Bibles chose to respect

that tradition that our New Testament authors picked up on

also they also referred to him as Lord.

So our our translators of our English Bible respected that

tradition and and chose to use Lord setting it apart with

capital letters so the reader would know that God's name was

in view. Yahweh was being used.

Now why does it matter that this is the very first time the text

says Yahweh Elohim? Well, KA Matthews writes, Elohim

is appropriate for the majestic portrayal of God as creator of

the universe since it properly indicates omnipotent deity.

The use of Elohim points more towards God's power and

transcendence, the Yahweh. Elohim is the name commonly

associated with with God's covenant relationship with his

people, Israel. It's very, it's very personal

when God is referred to as Yahweh.

So Yahweh Elohim speaks more to God's eminence, his his being

personal and near to us. These are not two different gods

as as some critics would argue. Rather, these are two different

aspects of the same God, and each chapter is communicating

something specific about God. So it's entirely appropriate for

chapter 1 to focus on God being all powerful as and it's equally

as appropriate for chapter 2 to look at God as more personal as

it talks about God's crowning creations, humanity.

The astute reader will notice that in chapter 1 God caused

everything to grow, but here in chapter 2 it says there was

there was nothing out in the field.

First of all, both accounts are right.

The true source of it all is of course, God.

He's the 1 causing the growth. Second, there was no rain in the

land, the text says. And when there's no rain, then

what do you need to do? You need to irrigate the land.

You need to find a way to bring water out to the fields in order

for things to grow. Only the garden, the place that

had the headwaters of these of these four rivers, the Tigris,

Euphrates, Guichon and Pichon, had water.

That when there's plenty of water in a place, what happens?

Things grow naturally, right? And so this was a luxuriant,

beautiful paradise. Now this garden isn't like the

little gardens some of you have where you grow your vegetables

and and go out to them and bring them in, cook them, enjoy them

in this little space of land, a little plots that you call your

garden. This garden, the Garden of Eden

is more of a park like setting featuring trees and even

animals. You'll recall one of the wonders

of the ancient world, the the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built next to King

Nebuchadnezzar's palace. And of course, this is just a

rendering of what it might have potentially looked like, being

that we don't have any photographs, of course, from

this moment. And there's a lot of discussion

over whether or not this happened in Babylon or whether

it happened in Nineveh. And there's actually evidence

for for both locations. So it's possible maybe that

something was built in both locations.

I don't know exactly. But regardless if this was a

remarkable feat of engineering because what was happening is a

garden was being built in the desert.

So they had to take all sorts of engineering marvels and and

inventions to bring the water to this place so that then

everything could grow in this garden, in these hanging

gardens. Now, as grand as that was, the

first Garden in Eden was even better.

Now Eden means delights or pleasure or paradise.

And when we consider what we know of Eden, those words all

make sense. But then other scholars maintain

that the word Eden actually means abundant.

And if we think about that, that makes sense as well.

There is in the Garden of Eden, there's an abundance of water

and there's an abundance of precious resources.

That was the the gold delium and Onyx that are mentioned.

There's an abundance of water and abundance of precious

resources. Now, there's something else

that's very important for us to take note of in regards to the

garden. This is actually something I

hadn't realized until the last couple years.

You see, the garden actually prefigures the Tabernacle and

the temple. It's temple like.

It is actually a predecessor to what we see in the Tabernacle

and temple and is the place of God's presence.

The Tabernacle and and temple housed God's presence and and

they are intended to remind us of the garden.

When you start comparing the garden to the Tabernacle and

Temple, the similarities become quite clear.

First of all, Eden as a whole is like the courtyards of the

temple. It's a place approaching God's

presence, and the further in you go, the closer to God you get.

Whether you end up in the Garden or in the Holy of Holies, these

are the places where God's presence was found.

Both are oriented towards the East.

Eden has an abundance of water and a river that feeds four

other rivers. Ezekiel and Revelation both

describe the future temple as having a river flowing from

under it that goes out. The Tree of Life is the

prototype for the tree shaped lampstand.

When the temple is built, it's decorated with carvings of

fruits and trees, immediately reminding you of the garden.

Ezekiel 28 refers to Eden as the holy mountain of God, and this

is language that is used to refer to the Tabernacle or

temple. So that that Eden is a

predecessor to the temple is without disputes.

Eden is a special place, but Genesis 25 tells us there there

were no bushes or plants outside the garden out in the field

because there was no rain yet and and there was no man to work

the ground. Then in verse 15 Yahweh gives a

command. The Lord God took the man, put

him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Man was expected to work. It's part of his purpose and

it's part of God's plan for the land.

The words used here work and keep.

These are actually the very same words used in referring to the

priestly duties in the Tabernacle and temple systems.

The man had become a priest. He is tasked with taking care of

God's sacred space. Notice, Notice sin hasn't even

entered the human realm yet. And still the man is expected to

work In their book, How Now Shall We Live?

Chuck Coulson and Nancy Pearcey make the following assertion.

In our materialistic culture, work is reduced to a utilitarian

function, a means of attaining benefits for this world, this

life. Whether material gain or self

fulfilment, work no longer has a transcendent purpose as a means

of serving and loving God. No wonder then that many are

questioning the very meaning of work.

It is time for the church to reclaim this crucial part of

life, restoring A biblical understanding of work.

So in our remaining time, I want to briefly look at biblical

understanding of work as derived from this passage.

Now I know many of you are retired.

Well, I would like to refer you back two weeks to the message

that my father delivered. Still, there is some application

to be found here even for the retired person.

So first of all, our first points, we jump back to Genesis

126. Man was given dominion over the

fish, over the birds, livestock and over every creeping thing.

To work in God's image is to exercise dominion.

A work in God's image is to exercise dominion.

A few weeks ago in the message on the 6th day of creation, I

talked about what it means to have dominion end and the call

on humanity to rule the world in a God honouring manner.

Part of ruling in this world is being obedient to God's command

to work. I said more in that message.

But just as a quick fly over, exercising dominion isn't to

abuse the land and the resources available to us, but to act in a

manner consistent with God's expectations of Israel's kings.

Man exercises royal authority and he's not to live in excess,

whether it be in relation to wealth or military power or in

accumulating wives. He was to be obedient to Yahweh

and show wholehearted devotion to him.

Humanity should lead with justice and righteousness, doing

all they can to help everything function at its full potential.

So this is what it means. To have dominion.

A part of exercising dominion is having authority over it.

Now you can say that that home is my domain, if you will.

God has given me authority at home.

Some of the members of our household respect my authority

and some, like our cats and dog, don't.

For me to exercise dominion at home is to help everyone be the

best that they can be. For me to lead our home well, to

lead Louvienne, Arya and Michael well, and following God and

being all that God has designed them to be.

It means for me to help all four of us in navigating life while

accomplishing all the things that need to be done.

Whether it be taking care of a couple bathrooms that have been

in some sort of state of construction for quite a while

now, or ensuring that the cats, Elsa, Raja and the dog London

are all fed and cared for. My authority doesn't grant me

permission to be a harsh dictator, but rather to to lead

and steward our home well as I'm accountable to God for my

family. So God commands us to work.

But but that's not a problem because you see, we were

actually created to work. We were created to work.

It's not just an arbitrary command.

We were created to do this. And that's the next point.

Verse 15 assumes that that someone is needed to work the

ground and it tells us no one yet existed who could do the

job. Man wasn't just given a task

that God didn't want to do. That's actually how the

Mesopotamian gods functioned. They didn't like doing work, so

they created man so that man could do the work.

That's not how Yahweh is. Yahweh created humanity with a

purpose, and that purpose is to work.

God commanded Adam to keep and tend to the garden.

Now, of course, this was this was much easier before sin came

into the world than it was after the curse.

At first, work wasn't laborious like we like we think of it now.

So we were commanded and created to work.

Next, to work in God's image is to work in relationship to

others. To work in relationship to

others. At the end of each creation day,

God said it was good. Then at the end of the sixth

day, he said it was very good. However, as the Creator gazes

upon this new creation, the man, he found something that's not

good. Verse 18, God said it's not

good, that man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for

him. And then the last phrase of

verse 20. But for Adam there was not found

a helper fit for him. The man needed a helper, someone

to come alongside him and and help him with his work.

The man was created for relationships, so God created a

woman to be his counterparts, his compliments and help.

There was much work to be done in exercising dominion and in

subduing the earth and the woman Eve would help in accomplishing

the various tests of cultivating the garden, pruning bushes and

plants, and harvesting fruits and vegetables.

It is important to say being a helper doesn't mean Eve was

inferior to man as as many have supposed she was his equal.

The Hebrew word for helper is azare, and in Psalm 115 we find

it used to speak of God as our helper.

Certainly God isn't inferior to humans, so it would be

inappropriate to view the woman as inferior to the man.

Eve would be a fit for him, a sort of maybe opposite of him.

She was his compliment and and this relationship served to

augment humanity's capacity for work.

We were made to work in relationship to and with others.

Next, to work in God's image is to be fruitful.

To work in God's image is to be fruitful.

It's interesting to think about what God created in those six

days. He could have created

everything, the entire earth completely full of vegetation,

all the people. He intended all the vegetation

to automatically take care of itself.

He could have created the earth as fully complete and full, but

he chose not to. He created the animals, the

vegetation in the garden, the man and woman, and then he

stopped there. The humans would need to be

productive and and fruitful in their working and keeping the

garden in order for that to happen.

They needed to use their imagination to envision what the

end product would be like, to take steps to enact that vision

and then bring in the harvest, reaping the rewards from their

work. For those of you who have

gardens, you understand what it takes to create a garden.

You remember what it was like before that garden was there.

It may have just been grass, or it could have been weeds, or

perhaps you even had to clear a little bit of timber in order to

make room for the garden. Whatever the case, you came up

with an idea in your mind, and you took the next necessary

steps to enact that vision and make it a reality, and in turn

to make that garden fruitful. That is exactly the task that

was before Adam and Eve. In Ecclesiastes 3, the teacher

addresses the issue of work and and its usefulness.

In verses 12 through 13, he says, I perceive that there is

nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long

as they live. Also that everyone should eat

and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.

This is God's gift to man. So we are to take pleasure in

our work and in the fruit of our labor.

That is what Ecclesiastes 3 is telling us.

Take pleasure in our work and in the fruit of our labor, our work

and enjoyment of it. He's a gift from God.

Doing the work is a blessing, and the bearing of fruits is

also a blessing. Adam imagined what needed to be

done in the garden and then took the appropriate actions to

realize the dream of making the garden fruitful and productive.

Next, to work in God's image is to receive God's provision to

work in God's images to receive his provision.

Back in chapter 1, verses 29 and 30 read, God said, behold, I

have given you every plants yielding seed that is on the

face of all the earth, and every tree was seed in its fruits.

You shall have them for food and then verse 30 and to every beast

of the earth and to every bird of the heavens, to everything

that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath

of life. I have given every green plant

for food. God had provided for the man's

needs. He provided for all of the

animals needs. Sure, the man would put in in

the work, but man isn't the source of the the provision

here, right? God was.

He was the source of everything the man and woman needed.

When I think of God's provision, I'm reminded of a season that we

went through in 2020. Louvianne was in school so she

could be officially licensed as a teacher in Iowa.

You see, back in California, she was never officially licensed.

Even though she got her bachelor's, she never got her

license because she was always teaching in the private schools.

So in order to become an official teacher in Iowa, she

went back to get another bachelor's degree and get

officially licensed. Now in 2020, she was set to do

her student teaching from January through May.

We were a little anxious over over losing her income.

Sure, we try to live reasonably and with within our means, but

losing her income for what would be a total of 8 to 9 months from

December all the way through until she started working again

probably in September, that was quite, quite a while.

It was going to be difficult for us.

I remember how in in late 2019, we were constantly reminding

ourselves that God was our provision, not the North Scott

Community School District and not Cornerstone.

Those were merely tools that God used to provide for our for our

needs. So as we entered 2020, we were

diligent to thank God beforehand for how He was going to provide.

As it turns out, 2020 was a spectacular year for the Webs on

numerous levels. But here, related to this, we

saw God's provision over and over and over again.

I can vividly recall one Monday morning I got into the office

and and there was a small note envelope in my box.

All it said was I hope this blesses you along with $100 in

cash. I was stunned.

I knew God was going to provide for our needs but this was

completely unexpected and and humbling and I was just

dumbfounded. But I don't even know how many

more times that happened. I would come in on a Monday

morning to the same exact notes. I hope this blesses you and

$100. It would just happen randomly.

God was providing for our needs. I wish I knew who that person

was because I would have thanked them profusely, but God was

using them to help provide for our needs as we trusted in His

provision. He proved Himself faithful.

Now, since work involves being active and is and is usually on

behalf of someone else, we need to be careful to not place our

trust in our work, not place our trust in our employer, but

rather to trust in God and His provision.

Our last principle related to work is this.

To work in God's image is to be blessed by the limits that He

sets. It's to be blessed by the limits

that he sets. Last week I focused on God's day

of rest, Shabbat or Sabbath. God rested not because he needed

the rest, because he didn't need rest, but has assigned to us for

us to rest also, the Old Testament scholar and theologian

Walter Bruggeman wrote. Sabbath provides a visible

testimony that God is at the center of life.

The human production and consumption take place in a

world ordered, blessed, and restrained by the God of all

creation. By taking note of God's limits

on our work, we're declaring our freedom from work, that we are

not enslaved to work. As I engage God during Sabbath,

I'm resting in His provision and visibly demonstrating my life is

ordered by God in His ways, not man's.

And I said much more about that last week, so if you want to

know more about that, check out that message now.

By God's grace, we have been gifted something better than of

winning lottery tickets. We are declared a royal

priesthood and now we get to assist God in ruling, not just

in a future sense, yes, we will do that, but here and now as we

get to work each day and upholding God's creation and

helping all around us live up to their full potential.

That is God's desire for work in our lives.

Let's bow our heads and close our eyes.

God, we are grateful that you have given us this task, that it

isn't meaningless but but the task of work fulfills purpose as

we serve you. We work as to you, not as to our

employer or as to a man, but as to God is how we work.

So we are grateful for the work that we have.

May we be diligent to work in relationship to others, to be to

be fruitful in our work, trusting in your provision and

living within the limits that you have set.

Work is good, but let us not become workaholics, constantly

driven to work, work, work, but to rest in our Creator who

modeled this for us. So this morning, God, we thank

you that you are our provision. You provide for all of our

needs, everything that I need. God, you provide as we thank

you. Thank you for meeting here with

us in this time. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.