Genesis 2:4–25

0:00 You know, I turned 47 years old this past March. 47 is not exactly one of those years that sobers you all that much, right? It's in the middle of a decade, it's no round number, nothing like that. When I turned 40, it was pretty sobering, and I'm sure that as 50 approaches, that one's going to be pretty sobering too. That one seems like a pretty massive one. What I've noticed in those 47 years is that since I became an adult and started kind of paying attention to what was going on around me, There have been several different times, not that many, but several different times in the last, say, 27 years or so, when I had this overwhelming sense, this just sort of cold chill that wrapped around my heart, as I realized that the crust of civilization that you and I stand on every single day is exceedingly thin.

0:54 And it does not take much of a trauma. It doesn't take much of a blow to cause that crust of civilization to crack and fall. And what lies beneath that crust is not something that's super pleasant to contemplate. You know, over the past few years, I've kind of had that sense of chill creeping around my heart. As I look at what's happening in our society, as I look at various events that have taken place, I have this sense, again, that, wow, the civilization that we stand on is exceedingly thin.

1:29 And it doesn't take much and it won't take much to break it. But what exactly is it that's clawing or hammering, if you prefer, at that crust of civilization? What is it that's causing that sense? And I trust it's not just me, but a lot of us. That sense that it's thin and it's reverberating with the blows at this point. Vibrating a little bit and maybe threatening to crack. What exactly is it? Well, that's what I want to talk with you about today as we continue our study of the book of Genesis today.

2:03 Because I think that as we look at Genesis chapter 2, we're going to get from Moses, the author of the book, a blueprint for what humanity was supposed to be in the beginning, and now what it has become that gives us that sense of foreboding. I know I said something last week about doing a sermon on the age of the earth. I'm not going to take time to do that. We're going to move right on into chapter two, but feel free to ask me later. I'll be standing right back there at the door if you're really interested in what I think about the age of the earth, because I do have some pretty spicy opinions about it. But instead of giving you those jalapeno flavors, flavored opinions about the age of the earth, we're just going to press on into chapter two. The book of Genesis, if you turn there, it's right at the beginning of the Bible. You'll find Genesis chapter two beginning on page two if you're using a Red Pew Bible. And my guess is chapter two is going to be on about page two in all of your Bibles, whether it's this one or not. So right at the beginning of the Bible, Genesis chapter 2. It was written about 3,500 years or so ago, probably by Moses, and it tells the story

3:06 of the origins of the human race, and ultimately, most importantly, the nation of Israel, from whom would come the Messiah, the Christ. The first 11 chapters, which is what we're looking at in this series through Genesis, we're going to make our way through the first 11 chapters, really right up until Christmas, tell the story of what's known, the history of what's known as the primeval age, or the first age. That's what primeval meant, right? It's, you know, prime is first. Eval, like medieval, middle ages.

3:37 Eval means age. So primeval means first age. Tells the story of the first age before the call of Abraham to be the father of the Jewish nation. And so that's what we're looking at. Last week, we looked at chapter one of Genesis, which tells the story of God's creation of the world. You remember the phrase ex nihilo? It's a Latin phrase. It means out of nothing. And then he's preparing it for the good of what was ultimately going to be the crowning work of all his works of creation. Mankind, created as God's likeness, as God's image in the world, male and female, and charged with ruling over the cosmos under God and reflecting his glory and character to everything that had been made.

4:19 That's what we talked about last week. Today we're going to be looking at chapter 2, which retells the story of day 6 of creation. It's already been told in chapter 1. Chapter 2 is going to retell the story of day 6 and specifically the creation of human beings in way more detail. Chapter 1 says a few things. Chapter 2 is going to say a whole lot more. And then chapter 2 even pushes the story forward into what turns out to be a fairly detailed account of why God put us, humankind, in the world in the first place. So let's read it and see what we can see in it.

4:52 Genesis chapter 2, we're going to begin in verse 4 because we looked at verses 1 to 3 last week. That's really the end of chapter 1. Chapter 2 actually begins at verse 4. Here we go. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east.

5:30 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. 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 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 Havelah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bidellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.

6:01 And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 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 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's 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, every bird of the heavens, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.

6:34 Whatever the man called every living creature, that was his name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. While he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its 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. Ultimately, this text is about the purpose for which God put humankind, man and woman, male and female, into the world.

7:23 And the main idea of it is this. We human beings were created for a glorious purpose. We were created for a glorious purpose to rule the cosmos under God in worship and obedience. You were created for a glorious purpose. We were created for a glorious purpose to rule the cosmos under God in worship and obedience. I want to look at this text in three points. We're looking at three sections of it. It breaks down pretty nicely into three different sections. There's verses 4 to 14, then 15 to 17, then 18 to 25.

7:58 All these points kind of have the same structure because they're telling us why mankind is here in the first place. So, three points. Mankind was number one, verses 4 to 14. Mankind was created for unique relationship with God. Number two, that second section, mankind is responsible to worship and obey God. And number three, mankind was blessed with the covenant of marriage to help them serve God. All right, let's look at it. Point number one, looking at just those first 11 verses there, 4 through 14.

8:32 Mankind was created for unique relationship with God. That's the whole point of everything that's been said in verses 4 through 14. It starts with this sort of poetic section in verse 4. You can kind of see it set off in a poetic way. which really the content of that, these are the generations of the heavens and earth when they were created and the day that the Lord God made the earth and heavens, it really runs us all the way back to the beginning of chapter 1. So it's kind of like, you know, the barrel on a typewriter, right? It's been moving this way for a while and now it goes all the way back to the beginning and you get the story of creation again there in verse 4.

9:07 Now some people have argued that it's kind of a problem, it's weird, that chapter 2 runs back over so much of the ground that chapter 1 has already covered. It's like, who does that in a story? Who covers the ground that they've already covered? Well, the answer is many good authors tend to do that, right? It's not an unusual thing for an author to tell a story pretty quickly and then back up, tell the same story again, but zero in on one particular thing that he wants to talk about. And so that's what's going on here.

9:38 Chapter 1 gives an overview of creation, tells you certain things about the creation of human beings, chapter 2 backs up to zero in on that again. Tell you in more detail exactly how and why God created humans. So the best way to think about it really is to think of verse 4 as summarizing the whole of days 1 through 5. And then the telling of day 6 again starts in verse 5. You got that? Days 1 through 5 are all packed into verse 4. God did all of this, right? And then the retelling of day 6 begins in verse 5. So look at that one.

10:14 Look at verse 5. 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 did not cause it to rain on the land, and there was no man to... Isn't it strange here that the text says that there are no bushes and plants in the world? When vegetation actually sprung up in day three? So why does it say that? Why does it say that there are no bushes and plants when vegetation is already on the earth as of day three?

10:47 Well, the answer is that when it says bushes and plants, bushes of the field, plants of the field, it's not talking about all bushes and all plants. It's talking about a specific kind of bush and a specific type of plant that was not on the earth at this time. Let me show you. So look at that phrase, plant of the field, and then take your finger and look over at verse 18 of chapter 3. This is the middle of the curse that God is handing down against the man. And he says about the newly cursed ground, thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat what?

11:23 The plants of the field. It's the same exact phrase as up in chapter 2, verse 5. And the picture is that until Adam sins, he doesn't have to do work to cultivate plants of the field like wheat and corn. He doesn't have to work for his food because God has said in chapter 1, I'm giving you all these seed-bearing plants and trees that just kind of cultivate themselves, right? They use their seeds, and they drop to the ground, and they grow more. And it just kind of happens for you, Adam, but not after the fall. Now you've got to do things like dealing with cultivating food that's not going to reproduce itself.

11:58 You've got to work for it. Same thing is going on with that phrase, bush of the field. It's not the same word, but it corresponds to that same verse 318, thorns and thistles. So what wasn't in the earth at this time were bushes of the field, these brambly thorn bushes that had to be gotten out of the way so that plants of the field, things like corn and wheat, could be cultivated. But all of it was going to have to be done by Adam. Now, you see where it says there that there was no one to work the ground? Well, look over at chapter 3, verse 23.

12:31 Therefore the Lord God sent Adam out of the garden after the fall to work the ground from which he was taken. He's got to work now, but as of chapter 2, verse 5, he's not having to work. See the point here? All these phrases aren't, it's not just like setting, right? I think we read over it really quickly, and then we have this slight little confusion of, wait, I thought there weren't any plans. It's not just giving you a general setting. It's foreshadowing what the earth was going to become after the fall. What it's saying is don't get too comfortable here, because things aren't going to stay like this for long.

13:07 Same thing with the rain, right? When does the rain happen? At the flood, in chapters 6 and 7. It's foreshadowing what the earth is going to be like after the fall. In verse 7, the moment of creation happens. And what you get in 7 is just an incredibly intimate picture of God's creation of human beings. So while all of this was the case, while the fall had not yet happened, basically, is what 5 and 6 are saying, then the Lord God, in those days, the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

13:38 And the man became a living creature. All right, several things to note there, so keep your eye on verse 7, because I'm going to be pointing you back into that text over and over again. First, what's the significance of man being created from the dust of the ground? Well, if you think back to Genesis 1, the fact is Genesis 1 had used some pretty exalted language for human beings, right? God gives them dominion. They're supposed to subdue the earth. They are created as God's likeness and image, which was common wording that was used to describe a king.

14:09 And this, when it says that we are created from the dust of the ground, is reminding us that for all that stuff, for all the fact that we're created as the image of God and as the likeness of God, for all that we're supposed to have dominion over the cosmos, we are still just creatures. We're not divine. We're not little gods. We're made of the same stuff as all the rest of creation. In fact, it turns out in the text that we are so much the stuff of the ground that we're named after it.

14:44 You see that word ground there? We're created out of the dust of the ground. That word ground is the word Adama. Adama. And the word man, which becomes the proper name of Adam, is Adam. So you know who we are as human beings? We are Adam from Adamah, people from the ground. It's who we are. Friends, that's the first thing we should know about ourselves. It's the first thing we must remember about ourselves. We are not God.

15:16 We're not God individually, and we're never going to become God as a human race. No matter how much we try, no matter whether we get the political system right and the economic system right, we will not be God ever. We are people from the stuff of the ground. But look what comes next. God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. So get the picture. God makes the form, the body of a man out of the dust of the earth and then breathes into him the breath of life. It's just an incredibly intimate moment, almost like a kiss, right?

15:50 A kiss of life being given to Adam. And the thing is, it's utterly unique. There's no other creature that's said to have the breath of life breathed into them. It's human beings alone who have that kind of special, unique relationship with God. Look, I don't know, as you've come in here today, what you think your purpose is in life. I mean, maybe it's just as simple as I want to enjoy as much as I can. I want to do some good in the world. Maybe I'll try to leave this world a better place when I leave it than when I came into it.

16:22 I mean, maybe it's, frankly, more mercenary than that. I just want to have as much fun and raise as much hell as possible until the final bell rings. My roommate in college was like that. I don't know what you think your purpose is in life, but what I do know is that you were actually created for more than any of that, the good stuff or the bad stuff, or really any purpose that you could ever imagine otherwise. You were created to be in relationship with God, to know him and to hear him and to listen to him and to do and work and accomplish what he has in store for you.

16:54 You were created to rule under the God of the universe. My friend, isn't that purpose that the Bible's holding out here, isn't that compelling to you at some level, even if you're not a Christian? Don't you think, yeah, I see a bunch of human beings running around with a whole bunch of self-made purposes, but this seems better. This seems better. Doesn't that resonate with you? I think it does.

17:26 I think it does because there's something deep in the human soul that knows that this is true and no amount of denying it, burying it, or substituting for it will ever fully cover it up. We're made to be in relationship with God. And to cut to the end of the chase, there's only one way that happens now. Now that we've messed it all up, there's only one way it happens. Through Jesus Christ who stands in our place. Well, the rest of this section through verse 14 describes the garden that God made for this new special creature called man. We're not going to take time at all to look at all those details, but you can see him there. There's a lot we could say. There's a lot of gold. There are some rivers. There's a lot of water. There are trees that are pleasant and good for food, right? And the point is that this is a great place for God to put the man. It's a perfect place, and it's proof that God is being very, very good to this new man. He's not stingy. He's not putting Adam in a place where, you know, like a bad father, the kid's going to suffer his way into maturity by gum. I'm going to put him in the middle of a

18:31 volcano and see if he can get out. He puts him in this extravagantly good and generous place. In fact, the word Eden itself there means delightful. If you look forward into verse 15 that we're going to look at in more detail later, see the word put there? 15, the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. You know, just a little window into my way of thinking. When I read a verse like that, I literally always think of what it looks like on your computer screen when you grab the little Google Street View guy and you grab his head and his little feet are flopping and then you set him down where you want him to be.

19:08 That's what it looks like to me. God grabbing little Adam and putting him in the Garden of Eden. Probably wasn't like that. That's what it looks like to me. The point is that the word put there, as much as it sounds like boom, right? As much as it sounds like that, it actually means placed at rest. The Lord God took the man and placed him at rest in the garden. All right. So good stuff for Adam. But look at verse 9 because there's some foreshadowing here.

19:40 Two of these trees in the garden have names. And even though they're just barely introduced right there, they become critical to the story really soon. Why? Because they introduced the fact that mankind is not just created to be in a unique relationship with God. That's true. He's created with a responsibility to worship and obey that same God. So that's point two. Mankind is responsible to worship and obey God. On to point number two. So we're looking at verses 15 and 16. Mankind is responsible to worship and obey God.

20:13 So that's the point of verses 15 and 16, when God first speaks here to his new little Google Street View guy. And we'll look at that in just a second. But I want you to look back at verse 7, because it's worth thinking a little more about God breathing the breath of life into Adam. The first thing that you know about that, because we've already talked about it, is that it's intimate, right? And most of us have that sense that if there's a breathing of the breath of life into Adam, that's an intimate relationship between God and Adam.

20:47 But there's more to it. Let me read you a couple of verses from later on in the Old Testament. And I want you to think about what these verses might mean with regard to God breathing the breath of life into Adam. Okay? You ready? Read you these verses. What do they mean with regard to God breathing the breath of life into Adam? Here it is. Job 32.8. But it is the spirit of man, the spirit, sorry, in man, it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty that makes him understand.

21:21 Interesting. Okay, Proverbs 20, verse 7. The spirit in man, which Job has already identified as the breath of the Almighty, the spirit in man is the lamp of the Lord searching all his innermost parts. what's that saying what's that saying about the breath of the almighty that goes into adam and brings him to life you see you see the point that that job and then proverbs solomon you see the point that they're developing the breath of the lord that becomes the breath of man doesn't merely impart life it imparts wisdom and therefore responsibility it imparts a kind of self-knowledge and knowledge of God that makes man accountable before God.

22:13 And the same idea, by the way, is present in that little word put that we've already looked at in 15. It has the connotation of placing something at rest, yes, but it has another specific connotation in the Old Testament too. It's used in the sense of placing something at rest before God, as in dedicated to God's service. So you might place money at rest before God, dedicated to his service. Or you might place tools of the temple before God at rest, dedicated to his service.

22:43 But the point is that once you do, those things are given over to God's service, right? To the work of God. So same idea with Adam here. He's being placed at rest in the garden because it's a great place. That's why he's placed at rest. But at the same time, he's being dedicated to God's service. And it turns out that's exactly the meaning of those two words there in verse 15 that are said to be Adam's job, to work and keep the garden. What does that mean? What does it mean that Adam is supposed to work and keep it?

23:16 Well, at first glance, and the way most of us probably read it most of the time, is that it's just gardening, right? You till the soil, you plant some seeds, you pull the weeds, right? You make sure the thing is growing, and you cut the branches and prune the trees and all the rest of it. But remember, Adam doesn't have to do any of that stuff yet. There are no brambles to be cleared out. There are no plants that have to be farmed. His food is provided by these seed-bearing trees. So this working and keeping has got to be a very different kind of gardening than what you and I, I was going to say you and I, but I never garden, what you do, some of you, in your gardens.

23:53 So what is it? Well, there's a couple of layers to it. For one thing, these two words, work and keep, work and keep, are used together like this, this close, only two other times in the entire Old Testament. And it is in Numbers when the Levites, the priests, are being given their job description in the tabernacle. They are to do the work of the tabernacle, and they are to keep, which means actually guard, guard the tabernacle. That's what they're supposed to do. So you see the picture? The Garden of Eden is a kind of tabernacle or temple, you might even say, where God and man live in relationship with each other.

24:29 It's a place where God and man meet in the cool of the day, every day, as chapter 3 is going to tell us. And Adam is dedicated to God's service as a kind of priest in that tabernacle. He's charged with doing its work and guarding it or keeping it from evil. That's his job. That's the beginning, in fact, of the dominion that God gave humans back in chapter 1. They're to exist, man and woman, as kings, queens, and priests in the garden temple. Working it, guarding it from evil, and ultimately, in that phrase, subdue the earth, right?

25:03 Fill the earth and subdue it. Ultimately, pushing the boundaries of the Garden of Eden outward until they've subdued the whole earth and brought it under their and ultimately God's good rule and order and authority. So that's what work and keep means. They're temple words. And in carrying them out, Adam is acting as a priest. Those words work and keep have another layer of meaning. you've probably started to notice by now that the Bible layers meaning onto words so that those words become 3D. Same thing here with work and keep.

25:36 They have another layer of meaning that deepens our understanding of what Adam was created for. So they mean to do the work of the garden temple and guard it from evil, but work is also used in the Old Testament to mean worship or serve. You worship God. And keep is the exact same word that's used when God tells his people to keep his commandments, meaning to obey them. So you see it?

26:07 Adam's to be a priest king in the garden, but he's also to be a worshiper and obeyer of God. So it's no surprise when God's first words to him there in 16 are a command. Look at 16. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, Look down at that verse again. The first part of God's command there, you may surely eat of every tree in the garden, it's essentially just go enjoy yourself, right?

26:41 You can eat anything you want to eat. All these trees, there's pears and apples and whatever else, right? You can eat all of it. Go enjoy yourself. You got every tree in the garden for food and you can eat freely of them anytime you want. But then you get that second part. You may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but 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. Now, what exactly the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is and all of the strange things that surround it, it's all still very much mystery in chapter 2.

27:12 All you've got so far is that it exists, it's in the center of the garden, and if Adam eats from it, he's going to die. That's all you get. We'll get more next week, but I don't want to go into it now because the text isn't going into it. But why does God do this in the first place? Why does God take this amazing garden that he's put Adam in and say, but, but, but, there's this one tree that you can't eat of and there's a threat of death that attaches to you eating from that tree. Why does he do that? Why does he limit Adam's freedom?

27:45 Well, that's just the point. He does it to limit Adam's freedom. He does it to remind Adam that even if he's supposed to be the under king of the universe, ruling and reigning the cosmos under God, he's reminding Adam, Adam, listen to me, your majesty, your reign and rule and authority is not unbounded. It's not primary. It's not ultimate. It's not self-derived.

28:18 It's received from me, and I have the right to set limits on your authority. Yours is secondary. Now, that may sound a little harsh, but friends, it's boundaries, it's boundaries, it's limits that hone us and shape us and mold us into something useful. And I was watching some videos on Twitter or X or whatever it's called the other day where they were taking some, they had like a bucket of sand, right?

28:53 And they'd press something down into it to make a mold and then they'd take molten nickel or whatever it is and pour it into the sand and it would, you know, scrape it all away. And oh, look, it's a rake, right? Or it's something you hang on your wall or whatever. If you just take a whole big, you know, big bucket of molten gold and pour it out on the table, what are you going to get? Free gold. It's free. That gold is unbounded. It's free to go wherever it wants to go. That gold is fulfilled because it's free. No, it's not. It's a mess. It's only when you put boundaries around it.

29:26 It's only when you make a mold and a frame that the thing is shaped into something useful and good. And beyond that, think about it. Think about it. For God to put boundaries and limits on Adam, to make Adam aware of God's presence in a way he had not been aware, before right this is a new awareness of god wow he's limiting me first time deepens his relationship with god it deepens and changes his relationship with god gives it texture that it's never had before you ever been on a cruise like one of those big ones there's a guy on that cruise that is called the cruise director, right, and his job is to make you happy. To make you happy. Do anything that's necessary for your happiness. He's usually a little silly, too, if you go to one of the shows.

30:21 He's a little bit of a crazy man, right? Get you hyped up. All about your freedom, all about your choices, all about your options and fun. The captain, a whole different thing, right? You run into the cruise director, you're like, high five, yeah, what up? The captain walks through, and you're kind of going to go like that. Because your relationship with the captain is different from that of the cruise director. You respect him. You honor him.

30:52 In no way, in your mind, is he a fool. Same thing here. All of a sudden, Adam's relationship with God was not one of cruiser to cruise director, but one of authority, of accountability, and responsibility. At least a point three. Mankind was blessed with the covenant of marriage to help them serve God. So in verse 18, God says something that I think is really nothing short of stunning.

31:26 It's sort of like that sound that cartoons make when something stops really quickly, right? Erk, skirt, you know, that's what you're supposed to feel in verse 18. Because what God says there is that line, it is not good. Now that's shocking because throughout chapter 1 the refrain had been, it's good, it's good, and finally it's very good. But here's the thing, at this point in the story, now that we've sort of backed up to tell day 6 again, we're still in the middle of day six.

31:58 The declaration of very good hasn't been made yet. And here God is noticing something in his good creation that isn't good and it needs to be fixed. And what's that? It's that his little man is alone. And that's not good. So God determines to make what he calls a helper fit for him. Now we're going to talk about that word in a few minutes. helper, because it's an important word, right? We're going to talk about it. But it's worth just looking through the rest of the story, because the rest of the story, down until the woman is created and Adam celebrates, it's just all kinds of fun. So what happens in those next verses is that God brings to Adam all the animals that he had formed to see what the man would call them, right? And if you just run this through, one thing you should do in your head, reading Bible stories is run them through your head like a movie because they take on all kinds of new character right and this one takes on all kinds of humorous character because Adam's just kind of sitting

32:58 there and here comes this long-nosed thing right and he says aardvark or whatever that is in Hebrew I don't know and he goes through it right there's an aardvark and there's there's a beaver and I don't know if they were in alphabetical order but we're going to go with it and finally there's a horse and the giraffe and whatever starts with m monkeys okay yeah all kinds of things and he gets to the end right and this horse looking thing comes up and he says god i've already named this one that's called a horse and god says no this one has stripes zebra why is that whole thing there. The naming of the animals, why is it there? Is it just like a commercial break in the story?

33:48 It's like the kid's sermon in some churches where you pause all the serious stuff and tell a silly story at the front. No, it's doing some things. Adam's naming of the animals is doing a couple of things. Number one, Adam is here exercising kingship over the animal world, right? That's what he's doing. Because in the act of naming, he's exercising dominion and authority over them. It's a common thing, not just in the ancient world, but here too, right? The reason you get to name your children and not the government is because they're your children.

34:19 The reason you get to name your car, if some of you do, is because it's your car, nobody else's, right? You want to name your car Jellybean? You have every right to do so because it's yours. Mine doesn't have a name. That's one thing he's doing. He's naming and therefore exercising dominion. Second, if you look at the end of 20, it becomes really clear. The Bible's very clear about what this whole thing was about. It's showing Adam, this whole naming of the animals, is showing Adam in no uncertain terms that none of these things are going to work as a helper.

34:52 It's not going to work. Aardvark, no God, that's not going to work. Mosquito, no. Blue whale, uh-uh. It's not going to work. Zebra, not even that, though I like the stripes. It's not going to work, which is why Adam is so excited when he wakes up in verse 23, and there's this woman. You know, that's what the words at last are signaling to you. It's signaling that Adam is very happy, very happy, because he's just done interviews with like 10,000 other candidates, and he has swiped right every time.

35:28 And all of a sudden, at last, this one is me. I'll take her. But let's think more about the way God first describes the woman, a helper fit for him. What does that mean? Well, two main things to say. Two main things to say. And here they are kind of together. The word helper there communicates that woman occupies a role of great honor and dignity as she follows man's lead in pursuing God's purposes.

36:02 Two parts. She occupies a role of great honor and dignity as she follows man's lead in pursuing God's purposes. So let's talk about both sides of that. First of all, she's to be a helper, and to be a helper is a role of great honor and dignity. Now, at its root, the word helper refers to someone who supplies what is lacking in another. It's someone who supplies what is lacking in another. It means that one person is incapable of accomplishing a certain thing alone.

36:35 And so another person comes along to supply that fatal lack and make it possible for the thing to be accomplished. Now, what's Adam supposed to accomplish? Be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth, fill it, all that kind of stuff. And God looks at him alone there and says, that ain't going to happen. You have a fatal lack in your lack of ability to bear children. And so he creates women. So in Eve's case here, it's probably that lack that's being filled is probably primarily referring to the ability to have children.

37:07 Adam can't do it alone. So he creates woman and together they go about fulfilling that purpose. It's a role of great honor. I mean, what's more to just underscore the dignity and honor of it? You know who is the most, repeatedly, the most famous helper in the Bible? God. god is the most famous helper to be a helper to someone else is not to be less than them is not to be less dignified or less honorable than them god forbid that we should ever say god our helper is less honorable than we are to be a helper is a role of great honor and dignity second though it's a role of great honor and dignity as she follows man's lead in pursuing God's purposes so the woman is created to supply something that's fatally lacking in Adam alone that makes it impossible for him to fulfill his purpose but it's all that's true it's also clear in several different ways in this text that she is to follow his lead in the accomplishment of

38:13 those purposes she's to recognize that he has a certain authority over her I'm not going to go into all the detail but that becomes clear in the fact that Adam is created first for instance Paul makes that point. It's clear in the fact that Adam gives her her name twice, which is an act of authority. And it's clear in the term helper itself. There's just no way to get around that. It would not be appropriate to call Adam Eve's helper. That's not the relationship. Look, I know that our culture chafes really hard at that kind of thing. Mostly because we chafe at the idea of authority all together. But I want you to see here that authority is not something that came about because of the fall. Everything was not egalitarian in creation until the fall turned it vertical into a hierarchy of authority. That's not how it works. God built authority into the very structures of creation before the fall. The word dominion comes to mind. Authority is good. It's good for man to lead in

39:20 pursuing the purposes God gave him and it's good for woman to supply what's necessary for him to carry out that purpose and which he lacks in himself. Neither one, neither one man nor woman can do what God intends without the other and yet there's a clear line of authority that exists there and we do ourselves no favors by ignoring that or trying to brush it away. Look now finally at verse 24. It's not surprising, given the role that God has given to man and woman, the purpose that he's given them of being fruitful, multiplying, filling the earth, extending the boundaries of you.

39:57 It's not surprising that the text moves here to the covenant of marriage. Because that's the basic structure, the basic societal structure, by which Adam and Eve are going to carry this thing out. They have work to do. Part of which is to be fruitful and have children. And so Genesis completes this whole picture of the pre-fall world. God's original purposes for mankind by establishing what is to the Jews and later to Christians and to reality itself the most basic building block of human society.

40:32 Marriage and the family. Now there's lots that could be said there. Books have been written about this. Leaving and holding fast in that verse, for instance, means that man and woman, when they're married, become a brand new unit that work together and are together accountable before God for how they're going to live their lives. Humanity is not just this undifferentiated mass of related individuals. It's not it. It has units and they're called families. That's what leaving and holding fast means. One flesh, that phrase there. It's not so much sexual language as it is covenant language.

41:06 The man and wife are committed to one another before God to carry out his purposes in the world. But here's the most important thing I want you to see here. God's purposes for human beings, to rule the earth under him, to work it and keep it, to fill the earth, and ultimately bring it all under God's rule, depends. It depends on this most basic building block of the family. Now, that doesn't mean every single individual, right? It just means the character of the whole. The character of humans is to be married and create family.

41:41 It doesn't mean every individual. I mean, you can say, look, the character of a cow is to moo, right? That's what cows do. It doesn't mean every single cow moos. I'm sure there are cows that don't moo. Not many, but they do. You know, they're just silent. It is the basic character of humans, though, to be married. And, friend, listen. Listen, even if it's God's will that you yourself as an individual human never get married, The fact that most humans do or should is good for you too.

42:14 It's what shapes and creates a functioning society. Now that, by the way, shaping and creating a functioning society is why Moses, in the law, spends so much time defining the family. You realize in the law, like read Leviticus, you realize how much time Moses spends defining and defending the family, Ruling out those behaviors that tend to erase and destroy the family? He spends a ton of time doing that.

42:44 That's what all of those marriage laws and sexuality laws in God's law are all about. Adultery and divorce destroy the family. Incest ruins and confuses the family. But from within now, homosexuality short circuits one of the main purposes of the family. And when that starts to happen, the warning is over and over again. In society after society, dissolution begins and accelerates. So you look at Leviticus, I think it's 26, I didn't write down the chapter, but there's this long chapter of sexuality laws, right?

43:22 Don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. And then at the very end of that chapter, God tells them why. Why should you not do all of these things? It's not just fiat from God. He tells them, do not make yourselves unclean by doing these things. For by all of these things, the nations that I am driving out before you have become unclean. And the land became unclean so that I punished its iniquity and the land vomited out its inhabitants. So keep my charge never to practice these abominable customs that were practiced before you and never to make yourselves unclean by them.

43:53 I am the Lord your God. You attack and dismantle the original purposes of God for a human being and society dissolves. Friends, that is why Satan, when he wants to destroy a society, always aims at the family. Think about the history of the last 50 years of the United States.

44:29 Kind of in order. No fault divorce. Free sex. Abortion on demand. Homosexuality. Gay marriage. And now the utter and complete confusion of what it even means to be man and woman. Do you see how all of those spear thrusts of the enemy are aimed directly at Genesis 2? Satan wants to destroy this society and all of this, all of this for the last 50 to 70 years is a calculated, strategized assault to untie the bonds of civilization.

45:16 And insofar as our society continues to pursue those things and even celebrate those things, it continues to claw at God's good purposes for mankind, and we're going to continue to tilt toward dissolution and destruction. Friends, that is not what God intended. You see what he intended from Genesis 2? To take your mind off the present and put it back on Genesis 2. Do you see what he intended? What he intended was human beings, the pinnacle of his creation, ruling over the cosmos.

45:49 An intimate relationship with him, responsible and accountable to him as the great high king of the universe. And the covenant of marriage to help them in pursuing that. That's a beautiful picture. And you know what? All the scripture readings that we did earlier in the service, Hebrews 2, Psalm 8. You know what those are teaching ultimately? It's teaching that the only way any of that gets recreated, the only way any sort of goodness comes out of the rubble of the fall is by those who unite themselves to King Jesus in faith.

46:28 Friends, part of what we're doing here in the church is trying our best to obey and fulfill the purposes of God that he intended. Right back here in Genesis 2. Trying to recreate it right here in the church. You exist for a grand and glorious purpose. Never forget it and pursue it with everything you've got. Let's pray. Our Lord, we thank you for the fact that you have given us things to do in this world.

47:05 You've not just called us to sit alone. You've not just called us to be idle. But you've called us to do and to accomplish in this world, especially as those who are now united to the King, Jesus, through faith. Our Lord, we thank you for salvation. We thank you for your goodness. And we pray that you would help us to learn from these things, remember them, and put them into practice. We pray all of that in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.