Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Genesis 2 | Date: August 29, 2021 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Is it 9:30 yet? I can’t see the clock. Yes. You know, that’s dangerous when the teacher can’t see the clock. I forgot my watch. All right. Let’s bow for prayer.

Our Father, what a delight it has been to study this passage of your word, to give it sustained attention, and to learn so much about you. We’re grateful that you’ve revealed it to us. We glory in it, we exult in it, to see the greatness of our God. As we come now to chapter two, we pray that you will open our understanding, give us a clear grasp of it, that we may understand your word rightly, and then with that, understand related truths more clearly, and then praise you as we ought. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

All right, we come to Genesis chapter 2 now, and let’s take the time to read through the entire passage. This will be beginning with verse 4 through the end of the chapter. Genesis 2:4-25. Well, yeah, let’s read the entire passage. Someone read that for us, or if you’d like, we could do as we’ve done before. Someone start off for us with verse four, read as far as you would like, and then someone else pick up until we’re done.

“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth, and they were created. In that day, the Lord God made the heavens, the earth, and the heavens. When no bush in the field was yet in the land, and no small plant in 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. And the Lord God planted a garden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made spring up every tree that is pleasant to sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

Verse 10. “A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden. And there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first one, the name of the first is 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. Bdellium and onyx stone are there. The land of the second river is the, the name of the second river is the Gihon. It is 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. 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 that day that you eat of it, you will surely die. Then the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper for him. So out of the ground the Lord God 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. 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. And 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. Then the man said, this at last is bone to my bone, flesh to my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. They shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

All right, the first chapter, all the way through chapter 2 and verse 3, is the first section of Genesis. It’s sort of an introduction to the book, sort of a prologue. And then with chapter 2 and verse 4 now, all right, the first section was God creating all that he created, all that is. And then it climaxed in God’s rest in chapter 2, verses 1 to 3, with day 7.

These Are the Generations Of

Now chapter two and verse four, notice the expression at the beginning of verse four, “these are the generations of.” Remember we said that that little expression, “these are the generations of,” marks off each new section of the book of Genesis. In a way, it’s structured around this kind of thing. Now some people have puzzled, many people have puzzled, why do we have “these are the generations of the heavens and the earth” after chapter 1, which is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth? And the answer is this is not a postscript or a summary, it’s a superscript—a superscription describing what comes.

“These are the generations of” comes from a Hebrew word that means to bear or to beget. In other words, this is what was produced by the heavens and the earth. So this is the story of the heavens and the earth beginning. Then after that, we’ll have, in chapter five and verse one, “these are the generations of Adam.” And “these are the generations of Noah.” “These are the generations of Noah’s sons.” “These are the generations of Shem,” and so on. And it goes through the book of Abraham, and then Isaac, and finally with Jacob.

So we have the next section then of the book of Genesis beginning here in chapter 2 and verse 4. Again, there are not two creation accounts. It’s often said to be that. The first creation account is Chapter 1. The second one is in Chapter 2. That is not the case. What we have in Chapter 2 is not a second creation account, but a backing up and a zooming in on specific topics to give us the necessary background for the rest of the story. Even a quick read through Chapter 2 will show you very quickly that it’s the setup for chapter 3.

And I think that’s the purpose now. He’s given us the creation account, the prologue, chapter 1, verse 1 through chapter 2 and verse 3. And now we have selected topics, beginning with chapter 2 and verse 4, where we have a fuller detail given to us about the things that were, some of the things that were created in the situation then. So in verse 7 and 8, we have the creation of man. We have the garden planted in verse 8. We have verse eight, man put in the garden. Verse nine, we have the trees of the garden, with two in particular that are highlighted, that are necessary for chapter three. Chapter two now, verse 10, we have the description of the rivers, the location and so on. And then verse 15 again, man placed into the garden.

Again, noted. So all of that seems to, Moses’ purpose here is to put this here to provide the setting for chapter 3 and the account of the fall, but also to provide the setting, the backdrop, for the whole rest of the Bible. It provides the background of the whole Bible storyline. It begins here. So, “these are the beginnings, these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that God made the earth and the heavens.” Here’s what comes from what he did.

The Creation of Man

Now verses seven and eight—we’re going to spend some time here in verses five and six because it’s difficult. I hope you’ll hang with me in this. It’s a little bit tedious, but I want you to think through it with me because an understanding of verses five and six here will be important for us a little later on in some other discussions regarding creation.

So verses seven and eight, Creation of man is clearly day six. So he’s backed up now and zoomed in on day six of chapter one, and he gives us the formation of the man. The Lord God formed the man out of the dust of 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. So clearly this is day six, giving us more information on it. It’s a two-fold process. He creates him from the dust of the ground, and then there’s the in-breathing of life, and man is formed. That’s day six, verses seven and eight.

Now, verses five and six, backing up to that, what we have is the background to what happens in verses seven and eight on day six. What was it like then? What was it like when Adam was created? 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 had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was growing up from the land, and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground.”

All right, a few questions we have to ask here. Number one: the land. What does that mean? That sounds tedious. If it doesn’t sound tedious, I don’t know what does. But what does it mean, the land? And the reason I ask that is because those of you with a New International Version, it’s translated “the earth.” Now, the same Hebrew word here is used. It can be translated earth. It can be translated dry land. It’s translated earth, meaning the globe. It can be translated land as opposed to water, dry land. Or it can be translated in reference to a specific region, like what we have in chapter 2, verse 13, the land of Cush. Same word there again, a particular region.

So what does this refer to in verse 5 when it says, “no bush of the field was yet in the land”? What is that, in the earth or in some particular region? What’s the meaning? So some translation here unnecessarily involves interpretation. Verse 5 again: “No bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up.” Well, the NIV translates it “the earth.” But I don’t think it can mean that. And the reason it can’t mean that is verses seven and eight tell us we’re in day six. The plant life had already been created back on day three.

So I don’t think the reference here is to the whole earth. Not only that, but verses five and six describe for us the reason there was no plant life. The reason there was no plant life at this point is not that God hadn’t created it yet. The reason there’s no plant life is because there’s no gardener and there’s no water source. That’s verses five and six. Look at it again. “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.” That’s the reason for the absence of the plant life. “And a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord formed the man from the dust of the ground.”

So it can’t mean that there’s no plant life yet. It means that in this particular region, there’s no plant life. So the reference to “the land” is some particular region here. And then it references these two kinds of plant life. There’s wildlife, and there’s plant life, and there’s also the cultivated. Those are the two references there. That’s the kind of plant for food. And neither was growing there yet in this place.

Then we have the question of the rain. There’s no rain yet. If we’re talking about a particular region and there’s no rain, I think the Israelites, much of the, virtually all of the ancient Near East, would immediately recognize this as the seasonal rains. Hadn’t happened here yet. You get a rush of rain in the season and it rushes through, but then everything goes barren and dry again. Common in that part of the world. So you have the dry summer, then you have the autumn rains. But in this particular region, there’s no gardener to cultivate. Perhaps there’s a burst of plant growth or something, but there’s nothing growing there to eat. So we have seasonal rainfall finally comes. Add to that a man to cultivate the ground, and the problem’s solved. There was no plant of any kind growing, the wild or the cultivated kind for food. But now we have a water source of some kind. Add to that a gardener, and the problem solves.

Well, that comes then to verse 6, the other tedious question we have to ask. What is this mist that he’s talking about? “A mist was growing up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground.” Again, if you have the New International Version here, it’s translated “streams.” English Version, English Standard Version that I use here, “mist.” NIV, “streams.” Well, the two are not the same. They’re very different. How can two translations be so different? And the answer is nobody knows what this Hebrew word means here. It’s translated mist in our version. It only occurs one other time in the Old Testament, and that’s in the Book of Job. Nobody knows what it means there either. It’s just sort of a mystery.

It probably does not mean—it’s been translated this way—probably does not mean river. Rivers descend. This, whatever it is, goes up. So somehow this mist or stream, whatever it is, is something that’s related to water, and it goes up. That’s what we know about it, and that’s it. So is it a mist? A cloud? A rain cloud going up that waters the earth seasonally? Is it a rain cloud rising? Whatever it is in verse four, or verse six, the mist, you add to that verse five, the man cultivating the ground, you’ve got now some water source, at least seasonal, but it’s not cultivated. But now we add a man to that, a gardener, and now we have water sufficient for plant growth.

Now the first thing we see there then is that not all the world was a garden. Not all the world initially was Eden. Not all of it was a garden in Eden. Verse eight, God planted a garden for Adam after he was created and then put him there. That’s in day six. So, what we have here then in verses five and six, in this area in particular, this particular region, in the dry season, we have a water source, but it’s not yet been developed. So, verses seven to nine, God takes the needed steps. Verse seven, he made a man. Verse eight, he planted a garden, put the newly formed man in the garden. And then verse nine, he describes the garden. We have something similar to that in verse 15. He put him in the garden to work it and to keep it. So God made the man in this region where there was no rain or no cultivated plant. So God makes a man, he plants a garden, puts the man in the garden, and now it’s to be cultivated and kept.

Well, then the next question: what’s this garden here? Verse eight. The Hebrew word here has the idea of something enclosed, a protected area of some kind where flora flourishes. Genesis 2 does not mention a wall of any kind, but you get the idea of some kind of seclusion, and you have that more explicitly in chapter 3. At the end of chapter 3, after Adam’s sin, Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden, and at the entrance of the garden—was that a gate? The entrance of the garden—these cherubim were placed to block the way back in. So this is some kind of enclosed garden.

Now it’s called Eden. That word means pleasure or delight. A delightful garden or a garden of delight. Notice it says it’s in Eden. The garden is not Eden. The garden is in Eden. Eden is a place larger than the garden. E.J. Young suggests that this word Eden is related to a Sumerian word that means plain. Plain. P-L-A-I-N. Or P-L-A-N-E. Which is it? Plain of a mountain. P-L-A-I-N. That’s it. Drawing a blank. Sorry. Well, that’s interesting because in Ezekiel 28, Eden is described as the mountain of God. So now we have a plain on that mountain, a particular area of it, and it’s called Eden. And in Eden, we have a garden. In the eastern part of this plain, God planted a garden.

Chapter two, verse nine then: “out of the garden, the Lord made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.” So we have plenteous provision here. It’s lush, it’s well watered, it’s beautiful. It’s paradise. That’s the idea here.

The Geographical Location

All right. Since we’re doing detail this morning and we’ll work more on it next time, look at verses 10 to 14. We have the geographical location of the Garden of Eden described.

“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, the name of the, it is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium 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. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.”

The location here is given only in general terms. He doesn’t give us the longitude and the latitude or anything like that. And it can’t be exactly located. But the fact that he does give this kind of geographical location does attest to the historical nature of the account. There are various theories as to exactly where the Garden of Eden was. Many people have guessed at that. There’s been a lot written on it. Bottom line, it’s impossible to be conclusive. We don’t know.

One river flowed out of Eden. One river flowed out of Eden, it tells us. Perhaps it’s the waters of verses 5 and 6. The mist, the waters. A stream coming up out of the ground. There’s actually, in verse 5, the mist. I think there’s a marginal reading in the ESV that says a stream—not a stream, a spring—coming up from the ground. So there’s going up a stream. That might be it here. It’s the headwaters, perhaps, of this river starting there in Eden. And it tells us here that it’s for the purpose of providing for the garden itself with irrigation. And then it becomes the headwaters of four other rivers.

Tigris and Euphrates, of course, we can still identify, even though centuries and centuries ago the Euphrates was rerouted, fulfilling a fascinating prophecy that God gave against Babylon. Fascinating prophecy, that’s for another time. But we can identify the Tigris and the Euphrates still today. I’m told, I don’t know this for certain, but I read that the springs that gave rise to the Tigris and the Euphrates are just a few yards apart. So that accounts for this. Maybe that’s the area, don’t know. These other two rivers we don’t know, we can’t identify. And this then branches out to the four corners of the earth. This river coming out of Eden branches out to the four corners of the earth to provide life for the whole earth.

That is picked up in an interesting way in Ezekiel chapter 47. It’s also picked up again in Revelation chapter 22, the river of life that flowed from the throne of God. The whole imagery there both in Ezekiel and in Revelation is paradise regained. But that’s the picture here. We have this river going out of Eden and it branches out to provide life and sustenance for the whole earth.

The Trees of the Garden

All right, now we come to chapter 2 verses 8 and 9, the trees of the garden. “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. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

Now the first thing that Moses does here is he highlights God’s lavish provision for Adam. Verse 9: “out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.” So the idea here is that look at all of these fruit trees in this garden. Lush provision for Adam. And then he draws attention, he narrows to these two specific trees. Verse 9 again: “the tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

So, the question that comes up now is, what kind of trees are these? Are they special kinds of trees? Are they a noticeably different kind of tree, a different genus, something’s different kind of tree? What is it? Well, the first thing to note in verse 9 is that they’re just one of, each of these is just one of every tree that is in the garden. That’s a tree. Fruit tree of some kind. It’s not that these are magical trees. Eat of it and something magical happens. I don’t think there’s any intrinsic power in these trees. I think it’s just symbolic. These two are highlighted. This one is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This is the tree of life.

Now what does it mean then? Let’s take the tree of life first. What does that mean? I think in short the idea is pretty obvious. The tree of life is a tree that gives life that’s given by God. God has given this tree to give life. So it’s a tree of life. Now many people, I think we’ve probably all heard this, have assumed that this tree of life gives immortality. Eat of it once and you live forever. I think we’ve probably all heard that. I don’t think that’s the way to understand the Tree of Life.

We have a minute. Let’s look at Proverbs Chapter 3. We’ll find some other references here to the Tree of Life. Look at Proverbs Chapter 3, verses 16 to 18. Someone read for us Proverbs 3:16-18. Alright, so here’s the sage’s extolling of wisdom and the value of wisdom. Remember, it was about a year ago now we were here in Proverbs looking through these passages. Wisdom is a—the value of wisdom is extolled. You need to pursue wisdom at all costs, sell off everything to get wisdom, because it’s so valuable. What is its value? Well, here he describes it as a tree of life. Or, verse 16, the long life.

In other words, you listen to what wisdom teaches you, you’ll have a better life. You’ll live longer. That’s generally the case, isn’t it? That’s what the Proverbs teach us about wisdom. Look at chapter 13 and verse 12, Proverbs 13:12. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Well there, tree of life, again, it’s obviously figurative. Hope fulfilled rejuvenates. It gives new life, extends life in that sense. Look at chapter 15 verse 4, Proverbs 15:4. “A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.” Someone speaks harshly to you, it hurts, it can break the spirit; nothing quite so powerful as words. But on the other hand, a gentle tongue—someone speaks kindly to you—it rejuvenates. A gentle tongue is a tree of life. It gives new life as it were.

And then we have one more place. Let’s look at that as well. Revelation chapter 22. Someone read for us verses one and two. Revelation 22:1-2. “Through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of nations.” Alright, here we have Eden imagery. This is familiar for the Book of Revelation. At the end, we have this “back to Eden and beyond” imagery that comes, that God’s saving purpose to restore the created order has been achieved. And so it’s a back to Eden and beyond kind of description that we have. We have much of this in Revelation.

But here it draws reference to the river of life. And on the banks of the river is this tree of life. And this tree of life yields fruit each month. So this is symbolic language here, I assume. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. So you have this picture of the nations somehow profiting from what’s going on in Eden. I was picturing, I think, the eternal state, and here we have the nations are involved in the eternal state, and by this tree of life they are given new life, as it were. They’re rejuvenated as well.

So I think what we have here then, back in Genesis 2, the tree of life, is something like, if we can call it this, a tree of youth—not a fountain of youth, but a tree of youth. It’s not immortality. Eating of this tree extends life. It doesn’t grant instant immortality, but it extends life. I suspect it’s symbolic of the sustenance of life that comes from God. Eat of this tree, it is your privilege to eat of it, and God sustains life. So eating of that tree symbolizes God giving life.

Now it’s often said that Adam and Eve never ate from this tree. I’m sure all of us, most all of us have heard that. Adam and Eve never ate from this tree. The text does not say that. It doesn’t imply that they never ate of it. I think it implies that they did. But that argument, the assumption that they never ate from the tree, rests on—look at chapter 3, it’s back in Genesis—chapter 3 verse 22, where the entrance to the garden is blocked, lest they eat of the tree and live forever. It’s often assumed that that says, lest they eat once of the tree and live forever. That’s not what the text says either. I think it’s still this idea of sustaining life, rejuvenating. It’s a tree of youth, sort of a thing, symbolic of the life that God gives.

All right, that’s the tree of life. Now the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We find that in chapter 2, now verse 9. And also again in verse 17, where it’s commanded not to eat of it. Again, I don’t think it’s an intrinsically evil tree. I don’t think it’s magical—a tree with particular powers—I think it’s symbolic. This is the one that God has ordered you not to eat of.

We have, but what does it mean, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Well, other Old Testament references to knowing and understanding good and evil have the connotation of discerning between good and evil. Now, when we come to chapter three, verse 22, after Adam has sinned, God says that they have become like one of us, knowing good and evil. I suspect then the idea here is a sense of moral autonomy, that suddenly now they know good and evil in another way. They have acted in a morally autonomous way, struck out on their own, and now they know good and evil in a very different way.

The tree of life symbolized God’s continued life-giving grace, and now the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it symbolized Adam’s striking out on his own, a rejecting of his creaturely dependence upon God, his creaturely obligations to God. He’s acted as though he’s autonomous, and now he knows good and evil in a very different way.

I have much more to do in Chapter 2, but we’re going to have to hold off that for next time, and I’d rather quit early than try to get into it. But what we have now in these verses—a lot of detail we’ve had to go through—is God planted a garden, He put the newly created man in the garden. He provided well for the newly created man in that garden. Lavish provision for him. Only there’s this one point of testing. You have all the trees of the garden. In that there’s the tree of life even. Eat of it. Help yourself. All you want. But there’s this one tree. Don’t eat of that one. Tree of knowledge of good and evil. Of course that’s necessary then for the background for Chapter 3 that we’ll come to in a couple weeks.

All right, I’m going to go ahead and call it quits there. Any questions before we go? Yes?