August 7, 2024 – Genesis 2:1-8
Man is made for God’s tabernacle.
A tabernacle is a holy, sacred space set aside by God where God is immanent and present for localized contact with man. An early example of a tabernacle is Eden.
On the seventh day, God has completed His organization of space, time, the heavens, the earth and waters and the creatures therein, including man. They are now in harmony with God, subsumed into His eternity and by definition are now complete. Man’s challenge going forward is to remain in harmony with God and not to fall into disordered behavior.
God’s rest on the Sabbath, is a cessation of creating and ordering new substance in the world, and a blessing and sanctification to mark this day for man’s use to become like God and to cease his prior separation from God. The succession of the days of creation is to be regarded as a genealogy, with prior generations begetting descendants in a chain of historic dependency. This linkage through time is a strong indicator of the hand of God’s providence acting in history, culminating in the creation of man.
The second creation story begins with a description of the area “set aside” and protected by God’s vigilance for His creation of man (Adam) from the dust of the earth (His cultivated ground) and the in-breathing of soul into his nostrils. Importantly, this area is not Eden, which comes later. The seeds of the plants are sequestered in this earth, waiting for rain and Adam’s labor to begin to work the earth. The life-giving rain (mist) also is brought forth by God from beneath this earth, which is a material allusion to God’s hand bringing abundant life forth from what is dead in the Resurrection. God is named here as Jehovah, to emphasize His loving, intimate relation to man, in contrast to Elohim, which was used earlier to describe His transcendent and almighty character during the formation of the heavens and the earth. God’s creation of man from His cultivated ground shows God’s intimate intention to create man in His image and likeness, for the performance of God’s work here on earth.
Man’s unique nature as a union of created order and divine life, higher than angels and a source of jealous rage for Satan, insures that man is dependent on a clear perception of God’s will to express his nature most fully. Eastward of the initial creation garden in which Adam is formed, God sets aside and plants a second garden (Eden) for man’s use and learning. In this second tabernacle, man’s will comes into conflict with God’s will for the first time, with consequences for all of God’s creation that direct the course of human history and define man’s struggle against sin.
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