Category Archives: Chapter 2
Genesis 2:25 And They Were Both Naked
(Ver 1.1) This title sounds like an interesting Bible subject and statement to study. And it probably gets a lot of people’s attention. This was a description of Adam and Eve in the beginning that God spoke in Genesis 2:25. No this verse does not promote nudity as the normal state for human existence. Nor does it specify that we should all go to church without any clothes on. There are obviously some that would like that, but this is not what God is telling us here. God is giving us a view into the spiritual state of the first man and woman before sin entered into the world. Let’s look at the complete verse:
Genesis 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
In this verse we can see God’s initial created state of innocence. I only know of one time in a normal person’s life when they are not ashamed of being naked, and that is when they are children at the age of 2 to 4 years old. My son use to take his diaper off and run around naked and it seemed to be his preferred dress code. Isn’t it interesting that children do this without any consciousness of their nudity? Why is this? Here is a verse that Paul speaks about this state of innocence:
Romans 7:9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
You see this is a complex verse that is easily misunderstood if applied incorrectly. It speaks of a time in Paul’s natural life after birth when he was alive in a state of innocence. This of course is speaking of a spiritual state of being alive. Paul claimed to be spiritually alive in this verse before he had reached the age of accountability. I many times hesitate in calling it a spiritual life and a spiritual death, because spirits can not technically ever die or cease to exist. The human spirit will forever exist somewhere. I often times refer to this state of existence as a type of spiritual awareness.
You see children when they are young are more in tune with their spirits than many adults. I like to say it this way, children a closer realization that they are spirits clothed or covered with a body. As a child ages and matures, Paul says sin is revived and he died. In other words he became spiritually unaware or dull and was separated from God. No longer was Paul an innocent child when he came into the age of accountability and he became much less aware of spiritual things. Now he was more body aware and much less spirit aware. How did I come to these conclusions? First by having children, then I saw it in the Bible:
2 Corinthians 5:4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
You see in this verse is again found a complex statement with widespread implications. The primary subject of the verse is the human body. Paul is writing about our current earthly body in the terms of it being a temporary dwelling place or a spirit cover. God calls our bodies a tabernacle (2 Peter 1:14). The Greek word for tabernacle is defined as a hut, a tent, or any other temporary residence that we will not be staying long in. In this verse God refers to our natural human bodies as being the clothes for our spirits within our body. When we die and leave this world, our bodies do not go with us and Paul calls this a state of being unclothed. But he says we are anxiously awaiting an immortal and permanent dwelling place that will be coming soon. Do you understand this better now?
So what we can say about Adam and Eve at this point in time is that they are spiritually alive and significantly more spiritually aware, in a child like state of innocence. They were spirit beings that were clothed with natural human bodies that God had created for them. Later we will see in chapter 3 the effects that sin had on them and what God did about it.
Thank you, for reading and studying the Bible with us. Please leave a comment if you would like. I’ll stop here for now and we can move on to another subject in the next chapter of Genesis.
Genesis 2:8 The Confrontation Between East and West
(Ver 2.0) When you read the Bible and begin to understand that every word has significance and meaning, you start to pay much closer attention to which words God selected to describe the events within creation. Knowing that God is so much smarter than we are and that He could have chosen any words that He desired to convey His thoughts to us, we must realize that He chose these exact words found in Genesis to describe creation to us. Recently in my blogs I have been skipping around in Genesis 2 for no particular reason, just giving you glimpses into the variety of subjects found there. Today we are going to look at verse 8 of Genesis 2 and see what God says to us.
Genesis 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
I often times wondered why God said that he planted a garden eastward in Eden. We can clearly see from the information in this verse that man or Adam came from or was created somewhere to the west of Eden. Isn’t that interesting? Why is this so important that God included this fact in the Bible out of all the information that He could have given us? We don’t know exactly where Eden was located; we are only given the general location of Eden using the names of 4 rivers which are said to have flowed through it. We can assume using the general information of the location of these four rivers given to us that Eden must have been somewhere in or near the area between Israel and Iraq or in that general vicinity. I don’t really feel that the exact location is that important, but I believe that the general principles and concepts surrounding them are very important to today’s lesson. We can also assume based upon this location that somewhere to the west, probably in Northern Africa, the Man was created and then moved to the Garden. So why is this significant? It is the first mention of any compass direction in the Bible. The first mention of any subject in the Bible always has significance. There are many implied truths given to us in this scripture. We can see that much clearer later when we get to what happens later in chapter 3 after the fall of man.
What I will tell you now is just some overall concepts of the differences between human civilizations and the developmental differences between the east and the west. If you’ve never thought of this before, it is very fascinating to see the spiritual implications of east vs. west. The Far East as it is called has always been dominated by spiritual darkness; religions of the mind, religions of the body and the religions of idol worshippers. All of these types of religions focus more upon worshipping creation and ignoring the creator. You can go to places in China, Japan, Indonesia and other places and see the temples and idols of gods that have dominated that part of world. These are gods made by the hands of men and worshipped by ignorant and deceived humans. As a result we can see the rise of communism and dictatorships of godless governments that do everything in their power to attempt to limit and restrict Christianity, the Bible and the spread of the truth. Nowhere else in the world is this so prevalent as it is in the eastern Asia.
Then we can see another conglomeration of religions centered around the region of Eden which are primarily dominated by Judaism along with Islam and some Christians. Moving to the west we see the rise of more dominate Christianity and free societies and governments. What we begin to see is a dividing line and a growing trend of a clash between the cultures of the east and the west. Of course we understand that we wrestle not with flesh and blood but the spiritual forces, the rulers of the darkness of this world (Eph 6:12). It seems that these spiritual forces while attempting to make inroads into the west have predominately through history have controlled more of the far eastern nations. In the book of Acts and in the Epistles there are a couple of mentioned times that Paul is not allowed by God to go to the Far East.
Acts 16:6 Now when they had gone throughout Phyrgia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
Paul is directed specifically by God to go west only. In fact it specifically says God forbid them from going into Asia. I would assume from this that it was too dangerous and the people in those regions would have just killed them. If you look at the world today, the hardest places for Christians to go into and teach and preach are still predominately in areas of the Far East and the continent of Asia. In recent news articles there were several aid workers who were giving the people of Afghanistan free medical care; these good Samaritans were executed by the Islamic extremist. The claim was that they were preaching the Bible trying to get Muslims to convert. Isn’t that religious tolerance and freedom and the free will exercise of the people’s mind? Why is it that Islam wants to force you to become a Muslim and then once you are a Muslim they will kill you for leaving? There are no choices in Islam your decisions are made for you, is that your God? The control of people by fear seems to be their only message. Other than fear they have no message of salvation. They cannot stand up to the truth so they have to shut up those who try to teach it to others. What I want you to think about is how different the cultures are in these two parts of the world. Communism still dominates China and Russia. The country of India is dominated by people who revere cows. Between those three countries lies almost half of the world’s population. I cannot thank God enough for being born in the free country of the United States of America. We are not a perfect country but at least I can go to church without fearing that the Government will come in and throwing everyone into prison, at least today I can. I’ll bring out more information about east and west as we get into chapter 3 of Genesis, but I just wanted you to start thinking along these lines and notice what God said about it in chapter 2.
Genesis 2:18-23 God Creates Woman from a Man
Genesis 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be along; I will make him an help meet for him.
I read this verse in the Bible and it was astounding what it said to me. I don’t know if people ignore what it says, or just don’t see what it says. God makes a man on the earth and turns over control of His creation to this him. Almost every time in the work of creation, God would do something and say, that was good. This is the first time we have a statement that something is not good that God has done. Before this we have had occasions to notice like on day two of creation when God did not make the statement that it was good, but now we have a direct and explicit confirmation that something wasn’t good. What is the implied information given to us by that statement? The implication was that the man was alone? Did that mean spiritually as well as physically? We know that God is a spirit, later we see in chapter 3 where God would come down and walk in the garden to talk with the man. But apparently in the eyes of God the man was a separate being not a part of the heavenly family. Not a part of the angels, not apart of the trinity. Not associated with anyone or anything in heaven. This if you did not realize it is a division or separation from God. The creation of a being that was not in covenant relationship to God. Of course that does not mean as I noted earlier that the man could not have a conversation with his father, God. We will see more implications of this as we go but for now, I thought that was interesting.
Genesis 2:21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.
Genesis 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
There is more valuable information in these two verses of scripture and you’ll see why later. We have the fact given to us that the woman was taken out of the side of the man. That is another reason God called both of their names Adam, because they both came from the same body. This is so important to see. What was the surgical operation that God performed? God opened the flesh of his man and took a bone out of his side and creates a woman from it. Where did Adam get his DNA, it had to be from God his Father. Where did Eve get her DNA, it was from the man. All of this was done for what reason? So that the man would not be alone. What was Adam’s response to what God had done? He makes this statement which is absolutely critical to understand:
Genesis 2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of man.
Did you see the statement? Adam declares the woman’s body to be his body. A body consists of flesh and bones. God created her body from a part of his. So the end results is that they are one body. It is really a simple math problem, If you take 1 and multiply it by 1, you get 1. 1 male x 1 female = 1 body. Or you could say it this way, God divided 1 body into 1 male and 1 female. 1 divided by 1 is 1. This is God’s basic math of marriage. There is a principle stated here that will be applicable later when I talk about Jesus. Then in verse 24, God restates what Adam has declared in the Genesis law of marriage:
Genesis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh..
This is another one of those verses that I don’t think people have understood completely. You see it has vast Biblical implications and explains many things that happen in our relationship with God, but I won’t get off track for now and attempt to explain any of that. What we should see is the statement and how it applies to Adam since that is what we are talking about. What we observe is God’s three step program for marriage. First step, we can see that God says that the man will leave or separate from his family, which consists of his father and his mother. Step two the man will marry a wife. The term cleave is used but it means to be joined to. Finally step 3, the two will become one flesh. Isn’t it absolutely amazing that God didn’t know Adam didn’t have a father and a mother. Ok, I was being a little facetious trying to get your attention. Of course God knew who his father and his mother were, but did you? I think if you have been reading my blog you know that Adam’s father was God. Now who the mother is, I will not be able to address for a while. So what is the net results of this statement? What we see is another stated division between man and God and a joining of the man to the woman to be one.
What normally happens when humans get married? They usually move out of the parents house and establish a new family and household. So while they were a part of one family, they left that one and now they are the establishment of another new family. You do understand that God has a family in heaven? So by creating a man on earth, we saw that already Adam had moved out of the family of God in heaven. But God said it was not good for the man to be alone, so God creates a woman for the man and they two now create and establish a new and separate family on the earth. The key words here are New and Separate. A family that didn’t exist before, a family not a part of God and the beings in heaven. In case you didn’t know it, God is working on a plan. What does that plan involve? Not only the creation of a new family on earth, but how does God get rid of the unwanted family members in heaven? Some might say God is God and He is sovereign and He can do anything He wants. When people think like that, it just shows how little they know God. God is a covenant making God. What is a covenant? I probably need to spend weeks exploring all the information in the Bible about covenants. I would suggest if you have never studied covenants that you do some research and study covenants. What is a covenant? How are covenants made? Who can covenants be between?. Briefly I will tell you that a covenant is equivalent to a marriage. A marriage in the eyes of God as we have seen means that they are one. I know I’ve implied a lot of new information in this blog that you have probably never considered, so I’ll stop here and let you think about it.
Genesis 2:7 – Our Source of Life
Here is another perspective or way to look at the creation of man. I will give you some advanced spiritual concepts and truths, using scriptures in the Bible. We know from Genesis 2:7 that God forms the body of the man from the dust of the ground. Then let’s read what happens:
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
We can see that man’s life came directly from God, for it says God breathed into his nostrils, the breath of life. What exactly is the breath of life? The Bible gives us some valuable clues if we are able to put them together and see them. The first thing we should realize is that the body was not the man and did not contain any life until God did something to produce the life. God must have imparted something that made the man unique from the rest of creation. No where in the Bible, does it say God breathed into the body of a monkey or a chimpanzee to cause them to live. Right there we can see a major difference between animals and man. I believe there is sufficient scientific evidence such as DNA that when interpreted correctly shows man did not come from monkeys. But natural men who are convinced there is no God will always try to come up with a natural explanation of how we got here.
James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
This verse in James declares a universal truth that applies to every man, woman and child. It says if the body is alive, it (the body) has a spirit within it. I guess what it actually says, is without the spirit, the body is dead. So when God formed a body from the dust of the ground for Adam, was it dead or alive at first? Let’s start by asking, was Adam a spirit being? Of course he had to be a spirit being. God is a spirit (John 4:24) and man was made in the image of God, so man has to be a spirit. So where did Adam get his spirit? Of course it had to come from God. It is interesting that it says God breathed into the nostrils the breath of life. I take that to mean his spirit and not just God’s attempt at CPR. If God breathed spirit life into Adam whose spirit was it? Of course it was God’s spirit. Again, more difficult concepts to grasp and understand. But we can confirm this by looking at other scripture in the Bible:
Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of sprits and live?
Here is another fascinating scripture that contains another universally true statement. It says God is the Father of spirits. That of course would be every spirit, good, bad or indifferent. Therefore, Adam by implication was a son of God. People will automatically think that I just put Adam on the same class and level as Jesus, but I didn’t. I did not say Adam was God, I just said he was a child of the Almighty. So put down your stones and read. Why is it important to see this relationship between God and Adam? I’m sorry I don’t have time to explain that right now. Perhaps we will get into that later. So does the Bible say that Adam was a son of God? We just read a scripture that implied it very strongly but there is another reference that comes to mind. In the genealogy of Jesus in Luke the 3rd chapter we can read a long, list of father and son relationships starting with Joseph going all the way back to Adam. Then guess what says in verse 38:
Luke 3:38 Which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
Here is a key to correct Bible interpretation, be consistent. If every named pair represents a father and a son relationship except the last one, that would be an inconsistent interpretation. You have to apply the same logic to very member in the list or else it is not a list of anything, just a bunch of names.
What we have discovered is that God is the source of our life and that our life is not physical first, but spiritual first. Then after the impartation of the spiritual, we can see the clear implication that only then can we have physical life. This is applicable to many things in the Bible and contains valuable lessons for us all.
Genesis 2:7 – The Redemption of the Body
There are so many ways to look at scripture that it is a challenge to know which way to go. If you have been reading my blog, you know that I try to provide new perspectives into standard teachings. I always use the Bible to explain and interpret the Bible so I’m not making stuff up. However, since a lot of what I teach is new, I’m to you and stuff you never heard, it will be difficult for you to see at first. That is just the way the Bible is. People can look right at a verse of truth and never see what it says.
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
We can learn a lot by seeing inside the implications associated with property ownership. Since the man’s body was formed from the dust of the ground, that automatically implies the body can be bought and sold as any piece of property can be bought and sold. If you have ever bought a piece of property you will understand this concept. But what does that have to do with Adam?
Isaiah 52:3 For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; ye shall be redeemed without money.
Here are the words of God spoken to us. God declares that Adam sold himself for nothing. In other words Adam did not gain anything from the sales transaction with Satan. There was a transfer of ownership of a piece of property and Adam lost everything. After the fall of man we now have a new god of this world (2 Cor 4:4) who was in charge until Jesus came and died for us. Did you notice the last part of Isaiah 52:3, God says, I know you sold yourselves for nothing, but I will redeem you without any money.
Redemption is a fascinating concept. In natural terms, people in our world pawn or sell items to stores called Pawn Shops. The establishment gives the person some money for their items of value and then sets a time limit that the person who sold the item can come back and repurchase the item back, usually for a premium. If the time limit expires, the item is now property of the store owner and he can sell the item for usually more than he paid for it. That is an interesting concept and actually a parallel to what the Bible says happened to Adam. Adam sold his property to Satan, but God had an established time period to redeem it and God said I will pay the price to get it back, and it won’t cost me any money. We know that God paid the price with His life and His blood, so even though it didn’t cost money, it wasn’t free or cheap.
Romans 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
In Romans 8:23 we can see a statement that declares the time period for land transfer has not completely expired. If we are waiting, like Paul was waiting what are we waiting for? When is this expiration or redemption period over. When will the property revert to the correct ownership? Well this is what God’s law said about personal property and ownership.
Leviticus 25:10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man his family.
You see God instigated a time when every possession that was sold would be returned to the original owner. Every 50 years, a Jubilee would take place, a time of liberty a time of freedom for everyone. Any person who had been sold into slavery would be returned to his family. Any property sold to pay a debt would be returned to their original owners. This was God’s law and God’s solution to Adam selling what he couldn’t afford to sell.
Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
I found Genesis 6:3 fascinating, did you notice that it said “man is also flesh”. This verse places a higher importance on something that man is above his body. Man is of course a spirit being that lives in a body. But in the eyes of God the man belongs in a body. Paul said in the New Testament, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” So we can see that the man’s spirit can be separated from his body. In which case if the man’s spirit leaves his body we know the body is dead. If you die and go to heaven that doesn’t mean that you are not still waiting for your glorified body.
So many will question this reasoning, but I can see it based upon other scriptures in the Bible so I believe it. In Genesis 6:3 God speaking about the years of man said they will be 120. Most people these days don’t live that long, but a few have reached ages near that number. But I don’t think God was talking about that, or I guess I should say God was implying something else. If you take 120 and multiply it by 50 (Jubilees) you get what? The answer comes to 6000, that is an amazing number in light of the Genesis 1 prophecy. It seems that man’s time period of physical redemption is 6000 years. At this time the property will revert back to the original owner. There are really no coincidences in the Bible, there are really just a lot of clues. Putting the clues together is where we come in and that is our job. God has given us an assigned task to figure out the clues. In a short Blog like this, I can’t really give you every scripture reference and all the information that you probably need to figure these things out. All I can do is give you some snippets and a few references to help you search for the truth in a new way.
Genesis 2:2 The Seventh Day, God’s Coming Day of Rest
Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
It is fascinating to me to know that God works and God rests. I don’t think God get’s tired like we do sometimes, but yet this is what it says. In Genesis 1 it said that man was made in the image of God, so if God works I would guess that He expects man to work. That is a big reason I’m not in favor of welfare and free hand outs by the government, the church or by any individual. I’m not opposed to helping people, but I believe people should be willing to work to get the help. So many people today just want a free ride and a hand out. I’m not for giving those types of people anything. It sounds pretty harsh, but people need to read the Bible and find out what God thinks is right. I’m pretty sure I read in my Bible, you don’t work, you shouldn’t eat. Oh, well I’ll move on and get off my soap box.
Verse 2 of Genesis 2 is the first mention of Day 7. We have already learned that each day of creation corresponds to a 1000 year period of human history. I’ve already alluded to the fact that this day 7 corresponds to the millennial 1000 year reign of Christ which will occur directly after the 7 year tribulation period. During this time period I’ve been told Christ will return to earth and establish a kingdom on earth without the presence of evil. During this time period Satan and his demons will be bound and unable to tempt or deceive anyone. At the end of this 1000 year time period the Bible says that Satan will be released to deceive again and anyone born during this 1000 year time period will have the opportunity to choose to believe the deception and be cast into the lake of fire.
There are verses in Hebrews chapter 4 that speak of this coming day of rest. These verses directly confirm the prophetic nature of Genesis and declare that this day will soon be coming. We are also told that we must make an effort to enter into this rest in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4. Those who choose not to believe will not enter into God’s rest we are told. It appears that the ball is in our court on whether we enter into God’s day of rest.
Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Revelation 14:13 I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.
So apparently God sees our works and acknowledges them. He has determined a time of rest for His saints. But, now is not the time. Now is the time of harvest and if you have ever had a farm you know harvest is not easy or restful.
Genesis 2:1 The Stated End of God’s Creative Work
Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the hosts of them.
(Ver 1.1) This is “Part 1” in the series of lessons on the study of the verses of Genesis Chapter 2. Today we will begin the series looking at only verse 1. The first verse of Genesis 2 begins with a statement of completion that basically says God has “finished” or “ended” His works of creation both in the heavens and on the earth. It is interesting to note that this verse says “finished”. This is the Hebrew word H3615 that means “to end”. What ended? We should have learned in chapter 1 that God spoke ten times in order to return order back into the initial state of disorder found in Genesis 1:2 when the earth was fully covered by water.
What we are learning by this statement of completion the earth and the heavens have been restored to their originally created state of order. This again affirm something major occurred between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 to cause this chaos and I believe this chaos occurred during Satan’s initial rebellion described in Ezekiel 28:11-19.
This is a good time to confirm how God works. We learn from reading John 6:29 that Jesus defines God’s work as Him doing something that causes humans to believe in the sent Son of God, Jesus. This would imply that someone was speaking right words about Jesus that cause someone to believe in Him. Spoken Words are a major part of God’s work. We also learn from reading John chapter 1:
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
This should be a review of things we learned from chapter 1. But we can see again that the Word of God was With God in the beginning and we further confirm that this Word was God. God teaches us that we cannot separate Him from His Word because they are the same. When then learn more important information that His Word created everything that was created in the three dimensional realm of space and matter. What we can conclude is that God speaking to create has ceased. There is nothing else that needed to be spoken to be created in order to fulfill His plan for humanity.
Since we have discovered in this verse that God’s work has been fully completed and yet there are more works being described in this chapter, we must understand that everything else in this chapter after this statement has to be a detailed recap or explanation of things that have already occurred in chapter 1. If you didn’t know, everything in the Bible is not sequential, or in ordered time sequence. In other words from this point forward in the Bible (verse 1), God is done working and won’t be doing anything else to create anything else new in the natural realm. That of course does not mean God doesn’t do anything to maintain, deliver, or work in the lives of his people. It just means creation of the world system is complete.
It is very interesting to note that this verse ends with “and all the hosts of them”. If you look up the Hebrew word for hosts, it refers to a military term for a group of people organized for war. Isn’t that interesting? We can see major prophetic implications here concerning the church. The book of Genesis was not divided into chapters until much later, so what we see at the beginning of Chapter 2 is really the ending of Chapter 1 and could still be talking about day 6. There are many places in the New Testament where Christians are instructed to put on armor, which includes shields, breastplates, even swords. But then we are told that our enemy is not with flesh and blood but with the spiritual forces of darkness. There are huge implications all over this verse if you can see it.
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