Genesis 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
“God, an Almighty and Omnipotent Spirit, can neither faint nor be weary: but he may cease from exerting certain operations of his power; as here he ceased to exert his divine energy in the formation of new productions. This is all that is intended: He ceased not from his work of Providence, and superintendence of what he had created.” (Thomas Coke Commentary) So in six, literal 24-hour periods he made everything. “By God’s blessed inactivity on this seventh day, He showed that He was satisfied with the work He had done.” (Nelson Study Bible) “The strong emphasis in these verses on the completion of all of God’s creating and making activity is a clear refutation of both ancient evolutionary pantheism and modern evolutionary materialism, which seek to explain the origin and development of all things in terms of natural processes and laws innate to the universe. Creation is complete, not continuing…” (New Defender's Study Bible)
Generations later, after the Exodus from Egypt, we discover that for those who seek a covenant relationship with Yahweh God of Israel, Sabbath keeping is moral in nature. It is the Fourth of the Ten Commandments.
Exod 20:8-11 "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Alan Cairns explains: "Many Christians view the Sabbath command as a ceremonial law, one that therefore passed away with the rest of the Jewish ceremonies after the resurrection of Christ." However, Alan Cairns argues: “The Sabbath is moral in its constitution… No doubt, Hebrews 4 teaches that what natural Israel enjoyed in earthly terms through Sabbath observance was a figure of the salvation rest spiritual Israel (God's redeemed people from every age) enjoys in Christ. But that does not make the Sabbath part of the ceremonial law. The law of the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments, and it is moral, not ceremonial. There is nothing in the biblical statement of the Decalogue to set this commandment apart from the others. Dwight makes the following points to establish the case for recognizing the Sabbath as a continuing part of the moral law:
• By Divine design it was placed in the middle of the Decalogue.
• It was spoken with the awful and audible voice of God Himself from the midst of the thunders and lightings which enveloped Mount Sinai.
• It was written twice by the finger of God on tables of stone.
• It was delivered in the same absolute manner as the other nine commandments.
• It has the same universal application as the other nine; that is, it provides the benefits of Sabbath observance, needed by men of all nations.”
Joe Crews explains: “God certainly anticipated the controversy over the Genesis account of Creation. He knew that after the fall of man, there would be doubts about His claims of manufacturing all the staggering mass of matter by merely commanding it to exist.
To safeguard His sovereignty, He established a mark that denoted His absolute right to rule as Lord. He chose to memorialize His display of creative power by setting aside the seventh day of the Creation week as a holy day of rest and remembering… Once a week, as the earth rotates on its axis, the Sabbath reminder travels around the earth reaching every man, woman, and child with the message of an instant creation and the One who did the creating.
Why did God say remember? Because to forget the true Sabbath is to forget the true Creator… A multitude of Christians call God's fourth commandment the ‘Jewish Sabbath.’ But nowhere is this expression found in the Bible. The seventh day is called ‘the sabbath of the Lord,’ and it is never called ‘the sabbath of the Jew’ (Exodus 20:10).”
Moreover, Joe Crews adds: "God will preserve Sabbath-keeping throughout eternity. That’s right! 'For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord' (Isaiah 66:22, 23).The Sabbath is so precious to God that He will have His people observe it throughout all time in the beautiful new earth to come. If it is so precious to Him, should it not be precious to us? If we are going to keep it through all eternity, why not keep it now as our pledge of obedience to Him?"
Lord help me to remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. Show me how in your holy name I pray!
Genesis 2:4-6 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
"This is the history of the heavens and the earth … That is, a true and full account of their origin or beginning, and of the order in which the sundry parts and creatures therein were formed… When there was neither any plant, nor so much as any seed from which any could spring: and when, as is here observed, the two great means of the growth of vegetables were both wanting, rain from heaven and the labour of man. So that they were evidently produced by the word of God’s power alone. The English reader will observe in these two verses, the word LORD occurring for the first time. And he must remember that, whenever it occurs in our translation in capital letters, it stands for Jehovah…” (Joseph Benson)
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 being.
"dust of the ground. Man’s body was formed out of the 'elements of the earth,' the same materials (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, etc.) from which both plants and the bodies of the animals had been formed (Genesis 1:12,24). This unity of physical composition is a fact of modern science thus long anticipated by Scripture.
breath of life. Though animals also possess the ‘breath’ (Hebrew neshama–Genesis 7:22) and the ‘soul' (Hebrew nephesh–Genesis 1:24), man’s breath (same word as ‘spirit') and soul were imparted to him by God directly, rather than indirectly, as imparted to the animals.
living soul. Evolution is again refuted at this point. If man’s body had been derived from an animal’s body by any kind of evolutionary process, he would already have possessed the nephesh, rather than 'becoming a living soul' when God gave him the breath of life.” (New Defender's Study Bible)
"The word for soul in the Old Testament is translated from the Hebrew word nephesh. Its primary meaning is 'that which breathes.' It is used to refer to both humans and animals since both are creatures that breathe.
Consider the most well-known Old Testament verse where nephesh is translated 'soul' in the King James Version (KJV). Genesis 2:7 is the most celebrated, succinct description of how humans first came to be: '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 [chay] living [nephesh] soul.' In virtually all modern Bible translations 'living soul' (chay nephesh) is translated 'living being.' Nephesh... is never referred to as having a separate existence of its own apart from the body. And never is it spoken of as having a deathless existence. [For mankind chay] Nephesh or 'living being' is brought to life by the 'breath' of God." (Daniel Knauft)
Man does not have a soul; man is a soul or being with life in the blood. The words "chay nephesh" are also used for animals or brute beasts (Gen 1:20, 21, 24; 2:19; 9:4), but interpreted "living creature." (KJV)
Genesis 2:8 The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
Excerpt from The Meaning of Man: His Duty and His Delight (Genesis 1:26-30; 2:4-25) by Bob Deffinbaugh
"While we have already dealt with the six days of creation in a very general way, it is important for us to understand the relationship between the first three chapters of Genesis. Chapter one outlines creation chronologically...God created the heavens and the earth, and all life in six days, while He rested on the seventh day. Man is pictured as the crown of God’s creation. In order to maintain a chronological format, only a very general description of man’s creation is given in verses 26-31.
Chapter two returns to this matter of the creation of man with a much more detailed account. Far from contradicting chapter one, as some scholars have suggested, it greatly compliments it. While it is stated that God created man, both male and female (1:26-27), it is described more fully in chapter 2. In chapter one man is given every plant to eat (1:29-30), in chapter two man is placed in a lovely garden (2:8-17). In the first chapter man is told to rule over all God’s creatures (1:26, 28), in the second man is given the task of naming God’s creatures (2:19-20). Contradictions between these two chapters must be contrived, for it is clear that the writer of the first chapter intended to fill out the details in the second.
Furthermore, chapter two serves as an introduction and preparation for the account of the fall in chapter three. Chapter two gives us the setting for the fall of man which is described in chapter three. We are introduced to the garden (2:8-9), the two trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:9). The woman who was to be deceived is introduced in chapter two as well. Without chapter two the first chapter would be far too brief and the third would come upon us unprepared.
If chapter one is laid out in chronological fashion--that is in a sequence of seven days, chapter two is not chronological, but logical. Of course the events of chapter two fit into chapter one’s order, but the chapter is laid out differently. If chapter one is creation as seen through a wide angle lens, chapter two is viewed through a telephoto lens. In chapter one man is found at the top of a pyramid, as the crown of God’s creative activity. In chapter two man is at the center of the circle of God’s activity and interest.”
Genesis 2:15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 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.”
Excerpt from A Call To Discernment: The Sharp Antithesis in Scripture by Jay E. Adams
“In the Bible, where antithesis is so important, discernment—the ability to distinguish God’s thoughts and God’s ways from all others—is essential. Indeed, God says that “the wise in heart will be called discerning” (Prov 16:21).
From the Garden of Eden with its two trees (one allowed, one forbidden) to the eternal destiny of the human being in heaven or in hell, the Bible sets forth two, and only two, ways: God’s way, and all others. Accordingly, people are said to be saved or lost. They belong to God’s people or the world. There was Gerizim, the mount of blessing [DEUTERONOMY 28], and Ebal, the mount of cursing [DEUTERONOMY 27].
There is the narrow way and the wide way, leading either to eternal life or to destruction. There are those who are against and those who are with us, those within and those without. There is life and death, truth and falsehood, good and bad, light and darkness, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, love and hatred, spiritual wisdom and the wisdom of the world. Christ is said to be the way, the truth, and the life, and no one may come to the Father but by Him. His is the only name under the sky by which one may be saved.”
Genesis 2:18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
"This verse introduces the creation of woman, about to be narrated…'It is not good that man should be alone ...' Man in the state of being alone is incomplete, unfulfilled, and lacking in much that he was created to be. This law has never been repealed. The purpose of God in providing a suitable partner for man is announced in this verse, but the record of the animal creation injected just here, referring to an event accomplished long previously on the beginning of the sixth day of creation, was not for the purpose of finding an Adamic spouse among the animals, but for the purpose of demonstrating the knowledge and intelligence of Adam, and indicating what kind of superior being that 'suitable help' would need to be.” (Coffman) "The events described here all took place on the sixth day of the creation week, after which God pronounced all things 'very good.’ All the animals had been created 'male and female' (Gen 6:19) and instructed to 'multiply in the earth’ (Gen 1:22), but man still needed a 'helper like him' (literal meaning).” (New Defender's Study Bible Notes)
Genesis 2: 21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.
"The 'deep sleep' was not simply an anesthetized state to prevent pain, since there was as yet no pain in the world. It was most likely ordained as a primeval picture of the future death of the second Adam, whose sacrificial death would result in the formation of His bride (II Cor 11:2; Eph 5:30-32).”(New Defender's Study Bible) "The mystery hidden before all times is inherently a part of God's revelation here. The sleep coming upon Adam was a prophecy of the death of Christ, the God-Man, on Calvary; and just as the wife of Adam I was taken from his side during that sleep, so that Church of Jesus Christ, the Bride of Adam II was, in a figure, taken from the side of Jesus Christ, from which, upon its being pierced by the spear, there came forth blood and water, emblematical of the two grand ordinances of Christianity, namely, the Lord's Supper and Christian baptism.
…Why the rib? As many have noted, woman was taken not from Adam's foot that he might rule over her, not from Adam's head that she might dominate him, but from his side that she might be his true equal and companion. There are doubtless other important things in this that lie beyond the perimeter of complete finite understanding. Dr. Elton Stubblefield, famed medical doctor conducting research in the mysteries of the DNA, recently mentioned in a public lecture that, 'The rib is the only portion of the human body that carries within it every type (of which there are several) of cell to be found in a human body, and that theoretically, it is absolutely possible to clone an entire human being from a single rib!'" (Coffman Commentary)
22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.
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.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
“Jesus believed the historical account of the creation of man in Genesis. When the Pharisees came to Jesus in Matthew 19, they asked Him the question: '… Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?' (Matthew 19:3) Do you know how Jesus answered this question? By quoting from the second chapter of Genesis. He said: 'Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ [Genesis 1:27; 5:2] and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?[Genesis 2:23-24] So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.'
This is a literal, word-for-word quotation of Genesis 2:23 and 24. Did Jesus believe the story of the creation of man? Did Jesus believe the literal account of the first chapters of Genesis? Do you see what these higher critics, skeptics, and unbelievers are doing when they try to make us believe the first few chapters of Genesis are mythology and fables? They are trying underhandedly to make a ‘monkey’ of Jesus Christ Himself. Yes Jesus believed the record of Genesis.” (Portraits of Christ in Genesis by M. R. Dehaan)
"The literal historicity of this event and its primary importance in human life are confirmed by both the Apostle Paul (Eph 5:30-31) and the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt 19:3-9; Mark 10:2-12). Although men and women through the ages have corrupted this divine institution in many ways... 'from the beginning it was not so' (Matt 19:8). The institution... is the first and most basic human institution, and was intended to be monogamous and permanent until death.It is significant that cultures of all times and sorts have acknowledged the superiority of monogamy, even though they have not always practiced it. Such an awareness could not be a product of evolution, since it does not characterize most animals, and thus can only be explained in terms of this primeval creation and revelation. Furthermore, the fact that it took place at the very 'beginning of creation,' rather than billions of years after the beginning, was confirmed by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Mark 10:6)." (New Defender's Study Bible)
25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
"The lack of shame at nakedness was not because of a hardened conscience, as is true today, but because the physiological differences of Adam and Eve had been divinely created in accord with God’s purpose and they had been brought together by God with the express commandment to 'be fruitful and multiply'... At this time they were still without sin and thus without consciousness of moral guilt.” (New Defender's Study Bible)