The Creation of Man (Gen.2).

In Genesis 1 the good God created a beautiful world and created man, in His own image, to be His representative on the earth. God made man responsible to reflect God’s creative activity in his work, and to reproduce God’s images on the earth. In this story the Bible backs up to when God created Adam, or ‘man’ (2:7, 20), and women from the man. God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into him the breath of life transforming the dust into a living image of God (12:7b, 1:26-27). Watch the video and or listen to the story and then read the commentary below. https://www.dropbox.com/s/jdse50iqo3opokn/The%20Creation%20of%20Man..MP3?dl=0 

God had a garden in Eden and He put the man (2:8, 15) in the garden to ‘work it and take care of it’. In the garden there were various trees and in the middle of the garden where the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:9). Adam was free to eat from any of the trees (2:16) but he was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or he would surely die (2:17). Then the Lord had Adam name all the animals, but no suitable helper for Adam was found (2:19–20). This was ‘not good (2:18) so God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. God made a woman from man’s rib and brought her to the man and Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh (2:23).

God created a suitable helper for man to help him fulfill his God given responsibilities. God’s purposed for man to rule over all the earth and to fill the earth with ‘images of God’. This was a job that was too big and too grand for Adam alone. As God’s ‘royal representative’ man was to consecrate all creation and do God’s will on the earth in submission to God’s word. To do this man was given the privileges of worship, work and marriage (Gen. 2:3, 15, 25) and was restricted from eating from the tree of the knowledge of God and evil.

All men retain these responsibilities but after the fall (Gen.3) we have lost the ability to fulfill God’s purpose. God created man and called him to extend the beauty of Eden throughout the earth and to multiply ‘images of God’ who would do ‘God’s will’ on the earth. Adam and all his descendants have failed to do this but Jesus, the second Adam (1 Cor.15:22), achieves this and enables us to participate through our union with him by faith. Through Jesus and His word and Spirit we are renewed in God’s image and can do ‘God’s Will’ on the earth. Through faith in Christ we are to reflect God’s character, imitate God’s creative activity in our work, and seek to fill the earth with ‘redeemed’ images. We are all called to fill the earth with God’s redeemed images and we are to do this through marriage and child bearing and through the work of ‘evangelism’ (Mat. 28:19–20).