God and man at Creation (Genesis 2).

By the seventh day of creation, God had finished creating his ‘very good’ world. The Lord God placed ‘His image’ in his ‘very good’ world to be His ‘royal representative’ . Man was to do God’s will on the earth in submission to God and His word. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from his work of creating. 

Now we ‘zoom in’ on in this story on God creating man. Some interpreters labor to reconcile the differences in the creation accounts we found in Genesis 1 and 2. Others, however, see Genesis 1 as a ‘poetic representation’ of creation and they see Genesis 2 as a more straight forward 'narrative’ account. Our concern is to let the story speak to us of a time when there were no shrubs, no plants, no rain and streams watered the ground and there was no man to work it. 

We are told that the Lord God had a garden in Eden that was full of trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden there were two specific trees, the 'tree of life' and the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil'. The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being. Then God put the man in His garden to work it and take care of it. The Lord God told the man that he was free to eat from any of the trees in the garden with one exception. Of the two trees in the middle of the garden man was not to eat from the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ for if he did so he would surely die (2:15-17). 

As 'God’s image’ the man was to fill the earth with other ‘images of God’ that would do ‘God’s will’ on the earth. Yet, this was a job that the man could not do alone and there was no ‘suitable helper’ for the man. This is the one thing that Genesis 1 and 2 tells us was ‘not good’. The Lord God brought all the animals to the man and the man named them. But, still no ‘suitable companion’ for the man was found. How could he be fruitful and multiply? How could he raise godly offspring and consecrate creation to God filling it with 'images of God' who would do God's will on the earth?

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep and the Lord God made a woman from the man’s rib. The Lord God brought the woman to the man and the man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” We are told for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, as one flesh. At that time the man and his wife were both naked, and  they were unashamed.

Do you want to do God's will on the earth? We can learn about what God wants us to do from what Adam was supposed to do in that original relationship he had with God. Adam was to create a God-glorying world and culture in submission to God and 'God’s Word'. Yet, if we focus merely on the ‘test’ not to eat the forbidden fruit we will inevitably have a shallow view of what God wants from his followers in redemption. Adam had responsibilities beyond and in addition to 'not eating' from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Moreover, as the ‘redeemed’ followers of Jesus we have responsibilities beyond and in addition to evangelizing and going to church. If we focus on Adam’s general responsibilities at creation we will gain more of what we can say is a 'kingdom focus' in redemption.  In other words, Adam had work and rest, marriage and multiplication which he was to do in submission to 'God and His Word'. Adam was to imitate God’s creative activity by following God's pattern of work and rest and he was to multiple and fill the earth with ‘images of God’ that would do God’s will on the earth.

Adam failed this test by breaking the commandment not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Therefor in the fullness of time it would take a second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, to faithfully obey God even to the point of death on a cross (1Cor.15:45). Now because of Jesus’ death and resurrection which he accomplished on behalf of his people, God through Christ by His word and Spirit is now filling the world with ‘redeemed images’ of God who will do God’s will on the earth. Once we become a ‘redeemed image’ through faith in Jesus can serve His kingdom by ‘sharing this gospel’ but also by seeking to consecrate whatever sphere of influence we have been given before God in submission to 'God and His Word!