This is the second part of a three-part sermon series about the two stories of creation. Today we will be examining the first story found in Genesis Chapter 2. This is the older of the two creation accounts. It is the original story of creation, and it tells the story of creation from a different perspective.
In this version, God creates man first, then woman as a companion for him. Together, they are tasked with populating and caring for the earth. This account provides some important insights into God’s character and His plan for humanity. It reveals that we were created to be in a relationship with Him and one another. Additionally, it shows us that our purpose is to glorify God by stewarding His creation well.
While both stories of creation are ultimately about who God is and what He has done, they each communicate these truths in different ways. This story emphasizes human relationships—with both God and others, and highlights our roles as caretakers of Creation.
If you haven’t already watched the first sermon, please check it out here.
Referenced Verses:
Genesis 2:4-25
Video Transcript
If this is your first time tuning in, then keep watching. Also, go back and watch last week’s message. There will be a card up here on the top if you are watching on YouTube.
Otherwise, there’ll be a link in the description below, as well, and, in addition, please hit the bell icon below and the subscribe button so that next week when the sermon comes out, you can be alerted and notified when the message comes out. So, you can keep watching and finish the whole sermon series to get all the knowledge.
So, we are talking about Genesis and how there are two different stories of creation in the Bible. Now, last week we kind of spoke about how even though there are different stories and many people can use that as a point to contradict each other and say that it invalidates creation, and then there may be proponents of evolution or atheism or something else, you can use this knowledge to defend the faith.
You can take up some apologetics. Learn about this and know what you’re talking about so that when they come at you with that attack, you know exactly what to do and what to say. And, even if you haven’t prepared your defense, know that if you know this material, the Holy Spirit will speak for you. He will give you words to say – God will not let you fail.
So, with that in mind, let’s dive into Genesis Chapter 2. So, there are two stories of creation, Genesis Chapter 1, Genesis Chapter 2, and Genesis Chapter 2 is the older of the stories, older as in chronologically. It came before but then later on in time a new story was written and placed before the original first book in the Bible. Why would they do this? Well, we’re going to talk about that next week, so stay tuned for that.
Right now, if you have your Bibles and are in a place where you can open them and read along, follow along, I encourage you to do so. Open them up to Genesis Chapter 2. Now, if you’re driving or if you’re engaged in something, maybe you’re at the gym or wherever, don’t worry. I will read you the entire Chapter so you will know exactly what we’re talking about.
We’re going to go through it point by point. We’re going to dissect this, and we’re going to get into what really is behind all of this so you know exactly what to do if someone questions you about this.
Now, if you are not going to follow along, I really, really, really hope that you will get your Bible out later sometime, read this story, perhaps while you are watching this message again, to go through it with me and, piece by piece. Also, I really hope you share this with someone else, encourage them to watch it, and then you guys can talk about it.
All of these sermons will be online. They’ll be archived. You’ll be able to play them back again and again, so use this as a study tool and a method and go over it. Because the more you go over something, the more you will internalize it and then be able to externalize it when questioned or asked, or attacked.
So, let’s dive into it. So, for starters, according to a lot of scholars and historians, Genesis Chapter 2 is considered to be a “J” document, the letter J. Why is it a J document? What does this J mean? J is a letter code used to date documents of old, ancient documents. What does the J mean? J stands for Jehovah. It’s how they called God or what they called God during this time period.
Now, of course, God’s name is Yahweh, but the J document is Jehovah because when it was written in translation they wrote with the J, Jehovah. So, these other documents are also corresponding to the time period and the action of God that they used in that time. So, we’ll come to that again next week when we talk about Genesis Chapter 1 being a certain letter code.
Now, Genesis 2 was written around the same time as the rest of the Book of Genesis, the majority of the Book of Genesis, let’s say, time period. Because, obviously, Genesis goes through hundreds of years of events, but when it was written this document, the creation document, was written about the same time even though the events that took place spanned over hundreds of years.
Alright, so the original account of creation begins in Genesis Chapter 2, Verse 4. So, we’re going to start reading there. I’m going to read through the whole thing. Then, we’re going to go through and unpack it verse by verse.
Alright, Genesis 2:4, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.” So, if you can follow along, I encourage you to do so. If you have a different translation, don’t worry. If you have any questions, comment below.
Alright, here we go, “When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens…” – alright, LORD capital L-O-R-D – This is Yahweh. Another point, we’ll come back to this. Yahweh was a Hebrew name for God. That’s the original name. Remember Moses, and God, he says, “Well what, who should I tell them that sent me?” “I am” or “Yahweh” sent you. That’s who it is, so Yahweh, Hebrew name.
Alright, so we’re going to continue on. We’re going to read through the whole thing.
“And no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD…” capital L-O-R-D – “…God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. The LORD…” – capital – “…God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there, it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there. The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’
The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’ Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air, and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam…” – or man – “…no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs, closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
and the man said,” – woah man, no – “then 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.’ For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”
Alright, so here we have the story of creation. So, according to this account of creation, this is – also we’re going to get into two different types – this is an anthropocentric or an anthropocentric type of story. “Anthro” meaning anthropology or the study of man, it is how humans came to populate the earth – anthropomorphic, anthropology, so anthropocentric centers on anthropology.
You get the idea. Okay? So that’s what this account of creation is. According to it, God created the earth and everything in one day. So, here in the beginning, it says, “The heavens and earth were completed in all their vast array.” So, it was either already completed when God came in, or He had created it already and it was sitting empty, and then He started working.
“This is the account of the heavens and earth when they were created.” So, “…the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.” So, He made them. When? We don’t know if He did it right then or if they were already made, so we’ll get to that.
First, the first thing that happens, springs and streams came up from the ground. That’s in Genesis 2:6, “Because no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground.”
Here we go, Verse 6, “…streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.” So, that was made.
Then, God created man from the dust of the ground. This is a physical action that is happening. God is doing something. This is showing us how God worked to create His creation. The LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, then another physical action, He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being. Then God planted a garden with all kinds of trees and put the man there.
So, here we have in Verse number 8, “Planted a garden in the east then he put the man that he had formed.” Okay, then 9, He started making all the trees grow out of the ground, “Trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.”
Now, we go to the next part because this is where it talks about the river in Chapters, or in Verses 10 all the way through 14. Then, we have Verse 15 where God is taking to the man, putting him in charge of everything, and the next thing we hear or read about God creating are the animals.
So, He makes all these animals and He asks Adam, or the man, Adam is man translated in the original text, so it is animals being created in Verse number 19. So, if we go to 19, it says, “Now the LORD God formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air, He brought them to the man to see what he would name them and whatever the man called them, that is what their name would be.”
So, He did this for two reasons: number one, Adam was in charge. The man was in charge. This was his domain. God created man. He did a physical action, created man with, and then breathed in him the breath of life. Then He started creating all these animals, molding them out of the ground, creating these animals, giving them life, as well, but not the breath of life that he gave man. So, there’s a difference here.
Man is ruler over the animals. Now, man meaning mankind, not just man itself. At this time there weren’t women, yet, so it is literally is the man. The man is ruler over all of this. And, to, as a part of giving man that authority, God said, “Here are all these animals that I’m creating, name them. Whatever you call them that shall be their name.”
So, that’s the first reason, to help establish authority for man on earth. Now, there are many more reasons, and we may not even know them all because who can know what God knows? We can’t, we can’t, our – we’d probably literally explode.
So, what’s next? Well, the other reason, and this is a very important point, is because Adam then saw that all of these animals, had together, they were together with other animals. Because you can see here, “So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.” That is Verse number 20, Verse number – half, the second half of Verse number 20 says, “But for Adam, no suitable helper was found.”
So, Adam went through all of the animals, naming them, and he’s like, “Wait a minute. I got wildebeests, buffalo, birds, this, that, nothing like me.” And, so, then the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, He took one of his ribs and He created woman. So, then God brought Eve to Adam. Adam gave her a name, as well, and called her woman because it was from man that she was taken.
So, this is the first account of creation in its entirety. So, what do we have here? What is the point of all this? Well, this is the original beginning of the Bible. It is a J document. So, it’s old, meaning that’s when they called God Jehovah. Now, you notice throughout this, it says LORD God, capital L-O-R-D God. Yahweh, Hebrew – this is a Hebrew written text just like the rest of Genesis.
Who wrote all of this is very speculated, pretty much proven that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, so he would have written this. Now, he didn’t write the first chapter of Genesis because that came later and then was placed before the book, the first book of Genesis. So, he wrote this about how Yahweh, God made the earth and all the heavens, and what order were they made?
The first part was the earth and everything; the world was created. Then, springs and streams came up. Then, God created man, a physical action. He made this, planted a garden, caused these things to grow, trees, shrubs, all of the stuff pleasing to the eye. Then, He put the man there. So, how did He put the man there? Pick him up with a little claw machine and drop him in the middle of the garden like on some kind of video game? No, He probably moved him with His Spirit.
He caused the man to go there. He created this beautiful place. Then He made all these animals, had the man name all the animals, this shows that man was the original ruler of the world. This place here was created for us.
Later on, we see how the serpent, the crafty serpent, which was Satan or the Devil who was thrown out of Heaven, tricks Adam and Eve into giving up their dominion of the earth to him. So, that’s how we know that Satan rules this world. It is not our place. We are in a heavenly place. There are other messages on that, other Scriptures on that, that all support that. You can check out some of our other sermons to see that, as well.
So, He made animals, Adam named them all, then lastly He made woman, not like last as in order, but He did this so that Adam would appreciate woman and how important it was for him to have a companion. It’s like, “Wait a minute. I have no one. All these animals have something. Where is my helper?
And, so, then woman was made, and he cherished her for that reason. And, this is why it says at the end, “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh.” They are to be together, inseparable forever, they are a true duo, a partnership that progresses forward, unstoppable force when they work together.
So, that’s why it’s important. Marriage is a very important thing between man and woman, and when they come together, what God has put together let not us, men, or mankind separate. Because if it is divinely put together, it is meant to be together that way forever.
So, this is the story of Genesis, the original creation story in the Bible. Read it, understand it, you can even do some research on it if you want, comment below with any questions, in addition, click the bell icon and the subscribe button to be notified next week when we talk about the next story of creation which is Genesis Chapter 1.
That one is a little bit more detailed, a little bit more fun if you will. I like it better, which is probably why it was put at the first part of the Bible. No, that’s not why. It’s not because I like it, but it was put in the beginning because it is more inspiring and awesome, and memorable. So, we will talk about that next week.
Let’s pray:
Lord Jesus thank you so much for giving us the knowledge and desire to examine these different documents of text and to learn about them. Please help everyone internalize it.
Lord, I know that it can be kind of confusing and the presentation of this document is a little murky from myself, but I ask that people would be able to see through that and get to the heart of the matter and that they would be inspired to do their own research and look into this and read these documents and really truly understand them.
So that they will know and that they will be able to give an accounting to anyone who asks them about their faith or about this particular aspect of the Bible, and that you would speak through them and for them, in a clear and concise manner, and that as a result of that more and more people would come to know you.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
So, thanks again for tuning in, for sticking with me. This was part two of a three-part series. Tune in next week to hear the conclusion.
God bless.
