Genesis 2 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Genesis 2:1-7    

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth[a] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

A. Find Out:

1. What did God do on the seventh day? v.2
2. How did He view that day? v.3
3. What sort of plants had not yet been grown? v.5a
4. What had not yet happened? v.5b
5. Why had they not yet grown? 5c
6. From what was man formed? v.7

B. Think:

1. What was the world like at this time before man was made?
2. How is the world very different now?
3. What does this origin of man say about him?

C. Comment:

First of all we see the origins of a day of rest every seventh day (2:1-4). Later in the Bible the Lord refers to this, wanting us to rest up in reverence for Him, and because He designed us to need that rest. We disregard this to our own peril.

Second, we move from the general description of creation to specific description of the making of man. We see the state of the earth in its earliest days – uncultivated (2:4-6). Man has not been made and “fields” have not been formed as the sign of his activity. Cultivated plant life is not yet seen. Interestingly the rain cycle has not yet started. Rain has not yet occurred; water only came from underground streams (2:6).

Finally we see the making of man. If man is elevated by being made in God’s image, he is humbled in that he came from dust (2:7). God takes the impersonal and inert and breathes life into it to make it “Man”. Whatever else we may see in this we see that man was NOT a follow on from monkeys but was a specific act of creation by God. God may have made monkeys in the same way but man is special and distinct from all other creatures on earth.

D. Application?

1. Thank the Lord that YOU are the peak of God ‘s creation, that you have a destiny far higher than that of the animals of the earth.
2. Observe the fields today and note that man has done what God instructed and subdued the earth. Thank Him for our food. 

Passage: Genesis 2:8-17

8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 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.

10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’

A. Find Out:

1. What had the Lord formed for the man? v.8
2. How were the trees there described? v.9
3. What two special trees were there? v.9c
4. What 4 rivers spread from the river in Eden? v.11-
5. Why did the Lord put man in the garden? v.16
6. What instruction did He give the man? v.16,17

B. Think:

1. What impression are you given of Eden from this passage?
2. How many trees could the man eat from?
3. How many was he told not to eat from?

C. Comment:

After telling us how God made man, this passage now shows us the environment that God made for man to live in. It tells us that God planted a garden as man’s habitation (2:8), that had many trees providing fruit (2:9), and was watered by a river flowing through it (2:10). Two particular trees are mentioned and one of them is forbidden to the man (2:17). Man is given the choice of obedience.

The picture of a “garden” indicates a cultivated place for enjoyment. Plenty of trees to eat from indicates plentiful provision. One forbidden tree indicates the requirement of the man to exercise moral judgement. The man’s sole task is to care for the garden and work it, presumably to keep it under control and harvest it. That this “garden” was a real geographical location is clearly indicated by the names of the rivers. Tigris and Euphrates are two large well known rivers (2:14) in the area where historians pinpoint the beginning of civilization in the area called Mesopotamia, which today is Iraq. This is therefore, no made up fable. It fits history & geography as we know it.

D. Application?

1. Are we aware of:
   • a) God’s provision for US today?
   • b) the need for us to exercise moral judgement?
   • c) the need to care for God’s world?
2. Thank the Lord for His provision and help as you live in His world.

Passage: Genesis 2:18-25

18 The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’

19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. 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. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 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 and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

23 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.’

24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

A. Find Out:

1. What was not quite right at first? v.18
2. Why were the creatures brought to the man? v.19
3. But what problem still existed? v.20
4. From what did God make the woman? v.22
5. Why did the man identify with her? v.23
6. What two things are we told about them? v.25.   

B. Think:

1. What does this passage say about people living in isolation?
2. What does it show us about the divine order in respect of male and female roles?
3. What does it show us about sexual union?

C. Comment:

This remarkable passage so early in the Bible gives us lots of answers to modern questions. First it shows us that God’s order (and God isn’t caught out, and doesn’t make mistakes) was clearly to make FIRST a man, but man was insufficient to do the job of ruling over the earth on his own (2:15). That puts men in their place! But then woman came out of man SECOND, to be a helper to the man (2:18). That puts women in their place! For the job God has given them, they both need the other. Man is to take the lead. Woman is to help him. That is the divine order from the very beginning.

Next we see male and female who are made to be one. Oneness here means both physically as well as in their intentions in fulfilling God’s purposes for them; the united man and woman become one in far more than just the physical sense (2:24). It is God’s desire that they become one in intention, in thinking, in emotions, in spirit. Sex was God’s idea. The Bible shows here that it is a man with his wife that is the context for sexual union. Within marriage and only within marriage. That comes out again and again in the Bible.

D. Application?

1. Thank the Lord for the differences (more than physical) between male and female that He has given us to enjoy!
2. Thank Him for the divine order He has established.