CHAPTER 2

(4004 B.C.)

SEVENTH DAY

¹Thus the heavens and the Earth were finished, and all the host of them (proclaims the fact that when the heavens and the Earth were completed, they were a brilliant array).

²And on the seventh day God ended His Work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His Work which He had made (it doesnt mean that God was tired, for He cannot be such [Isa. 40:28]; it simply means that He had finished the work).

³And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His Work which God created and made (the Sabbath, or seventh day, or Saturday, the last day of the week, is meant by God to be a Type of the Salvation Rest which one finds in Christ; thats the reason it was a part of the Ten Commandments).

SUMMARY

⁴These are the generations of the heavens and of the Earth when they were created (generations here refer to Divine divisions; it refers to the manner in which all were created, as outlined in Chapter 1), in the day that the LORD God made the Earth and the heavens (presents the new name of God as Jehovah Elohim; this Chapter reveals Christ as Jehovah Elohim, mans Redeemer; the First Chapter reveals Him as Elohim, mans Creator),

⁵And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew (the second day of creation is addressed here, which obviously preceded day three, when plant life was developed): for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the Earth (it seems that rain came to the Earth on day three, which caused the Earth to bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind), and there was not a man to till the ground (all of this was before man was created, showing that he had nothing to do with the creation, that being altogether of God).

⁶But there went up a mist from the Earth, and watered the whole face of the ground (this pertains to day two of Creation; at that time, day two, there went up a mist from the Earth, which prepared the Earth for the seed which God evidently planted on the beginning of day three, and which rain on day three then brought forth).

⁷And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground (proclaims the physical body made of clay), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (the breath of life, which comes from God, pertains to the soul and spirit of man; this was done with the first man, Adam, God breathing the soul and the spirit into man, and thereafter it comes automatically at conception); and man became a living soul (man is a soul, has a spirit, both which reside in the physical body; the soul addresses the body; the spirit addresses God; the physical body addresses the world).

THE GARDEN OF EDEN

⁸And the LORD God planted a Garden eastward in Eden (it was actually planted before Adam was created; the area is believed by some Scholars to be the site where the city of Babylon would ultimately be built); and there He put the man whom He had formed (the Garden of Eden was to be the home place of man).

⁹And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight (beautiful trees), and good for food (every fruit tree imaginable, even those which bear nuts); the Tree of Life also in the midst of the Garden (evidently contained a type of fruit; 3:22 says as much! the Tree of Life had the power of so renewing mans physical energies that his body, though formed of the dust of the ground and, therefore, naturally mortal, would, by its continual use, live on forever; Christ is now to us the Tree of Life [Rev. 2:7; 22:2]; and the Bread of Life [Jn. 6:48, 51]), and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (presents the tree of death).

¹⁰And a river went out of Eden to water the Garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads (four rivers).

¹¹The name of the first is Pison (is believed to be the Ganges): that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold (believed to be India);

¹²And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone (Verses 11 and 12 present the first mention in the Bible of the precious metal, gold; it is mentioned last in the Bible as it refers to the main thoroughfare of the New Jerusalem, in which we are told is pure gold [Rev. 21:21]).

¹³And the name of the second river is Gihon (is believed to be the Nile): the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

¹⁴And the name of the third river is Hiddekel (is believed to be the Tigris): that is it which goes toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. (These rivers at the present time have their sources far apart. The explanation, no doubt, lies in the flood, which altered the topography of the Earth. The headwaters of the first two were drastically changed, while the last two remain basically the same. In fact, it is believed that the Garden of Eden may have been located, as stated, at the joining of the Tigris and Euphrates, which is the site of ancient Babylon.)

¹⁵And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

¹⁶And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the Garden you may freely eat (as stated, before the Fall, man was vegetarian):

¹⁷But of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not eat of it (as for the evil, that was obvious; however, it is the good on this tree that deceives much of the world; the good speaks of religion; the definition of religion pertains to a system devised by men in order to bring about Salvation, to reach God, or to better oneself in some way; because it is devised by man, it is unacceptable to God; Gods answer to the dilemma of the human race is Jesus Christ and Him Crucified [I Cor. 1:23]): for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die (speaks of spiritual death, which is separation from God; let it be understood that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was not the cause of Adams Fall; it was a failure to heed and obey the Word of God, which is the cause of every single failure; spiritual death ultimately brought on physical death, and has, in fact, filled the world with death, all because of the Fall).

GODS FORESIGHT FOR MAN

¹⁸And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone (doesnt mean that the idea of a companion for Adam suddenly presented itself to the Lord; God never intended that man should be alone); I will make him an help meet for him (this is not meant to infer that the creation of woman was an afterthought; there is no Plan of God that is incomplete!).

ADAM AND THE ANIMAL WORLD

¹⁹And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air (the animals and the fowls were created out of dust, exactly as man); and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof (carried within the name that Adam gave to each one of these creatures are the characteristics of that particular animal or fowl; so we are speaking here of a man who had amazing intelligence; to do all of this, Adam had to have a distinct knowledge of speech, the meaning of all words, and the capacity of attaching words to ideas; why not? Adam had the greatest Teacher that man has ever had, the LORD God).

²⁰And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him (we learn from this that the animal creation was of far greater magnitude and intelligence than at the present; it was the Fall which changed that creation [Rom. 8:19-23]).

THE CREATION OF WOMAN

²¹And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept (records the first anesthesia): and He took one of his ribs (the word rib here actually means side), and closed up the flesh instead thereof (the woman is not merely of a rib, but actually of one side of man);

²²And the rib (side), which the LORD God had taken from man, made He a woman (the Hebrew says, built He a woman; Horton says, When God created the man, the word form was used, which is the same word used of a potter forming a clay jar; but the word build here seems to mean God paid even more attention to the creation of the woman), and brought her unto the man (presents a formal presentation, with God, in essence, performing the first wedding; thus He instituted the bonds of the Marriage Covenant, which is actually called the Covenant of God [Prov. 2:17], indicating that God is the Author of this sacred institution; this is the marriage model, and was instituted by God; any other model, such as the homosexual marriages, so-called, can be constituted as none other than an abomination in the Eyes of God [Rom. 1:24-28]).

THE FIRST MARRIAGE UNION

²³And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh (that is, she is mans counterpart, not merely in feeling and sense his flesh but in his solid qualities): she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man (God did not take the woman out of mans feet to be stepped on as an inferior; nor out of his head to be put on a pedestal as a superior; but from his side, close to his heart as an equal).

²⁴Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife (this Passage must be viewed as an inspired declaration of the law of marriage): and they shall be one flesh (points to a unity of persons, not simply to a conjunction of bodies, or a community of interests, or even a reciprocity of affections).

THE STATE OF INNOCENCE

²⁵And they were both naked (refers to an absence of clothing, at least as we understand such; they were actually enswathed in ethereal and transfiguring light), the man and his wife, and were not ashamed (were not ashamed, because there was nothing of which to be ashamed).