Title Exposition of Genesis 2
Contents
Genesis Exposition 2: The Second Creation Story
I. Introduction
1) In Genesis 2, we see another story of creation. How can two creations coexist? Did God create the world twice? Which of these is true? We're going to start questioning these things.
2) What I learned in seminary was that two stories with different backgrounds were handed down and that the two stories were narrated as one story in the process of editing them to future generations. However, since the Bible is a book that thoroughly contains God's will and plan, we do not have to question which is real or which is fake. We should not exclude certain parts just because we cannot comprehend them in our minds. Rather than questioning why there are two creation stories, we need to think about what God is saying.
3) Through the story of creation on the first day, we saw the work of the Holy Spirit who saved us and the process of our faith growing. If God in the first creation depicts the process of being born again and growing in faith and being restored to the image of God, you can see that in the second creation, God is focusing on human existence. Through this second creation story, let's examine what kind of existence we really are.
II. The second creation story: What kind of being are humans?
1. Spiritual beings (verse 7)
1) Man was created as a spiritual being. It is said that he formed us out of dust and breathed life into his nostrils and became living beings. When God created man, He created it to contain the Spirit of God.
2) If we were not created as spiritual beings, we would be nothing but dust. It is because the Spirit of God comes upon us that we can become beings in the image of God and beings of honor. However, if our hearts do not have the Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit within us, our existence can only be as low as dirt.
3) Paul said that our body is the holy temple where God dwells (1 Corinthians 3:16). Our soul is the holy most holy place where we can praise and worship God. If our body is not the holiest place where God comes, our body is not a temple, but a shell building made of clay bricks.
4) Since God created us spiritually, we should live according to the Creator's purpose. Its purpose is worship. We must worship God in spirit and in truth. He said to the Suga-seong woman that the time is coming and now is the time to worship God in spirit. Because we are spiritual beings, we can worship God, and our spirit can worship God. Our body is the temple where God dwells. When we offer our bodies as holy living sacrifices and transform ourselves into holy temples where our bodies worship, we can become human and live according to God's purpose for creation.
2. It is a growing being.
1) God created humans and placed them in the Garden of Eden in the East. “The Garden of Eden in the East” has the meaning of growth.
2) East has two meanings in the Bible. The first is where the glory of God shines. The original meaning of the East was good. However, after man's fall into sin, the East became an unclean place to worship idols (Genesis 11:2). However, when God created it, the Garden of Eden in the East was a place where God's glory shined. The meaning of the Garden of Eden in the East means that life in Eden was full of the glory and presence of God.
3) Garden means the land where fruit is produced. The second creation story reflects an agricultural society. The material that created mankind was also soil, and in verse 5, when the time of creation is expressed, “no rain fell on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate it,” it is closely related to agriculture. In the garden (agricultural land), various kinds of life grow and bear the fruits of life. In the Bible, the earth means the field of the heart, that is, the soul. In other words, our hearts must become both the most holy place where God comes and the garden. The seed of the gospel must be planted in our hearts, and must sprout and grow and bear fruit in it. In order for the seedlings to sprout and the fruit to grow well, we must cultivate the field of our souls well.
4) Our hearts must become the Garden of Eden in the East like this. In our hearts, the glory of God like the sun shines in our hearts, and under that sunlight, our life should grow and bear fruit. In this way, human beings grow and grow spiritually.
3. At the same time as the giver of life and the provider of life
1) When God created human beings, like the Garden of Eden, God created us as beings with the glory of God and bearing various fruits of the Holy Spirit. He allowed us to be supplied with life in the presence of God, and moreover, He allowed the life of God to overflow and flow.
2) If you look at the words of verse 10, a river flows from Eden to wet Eden and divides into four tributaries. This river is the river of the Lord's grace and the river of the water of life. In the Old Testament, rivers flowed from the temple (Ezekiel 40), but in the New Testament, Jesus said, “Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.” The Lord said that it is our belly, our soul, from which the water of life flows. When our hearts become the Garden of Eden in the East, spiritual vitality abounds and overflows, becoming an influential being that saturates the sinful world.