The Facts

God:

• Finished His work, and rested on the seventh day.
• Blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it. (sanctified = set apart for God)
• Man formed from the dust of the ground, and given the breath of life.
• The Garden of Eden.
• God gave the man work to do, and a command to keep.
• Woman made from Adam's side.
• The pattern of marriage given.

The Story

Six days of creating → God rests on the seventh day → God forms the man from dust → God plants a garden and sets him in it → God gives work and a command → God makes the woman → the two become one flesh

• Genesis chapter one gives the whole panorama of creation in six days.
• Chapter two does not start again. It zooms in — from the whole creation down to one man, one garden and one relationship.

Genesis 2 opens with the completion of the week:

"And 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." — Genesis 2:2 KJV

God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. It is the first thing in Scripture that God sets apart.

Just about the whole earth runs by the seven-day week. Why? Fingers on a hand — No. Dividing a month or a year equally — No. The time it takes the moon to wax and wane — No. Genesis gives us the pattern of six days of work followed by a seventh day of rest.

The account then describes the man's making in plain, physical words: God formed him from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, "and man became a living soul".

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." — Genesis 2:7 KJV

God called or spoke much of the rest of creation into being, but Adam is described differently: God formed him from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

God planted a garden eastward in Eden, with every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food, and in the middle of it the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The man was put there to dress it and to keep it — work, given before any sin entered the world.

With the freedom came one boundary:

"Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." — Genesis 2:16–17 KJV

This was not a serious restriction on man's freedom. He could freely eat from all the other trees in the garden. "And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food..." Genesis 2:9 KJV

But of one tree, just one, you shall not eat. Hundreds of other trees, but don't eat from this one.

"And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." — Genesis 2:18 KJV

The animals are brought to the man, and he names them, but among them no companion is found. So God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, took part of his side, and made the woman. Adam's words are the first recorded human speech in the Bible:

"This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." — Genesis 2:23 KJV

And the chapter closes with the sentence that shapes every marriage since:

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." — Genesis 2:24 KJV

This is not an instruction given directly to Adam and Eve, because they had no father or mother to leave. Instead, it describes the pattern God gives for marriage: one man and one woman, who are to cleave, hold fast to, or remain closely attached to each other. Marriage is a lasting union, not a temporary arrangement.

They were naked, and were not ashamed.

Being naked is not presented as a problem. They are naked before each other and before God and are not ashamed. The chapter presents this as part of the closeness of marriage. The next chapter shows how sin changes the way they see their nakedness.

• Eden carries the sense of delight or pleasure, and the description matches the name: trees good for food, a river, gold, and every provision.
• We are told of four rivers, and we might think that we can use them to identify where Eden was. The description sounds like geography we know, but the Flood would have radically changed the geography of the earth, so Eden's rivers and those that carry their names today may not be the same. Just as Cambridge in England is a name reused for a town in Massachusetts or Ontario.
• "Dress it and keep it" — the Hebrew carries the sense of working and guarding. Work belongs to the good creation. After sin enters the picture we read of eating by the sweat of your brow. After sin, work is hard and painful.
• "Help meet" does not mean a lesser person. The word "help" is also used of God Himself as Israel's help (Psalm 46:1). It describes someone who supplies what is needed and corresponds to him.

Rest

God rested because the work was finished, not because He was tired. The seventh day is blessed and set apart, establishing the pattern that is later commanded in the Sabbath law for Israel. But it predates Israel as a day of rest, not simply as a list of rules about work to negotiate.

Work

Work is part of God's good design. The man was given a garden to tend before the fall. Work itself was not the result of sin; the hardship and pain associated with work came after sin; see chapter 3.

The boundary

The garden was generous — one tree withheld out of a whole garden. Obedience was never about God withholding good, but about trusting the One who gave everything else.

The woman

"It is not good that the man should be alone" is the only "not good" in this account. Eve is made from Adam's side and is a companion who corresponds to him, not a possession. Adam's response is delight, not ownership.

Marriage

Verse 24 gives marriage its shape: one man and one woman leaving, cleaving, and becoming one flesh. This pattern is given before the fall and is later affirmed by Jesus when He teaches about marriage.

• The seventh day becomes the Sabbath. The fourth commandment reaches back to this chapter: "For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day" (Exodus 20:11). The manna in the wilderness is tied to the same pattern (Exodus 16:22–30).
• From dust to dust. The dust of Genesis 2:7 becomes the sentence of Genesis 3:19 — "for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Death is measured against the way man was made.
• Jesus quotes this chapter. When the Pharisees ask about divorce, Jesus takes them back to Genesis 1 and 2 and quotes verse 24 as the Creator's own words (Matthew 19:4–5).
• The garden and the city. The story that begins with a garden and the tree of life ends with both restored — the tree of life appearing again in the last chapter of the Bible (Revelation 22:2).
• The first Adam and the last. The New Testament reads Adam as a real man and as a pattern — "the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit" (1 Corinthians 15:45).

The garden points forward. Eve, Adam's bride, was made from Adam's side while he slept, and woke to receive Eve, his bride. Christ, on the cross, had His side opened while He slept in death, and rose to receive His bride — the church.

Paul makes that comparison directly when he writes about marriage and says it speaks of Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:25–32).

Adam failed to keep the one command he was given, but Christ — the last Adam — fulfilled all the law. Matthew then tells us why Jesus came: "thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).

The first Adam's story begins in a garden and ends in thorns. The last Adam takes those thorns on His head as He goes to the cross, and gives His followers "a crown of righteousness", 2 Timothy 4:8 KJV.

Genesis 2 shows us a God who is personal, near, and practical:

• He works, and He finishes what He begins.

• He rests, and He blesses the day of rest.

• He forms — hands-on, from the dust.

• He gives — breath, a garden, food, a companion, a purpose.

• He speaks, and He gives the man a command and a boundary to keep.

• He notices loneliness and provides for it.

• But He is also the law-giver. - The man is told not to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden.

He is not distant from what He has made. He plants, He puts, He brings, He takes, He makes. Genesis presents God as actively involved with His creation.

• Rest is given, not earned. God rested after the work, and set the pattern. The chapter reminds us that rest has a place in the rhythm of life.
• Work is a gift. Given in the garden, before sin. It may now be full of thorns, but it is still God's design, and worth doing well.
• Trust the boundary. One tree out of a whole garden. God's commands are not His attempt to spoil your life.
• Marriage is His design. One man, one woman, one flesh. That pattern is given before the fall and is later affirmed by Jesus.
• Loneliness matters to God. It is the first "not good" He names, and He acts to remedy it.

If we put these two things together:

• God puts some things out of bounds for our good.
• Marriage is one man and one woman leaving their parents and holding fast to each other. What can we learn from this?