A Sermon On:
Genesis 2.4-25
Prepared By
Ken Gehrels
Pastor
Calvin Christian Reformed Church
Nepean, Ontario
Paradise - Ever find yourself dreaming about it?
Perhaps looking at the life of someone else and seeing it there? They've got paradise and you're wallowing in the dregs - felt that?
You know, like those folks I've heard grumbling about Ontario's teachers - "Just back from vacation and now talking about going on strike. They don't know how good they've got it!"
And the teachers look at the civil servants and say, "What I wouldn't give for their pensions. They're on the gravy train."
And the civil servants look at the cybergeeky engineers in nortel and say, "Wow, talk about job security. They're in Paradise."
The one who works jealously eyes the stay at home spouse.
The stay-at-homer wishes desperately he could go to work.
Paradise - where is it?
Join me in reading the account of life in the first, the only, the true Paradise.
We'll read it as we pick up our second in a series of studies through the first book of the bible - Genesis, reading ch.2.4- 2.25
I'd ask you to check one thing as we begin.
In our very first verse you'll see the words "This is the account of...."
Notice those words. If you have your own bible with you, underline them. That phrase is the touchstone throughout Genesis. You'll read it 10 times.
It means "Here is the history of what comes after....."
In 2.4 we read "This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created." In other words:
"Here are the heavens and the earth - created by God - and here is what happened to them after that fact of the Creation Event."
This is not, then, a variation on the story of the creation of the world. Instead this is the unfolding and presenting of the beginning of the history of Humanity. It describes his social formation, the environment in which he was to live, and his relationship to it.
"This is what came from, this is what become of, heaven and earth."
Let's read what happened:
Paradise. That's the description of true paradise.
It's a description that is based on three relationships, relationships as God intended them to be, Paradise relationships:
1. The relationship between God and humanity
2. The relationship between humanity and creation.
3. The relationship among humanity, particularly between man & woman.
I want to look at these relationships, and consider together how these, formed in Paradise, affect the relationships that we form in our lives:
relationships with God, with creation around us, and with our fellow humanity.
First, then, the Paradise Relationship, the Relationship that was meant to be, between God and Humanity. It's a relationship that begins when the Living, Powerful Creator makes the first move.
He forms the man from the dust of the ground and breathes life into him.
God formed. God breathed. And man was.
-God formed him; He has the control, He is the Maker.
-God breathed; Here is the intimate encounter, face to face as in a kiss - it is the divine Kiss that brings life; divine breath giving human breath.
God took some of the common ingredients that are found in the rest of creation, ingredients and design patterns used to make so many other of the creatures that roamed the earth. But from them He formed something special - the crowning accomplishment of his creation, that part of the created order that would be called into relationship with him and that would assist him in caring for and developing what had been made.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, formed from the ground - the object of the tender affection of Almighty God.
And so the relationship began - a relationship begun by God, but made to be alive, active, and two-way. God didn't make humanity to be a bunch of robots that blink when he commands, responding automatically "Yes, Master" and do their bidding. He makes creatures able to think and respond, morally responsible beings.
And that responsibility is shown to us in the symbols that He planted in the garden. The symbols of two trees.
Each of these trees is significant in what they represent -- choices that face humanity.
First there is the Tree of Life. When you take into consideration other places in the bible where it is referred to, it becomes clear that this tree represents choices made by humanity that create life, support life, enhance life, develop life. And such choices can only be made out of a close, constant, growing relationship with the One who created life in the first place -- the Lord God.
Eating from the Tree of Life is the symbol of a life that is in constant communion with Him, based on Him, drawing from Him, depending in entirety on Him, obedient to Him.
The Tree was there. The choice was available.
And the way was clear for our first parents to take the fruit, to choose to live in the way this tree represented.
Then there is the Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil. It is the antithesis, the exact and dark opposite to the Tree of Life. It represents the opposite of life in submission to and focus on the Lord. It is the symbol of self-made life, a life of getting knowledge and values from the created world in defiance of the Creator. It is the "I'm going to do it myself, do it my way" tree.
The Tree was there. The choice was available.
"Don't take it" said the LORD God.
Two trees - "You choose from which you will eat. You make the choice on how you want to respond to the relationship I've breathed into you."
Obey.... or don't obey.
The God-Humanity relationship.
Now the second Paradise Relationship, the relationship that was meant to exist between humanity and the earth. God, the divine parent puts people into relationship with the world he created, a world that the description of the 4 rivers shows as being one of great riches and potential -- God put us into relationship with this creation in two ways:
a) For Cultivation, Use, Enjoyment -- it was pleasant to look at, the first art gallery, a natural one with God as the artist. It was also their source of nourishment. And God said in v.16, "It is for you to enjoy."
b) For Dominion, Development, Maintenance:
God called humanity to develop creation and maintain it in a careful manner: Work the earth, in charge of the animal kingdom -- Active in and responsible for the world.
Finally, the third Paradise Relationship, the relationship that was meant to be between man and woman. We are given the focus in 2.18: "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Not a plaything or pet or beast of burden, no slave or servant or maid.
No - a suitable helper.
The Hebrew word for "suitable" is one from the root "opposite to; over against; counterpart to". She is one without whom man could not get along in life, one who would join with man, two as one, each complementing. What the one is good at, the other lacks; what the other is good at, the first lacks -
together they are whole.
A suitable helper from the rib of the man. An ancient rabbi commented on these verses: the woman is made from the side of the man, not from the head that she should dominate, and not from the foot that she should be dominated, but from the rib that she should walk side by side through life with man.
These two helpers are joined together in the first wedding, with God both officiating, and being the Father who walks His daughter down the aisle.
Man and woman - belonging together. Meant to bond together as husband and wife in complete union - leaving, breaking from, the parental home and beginning a home of their own. And cleaving, completely joining with, one another.
Loving, longing for, fully enjoying, and completely open with each other.
There is a perfect love between them. No greed, distrust, or dishonour. They were naked: physically, emotionally and spiritually - completely open to each other in every respect.... and they felt no shame.
A Paradise relationship.
God - Humanity; Humanity - Creation; Man - Woman:
Paradise Relationship created by the LORD God.
Paradise relationships shattered by our first parents.
We didn't read it, but ch.3 of Genesis carries right along with the account of the heavens and the earth, and shows the deliberate choice made to go to the wrong tree and reap the fruits of it for every man, woman, boy and girl,
for every square inch of creation
ever since.
Humanity rebelled. The earth fell.
The God - humanity relationship was shattered. The way to the Tree of Life was barred, symbolizing that it was no longer possible for people to approach God and to claim the right to live in eternal, close communion with Him. Eternal Life was removed as an option for them. God-centred living was gone.
The Humanity - Creation relationship was tarnished. Earthquakes, death, thorns & thistles, sweat, pain, pollution. Raping creation instead of managing it. Selfish hoarding instead of sharing.
And the Man - Woman relationship. Woman is cast down and dominated by man. The seeds of abuse begin right here. Millennia of patriarchal social structures find their root here. Divorce. Conflict instead of support. Man and woman see each other -- see the nakedness, and cover themselves in shame. The close sharing is gone.
Praise God, then, that the story doesn't end here. That there IS a rescuing, a renewing of Creation.
A rescuing, a renewing founded in the One whom many Bible Scholars see as being symbolized in the Tree of Life;
The one in whom life could once more be found
The One called in the gospel of John "The Life and the light of humanity." (Jn 1.4)
Jesus - whose suffering and death here on earth broke a hole in the cursed dead-end that our first parents' rebellion and deliberate wrong choice brought to Creation.
Jesus - who said, "I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full." (Jn 10.10) Life. In Jesus. In Him we gain renewed access to the Tree of Life.
We have, in Jesus, renewed -- Created-again -- opportunities to enter into relationship with our Divine Creator and Lord. To walk with Him each day. To hear Him speak to us -- through His Word, the Holy Scriptures, first of all. But also as His Spirit speaks to our spirit -- directing our thought life, guiding our intuition, sometimes even with audible voices, moving circumstances, directing others to speak certain words to us in prophetic roles.
To walk, to talk, to enjoy communion with Him -- fellowship.
To have His Spirit abide among us and within us.
Renewed relationship.
Renewed relationship with creation -- to enter life seeing the care of the earth, the management of resources, living together as a human race on this beautiful planet -- to see all of that as given by God and considered sacred by Him. Making holy the way government prepares environmental policy, and scientific research and exploration, and financial planning.
We can serve the Lord in creation, new opportunities, renewed relationship..... thanks to Jesus.
And a renewed relationship among human beings. Man and woman finding their way back before the curse of Genesis 3, where man began to dominate, back to the mutual service and helpmeet nature of the Paradise Relationship. Supporting, tearing down barriers between us instead of building them up. And beyond man-woman to all people living and working together in the presence of our Creator..... for Jesus' sake.
Which is one of the reasons that unity in the Church is such a big deal to Christ. He wants us back in Paradise bonding, rather than cursed bondage.
And so we could also fairly say that we, in Christ, are given a new chance to make a choice. Are we, as we leave here, going to choose to live out of the Tree of Life -- to live the way that tree pointed; to focus our living in striving to have communion with Him who is Life, with Jesus, in every moment of our existence, submitting all to Him, to yearn for His company as we leave here and head home?
Or will we choose to hunt for good and evil, to experiment with it, to find what we think may be beneficial or not..... and to do that on our own? To try and decide - this is OK, that's kind of shady, that's no good; to build codes of rules and to accept each other based on those rules and systems of knowledge we develop; to try and build a relationship with God based on our knowledge of and attempting to do good instead of evil?
If we try that, the guaranteed end is destruction.
Further fragmentation. Distance from our Lord. Further chaos in creation. More isolation within human society. More bitterness.
My brothers and sisters on the journey of faith -- join me.
Join me in seeking life, the Lord of Life.
And may the power of His Spirit guide us into restored relationships, that hints of Paradise may be seen again.
Even seen in us. For His glory.