Genesis 2 (The Creation of Man)

In the first chapter of the Bible, we learned that God created the heavens and the earth. The second chapter--similar in many ways to the first--is a more detailed account of the creation of man.

Before I begin my study, however, I have to stress the importance of the first few chapters of Genesis. They are, after all, the foundation of the entire book and explain how we came to be. But if we question that account, if we don’t believe that God created us, then the rest of the Bible is essentially meaningless. As Ken Ham, president and founder of Answers in Genesis, explained: “If the first book in the Bible can’t be trusted…why should any other?” How can we accept God’s promises to us, the miracles He performed or His greatest act--Jesus conquering death for our sins--if we can’t even accept that He created us?

I know most people disregard the creation account because it conflicts with scientific theories of evolution. I understand this reluctance because I, too, was brought up believing that we evolved from lower life forms. Not only was my father a scientist, but I worked as an aviation weather forecaster for the U.S. Navy for five years. Science was my life. But surprisingly, it was my scientific work that convinced me that God had created the universe. I won’t go into the details of storm tracks, wind patterns and ocean currents (the Answers in Genesis site is an excellent resource), but I will say that the perfect harmony in nature was enough to convince me.

Also, I had a moment of clarity while studying my Bible one day: Darwinists believe that similar DNA structure proves that mammals, for instance, have a common ancestor; couldn’t similar DNA also prove a common creator? Look at the great works of art throughout history, for example. Most people can identify a Van Gogh, a Dali or a Monet because each respective piece, although different, had similar traits and qualities associated with the artist who created it. It makes perfect sense to me that life forms on earth should have similar traits as well.

But science aside, I also knew I had to accept the Genesis account for another, more important reason. If I wanted to be a faithful, responsible Christian, I couldn’t simply pick and choose the parts of the Bible I liked or disliked. Being a Christian, as I mentioned in an earlier post, means accepting the entire Bible as the true, inspired Word of God. Disregarding the creation account, to me, was akin to calling God a liar.

Now whether God created the earth in seven 24-hour days, or whether each “day” of creation lasted 1 billion years, I don’t know. I just know that God (the Intelligent Designer) created the heavens, the earth and all mankind. I also know that a growing number of scientists are coming to the same conclusion.
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Chapter 2, as mentioned earlier, gives a more detailed account of the creation of man. We learn that God formed man from the dust of the ground, then breathed the breath of life into him. The Lord then created the Garden of Eden and filled it with beautiful, fruit-bearing plants. The Lord told the man (who was not yet named): “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden--except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you will surely die.” The Lord then brought all the animals and creatures of the earth for man to name, but the Lord recognized that man still did not have a suitable helper. So He caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, took a part of the man (most translations use the word rib, but others say “a part of his side”) and formed the woman. She became his “bone from bone, flesh from flesh.” Verse 24 explains: “This is why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are joined into one.”

One aspect of this story has confused many people, Christians included. Chapter 1 states that the Lord made animals before He made man. Chapter 2, however, says that God made man, and then “formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky” for man to name. It seems like a contradiction of sorts.

I think the “error” can be easily explained in one of two ways. My friend Lizzie pointed out that with the addition of one word--had--the sentence makes perfect sense. “So the Lord God (HAD) formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man…” The sentence, therefore, could be referring to the animals God had made previously. Another possibility is that because the Garden of Eden was formed specifically as a special place for man to live (and somewhat separate from the rest of the earth), God formed a new set of the animals he had already created (outside of Eden) for Adam to name. These animals that the Lord formed after man would live inside the Garden, while the animals God had formed previously, lived outside the Garden. I don’t know if this theory of mine has any validity, but it’s something that came to me as I read this chapter.

An important aspect of Chapter 2 concerns the Lord’s warning to the man, regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He warns the man that if he chooses to eat the fruit, he will lose the right to live. The key here is that the Lord gave man a choice: life or death, obedience or sin. As we will learn in Chapter 3, man chose to sin, to disobey God. Therefore, he chose death (as a punishment of his sin) and a life of pain and suffering. God still gives us a choice, thousands and thousands of years later: do we choose to follow and live for Him, or do we choose to disobey Him and follow the world and all its evil? Sadly, most people choose the world. No amount of “evolution” has relieved us of our sinful natures.

The last part of this chapter--the creation of the woman--establishes the relationship that God wants men and women to have. When we marry, we are to become one, just as Adam and Eve were bone from bone, flesh from flesh. It is the reason the Lord hates divorce (Malachi 2:16), and why He honors marriage (Hebrews 13:4).