Notes of Faith May 25, 2025
“AT LAST!”
GENESIS 2:4–25
When we first read Genesis 2:4, it’s tempting to do a double take. Wait a second, didn’t we just cover this! Sort of, but not exactly. Think of Genesis 1 as a picture of your family tree. It accurately records with some remove the order of events that led to your existence. Think of Genesis 2 as sitting down with your grandparents and asking them about their wedding day. This is a zoomed-in version of the same story, not the second creation of a second man. But rather than offer a poetic and chronological report, Moses rewinds the tape on certain events of Genesis 1.
Suddenly, day 3’s dry land has a name: “a garden in Eden” (2:8 ESV). Day 2’s sea is now a river, and then four rivers with four names: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates (2:10–14).1 Day 6’s man is not merely created but formed “of dust from the ground” as God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (2:7). This man has the same gig: work and keep the garden (2:15).2 But something’s not quite right. After the chorus of good-good-good-good-good-very good in Genesis 1, the Lord’s assessment in Genesis 2:18 is like a cat’s claws on a chalkboard:
It is not good that the man should be alone. — ESV
We have a problem. What’s the solution? A helper (2:18, 20). But who?
When I was seven, my Christmas list — for Santa, for my grandparents, for my parents, for anyone who could read — featured one item: a golden retriever named Chloe. When Christmas came, I ran downstairs and saw a bunch of small gifts with my name on the wrapping paper. One by one, I ripped them open: a collar, a chew toy, a bone, a leash. But no dog. After I opened the final gift — a dog bowl, for crying out loud — I was wracked with confusion and bubbling with frustration. Was this some kind of cruel joke? Why was everyone so smirky? Could I survive if I ran away? Then my brother darted upstairs and came down with something furry in his arms: a golden retriever named Chloe.
At last!
I imagine the man in the garden felt a lot like me on that Christmas morning. The Lord paraded in front of him a host of unfit gifts — an ant, an antelope, a toucan, a tamarin. The delayed relief heightens the anticipation. No, no, no, no, no. From aardvark to zebra, it’s a no. And then the Lord makes from Adam’s rib a woman, finally a helper “fit” for him, and the man channels his inner Etta James and begins to sing. “At last!” (2:23 ESV).
Genesis 2 is like talking to your grandparents about their wedding day. So where’s the wedding? It’s right here. Did you see it? Moses frames the creation of Eve as both a birth and a marriage. So much so that he breaks genre for a verse and makes an argument reflecting on the story he has just told. Look again at 2:24 in the ESV. That word “therefore” signals a brief shift from narration to discourse, from plot to principle. It’s as if he’s saying, “Look, the Lord created Adam and Eve to set up a paradigm not merely for males and females in general but for husbands and wives in particular.” By the end of Genesis 2, we realize that Moses has been writing both a creation story and a marriage story all along. Though Adam had no father and mother to leave, he did now have a wife to hold fast to.
Genesis 2 double-clicks on Genesis 1:26–31 and fills in some missing information. As it turns out, the creation story of Genesis 1 had some drama in it: we didn’t go straight from good to very good, but we went from good (1:25) to not good (2:18) to very good (1:31).
Before sin even enters the world, the Lord is fixing our problems and giving us what we need.
As we arrive at the end of Moses’ beginning, what have we learned?
The Lord has no rival.
His creation is wise and orderly.
The peak of this creation is humanity — you and me.
Humans have a special status (created in the image of God) that gives us the ability and obligation to do our special job (to subdue the earth as we mirror God to the rest of creation).3
The creation of Eve is also the creation of marriage.
Genesis 2 ends with Adam and Eve on their honeymoon. They are husband and wife in a world without the memory of sin and any experience of shame. It’s beautiful. It’s unbelievable. It makes us long for something similar.
But no honeymoon lasts forever.
You might be thinking, “Um, gardens aren’t dry and seas aren’t rivers.” You’d be right! But look back to how Moses uses those phrases. Dry land (1:10) simply means “not sea,” and sea simply refers to “not sky” or all water (1:9). With this in mind, a garden and four rivers does in fact specify what kind of dry land and sea we’re dealing with. It’s not a contradiction but a closeup.
“Work it and keep it” offers us a clue that Moses wants us to see that Eden is a kind of temple, where God dwells with his people. How do we know? Because Moses tells us that priests work and keep the temple (Num. 1:53).
Did you notice who names the animals? It’s not the Lord, it’s the man. He’s already exerting his authority over the rest of creation.
Excerpted from From Eden to Egypt by Alex Duke, copyright Alex Duke.
There is a day coming when God will take away sin. It will not exist! We will not have an evil thought, or lustful desire, or unrighteous anger… hallelujah! It will be glorious in the presence of our holy God to walk with Him and be holy as He is holy! At last, the honeymoon of Christ and His bride will come and it will never end. God’s grace and mercy has brought eternal salvation and a glory that is beyond our current understanding. Perhaps our joining God in this glory is very soon. Keep looking up!
Pastor Dale