An Introduction to Us, Part 2: Genesis 2.15-25

Electric guitar built by master luthier – the neck, the body, the strings, the pickups, and the guitarist all have to be in right relationship to one another for beautiful music to be made.

1. What?
2. Intended to be in right relationship with God
   1.                        i.      Pastor Greg helped us see that God originally intended humans to be in right relationship with him.
      1. He desires to be close to us
      2. We are the only ones given a moral imperative
      3. And we’re the only ones he shares authority with
3. Intended to be right relationship with other people
   1.                        i.      Seven times in Genesis 1 God saw that what he made was “good” or “very good.”
      1. Thus, when Genesis 2.18 comes along and God says “It is not good for the man to be alone…” our ears should perk up.
      2. But God wasn’t going to leave humanity alone to figure this out; he made a helper suitable to alleviate the loneliness
      3. God has always existed within community
         1. “Let us make humanity in our image” in Gen 1.26
         2. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
         3. Thus he knows the value of being connected
      4. Therefore, he creates community for the first human by creating out of him a suitable partner – bone of bone, flesh of flesh
   2.                      ii.      Furthermore, we are created in God’s image; all of us.  None of us have less or more of the image of God than others.  The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is helpful here:
      1. The whole concept of the imago dei, as it is expressed in Latin, the "image of God," is the idea that all men have something within them that God injected. Not that they have substantial unity with God, but that every man has a capacity to have fellowship with God. And this gives him a uniqueness, it gives him worth, it gives him dignity. And we must never forget this as a nation: there are no gradations in the image of God. Every man from a treble white to a bass black is significant on God’s keyboard, precisely because every man is made in the image of God. One day we will learn that. We will know one day that God made us to live together as brothers and to respect the dignity and worth of every man.
         1. Sermon entitled “American Dream” delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA on July 4, 1965
   3.                    iii.      Friends, the idea of the image is God is the basis for human rights, for civil rights, for basic kindness, and for the sacrificial care for others.
      1. If we waffle on this idea, then we might one day say that the image of God is less in those who are too old, or too young, too poor, or who have differing abilities, etc.; and perhaps we’ll treat those with less of the image of God worse than those whom we believe have more…
      2. But if we, those who follow Jesus, stand firmly on the idea that each and every single human being is made in the image of God, and thus full of great dignity and deserving of respect, then we will fight against any form of discrimination, bigotry, disrespect, and the like that we see.  This is the natural and logical outworking of the fact that we’re each made in the image of God!
4. Intended to be in right relationship with creation
   1.                        i.      Pastor Greg led us very well last week to see the biblical call for creation care.
   2.                      ii.      To recap: Genesis 1.26 says that God made humanity in his image so that they might rule over the rest of creation
      1. Being made in God’s image means, at least, that we reflect God, represent God, and can relate with God.
      2. Thus, as we live within God’s creation, we are to rule over it in ways that reflect God’s love for his creation, in ways that represent God’s care and concern for his creation, and in ways the demonstrate we are in right relationship with him.
   3.                    iii.      We see this idea fleshed out a bit more here in Genesis 2.
      1. In Genesis 2.15 God places the first human in the garden to take care of it and work it.
         1. One of those words literally means to “work it” as we see in Genesis 2.5 (“there was no one to work the land”); and it may mean something like “cultivate” which would imply that God created the garden knowing that it would need to be worked.
            1.                                                                                    i.      Just as we saw in Genesis 1, God creates a framework and then fills it in (he made the sky and the seas on day 2 and then made birds and fish on day 5); here he makes the garden that needs its ground worked and then places the first man in it in order to work it
            2. The other word literally means “to keep” or “have charge of.”
               1.                                                                                    i.      It seems like a mix between rule over, manage, keep and guard.
               2. As a quick aside, sometimes we think that work was a result of God’s cursing of the first humans and the rest of creation after the disobedience we see in Genesis 3.
                  1.                                                                                    i.      This is not true!  God always intended for us to work!  The result of our disobedience is that our work is now much more difficult.
                  2.                                                                                  ii.      But work was always part of God’s original intent!
      2. Also, in Genesis 2.19-20 God has the first human name all the other animals.  In ancient Israel naming something or someone showed that you had authority over it or them (like a father naming a child).  Therefore, by allowing the first human to name the animals, God was sharing some of his authority with humans, saying that the humans had the authority to take care of all that he had created.
      3. Therefore, we certainly see from all of this that the first human was not given cart blanche to destroy what God had given him.  He was placed within the garden and was granted authority quite literally to take care of it and work it!
5. Why does Genesis 2 matter to us today?
6. Has anyone ever felt shame or guilt because of what they have done?  That’s a sign that our relationship with God is not all that it could be!
   1.                        i.      Friends, we need to hear that God has always intended to be in right relationship with us now as much as ever!
7. Has anyone you loved ever hurt you or have you hurt someone you love?  Has anyone ever suffered under the rudeness and prejudice of others or been rude or prejudiced toward others?  These are signs that our relationships with one another are not all that they could be!
   1.                        i.      Friends, we need the reminder that no matter how different from us people may be, no matter how frustrated they may make us, no matter what, every single human being is made in the image of God and as such deserves respect and dignity!
8. Has anyone ever been discouraged by the pollution in our world, our wastefulness of what God has blessed us with, or our disregard for the care for creation?  That’s a sign that our relationship with creation is not all that it could be!
   1.                        i.      Friends, we need to be reminded that God has always intended for us to care for creation and to do so in ways that reflect him, represent him, and show that we are relating well with him!
9. How do we respond to a passage like Genesis 2?
10. How do we grab ahold of these broken relationships and make them right again?
    1.                        i.      We can’t!  Only God can right what has gone wrong.  And that’s why he sent his son Jesus, to carry out the Great Rescue Plan of righting all the broken relationships in this world: our relationship to God, our relationship with one another, and our relationship with creation.
    2.                      ii.      Where do we start?
       1. If you’ve never submitted your life to Jesus, then today is the day!  Jesus came (fully God, fully human), lived the perfect life, died the death that all of us deserved, and was risen from the grave by the power of God for our sakes.  All we have to do is trust him.  Will you trust him today?
       2. If you’re a follower of Jesus, then are you continuing to submit your life to him each day?  Are you surrendering to his ways so that your relationship with God can be what it was intended to be?  Are you following his ways so that you can show the kind of deeply-sacrificial love to others that Jesus showed others in his life?  And are you seeking to care for creation the way that God always intended, or have you allowed politics, personal preference, and apathy to win the day?
       3. For us all the call is obedience to the commands of God and submission to the ways of Jesus!
11. What if more and more of us lived out the truths of Genesis 2?
12. Master luthier building a guitar for a client…
    1.                        i.      The luthier looks at all the factors, takes in all the requests from the client, and uses all the skill he has to make a great instrument.  The result?  A beautiful instrument that plays beautiful music that helps make that master luthier’s bank account a little more beautiful too!
    2.                      ii.      Friends, if we obeyed the commands of God and followed the ways of Jesus, then our relationships with God, others, and the world would begin to be repaired through the power of the Spirit.
       1. We would begin to become the beautiful people God always intended for us to be.  We would do all the beautiful things that God always intended for us to do.  And we would make God’s fame that much more beautiful—we would bring him glory.

Amen.