“Adam’s View,” Genesis 2

Open:  Why talking about God is more important than talking about ourselves—Vacation musings.

         Adam encounters God

I.        As Life Giver

          A.     (v7) “Then the Lord God formed man [Adam] from the dust of the ground [Adamah], and breathed [nesama] into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.”

                  1.      Connection between nesama and life.  Singular application in Scripture to humans.

                  2.      Not our lowly estate and subsequent elevation.  God lifts us from “the miry clay.”

II.       As one who calls us into meaningful labor [ministry]

          A.     (v15) “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it.”

                   1.      (v19) God brought the animals to Adam to name.  We were wired to work

                  2.      Why does God team up with us?  What makes work holy?

III.      As ruler and protector

          A.     (v16-17)  “And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’”

                  1.      As with work details, we chafe under God’s rules.  We are blind to his liberality.

                  2.      The rules protect rather than limit our freedom.

IV.     As the one who knows our needs and meets them

          A.     (v18) “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone.’”

                  1.      “I will make him a helper as his partner.”

                  2.      (v23) “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”

Conclusion:   What happens when our view of God is shallow or distorted?

                  Chapter 3 talks about the Fall, the engagement with sin/disobedience

                  We [Adam and Eve] did not trust his rules.  They did not believe he cared for their needs.  In taking the forbidden fruit, they moved from serving in the garden to owning the garden.  As a result, they did not experience more life.  They tasted death.  Creation tasted death.