Text: “The Lord God breathed…the breath of life.” Genesis 2.7 (NIV)
I passed a giant billboard the
other day, up on
Which caught
my attention, because on holiday last week I was reading a book by a Dutch
author, Jos Palm. In his little book, he reminds Dutch readers of the great
bygone era of the
About a century or so ago, some
commentators looked at the opening chapters of Genesis, the passage we read
this morning, and thought that what we read there, is a description of a golden
age. They thought that the writer of Genesis had portrayed a Golden Age, at the
very dawn of time, a perfectly idyllic life, where man and woman live together,
in peace and safety, one with nature. A golden age, when
things seemed simpler, more straightforward and uncomplicated. And it
was different, than now. The idea that Genesis 2 described a golden era was
quite common, and had wide currency. And you can see why people might have
thought this. In Genesis 2, verse 6 for instance, we
see the earth, abounding in flowing waters.
And the living God now creates a human being, Adam, and places him where
there is abundant water, the richness of green leaf and abundant fruit, the
sunshine and the shade.
But, Genesis chapter 2 is
actually not so much about a Golden Age, as about the human relationship with
the living God. What we read here is a sublime description of our relationship
with the living God, and the glorious, wonderfully profound truths there are in
this chapter in Genesis all have to do with this relationship with God.
What are the glorious, wonderfully profound truths in
this
chapter in Genesis ?
Well, there are many, and we
can only touch on two or three of them this morning. But the first is that life is the gift of God. The human
being, Adam, shaped lovingly in God’s creative power, only becomes a living
person, when God breathes into him the breath of life. Adam is only alive
because God has given him life. The
breath of the Almighty God gives me life, says Job. Life is God given. Now,
isn’t it extraordinary that we hardly think on the miracle of what it is to be alive ? Yes of course, we have our troubles,
and our burdens often – but think for a moment of what it is to be alive. The
sublime truth that Genesis proclaims is that this life we have is a gift – we are only living
persons because God has breathed into us, given to us the breath of life. The
breath of the Almighty God gives us life, as Job says. Life is the gift of God to each one of us.
In the book of Revelation, at
the very end of the Bible, life as God’s gift is the great theme of the praise
of the uncountable company in heaven. This is the great theme of worship in heaven
of that great innumerable host, beyond the time and space of this world.
Worshipping God, they sing “You are
worthy, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honour and power – for You created all things, and by Your will they were created
and have their being.” By His will we were created, and have life. Life is
the gift of God to each one of us.
Secondly, as we read on in
Genesis 2, we find that Adam is not alone. The man is not alone, but in God’s
love and grace, the woman and he are created for each other,
living from the beginning in love for one another, in God’s presence. Life is
the gift of God to each one of us, Genesis makes clear. And God created us for each other.
Thirdly, as we read Genesis
chapter 2, we see where the living God places Adam and Eve. God places them in
a garden, that He has made for them. This is the
Garden of Eden, which has fascinated men and women down through the centuries.
In the middle ages, some scholars tried to work out where the garden was, and
even set out find it. But what Genesis shows us is that the Lord places Adam
and Eve, not in a mountain landscape among the hard, dangerous rocks, or in a
desert, with its heat and lack of water, but in a garden. A garden in which they will live, and will be able to
discover day by day the riches that God gives them, as they explore the fruits
of the trees, and plants. God has placed Adam and Eve in the garden and given
them all they need. So, that right at
the beginning of the Bible we have the witness to God’s perfect care for us –
the living God who supplies all our needs.
But, notice too, and it is worth
making this point, that from verse 15 onwards, Adam and Eve are given the
garden, by God – and given the task of working the ground, and the fruits of
the trees. They are placed, put in the garden, this place of beauty, source of
food – to care for and tend the whole of the earth – its wild life, its birds, and
the fish of the seas too. Adam and Eve are to care for the earth. Because the
earth is God’s gift to them, they are given the task of working the earth, and to look after it. And
to look after it. Both of these are tasks given to us by God. The
last decade has made clear to us the destruction caused in the earth and its
climate, because we have worked the earth – without looking after it. God,
Genesis proclaims, has given us to work the riches of the earth, but also to be
responsible for this rich and beautiful earth, to tend, and to care for it and to
look after it.
Let us try to sum up: what
Genesis 2 gives us is a sublime understanding of our relationship with God. As
men and women, we are made for a relationship with God. In a great loving
movement, God, the living God of grace and love, who is Father, Son and Holy
Spirit – has given us us life, and made us, created us to share life with Him.
In love God created us to find our true being with Him,
He made us to enjoy life, the fullness of life, the richness of life with one
another. He created us for life in His company. In God is fullness of life, fullness with one
another, richness of life, all we need is in Him. This
is our original state as human beings.
When we return to Genesis next
time, however, and we all know this, we will read further of how
AMEN.