Genesis 1:24-2:25 - 2009 - Skip Heitzig

[Music] tonight we begin and we said in Genesis - but we'll kind of slip back a little bit to get to where we have to start from let's pray Heavenly Father we thank you for your word and I thank you that the Holy Spirit your spirit working through your word in the hearts of your people affects dramatic change and impact in the world we know that this is going out now by radio by internet that people will be able to see it and hear it around the world how thankful we are for the technology but more than the technology we need your spirit working applying these things otherwise we'll never be able to understand them they're just words on a page so we depend upon your spirit now working in a dynamic way in Jesus name Amen last week in Genesis 1 we saw God as the creator chapter 2 we see God as a gardener a surgeon and a matchmaker he takes three different roles from that of being a creator but we need to scoot back because chapter 2 is focusing in on some of the same ground in chapter 1 and we ended last week at just the right place in Chapter 1 we want to take you back to verse 24 of chapter 1 the sixth day of creation where God said let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind cattle or those that are the domestic beasts that can be tamed by man and creeping thing and beast the wild animal that typically isn't aimed each according to its kind and it was so God made the beasts of the earth according to its kind cattle according to its kind and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind and God saw that it was good now it would seem that according to what we just read that all of this biological life these creatures including man as we'll see in the following verses were created on the sixth day of creation but with this in view we have a problem if we were to venture on a weekend to a typical Natural History Museum we might see a sign I've noticed these signs in a lot of places where they have determined the age of the world as being so old using their dating methods and it changes from place to place and year to year and scientific community to scientific community but I've seen the sign that would say dinosaurs ruled the earth reigned over the earth a hundred and forty million for a hundred and forty million years but they suddenly became extinct 60 million years before man was on the earth well we have a problem because Genesis would indicate that man and beast were created the same day and I would categorize dinosaur as being part of the beasts that were made we know there were dinosaurs there's ample evidence everywhere the problem is that we find some of the fossils in the horizontal strata placed vertically that cover several strata as if they were there for several different years now we'll get to that when we get to chapter six or chapter 11 the flood but the problem is if God created dinosaurs and man the same day is the Bible wrong or are the signs wrong well if you were to take a little trip about an hour south of Fort Worth Texas a little town called Glen Rose Texas they made some interesting discovery they made it there first they've even made some in New Mexico but the one in Glen Rose Texas is a little river called the Paluxy River and they have hardened limestone layering and a portion of the river where they have found dinosaur footprints embedded in the limestone and well-preserved they've measured them they've categorized them they've taken pictures of them placed him in scientific journals well after they did that they then discovered a little further down the same river footprints of man in the same area with footprints of dinosaurs it was an interesting find to say the least it caused a real ruckus in the scientific community in fact some tried to cover it up and dismiss it instantly but many pointed out the fact that you have evidence of man and dinosaur living together so it would seem according to such finds that the signs are wrong so on this day the sixth day God created beasts and then verse 26 then God said now watch this God said let us make man in our image according to our likeness let them have dominion over the fish of the sea over the birds of the air over the cattle over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth so God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them notice the word god same word that we find in verse 1 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth it's the Hebrew word Elohim now just a note about that word it's a common word in the Old Testament for God it's a plural noun a plural noun but singular in meaning M I am is the in Hebrew the male plural form Oh Oh tea would be a female plural like if you want to say banana in Hebrew you say banana if you want to say bananas in Hebrew you say Bana note that's the feminine plural I am aim is the masculine plural so it's a plural noun as if to read gods however it is singular in usage now did you notice the construction god said let us make man in our image and then it doesn't say so they created man in their image but it says so God created man verse 27 in his own image we have a hint even in Genesis 1 of the Trinity because who else is God speaking to and he said let us make man in our image he's not speaking to angels angels didn't create anything they were created by God they were part of the creation God is speaking to himself this is inter Trinitarian communication this is the father and the Son and the spirit having a little convening together let us make man in our image and Elohim did but notice the he singular pronoun made man in His image so we have a hint of the Trinity now the Bible states clearly and it's very clear in the Old Testament the unique one nature or the oneness of God Deuteronomy 6:4 hear o Israel the Lord your God the Lord is one so many people get confused when they find other verses that seem to speak of the Trinity or the triune nature of God how can that be it sounds impossible if the Bible is so avid with the oneness of God and then yet Christians teach the triune nature of God it's simply because the Bible teaches the triune nature of God now you're never going to get your mind fully around that it's one of the imponderables of scripture just when you think you've got it by some clever analogy like an apple or an egg or water you realize the more you study it it vanishes from the ability to comprehend now it is not impossible and some of these illustrations can be helpful but they are limited for example time can exist in three different dimensions it can be yesterday it can be today and it can be tomorrow just depends on what reference you're speaking from all at the same time water can exist in ice and in vapour and in fluid if you've ever been at a cold Lake like in Alaska and the Sun shines on it and you see that vapor hovering above the lake and yet there's ice at the at the surface on the edge of the light but there's liquid in the middle its water all of it but existing in three states the Bible teaches that there is one God existing in three distinct persons Father Son and Holy Spirit it's sort of inexplicable but here it just appears God Elohim said let us make man in our image so God created man in his own image male and female he created them now what does it mean to be in the image of God well here's a couple of hints we're different from animals you're different from your dog or your cat very different I hope you realize that I know you might love your your puppy I just got a new puppy I love that little puppy but I realize it's not a human it is a dog and it might it might do little things that responds to my voice and I'm think oh look what it's doing it's thinking this it's probably not it doesn't have the ability to share the communicable attributes with God like you and I we can reason we can rash we're rational creatures most of the time we have the ability to apply intellect in reason and research and come to conclusion logical thought attached to other thoughts animals can't do that also we are tripartite in our being we're composed of three body soul and spirit the Bible tells us 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 Paul prays the God would sanctify us completely body soul and spirit until the coming of Jesus Christ not just body and soul not just flesh and conscious life but body soul and spirit so also having three natures similar to that of God we are in the image of God we're a reflection of God but here's something else you should know that elevates us certainly when you think of that we are a reflection of God but the reflection has gotten dimmer we are a faint reflection of our Creator this is not what God originally intended these wrinkles that's not what God originally had in mind now if you don't have any just wait you'll get something this whole degenerative process we reflect God certainly we're in his image but the image is faint if you want to see what if you want to see what God fully intended look at Jesus Christ perfect flawless sinless now one day we will be restored and we will definitely fully reflect the idea that God had from the beginning then God blessed them God said to them be fruitful multiply filled the earth I think we've done a pretty good job of that and subdue it have dominion over the fish of the sea over the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the earth now we see man has a unique relationship to the universe that God made to subdue it to have dominion over it now this verse is sort of like the Magna Carta for scientific research and development God is giving us the permission to find out and harness the potential and get a handle on it and use it for your benefit subdue it harness it find out what I have put in it there's a great proverb it says it is the glory of God to conceal a matter and yet the glory of kings to find it out God has put so much in his creation but as we apply our minds to finding out how we can harness energy and how we can build comfortable dwelling places and transport ourselves all of that as part of the image of God and subduing the creation that God has given to us and God said see I have given to you verse 29 every herb that's not herb but herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth every tree whose fruit yields seed to you it shall be for food also to every beast of the earth to every bird of the air to everything that creeps on the earth in which there is life I have given every green herb for food and it was so in the beginning it would seem that you and I were created or mankind was created to eat only vegetables the beasts of the field and man that was created were herbivores now however before you get carried away on that in Genesis chapter 9 God says to man to eat of the flesh of the beasts of the field but here he says I made everything around you he wanted there to be a population of these animals to grow and then later on we'll be able to subdue even them after the flood but this brings up something my mom used to tell me all the time son make sure you eat your vegetables and oh how I hated it until I discovered the Bible says it's a good thing to eat your vegetables and and one of the reasons perhaps were less and less in the image of God is some of the stuff we put in our bodies I'm not gonna get on a tangent about it but just by this stuff we process and eat it's so crazy and filled with such weird chemicals and we can contract now so many different kinds of diseases and strains of them the more we live the less we are in that image so if you are what you're you eat my goodness you know what are we a greasy french fry perhaps then God saw everything that he had made and indeed it was very good seven times in this chapter God says after he makes something it's good it's good it's good now to sum it up it's very good that's important you remember that because soon this will be in contrast to the very first time God says something isn't good he says things are good this is what I want this is what I intended and then in chapter 2 we'll discover something isn't good indeed it was very good so evening and morning were the sixth day now we come to chapter two and some people think the chapter two is actually a conflicting story with chapter one do you know there are some that believed that chapter one was written by one author in Chapter two is written by a different author and both are the creation story both of these characters didn't know each other and they're in conflict with each other not so they're in harmony with each other this is what it is chapter one is the wide angle lens view chapter two is the zoom view chapter 1 shows you the scope of all of the days of creation all of the things God made from the the luminaries in the sky the heavens and the earth and now it's oom Zin on God's crowning creation his most important creation mankind in chapter 2 human history begins the genesis of humanity is talked about focused on in chapter 2 of Genesis and because of that you're gonna view in just a minute a different title for God it's gonna be very important to you as chapter 1 discusses Elohim chapter 2 will give God a different title because of this thus chapter 2 verse 1 the heavens in the earth and all the host of them were finished and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all of his work which he had done and then God blessed the seventh day and he sanctified it because he rested from all of his work which God had created and made now don't get the idea that six days of work made God really tired and he needed a rest he's just fatigued and God comes home and goes wow that was hard I need a break it simply means God rested because there was no more things to do nothing else to make everything was completed in fact the word seventh and it appears three times in these verses for emphasis the word seventh comes from the Hebrew root that means to be fall or to be completed on the seventh day everything was done God's purposes and creation were fulfilled he had nothing left to do as far as creation was concerned so it was the seventh day it was fall it was completed so God rested now I mentioned the word seventh is mentioned three times in these verses I don't know if I mentioned last week I think I did it in passing but some people have read Genesis the creation story in the first few chapters and mistakenly confused it with some of the Babylonian narratives of creation called the Babylonian cosmogony and they've said well there's a lot of difference or there's a lot of similarities between Genesis and the Babylonian record of creation therefore you know these things all must be myth or perhaps Genesis borrowed it from the Babylonians I couldn't disagree more the fact of the matter is the imprint of God's creation was so fresh upon all of the cultures at that time it would naturally show up in a number of sources and it does and so there would be similarities you would anticipate that but the further that these cultures got from the original from the truth from the moment of creation especially and things were added and made up they weren't preserved like the truth of Scripture you would also expect to see some differences and though there are similarities between Babylonian as well as other narratives and the Genesis account there's a lot of differences as well huge differences the Sun and the stars were worshiped by the Babylonians and the Egyptians they thought that the Stars and the moon the planets ruled the life and determine life upon the earth hence the zodiac an astrology was developed but Genesis says that the universe was created around man by God around God's crowning creation man something else in the Babylonian account the seventh day of the week is considered unlucky day seven of the month day 14 day 19 day 21 and day 28 are all considered unlucky days according to the Babylonians but the seventh day especially but according to Genesis that superstition is absent God blessed it God made it holy it's a day of refreshment not this superstitious fear like oh oh it's the seventh day sort of like Friday the 13th it's the seventh day set apart and blessed by God and he sanctified it verse three because in it he rested from all his work which God created and made now I want you to notice something it will it will be important later on when we go through the Jewish Sabbath God gives Adam no command to keep the seventh day here he will give it later on to the children of Israel it'll be part of the law of Moses as part of the Covenant the external sign of the Covenant God has with the Jewish people but he gives Adam no command to keep the seventh day Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man man was not made for the Sabbath however God did create a day and it seems to be in fact not seems it is a biblical pattern to enjoy a full day of rest now the pattern in Judaism and I actually love it is you work six days and you're off one day now in America it's a five-day workweek and then you're off supposedly two days Saturday and Sunday in Europe it's you work four days you're off three days and but I think six and one is a is a better pattern because I rarely have met people who legitimately take two full days off you know I know what it's like it's hard for me to slow down Sundays when I come home after three messages I start working in the yard it's how I'm built I can't just lay down and take a nap but if you could just spend one day in cruise mode doing nothing no responsibilities you'd be happier I believe I think you'd live longer you'd be healthier so since we're in the image of God it makes sense that part of the likeness bearing the image of God is that when we finish our workweek we rest for one day now I'm preaching to myself even as I say this but this would be good and this is a biblical pattern verse 4 this is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens before any plant of the field was in the earth before any herb of the field had grown for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth and there was no man to till the ground but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground now I promised you that in chapter 2 there would be a new name for God that would appear and it does notice in verse 4 it says in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens the term Lord is the Hebrew tetragrammaton how many have heard of the tetragrammaton okay I'm gonna explain it because most happen the tetragrammaton typically pronounced Yahweh or Jehovah in some older Bibles comes from four Hebrew letters hence tetra grammaton four letters we would say there Y H V H or WH and we typically pronounce it yahweh and we don't know how it was pronounced because we only have those consonants and we've lost the pronunciation i'll explain why but the hebrew Tetragrammaton is in hebrew yoda hey bob hey and it would be pronounced yaver or yahweh or jehovah we don't exactly know we've lost the pronunciation but that is the Hebrew word here for the word Lord anytime you see in your Bible in your Old Testament capital L capital o capital R capital D like you see in that verse it is that tetragrammaton the word and let's just call it Yahweh okay you know here's why it's used here elohim is god's name for his transcendence and power over creation in relationship to being the creator he is Elohim the mighty God in his relationship to history especially history of his people the covenant people he uses the covenant name Yahweh it's very important when Moses was commissioned by God to go to the children of Israel you remember the story and Moses said well Who am I gonna say sent me they're gonna ask what's God's name if God told you to be here what's his name Exodus chapter 3 God says I am that I am tell them that I am has sent you to them for this is my name forever and a memorial to all generations now the little Tetragrammaton or Yahweh is the first person form of the hebrew word hi-yaa which means to be and I am that I am or I am simply means God is the self-existent one he doesn't depend on anybody else for life he's the self-existent one he is the only non-contingent being in the universe every everything else is dependent contingent upon God but God is non-contingent non-dependent he's the self existent one he's the uncaused cause also the term Yahweh speaks of God's eternal nature not I was that I was but I am he's always faithful he's always available all of the characteristics that embody him are part of his eternal nature so you have Elohim God's relationship to his creation you have Yahweh God's relationship in history especially his covenant name to his people now remember how I said we don't know how it's pronounced it's unusual because even though Hebrew is made up of consonants and vowels are simply put there by little marks above and below it so we know how to pronounce the vowels we've lost the pronunciation of the name of God because according to Jewish tradition God's name is so holy it should never be uttered by human lips so they have substituted the tetragrammaton and the pronunciation Yahweh for a different term they put in a different term that's not even there in the Hebrew text the term Adonai and so the Jewish people when they come to this will either say Adonai or they will say Hashem which means the name and if they write God they won't write God they'll put G - D if they're writing it in English because they feel God's name is holy it's ineffable it's unpronounceable we shouldn't tarnish it but we do have the Tetragrammaton and we'll refer to it as Yahweh as we go through make sense okay so in the day that the Lord God made the heavens in the earth before any plant of the field in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown for the Lord had not caused it to rain on the ground there was no man to till the ground get this but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground God had his own automated watering system his own sprinkler system over the earth to keep it lush it's hard to know exactly what this means I can only take a stab at it there are some creationists evangelical Christians who come from the scientific community who believe that this was a canopy as I mentioned last week that covered the whole earth molecules of water vapour suspended in the edge of the atmosphere that produced a greenhouse effect a hothouse effect keeping everything around the world an even temperature restricting mass air movements creating a lush environment worldwide there were no barren deserts there were no polar icecaps and that was the environment no rain at all just this this miss that went up and this very wet environment and so some believe that the rain didn't come till the judgment of God upon the earth and God used the waters in that canopy above the earth as well as the waters in the earth to cause the water on the earth to accumulate rapidly so God broke up the canopy brought it down in the form of rain the canopy is now since vanished but what some of these scientists will tell you is that this was one of the contributing factors for people living so long on the earth as their canopy because what the canopy did is restrict ultraviolet radiation which causes sunburn remember I told you a little bit last week about the electromagnetic spectrum visible and invisible photon radiation and in in the visible light spectrum you've got some of the shorter high-energy wavelength that are violet some of the lower energy wavelength that's the red hues but then there's invisible energy invisible radiation and part of that in the electromagnetic spectrum the UV the ultraviolet you can't see it but it's high-energy it's very short wavelength it penetrates unless it's attenuated or stopped by something and so it is thought by these scientists that the canopy attenuated that intense ultraviolet radiation that causes skin damage and and promotes aging and that is one of the factors that contributed to man living seven hundred eight hundred nine hundred years people say you got to be kidding but you do notice that as soon as the flood happens on the earth that man's age drops dramatically from that point on you read about it even in the scripture now not everybody agrees with that some the canopy theory is fraught with difficulties there's more problems posed by it than then problems that solved and this is just a vapor of moisture in the air it's still present today and God used it for a special purpose at that time and etc etc I can't debate either way both are plausible I'm not a scientist as you know I'm just a pastor so a mist went up from the earth God had a cool watering system on the whole face of the ground and the Lord verse 7 how are we doing for time good at least make two and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being what a scene God created mankind now the author is focusing in on this special crowning creation of God humanity this inanimate corpse and then God breathing breath into the nostrils now I do want you to notice the word formed yasar is the hebrew word it means to mold or to shape but it means to mold or to shape carefully it's a word often used in ancient times in this language to speak of an artist making something beautiful in expression here's what you need to know the earth is not only a designer planet it's a disposable planet I know I'm preaching in an era when that that is not popular it is a disposable planet God created it and God will uncreated God will destroy it the Bible says that it was created by God to fulfill his purposes in Redemption in the history of man the genealogies of man the plan of man announced through the Scriptures the coming of Christ and then eventually he'll rule and reign over those who are devoted to Christ he'll destroy this earth and the heavens and create a new heavens and a new earth it's a disposable planet I can prove that before you go to bed tonight read the book of Revelation if you think we've destroyed the planet where do you see what God does with it of course now he has the right to do it were to be caretakers over it to subdue it and have dominion over it doesn't mean to trash it were to be caretakers of it we're to mine it but not to be careless about it I do believe we have a stewardship over it but do understand this is a disposable planet for God's redemptive purpose God fashioned man creatively and carefully and out of love like an artist would make an expression and he breathed into his nostrils the breath the term breath the term wind and the term spirit you discover in Hebrew have the same Hebrew word Rua Rua wind spirit breath same word in the New Testament same thing wind breath spirit in the Greek is Numa so God breathed God invigorated man with his spirit and man became a living being the Lord planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed now I'm often asked where was the Garden of Eden well we're dealing here and you'll see some names in a minute and so you naturally said where would that be where's that name but we're dealing with pre-flood geography antediluvian geography and that has changed the earth looks different there were no barren deserts at that time there sure are now just go west a little while there were no polar icecaps in there are now and names chained or I should say names are borrowed what is called a P shown back then may be called P shown elsewhere or you'll read about gijón there's a gijón spring in Jerusalem but it probably wasn't Jerusalem because it mentions the Tigris and Euphrates River is probably somewhere in the Mesopotamian River Delta that's the best guess I can give you as to where it is but I remember when somebody told me when I first moved to New Mexico and they said I'm going to Cuba for the weekend and I remember my reaction I said you can't go to Cuba for the weekend it's a restricted country I said no Cuba New Mexico I said well I didn't know there was one or when a couple said to me hey we're going to Las Vegas for the weekend as it oh man I don't know if you should I should probably stay away from that place so what I got family there and it's you know only a couple hours I said boy you must be so you're flying they said no Las Vegas New Mexico well we rename things after other names and so names after the flood were no doubt borrowed by Noah and Shem and the others for post diluvian geography okay just keep that in mind Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man that he formed out of the ground the Lord God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food The Tree of Life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil now every now and then I run into a well-meaning humanist who wants to tell me that man is just a product of his environment and if man was placed in a perfect environment he would be a good person there is some truth to that we are certainly the sum in part the sum of how we were raised in our we think based upon how we were treated is etc but this was the perfect environment this Eden this paradise that we read about and yet man rebel because man had choice now later on toward the end of time we read about it in the book of Revelation for a thousand years Satan will be bound so there won't be the devil but after the thousand years is up he is released and there's a huge rebellion that takes place after the Millennium after a perfect environment after a thousand years of a perfect environment there'll be a huge rebellion so all those people that said well managed just a product of his environment if he's in a perfect environment wait a minute it's gonna be an another Eden for a thousand years that'll be like the Garden of Eden it'll be a perfect paradise but mankind then will sin because there's depravity there's evil within the heart of man it's not the environment it's the heart well why are there Wars and why are there tragedies etc murders is it the environment sometimes but the Bible tells us that every person is born with a bent toward evil because of what Adam did in Chapter three a constitutional change happened at the moment even Adam surrendered to the suggestion of Satan in Chapter three I came across something I wanted to read to you I came across it years ago and I've kept it it was uh from the Minnesota Crime Commission that gave a partial reason for the rise in the crime rate now listen to the findings of the Minnesota crime Commission every baby starts starts life is a little Savage wait it gets better he's completely selfish and self-centred he wants what he wants when he wants it his bottle his mother's attention his playmates toy his uncle's watch if you're a parent you know this to be true deny these and he sees with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous were he not so helpless but if permitted to continue in the self-centered world of his infancy given free rein to his impulsive actions to satisfy his wants every child would grow up a criminal a thief a killer a rapist now that is a group of people that understood what the Bible clearly teaches the depravity of human nature we are as bad off as we can possibly be because of what we'll read about in the next chapter if we ever get to it but what I want you to notice in verse 9 is something called The Tree of Life notice it because you won't see it again until revelation 22 oh you will see it again you will see it you yourself will see it revelation 22 in the New Jerusalem remember what it says and I saw in the midst of this street and on either side of the river the tree of life John said bearing twelve kinds of fruit and each tree bearing fruit according to its month and the leaves were for the healing of the nations so it shows up as as a tribute to God's creation there in the book of Revelation in the new heaven and the new earth and the New Jerusalem there's a real tree it was a real place now a river went out of Eden to water the garden and from there it parted and became four river heads the name of the first is P Sean we don't know where that is some have guessed it's the Indus River others have said it's the Ganges River others have it's a river in Arabia others have said it's a river in Mesopotamia so you can take your pick it's the one which skirts the whole land of havilah so you got a clue now where there is gold some believe javi law is the ancient name of Southwest Arabia and the gold of that land is good deleon and the onyx stone are there the name of the second river is gijón it is the one which goes around the whole land of cush now because cush was a biblical name later on for ethiopia some believe this is the nile pre-flood as one of the rivers but again we're dealing with antediluvian geography it's hard to really be precise the name of the third river is the hit aquel it's another name for the Tigris River it is one that goes toward the east of Assyria that's relatively the same and the fourth is the Euphrates then the Lord took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend it and to keep it and the word keep means literally get this to enslave it to enslave creation in a positive sense to tap its potential to discover what can be done by by mining chemicals and harnessing energy and making things for the betterment of human life and the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden you may freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat you shall surely die now people have a problem right here they say why did God put a monkey wrench in the machinery everything was perfect and he had to let people have human have the choice free choice if God could have eliminated free choice problem solved no not really because if you don't have free choice you have robots if you don't have volition you have otama tongs you program them and do you really feel would you really feel loved if you pull a string on a doll and it all says I love you do you go oh yes I'm fulfilled I'm satisfied I need nothing else you need therapy if you believe that there's no way to have a world where people where creatures have genuine freedom unless they have the potential to sin you can't have free will without that potential and if you don't have free will and you don't have that potential to go either way then you don't have a world that is a world that would ever understand love which is the highest value there has to be freedom and that freedom comes with risks and that risk is the potential or the potentiality to disobey to sin there had to be for there to be a loving God volition had to be part of the game but in the day that you eat you will surely die and the Lord said it is not good first time he said it that man should be alone I will make him a helper comparable to him men I want you to think of the Garden of Eden for just a moment it's a dream world it's what every guy would love lots of land lush vegetation you never have to take care of it no taxes no mortgage no smog you got the ideal job all you have to do is wake up and look at animals and decide what you're gonna name them unrestricted fellowship with God every every afternoon in the breeze or the cool of the day what else could you want what could be better than that you might ask well God looked at and said something's not right I'm looking at this guy I'm looking at him I made him I'm looking at him not good not saying that God what God had done wasn't good but God realized that it wasn't complete it was like a North Pole without a South Pole he was out of balance he was out of whack it's not good that man should be alone companionship was needed and all of the animals even man's best friend the dog wasn't enough couldn't fulfill them it's not good the man should be alone I will make a helper comparable to him now gals I recognize in reading that term you're not flattered you look at that and go help her is that what I am is that all I am his helper I mean how would you feel if your husband said I'd like you to meet my helper wouldn't go over very well with it sort of like my assistant it doesn't sound what it really is intended to sound like in this translation it sort of sounds like an assistant like I take you as my lawfully wedded wife to cook and to launder to haven't to fold until this from this day forward however understand something the word helper in Hebrew is the same word God used to describe himself psalm 46 the Lord is our refuge and Our Strength a very present help in times of trouble the same exact hebrew word used therefore god is used for this gal not saying she is like god but saying that she well she will help him he needed all the help he could get according to God and that's how I feel I was before I got married I needed help a lot of help well a helper comparable or something that completes him something that balances him out the idea is that of polarity as I mentioned the poles together out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them and whatever Adam called each living creature that was its name now something about the word Adam the name Adam Adam is a Hebrew word for man but Adam comes from another Hebrew word Adama which is the Hebrew word for Earth we would call Adam literally dusty this was dusty and mrs. dusty Adama means red like the earth Adam means he's red like the earth he's got that the flow of blood is in him not like the plants that this is something that has a different color cast to an atom okay now something about names ready here Adam is named something that resembles one of the colors in the earth and you notice in the Bible when people name their children they will often name them according to the circumstances of their birth or something they wish those children would embody but often circumstances that happen at the birth or here at the creation they'll get named that so probably when Adam started naming animals he looked at certain features and he looked at certain characteristics and named it accordingly no we don't know what language he used we don't know what names he used of course if he used English and we know he didn't do that at least I don't think he did then we would wonder maybe at first you know Adam was very creative and he named animals the first ones like hippopotamus rhinoceros you know many syllables but then as the day wore on he got a little tired dog cat anyway I don't know I try to imagine it that couldn't be it so Adam gave names to all the cattle to the birds of the air at every beast of the field but for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him none of those animals could complete him and the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and he closed up the flesh in its place and the rib which the Lord God had taken for a man he made into a woman and he brought her to the man little boy heard this story in his Sunday School class it really made an impact on him later on on that Sunday after lunch he felt a pain in his side and he was in his bedroom doubled over and he shouted out help I think I'm having a woman the word for rib literally means his side or a portion of his side just generically the side didn't have to be the rib bone there's a beautiful little story that Matthew Henry used to tell a great commentator and he was quoting the Jewish sages it goes like this woman was not taken from man's head to be above him she was not taken from ends foot to be walked on by him but she was taken from his side to be equal to him from under his arm to be protected by him and near to his heart to be loved by him beautiful a portion of his side and God made the woman and God brought the woman to the man now I'll tell you another quick story before we finish up there's a story that says that Adam when he saw Eve was blown away she was so beautiful and so different so soft and just and so he had a conversation with God later on that day after getting to know her God you made her so beautiful and so soft and tender Wow why did you make her so beautiful and so Wow and God said so that you would love her oh yeah well that worked and then he got a little bit closer but God why did you make her so stupid and God said so she would love you now that's not in the biblical account I think I heard that at a men's rally somewhere truth is Adam and Eve were different from each other male and female and one of the great things in a relationship is to enjoy the differences don't let them go away it are the it's it's those differences and a lot of people in our culture try to make light and minimize the differences between a man and a woman why when there are so many differences you know my wife and I are we have a lot of characteristics that are the same but we're very different our thermostats are different when I get in a car I like to turn on the a/c she shuts hers off she likes it she her she's a little bit cooler she wants it warmer I'm a little warmer and I want it hotter and that's just the beginning it's those differences though that shape us and mould us God knew what you need and the gift of God to give you someone different than yourself which is what caused you to to be attracted to each other in the beginning were your differences capitalize on them let God work on you through those differences you've got some rough edges let him work on those rough edges by that mate accept her accept him as a gift that God had made and that's the idea here he brought her to the man and Adam said now I know this sounds like a strange thing to say when you first check out your wife this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh maybe he was tongue-tied she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man it renders the Hebrew but it misses the emotion the Living Bible captures it the Living Bible captures the emotion though it doesn't capture all the nuances of the Hebrew the Living Bible says when God brought the woman to the man Adam said this is it as if to say yeah yeah I get it this is the one this is the true companion that I've been waiting for therefore a man will leave his father and mother be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh leaving cleaving weaving the relationship must begin by severing one relationship so as to solidify another relationship I know some children that never leave their father and mother always on the phone talking about everything or needing a financial fix for everything I understand we all need a little bit of help and when it says leave your father and mother doesn't mean abandon them means the relationship changes the relationship changes one of the best gifts you can give your children is to let them go release them my father-in-law gave me a gift early in our marriage when my wife we were having a problem and she called her dad to get advice first thing he said is I won't talk to you unless you you tell me you've talked to skip about this first and he's given permission to talk to me about this well I applaud that that's the way it should be he understood this principle there's a leaving a severing then there's a cleaving be joined to the ideas permanence permanence the idea is two people will come together and make a commitment and a determination to be together permanently it could be translated welded together bound inextricably together now does that mean that in a marriage there is never a reason for a couple to be separated no the Bible doesn't that the Bible teaches there's one reason and that is adultery and that is the only reason the idea is permanent and I'll ask you this have do you know of any divorce where the people aren't damaged you can't take something that's welded together or glued and separate it without damage so the idea is permanence if you were to glue two pieces of paper together and let it dry and then in a week say I changed my mind I want those two papers separate again so now you go about trying to separate the glue from both sides of the paper could you do it and have the papers look and be the same and Constitution as before no impossible so God's idea of a relationship is that when formed it's an ongoing permanent bond and then the leaving and the cleaving is the basis for the weaving the one flesh you see one flesh isn't an instant procedure it's a lifelong process to take a guy who throws his socks in the sink and is like as messy as a gopher and a woman who irons napkins paper napkins and bring them together to weave those two lives doesn't happen easily in a week it takes a lifetime it takes a lifetime but I got to tell you something about that process you're in for the ride of your life so many changes will occur if you're committed to that I think this little section here and we're done if one verse left this is the best counseling anywhere just this verse and they were both naked the man and his wife and they were not ashamed it's because they had arrived at true intimacy they were naked and not ashamed and it's more than just physical there was a psychological vulnerability a trust where they could completely be themselves and hide nothing and there was no fear of reprisal that's the idea and they enjoyed that intimacy until sin enters the relationship and then they seek to hide from one another and from God will discover that next week let's pray Heavenly Father thank you for the time we have spent I'll be at a few minutes over time we thank you that we could devote that time to you as well we pray father that the principles that we have gleaned in these first two chapters would abide with us as a foundation for the rest of our lives in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 16,325

Rating: 4.8000002 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Jesus, Genesis, Sermon

Id: znnhDXm2qe4

Length: 62min 58sec (3778 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 19 2018