Sermon26-9 Gen2 Guide

Genesis 2:4-25 theme verse Genesis 2:7,15

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

In this fourth Sunday of the year 2026, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, we meditated on what it means to walk together with God, as we looked at when God created the heavens and earth, envisioning His kingdom, after He created the humanity in His image and blessing them to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over every living thing, while walking together with them. Yet, this week, through Gen 2, we would like to delve deeper into what the dominion means to learn few lessons together.

1)    As we saw last week, Genesis chapters 1 and 2 tell the story of God's creation of heavens and earth.

Chapter 1 begins with God's creation of primitive matters, and then in six days, it says that He brought order to this chaotic primitive matters. I mean, on the first day, He separated light from darkness and then on the fourth day, He filled it with the celestial bodies—the sun, moon, and stars—to govern the light and darkness. And on the second and third days, after He created the sky, the sea, and the dry land, on the fifth and sixth days, He filled them with birds, fishes, and animals. Then He created human beings in His image to rule over all these things. And on the seventh day, it is said He rested, ending all His creation and also saying in 2:4 that "This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth," here the Hebrew word ”toledot (תּוֹלֵדוֹת)” was used first time in the Bible meaning history, genealogy, or account, explaining the content of the creation of heaven and earth.

And then following this account, as the latter part of verse 4 begins with "On the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens," it starts to explain God's creation from a different perspective, I mean, in the perspective humanity.

First, it is said that God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed human beings there to cultivate and keep it. Then, He commanded them that they could freely eat fruit from any tree in the garden, but not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that they ate of it, they would surely die.

And then, it is said that God said it was not good for man to be alone, He created a helper suitable for him. Yet He created the first human, Adam, from the dust of the ground and breathed life into his nostrils, making him a living being, He created the woman from Adam's rib. And he brought them together to form a family. And it is said that this was before their fall, though they were naked, they felt no shame.

And also it is said that God created the wild beasts and birds and brought them to Adam and he gave names to them.

As such, chapter 2 thus explains each relationship, focusing on humanity. I mean, it says that God and humanity entered into a covenant of works through the forbidden fruit, and that people have to love and help each other, and that human beings were given the authority to give names to the living creatures and rule over them, yet also responsibility to cultivate and protect them.

2)    So, we can know that chapters 1 and 2 present two different perspectives on the same creation event. So each chapter uses different name of God. I mean,

from 1:1 to 2:4, the Bible uses "Elohim" as God’s name, which means Almighty God who is Creator of the heavens and the earth, and all things as well as humanity in them. This name was repeated 35 times, emphasizing the point that the sun, moon, stars, and idols made of gold, silver, wood, and stone, worshipped as their gods in ancient times, are not God, but merely created beings.

And then in the following periscope, from 2:4 to 25, the name ”Yahweh" is used, which means theologically, (a) an eternal, self-existent being, (b) a self-caused being without cause, and (c) the absolute and only one divine being. Therefore, this name declares that Only true, eternal, self-existent and absolute Yahweh the LORD God of Israel, is “Elohim,” I mean, the Almighty God who created all things, and also God of the Savior who has a special covenantal relationship with the people of Israel.

As such, because all creation has its origin in Yahweh God, it is said that all praise and glory should be given to God alone.

3)    By the way, there are a few points which need to be clarified. I mean,

first, as verses 4-6 state, "On the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, no shrub of the field had yet been on the earth and no herb of the farm field had yet sprung up; for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth, and there was no man to work the ground", this seems contradictory to verses 11-12 of chapter 1, which state that on the third day, "God brought forth vegetation, the plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and the trees bearing fruit, in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good."

Looking a little further into this, in Genesis 1:11-12, three types of plants are mentioned, I mean, vegetation which is translated from Hebrew “tesea (דֶּ֫שֶׁא), seed-bearing plants of the Hebrew “esev (עֵ֫שֶׂב)”, and fruit-bearing trees with seeds of “es (עֵץ)”. However, considering the fact that in verses 29-30 of chapter 1, God gave plants for food to all the beasts and the birds, and that He gave humans every seed-bearing plants (“esev (עֵ֫שֶׂב)”), and every fruit-bearing trees (“es (עֵץ)”) to eat, we can know that these three types of plants mentioned here do not refer to all the plants God created, yet focusing on the foods for humans and animals.

And also even though it is said in today's text, chapter 2 verse 5 that there was no bush (“siah (שִׂיחַ)”) of the fields in the land and no small plant (“esev (עֵ֫שֶׂב)”) of the fields had yet sprung up, this does not mean that there were no plants growing in the wild. Rather, it means that there were no plants or vegetables which needed the rain falls and the cultivation by the human. Therefore, we can see that this does not conflict with the chapters 1.

Furthermore, through verse 5, we can know that even after the creation of heaven and earth, God continued to provide for all things, including rain falls to the plants in His providential care.

And also the Garden in Eden, which typically know as a paradise, was not a place where human beings could leisurely enjoy time without any daily plans and works, but a place where there is the joy of work, as physical labor is not a consequence of sin, but a blessing and joy established by God from the time of creation.

4)    Secondly, as many commentators argue, it is said to be conflict between Genesis 1:21, 24, and 25 saying birds and animals were created before human beings, versus today’s text, 2:19, in which it seems that animals were created after human beings.

However, the Hebrew word ”ysr (יצר)" which was translated as "formed" in 2:19, can be translated also as the past perfect tense, I mean, ”had formed,” as the NIV and ESV translated so that this verse can be understood as God brought what He had previously created to Adam for him to name.

However, there is other way to avoid the contradiction even maintaining the traditional translation, too. I mean, the animals mentioned in 2:19 do not necessarily refer to the birds and beasts God created on the fourth and fifth days in 1:21, 24, and 25, but rather can refer to the creation of a special group of animals that God brought before Adam for him to name, as some scholars interpreted it, so that  we can easily avoid confusion.

5)    The third is about the Garden of Eden, I mean,

verse 8 says that in the garden in Eden, in the east, God placed trees that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, along with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Here the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, does not mean the fruit itself which makes us aware of good and evil, rather as Louis Berkhof suggests, we can understand the reason why it is called it is because it reveals whether man would allow God to determine for him what was good and evil.

And also the tree of life, as Calvin interpreted it, reminds humanity that true life comes from God, and that "we human beings only can live a life of vitality when we live and move in Him." In this sense, Augustine and others argued that the tree of life symbolizes Christ.

Therefore, these two trees teach us that we can live a true life only when we willingly surrender our will and live according to God's word, obeying to it.

And then it also states that a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers and their names are the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates.

First, while the Tigris and the Euphrates are clear, it is not easy to find the current locations of the Pishon and the Gihon. Yet, since the Pishon River is said to have flowed around the land of Havilah, where there was gold. So as scholars argue that this Havilah can be the western region of Arabian Peninsula or Somalia region of Africa both of which are famous of gold and locates on either side of the Red Sea so that the Wadi, running cross the southern part of Saudi Arabian desert, was a river in the past, or the western region of Iran where the Karun river is flowing was the Pishon.

And regarding the Gihon River, which is said that it flowed around Cush, since Cush in the Bible refers to the ancient Nubian kingdom located south of Egypt, in the upper reaches of the Nile River and also there is another wadi that runs across the central desert of the Saudi Arabian Peninsula, so some believe that the Gihon is the river that flowed through this area.

However, considering that the Earth during the Creation period was one large sea and one dry land as Genesis 1:9 says and also scientists claim and also the fact that Genesis 7 and 8 say that there was a global flood and tectonic shifts after, it's difficult to find traces of these two rivers so that I recommend you may have a more flexible approach on this.

6)    Anyhow, through today’s text, I hope we could meditate two things.

The first is the "helper" mentioned in vv. 18 & 20. I mean, as we have seen, from 1:1 to 2:17, God declared all of His creation "good." However, in verse 18, firstly,  He says "not good," I mean, ”the man to be alone is not good." And then in verse 19 He brought the animals and birds He had created to Adam for him to give names to them. And then it is said that He reaffirmed that Adam had no helper and created a woman.

So, we can know that even though human beings can find some comfort with pets, yet this relationship is not a mutual love and support as equal being.

Therefore, God created a helper for man, as He says in the latter half of verse 18, “I will make him a helper, for him, as before.” Here, “as before”—“kenedog (כְּנֶגְדּֽוֹ)”—means that the woman God creates for Adam will be in harmony with Adam and be an equal one, neither superior nor inferior.

And also the “ezer (עֵ֫זֶר)” translated as “helper,” is a term that as a masculine noun, referring here female, not referring to someone who is assisting or subordinate to a superior, rather it is frequently used to describe the relationship between Yahweh and Israel where God is called as the helper of Israel because God is stronger (e.g., Exodus 18:4; Deuteronomy 33:7, 26, 29; Ps. 33:20; 115:9-11; 124:8; 146:5, etc.). And that’s why the Septuagint translated ‘ezer’ as the Greek word ‘boedos ( ),’ which means someone who will free us from the shackles of poverty, debt, sin, and bondage, someone who will fill us abundantly, or someone who will lead us to success, happiness, and blessings.

Therefore, this word is used more often for God than for humans, and even when used for humans, as in Isaiah 30:5 and Ps. 121:1, the helper means someone with superior military power or superior abilities. So, we can know that the helper is a coworker equal to Adam.

In summary, today's text Genesis chapter 2 describes how human beings enjoy the joy of walking together with and working together with Yahweh God, yet are in a covenant of work, that is, not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and also in their relationship with other human beings, including family formation between man and woman, and in their relationship with nature, they cultivate and protect it, and in their relationship with animals, they name them through which we can know that they have authority to rule over them.

7)    But, we can know that this dominion of human over His creations as Genesis 1:26-28 says "Have dominion over every living thing,” does not mean to abuse or devastate the land and animals with coercive power.

Rather, this dominion is to serve the plants to be fruitful as they were purposed to be, as in Genesis 2:15, after God created the Garden in Eden and placed man there and said him to "tend and keep it”, where, the Hebrew word “עָבַד (avad)” means not only “to tend” but also "to serve" and "to cultivate," and also the Hebrew word “שָׁמַר (shammar)” means "to keep” or "to protect" or "to take special care of."

And also it means that this dominion over the living things, not only refer to that human beings are the ones who have royal rule and supervision, as verses 19 and 20 of chapter 2 say that Adam gave names to them just as God gave the name "Adam" to the man He created, but also that human beings have to care for and nurture and flourish them in accordance with the purpose of existence as God gave.

8)    As Rev 22:5 says that we will reign in the new heaven and new earth forever, where the light of God shines forever and ever and also as Rev 20:4-6 says that those who participated in the first resurrection, I mean, the spiritual resurrection, will become priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Christ for a thousand years, we have the authority and responsibility to care for and nurture and flourish His creation. Therefore, I pray that in this new year, while enjoying intimate fellowship with God, as we all saw last week, we may reign with Christ on this side of earth, as restoring and caring for His creation to reflect the glory of God on earth

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today’s text, we became to know that God created humanity to have dominion over His creations, after making the covenant of work, while loving others. So, after reflecting our life and thinking about whether we live in that relationship with God, others and natures, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Q2 And also, we became to know that to reign over all His creation refers to cultivate and to keep them. So after meditating on the meaning of dominion and how we execute that commandment in the place where we were called, I mean, in church or in company, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.