#DailyDevotion Yahweh Creates Man & Paradise
Gen. 2:7-14 7The LORD God formed man out of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. 8The LORD God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there He put the man He formed. 9The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – a delight to see and good for food — and the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10A river started in Eden to water the garden, and outside it divided into four branches. 11The name of the first was Pishon. It flowed around in the whole country of Havilah, where there was gold. 12And the gold of that country was good. There were also bdellium and onyx stones. 13The name of the second river was Gihon. It flowed around in the whole country of Cush. 14The name of the third river was Tigris. It flowed east of Assyria. And the fourth river was the Euphrates.
So, this is a second account of creation in Genesis. In the first account what we get is sort of God’s point of view. God is even somewhat impersonal being called Elohim, the generic term for God. Here in the second account it seems perhaps it is more from man’s point of view and it is definitely more personal and the LORD (YHWH) uses the divinely revealed name of God, Yahweh.
Instead of speaking things into existence, here we see the LORD reaching down into the dirt and forming us, mankind. He breathes his life into the man, unlike the animals, and man becomes a living soul, as opposed to just a soul. I guess I should explain that a little. Soul here is nephesh. Nephesh is breath and it can also be spirit. Everything that breathes has a nephesh. Man though became a living nephesh. Man was given God’s life, eternal life. It is this life that the man, Adam and his wife Eve, lose when they sin against the LORD and his command. Having lost that life, they died when they rebelled against the LORD.
Now the LORD places the man in the garden, aka paradise. The Hebrew is gan, but the Greek is paradeisos, from which we get the word paradise. The garden was called Eden. The LORD planted all kinds of trees there that were good for food. Strangely enough, he plants two trees, one the tree of life and the other the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You will have to ask the LORD when you see him why he did that. I guess at that time, we truly had a free will. He wanted to test the man to see if he would exercise his will for good or for evil. Would he choose to fear, love and trust in the LORD above all things or would he reject the LORD? Well we know what happens. Now the way the LORD describes Eden here, you will never find it. It’s descriptions meet nothing on the earth right now. It does not describe the rivers as we know them now. The Jews think paradise was caught up to heaven before the flood. Probably why Jesus told the thief that he would be with Jesus there today. I guess the flood truly transformed the earth. Moses or his descendants named the present rivers after what they remembered before the flood.
When we are baptized the LORD Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into us and gives us his life again. When we believe in him, he gives us eternal life. In this life we await to enter Paradise again when he returns and restores the cosmos in which we will live before him.
Heavenly Father, continuously give us your Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus and baptism so we may have eternal life and dwell before you forever. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.