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A Cultivator -tmp(Genesis 2)

We have here a land that needs some work to be done ({{Genesis 2:5}}) and no one to do that work. And it?s the type of work that the Lord God, that Sovereign King over His creation, wants some participation in. He will do His part, bringing the rain and man is to do his part?to cultivate the ground.

But without man God has no need to bring the rain, instead he causes a mist or flood to rise up from the ground to water the whole surface of the ground. Was this a situation that continued until the flood we?ll discuss at a later time but for now we?re content to see that God has considered a process by which the land is kept fertile until someone comes along to do some work it.

And God handles that immediately by forming man from the dust of the ground and breathing life into his nostrils making him a living being. Man then is not merely a construction of material in some higher form than other material?but he is living and God-breathed. This creation of man stands out from the rest of creation in its intimacy with the Lord God creator who didn?t only state the creation of man?but planned it and was intimately involved in it.

God then furthers His awesome plan by planting a garden toward the east in Eden and placing man in it. This land, fertile and beautiful winds up being the training ground for the Cultivator, God?s Majordomo over the land?Man.

For it is in this garden that God caused every type of beautiful tree to grow and every type of tree that bore fruit all in full blossom. There?s no contradiction here for we see God giving man an example and we also see the early stage of dilemma when in the middle of this garden there are two trees placed: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Note that: Two trees in the midst of the garden?not one.

Instead of drawing our attention to those trees the author looks at the river that flows out of Eden to water the entire garden and from there splitting into four major rivers where in some places gold and precious stones were in abundance and in other places may have gone to distant lands. From this place, God?s garden, flowed blessings to the entire surrounding land and in its enclosure, placed there by God, was Man.

And now God gives man access to every tree in the garden except one: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Every single tree, even the tree of life, was given so that man could eat freely?but the one tree was given a dire prohibition that it would be wise to take note of.

(1) Don?t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2) in the day that you eat from that tree (3) you will definitely die.

That warning is obvious to us but what about Adam?how was he to know what?s death? How was he to know what tree? Did it have a label? And if the tree gives ?knowledge of good and evil? how is Adam to know that going to that tree and eating was a bad thing?he had no knowledge.

The prohibition was against eating from that one tree (which tree) and the consequence was death (whatever that means) in the day (whatever that means) of the eating.

Well we do get to know some things about Adam?s condition: he wasn?t stupid for one. God parades a bunch of beasts of the field before Adam and he names them, no problem. He was smart enough to recognize what God had done to create Eve and manages to make an incredible covenant towards her ?Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.? Him and his wife were both naked and not ashamed whereas later, after they eat the fruit they ?knew that they were naked? and hide ({{Gen 3:7}}).

We?ll have to explore what this tree did a little more when we get to the second scene of this section ({{Genesis 3}}) but for now we?ll have to be content seeing that man seemed to have quite a bit of knowledge as it was and God?s definite prohibition seems to imply that He expected man to understand it.

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