Today’s passage: Genesis 2:4-17
Helpful thoughts:
- Chapter 2 of Genesis gives us a closer look at the creation of mankind and what followed.
- Verse 4 introduces the name of God, “Yahweh” (or “Jehovah”). It is written as “LORD.”
- When the Bible starts to speak of people as individuals, it immediately introduces us to the name of our God, who knows us and whom we can know.
- The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was already teaching the knowledge of these things, without Adam (Or Eve) having to eat from it. They were given this command (“You must not eat from it”), and the command alone implied there were such things as good (Or right) and obedience, and wrong or disobedience.
- Adam’s and Eve’s innocence before God was not simply an absence of doing wrong. But as long as they obeyed God’s command, they also had a record of doing right (Righteousness).
- God does not merely expect an absence of wrong-doing. God requires righteousness.
Questions to consider:
- Based on what we read in this passage, why did the bushes, plants, rains and streams (Rivers) come into being in God’s creation? What was He providing? For whom was He providing all of it?
- When will the Tree of Life make it’s reappearance? What is it for? What does it do? (Revelation 2:7, 22:2, 14, 19)
- Since we have all fallen short (Romans 3:23), what has God graciously done to provide us with righteousness? Why are we allowed in His presence and accepted as His sons and daughters, counted as fully righteous? (See again, 2 Corinthians 5:21)