Adam and Eve

Genesis is a book of beginnings: the beginning of the heavens and the earth, of plant and animal life, and as in the case of our lesson, human life. We know from the Bible that there were six creative days which ended when “on the seventh day God ended his work, … and he rested” (Gen. 2:2). The creation of man occurred toward the close of the sixth creative day. In this wonderful book as we see demonstrations of God’s power and wisdom, we come to this most important event recorded in Genesis 1:26: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, … and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

The creation account continues in Genesis 2:7, “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 soul.” In the marginal translation of Genesis 1:30, the expression “living soul,” is applied to the lower forms of earthly creatures. The expression does not mean an immortal soul, but simply means a living creature. We know that man was a perfect creation of God (1 Cor. 15:45,47). God also knew that it was “not good that the man should be alone” (Gen. 2:18). So God created Eve to be Adam’s “help meet” (Gen. 2:20). God’s method of accomplishing this was unique.  He used a portion of Adam’s own body (rib) to form Eve. This was done for the special purpose of propagating of the human race, and for companionship (Gen. 2:21-24).

Since we know that everything that God created was perfect, it follows that he would place “our first parents” in a perfect home. “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden: and there he put the man whom he had formed” (Gen. 2:8).  God desired that they would  “multiply, and fill the earth” (Gen. 1:28 NASB). In these words we can see that although evil was permitted to come upon the human family for a time, one day all evil will be removed and mankind will fill the earth. Then, God’s creation, which He originally pronounced as being good when first created, would be brought back to perfection (Isa. 35:1-10). For God has promised, “the earth abideth forever” (Eccl. 1:4; Psa. 104:5) and “he [God] created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited” (Isa. 45:18).

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