Adams Good World

[0:00] If you have a Bible, you might have a Bible in English, you might have a Bible in your own language. We are studying Genesis 1-3 and there are reasons why we might not have done so because it's counter-cultural.

[0:19] We need faith to believe the things that God says. They're not necessarily the way the world tells us to see things. Some of the interpretation is rather tricky and people can genuinely disagree over that.

[0:32] But positively, this is God's Word. It tells us things we need to know and without which our world can't function.

[0:44] It limps and struggles morally, spiritually and intellectually. When I say intellectually, I don't mean that being clever. I mean just thinking. The way people think can't get straight unless it is guided by God's Word.

[1:00] For example, the question about what it is to be human. What the world is for. How human sexuality works. Where it comes from.

[1:11] And what did Jesus save us for? The world that God made at the beginning was spoiled. But Jesus comes to recreate and make a new world which fulfills what the original creation was meant for.

[1:28] So it's very much worth looking at what that original creation was. So I said last week that this outweighs the why-nots which is why we're studying this. We looked last time, by way of recap, at Genesis chapter 1, which began with the world formless and empty.

[1:47] And we go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. As God separates light from dark, separates the waters underneath and the waters above, separates the dry land from the sea.

[2:01] And then fills those empty spaces with inhabitants. So sun and moon, birds and fish, and in particular land animals.

[2:12] So that was a summary of days 1 to 6. The earth was formless and empty. And God adds form by doing the separation. And then he adds populations so it's no longer empty.

[2:25] And then the final stroke, he makes Adam. He makes man, male and female, in his image to rule this world. And on day 7, which we're not told the ending of day 7, as we're told the others.

[2:40] So I put a dotted line to indicate my hesitancy on that. But day 7 is a day for resting and enjoying this world. That was what we looked at last time.

[2:51] My plan this time is, this morning, to go through the text of chapter 2. And this evening, to look at some more applications.

[3:02] So I'm afraid I won't have time to do a lot of the application this morning. So you need to come back this evening or listen on the web. That's what we're going to do. You ready?

[3:13] Text. Verses 1 to 7. No, do I mean 1 to 7? I don't. I mean 4 to 7. Deals with land and man. So that's 4 to 7.

[3:25] 8 and 9 is going to deal with trees. 10 to 14 is going to deal with rivers. 15 to 17 is trees and God.

[3:38] And then 18 to 25 is animals compared with woman. I think that's the way that's going. I might turn out to tweak that a little bit. And in chapter 3, verse 1, it begins to all go terribly wrong.

[3:53] But we won't get to the terribly wrong bit. We'll just do the beautiful, nice bit. Okay, up for that? Yep, that's what we're going to do. And here we go.

[4:05] Oh no, we don't. I have a little advisory thought before we go on. And this may or may not be helpful. I think there's probably more helpfulness than unhelpfulness in it. The Bible is true.

[4:16] The Bible is telling us true things. We need to listen to what God is saying. But the way God tells us truth is not necessarily answering all the questions that we have.

[4:29] And is not necessarily giving the emphasis that we thought he ought to give. And my illustration of it is it's a little bit like, and I hope this is a helpful illustration, the map of the London Tube.

[4:42] Now, how many of you have travelled on the London Underground? Okay. And everybody has looked at the Tube map, which looks like this. Yes?

[4:54] And the Tube map, have you noticed, it's all straight lines going either horizontally, vertically, or at 45 degrees. It's a helpful map, isn't it?

[5:07] If you follow that map, you will not go wrong. But the way it is written is for the everyday user. If you were building the Tube, if you were the builder of the Tube, you would need a map like this.

[5:22] And that's a map in a different sort of way, where nothing is straight lines. It follows the contours of the geography, and the distances are not, the distances are as you would walk them if you were not on the Tube.

[5:40] So that's for the everyday user, and that's for the builder. And I think it would be helpful to say that Genesis is designed for the everyday user, for the faithful everyday user, from Moses and Exodus onwards.

[6:00] There's no generation in which people can read this and say, well, I don't understand that. It doesn't speak my language at all. It is in the language and in the approach of the everyday user.

[6:12] It's earth-centred. It's user-friendly. And in particular, the first people who read it, it would have been Israelite-friendly. Now, in case you're worried, it is history.

[6:25] It talks about a real person, a real historical Adam. But it tells us in a user-friendly way. I hope that's a helpful thought. Let's go through it.

[6:37] Text 1 to 7. Land and man. It's not 1, it's 4 to 7. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

[6:49] Anybody got an authorised version? Okay, authorised version says, in the day they were created. When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, no plant of the field had yet sprung up.

[7:09] For the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth, and there was no man to work the ground. But streams came up from the earth, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

[7:23] The Lord God formed the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

[7:35] What am I doing there? I don't know why I've done that. That's twice, isn't it? Land and man. Right. Let's do some words, first of all.

[7:46] The word day crops up fairly early. The word day is used in an ordinary, everyday sense. In chapter 1, there were seven days.

[8:02] The word day was used for that. On day 1, verse 5, God called a light day, and the darkness he called night. So presumably, day, when it's used there, means half the day, the daylight part.

[8:18] Is it day or night? It's day. So it's used in that sense there. And in chapter 4, verse 1, it's used in the sense of presumably a period, because it says, this is the account of the heavens and the earth in the day they were created.

[8:32] So I just point out there's a flexibility in that use there. The word earth is used. There's two words, the word earth and the word ground.

[8:45] And both of them are worth noticing. The word eretz is earth, and it can mean the whole earth, as in God made the eretz and the shamayim, the earth and the heavens.

[8:58] So it can mean just the opposite of sky. It can mean ground. So like we would say earth, a bag of earth.

[9:10] And it can mean the land of Israel. So the people of Israel are the people of the land. So it can mean the land of Israel. So I'm just saying that the words are used in sort of everyday sense, as we would use earth, for example.

[9:25] And the word ground is the word adma, which is linked to the name of the man who's made out of ground, Adam.

[9:36] Adam is made from adma. And there's one other word for man, which is used ish, which also has a little bit of significance to it. So let's see what we have.

[9:48] God, this is the account of the heavens and the earth on the day they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth.

[10:02] So I think we're moving from looking at the whole globe to we're going user-friendly to that bit of the Middle East where the readers would have been familiar.

[10:24] When you think about earth, land, you probably think about England or Italy or Switzerland. But for them, when you talk about land, they've been thinking Israel.

[10:37] They've been thinking heat, dryness, all that sort of thing. And this is where, this seems to me, how God tells us what's happening.

[10:48] He says there was no shrub of the field on the earth and there was no plants of the field. So those things, they didn't have any of those things.

[10:59] And why not? Because there was no rain. It was dry. And in particular, and the Israelite listening to this would have said, I think I see where you're going with this.

[11:12] You can't get plants in a dry country unless you have a guy with a watering can. And the Israelite is probably thinking, you know, tell me about that because my garden, even as we speak, is drying up and I need to go out and water it.

[11:28] Because if I don't water it, nothing's going to grow there. And I think this is where we're coming in on this. Middle Eastern country, you don't get cultivation, you don't get agriculture.

[11:43] You don't get rain unless you get people. There's streams, of course. We're not lacking in water. It says the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth.

[11:54] There was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. Well, it's not that there isn't water, but that it is in the wrong place. And it needs a human being to intervene and take the water from the stream into his watering can and water.

[12:13] And that hasn't happened yet. So that's why there's no shrubs. And I think the Israelites listening to this would say, yeah, you know, tell me about it. I just get that absolutely completely.

[12:25] The land was not fruitful because it needed Adam. An interesting statement about our world, that its fruitfulness and development is made for human intervention.

[12:44] It's made for human beings to cultivate. It doesn't become what it could be until human beings start moving things from there to there or watering things or building ditches or whatever.

[12:58] And he's saying that's what was lacking in those, what we're to think of as lacking. The land was not fruitful because there was no man to work the ground, verse 5.

[13:15] So God makes Adam. God formed Adam from the dust of the Adma. So there's Adam and he's made from dust.

[13:28] And the sad thing is that nowadays we die and we return to dust, don't we? Chemically, we're no different from dust. But God formed Adam from Adma and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

[13:48] In the previous chapter, we were told that the distinctive thing about human beings was they were made in God's image. And in this chapter, it says the distinctive thing is that God breathed into the nostrils of man.

[14:04] The breath of life. And man became a living being. If you have the authorised version, it says man became a living soul. And you might think that the distinctive thing is the soul.

[14:16] But actually, it just means living creature, the same as the other living creatures. The distinctive thing is not the soul, but the breathing. Man became a living creature.

[14:28] Man became a living creature. And here now is Adam. So that was the fields and the making of man.

[14:39] Let's do the next bit, which is 8 and 9. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east in Eden. And there he put the man he had formed.

[14:51] And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the Adma. Trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.

[15:03] In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So this bit is about trees, basically. So here is the Eden region.

[15:16] I think it must be high ground because in a moment we'll find that rivers flowed from it. That's the region of Eden. The region of Eden is where the garden is put.

[15:27] I don't think the garden is the whole of Eden. It is in Eden. So I think the garden is a smaller part of Eden. And there's the garden. And in this garden, God makes all kinds of trees to grow out of the ground.

[15:46] So let's see if we can put in some trees. There's some trees. And they're beautiful trees. And they're good for food. So I'm going to put some fruit on the trees.

[16:02] And in the middle of the garden are two particularly important trees. One is the tree of life. And one is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

[16:16] And I'm not going to stop and try and explain to you anything in depth about those trees. The tree of life, if you eat this tree, you have life.

[16:28] If you keep on eating it, you keep on having life. And you don't die. You live forever. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a little bit more subtle. And I think it's a tree which enables you to say, I know what's right.

[16:47] I know what's wrong. In the sense of when you have a bank holiday and you think, what should we do today?

[16:58] Should we go to the I-360? Should we go to the Seaside? Should we go to the Seven Sisters? And somebody says, I know what we'll do.

[17:11] We'll go to Port Slade. And the I know is an I know of decision, isn't it? That's the decision we've made. And I think this tree is saying, what's good?

[17:24] What's evil? Is that good? Or is that evil? Is that good? Or is that evil? Is that good? I know what it is. And it's the knowing of making a decision about good and evil.

[17:37] And God says, I don't want you making your own decisions about good and evil. You need me to tell you that. So don't go snatching at that so that you yourselves can make up your own minds about that.

[17:53] I think that's what the tree is about. But we're just told at this point, there are these two trees. That was the trees. Now we've got the rivers.

[18:05] So I need to give a different picture for the rivers. This is to do with the rivers and minerals. Verses 10 to 14. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden.

[18:20] And there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is Pishon. It winds through the entire land of Havila, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good.

[18:33] Aromatic resin and onyx are also there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris.

[18:44] It runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. So I've done a Google Maps. That's the marker to say you are here.

[18:55] And let's fill in what we can. So there's a river that flows through Eden. There's the trees. And I'm assuming Eden, therefore, is high ground, because the rivers flow out of it.

[19:08] And we have these four, which sort of circle round. No, they don't actually circle, do they? But they, what's the word they use? Winds through. So Pishon winds through the land of Havila.

[19:21] Now, I haven't done enough homework to know where the land of Havila is. It certainly wasn't obvious, but that's what it says. It winds through the land of Havila. And the thing about Havila is that there is gold and resin and onyx.

[19:37] Onyx being a semi-precious stone. You know, those stones that are rather beautiful, different colors. But you don't have to, you know, not like diamonds.

[19:48] You have to pay millions for it. It's just very beautiful. Do you know what I mean? Semi-precious stones. And the thing to notice, well, one of the things to notice is that these are very temple-like substances.

[20:06] Because in the temple, you have gold. And in the temple, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you would burn the resin to make incense.

[20:16] And the onyx would be one of the precious stones that would have adorned the temple and certainly adorned the front of the priest's uniform.

[20:27] So there's a little hint there that this world we're having described to us is a bit like a temple. Or put it another way, the temple is a little bit like this garden.

[20:43] That's geography number one. Geography number two is the Gihon, which winds through Kush. Kush. Now, the only Kush I could find is Africa, North Africa, to do with the Nile.

[20:56] So that's what it means in our age of the world. What it meant in that age of the world, I don't know. I'm assuming it's like the underground map.

[21:07] It's true, but the distances aren't always the same. I'm not quite sure how that works, but I'm telling you what it says. It winds through Kush, and it's the river called the Gihon.

[21:19] And the third river is the Tigris, which runs through Ashur, which we can identify more closely nowadays as being Assyria.

[21:34] And the last river is the Euphrates, which runs quite close alongside the Tigris. I've got a map for that in a moment in its modern incarnation.

[21:48] And that would have gone around and about the area of Babylon. So we have two references that are rather mysterious, subject of debate.

[21:59] Two references that are very definitely identifiable in modern times. And certainly the Israelite would have said, yep, I've got that one. Tigris, Euphrates, know where those are.

[22:10] Nile, that's where we came from when we were slaves. So here's the map as it is now. So there's the Euphrates.

[22:23] Here's Israel around here. Euphrates, Tigris. And a place where they could be thought of as joining up or having any sort of, being close to each other is that sort of area.

[22:35] So whether we're meant to understand that Eden is being signified as there, perhaps so. That's the modern day map.

[22:47] Let's read about the trees now. Verse 15. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

[23:00] And the Lord God commanded the man, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

[23:13] For in the day you eat of it, you will surely die. So Adam is put there to, verse 15, work and take care of the garden.

[23:29] Those words are also used of the priests to work and take care of the temple. So there's something about Adam which is a sort of a holy calling if you like.

[23:41] There he is. And he is placed there with the maker's instructions. And the word for command is a word like commandment.

[23:56] He sort of commandmented the man. Verse 16. Here's a commandment to you. You can eat from any tree in the garden, which I presume includes the tree of life.

[24:13] But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So Adam is put into this garden with a vocation in front of him, a job to do, and God's word, as it were, hanging over him.

[24:33] You've got all those trees and you can eat all of them. But there is one tree with a no entry sign in front of it. That tree. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

[24:46] You don't eat that. So God gives Adam a thousand yeses and one no. A thousand is a guess at how many trees there were. You can eat that one and that one and that one and that one and that one.

[24:59] There's just one, just one thing you must not do. Because if you do that, you blow the whole thing to pieces.

[25:11] This whole thing is about life and beauty and the future and hope. And if you eat that fruit, you will bring into this world death.

[25:26] Dying you will die or, if you like, surely you will die or you will definitely die. You really will die. Just one thing he mustn't do.

[25:41] There's some sorts of TV drama that Maria loves watching where you can see from a fairly early stage exactly how it's all going to go wrong.

[25:54] And I just can't bear watching them because I know, you know, he's going to fall down the mine or, you know, the tower's going to fall over or something like that.

[26:10] And I can see it all coming. And I go and make a cup of tea and do something else instead. This is a little bit like this. It's setting it all up. There's so many good things for Adam to do.

[26:22] And one thing he mustn't, you know. Anyway, let's keep that until next week. We're still in the garden in a happy way. And what God has given to Adam is enormous generosity.

[26:37] It's full of generosity. Full of, oh, that tree and that tree. And there's gold over there. It might take a little while to get there because you've got to find this river and follow it around.

[26:47] But it's gold. And the gold is good. Just think of what you could do with that gold. You could make gold rings. You could have a wedding ring for your wife if you learned how to smelt.

[26:59] And there's trees. Just think what you can do with trees. You can eat them. You can actually chop them down. If you could find some other hard stuff that would be hard enough to make a knife.

[27:10] You haven't heard of a knife yet, but I could probably explain to you. Or an axe. Because you use a bit of a tree for an axe. You could cut them down. And you could make a bridge to cross the Havilah and get to the gold.

[27:23] Think of all the things that you could do. And I've asked you to bless you with multiplication. So you're going to have children. So you're going to need some educational theory as well.

[27:37] And you're going to need to invent writing. And you're going to need to invent sociology. Because after a while, there'll be so many of you. And you probably need to invent politics. Because there'll be some people living over there who want the water for that.

[27:51] And some people living there. And you need to negotiate. Just think of all the world of opportunities that are open before you, Adam. All the fantastic, interesting things that you're going to have to study and learn.

[28:02] Learn and get interested in. Just think of the paintings you could paint. The colours. Ah, pottery. You could. If you get some of the mud from the Havilah.

[28:13] And you treat it right. You can make it into something hard. You'll need fire, of course. We can talk about that. But then you could become a potter or an artist. And if you're really clever, you could become a photographer.

[28:24] But that's a bit down the line. But all these things, Adam, you could be doing. But one thing you mustn't do is eat of the fruit of that tree.

[28:35] And you need to trust me on this. It's interesting, isn't it? It's all leaning. All the weight of it is, will Adam trust what God says?

[28:47] There's one thing. Don't try it yourself. Trust me on it. It's an interesting point, isn't it? It's not learning by experience. It's trusting. And Adam's whole world hinges on whether he will accept God's generosity and trust him on this one point.

[29:12] And it's very interesting that our spiritual lives are not that different, actually. One thing is to be appreciative of God's generosity. And it's very possible for us to become sour, bitter, complaining people.

[29:30] Because we fail to realize how much God has given us. And if you're tempted to that, there are things you could do, like write a diary and write down each week or each day what God has done for you that you should be grateful for.

[29:45] If God takes away something. Then only then do you look back and think, well, I never really appreciated this.

[29:56] But it's a good thing. Before it gets to that point, count your blessings, the old song said. Name them one by one. And it will surprise you what the Lord has done. Very good advice.

[30:07] And to trust God on the things where he says just one thing. You know, I'm providing for you so brilliantly. But one thing, I don't want you to go there.

[30:20] That can be a hard one, can't it? I guess these days it's in sexual relationships where people find it hard to trust God. And people say, oh, God's withholding from me the fun I could have.

[30:33] God's withholding from me the excitement that other people seems to have. And this will sort of get in the sexual area. And God says, actually, I've given you lots.

[30:44] I'm a very generous God. And the reason I say, don't go there. You have to trust me on this. Don't go trying to find your way yourself.

[30:55] Don't try it out for yourself and see whether it works or not. Just trust me on this. I'll just give that as an example as to our relationship with God not being that different to the situation Adam was in, in many ways.

[31:11] Let's go on through the text. So now we've got to verse 18. And the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.

[31:24] Now the Lord had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field. Now I just say the had is put in to make it fit with the previous chapter.

[31:38] And I think it's like the tube map, you know. It does all fit. But it doesn't say had in Hebrew. Of course there isn't a, I don't think there's a clue perfect.

[31:50] The Lord God, we understand, had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them.

[32:02] And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man, did I say man was Adam? I might not have said that specifically.

[32:14] But the word that's used for, yeah I did, didn't I? The word that's used for man is Adam. So man, Adam is interchangeable here. Whatever the man, Adam, called each living creature, that was its name.

[32:27] So Adam gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field. The Israelites saying, I know those, that threefold division of animals, I know those.

[32:41] So here's Adam. He's looking a little bit green. He's looking a little bit green because he hasn't got a wife. And also because I mistook the colours when I was drawing it. But he is looking sad, a little bit sad.

[32:53] And God says, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. So that's the statement that propels the next bit of the text.

[33:07] We're looking for a helper who is suitable to Adam. Who really fits, who can really work with him.

[33:18] They will really fit together. And God says, I will make such a helper. Now God either formed or had formed out of the ground. So we assume it's a flashback.

[33:30] That he had formed the beasts of the field. Do you remember? That's the things that you can't farm with. And the birds of the air. So those are the two things that are mentioned there.

[33:41] Beasts of the field. So I put a whatever that is. Gazelle. And birds of the air. And in a minute we'll get the third type of, no, a third type of creature mentioned.

[33:53] And he brought them to the man to see what he would name them. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

[34:04] Now God did calling things in chapter one. Do you remember? He called the rachia that separated the waters beneath from the waters above.

[34:15] He said he would call that sky. And you remember he called the dry land earth. And what else did he? And the seas. He called the seas seas.

[34:27] So day and night. Thank you very much. So God has called things things by their names. And Adam now in the image of God names things as well.

[34:39] I presume that in the Hebrew sense that a name is not just a label. A name describes something of the character of the thing being named.

[34:51] I presume that's the thought of it. So Adam isn't just going through a list of random words. But he's saying, oh, that's a bouncy sort of animal. Let's give it a bouncy name.

[35:03] I can't think of a bouncy name now. Do you see what I mean? That's a prickly sort of animal. We'll call him a hedgehog because that sounds prickly. And so on.

[35:13] I guess that's the sort of thing that's happening. He's actually looking at them. He's doing a little bit of science, doing a bit of zoology as he does this. And we go through all the animals.

[35:28] And verse 20. He gave names to the livestock, the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field.

[35:40] So that threefold classification. But having gone through all these, is there somebody, is there anything here that can help him do the Times crossword?

[35:56] Is there anything here that can help him fill in his tax form? Is there anything here that will sit with him and watch a comedy on Netflix and laugh as loud as he does?

[36:15] I did know somebody who had a house rabbit who used to watch Newsnight and Jeremy Paxman. So you could imagine watching Newsnight and Mr. and Mrs. are here and the rabbit is here.

[36:30] And Mr. and Mrs. are saying, that was a very good question from Jeremy Paxman. And the rabbit is going, anyway, that's just a stupid thought. No suitable helper was found.

[36:46] So all the things that animals can do in their strength, in their athleticism, in their, I don't know, all the things that animals can do, none of this is good enough for what Adam needs.

[37:02] And it sort of emphasises that what we're going to see next is far superior to animal. It emphasises the non-animal capacity of woman, the full dignity of woman.

[37:20] And what God does is, as we now read. So we've got to verse 20. But for Adam, no suitable helper was found.

[37:31] For the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. And while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh.

[37:44] Now rib, for us, is quite a precise medical term. In the original, it says side. And Noah's Ark had sides.

[37:58] So I'm not quite sure it's quite as precise as a rib. I would say it's a side of the man that was taken out. And he closed up the place with flesh.

[38:09] Verse 22. And the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man and brought her to the man. So let's see that. So there's all the animals.

[38:19] So we put them on one side because none of them is good enough. The man is made to sleep. What's he dreaming of? We don't know. But the man's made to sleep. And God takes a side of the man.

[38:33] So a side. Does that mean a part? Or does it mean like a complete aspect of him? I don't know. A side. And God makes the woman.

[38:46] There she is. And he brings her to the man. So there's the woman. And the gentlemen might like to imagine themselves in this condition.

[38:59] Been through a whole list of animals. But none of them is suitable. And it says, The Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man and he brought her to the man.

[39:10] And the man said, This is poetry. This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman for she was taken out of man.

[39:21] And the word for man that he uses there is ish. And the word for woman is isha. So she shall be called isha because she was taken out of ish.

[39:33] See there's a play on words there again. And so I would say Adam is bouncing with enthusiasm. When I did that before, he bounced.

[39:44] But it's not going to happen, is it? No? Okay. You have to imagine him. Bouncing with enthusiasm. You know, I've seen animals till they're coming out of my ears.

[39:55] But this. Wow. Wow. And here then is the state that we have.

[40:09] We're in this garden. And Adam at last has a suitable partner. And we're even told in verse 24, we can look ahead down the generations.

[40:22] And the writer does. For this reason, an ish will leave his father and mother and be united to his isha. And they will become one flesh. So it's looking forward, isn't it?

[40:35] It's saying this is sustainable. We could have now family units. They produce children. The children intermarry. You have father and mother. You have generations going down.

[40:47] And man and wife will form a new social unit. And the children and then man and wife will form another new social unit. And so this goes on. And it all looks brilliantly well, even for future generations.

[41:04] And the man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame. And here's a world of no shame. You don't have to hide yourself. You don't have to cover yourself up.

[41:16] Not physically and not in speech, not sort of psychologically. A world of openness.

[41:27] And that is it. So let's summarise it. We have this world with its potential for agriculture. Before, we had all the provision there, but we didn't have people to make it happen.

[41:41] Have the potential for agriculture. We have the beauty and the provision of the garden. All these trees. Just think of what you could do with all these trees. Full of generosity.

[41:52] You've got the geography and the minerals. You've got these rivers winding through. And you've got, at least you've got gold, resin, onyx.

[42:02] And you've probably got copper, iron ore. You've got various things you can dig out of the ground. Various things you can mine.

[42:13] Various places you could go. You know, just full of potential. And God says, that's yours. You can do all of that.

[42:24] Eat any of the trees. Go anywhere you like. Dig up anything you want. All yours. Just one thing, God says, don't do.

[42:39] Don't stop trusting me. Don't put to the test something I've told you will only hurt you. You have a beautiful woman.

[42:56] I presume she's beautiful. It's not told she's beautiful, but I'm presuming she was beautiful. You have an unspoilt man and an unspoilt woman and all the potential of that.

[43:08] You know, what more could you ask? How much better could it possibly be? I'm honestly stuck to think of anything that could possibly be better.

[43:23] But it did all go wrong. And I won't spoil the story, but it did go wrong.

[43:38] And it's still wrong. And we are still going wrong. And it needed another man to put this right.

[43:54] Another head. Another leader.

[44:06] Another single man to do what Adam went wrong on, that this man should go right on. and strangely enough he wrestled with whether to trust God over what he said and actually he wrestled over it in a garden the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus said which will shall I do I don't want to do what you're asking me to do in some sense but I know I must and Jesus fought that out in prayer and so intense was the struggle that great drops of sweat fell from his face like it was blood or blood like it was sweat he agonized in a garden of tears and got it right Adam was in a garden of joy and got it wrong the obedience of the man I'm referring to was very costly but hugely powerful and when he got it right the effect of his one act of righteousness was like a flood which floods out over all those who put their trust in him and the person I'm referring to is Jesus he a tree is important in the story of Jesus in Adam life came from a tree in Jesus life comes from a tree but the tree that I'm referring to in the life of Jesus was the tree on which he died and a tree of death becomes the source of life when he died on the cross we've seen what was set before Adam which in many ways he's lost and I'm just pointing you to what Jesus did to regain it and I want to encourage each of us to put our trust in the second Adam the savior who at such great cost won back for us more than Adam lost let's sing together