Genesis 2

Genesis 2 is considered to be the second creation story. however, while I was reading it, I did not really get a "second creation story vibe." to me, it seemed to be more of a continuation. God has created the universe, the world in the first chapter and in this second chapter it was more like God was putting the finishing touches if you will. for example, it says that "Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth^[a] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground (Gen 2:5)." Maybe this doesn't mean that He hadn't created it yet but that He had but He hadn't made it grow yet. and the verses that mention God creating trees from the ground, etc...maybe it doesn't mean He was creating the world but maybe this is God creating the Garden of Eden. maybe this second chapter is the story of the creation of the Garden and God putting Adam into it. it does say in the first chapter of Genesis that God created them Male and Female. Maybe the first chapter is "overall" and this second chapter is more of a focus in on God creating Woman and creating the garden. I am not saying I am right, but that this is what it appeared to me. fair warning, my crazy mind will probably come up with a lot of crazy and wacky things on this journey, so just be prepared for that.

 At the beginning of this chapter, it says "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done (Gen 2:2-3)." When I read this, I had this thought that maybe God created resting. Maybe rest is part of Creation. God worked and then when He was done He rested, even though He does not have to rest.  He still rested. Was He creating resting?since He doesn't have to rest, then by resting He was, in a way, creating the concept. Maybe we should look at Resting as what God created on the 7th day of Creation and look at resting as part of Creation.

“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”(Gen 2:16-17)." I had this thought while reading this chapter. I haven't gotten to The Fall story yet, so I am getting a bit ahead of myself. it's more of a question really. There was a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and there was also the tree of life. Maybe death was not a punishment for sinning, and neither was being cast out of the garden. I heard a professor once talking about this in class, so this was not an idea from my own mind but reading this reminded me of this. maybe being cast out of the garden was because God did not want them to eat of the tree of life anymore, because He did not want them to live forever in this new Fallen state of life.and so God cast them away from the garden, from the tree of life, so they would die and not always have to life in that Fallen state they had created when they disobeyed God. again, not an idea that came from me but from a professor but it makes sense to me and it is something that reading this reminded me of and made me think about. of course this is assuming that the tree of life is what kept them from dying, which brings me to this thought/question I just had: what did the tree of life do? did it keep them from dying? did it help them live the life God created them for?or did it do nothing?what was it?what was its purposes? Moses mentioned it for a reason right?

"The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him(Gen 2: 18)." I have this book that deals with things you can do to prepare yourself for marriage, and one of the things that the author says in it is that when God saw that man was alone, that it was not good for him to be alone, He created a helper, a partner, for him. He did not create friends for man, He did not create a life group, a support group, a bible, a church, etc. for Man. He gave him a partner. the author also said that Adam had the perfect relationship with God, literally, and God still saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone. maybe just because you have a good relationship with God doesn't mean that it is still good for you to be alone. and that's what I feel like my friends are always telling me, and I just don't buy it. at least, at this very moment in time, I don't buy it.

Those are the thoughts that this chapter brought out. most of them aren't ideas that came from me, but that's okay I think. Genesis is an interesting chapter just because I do know the stories, so its hard to just go with the thoughts I had when reading it and not what I've learned in class or from people. still, I'm enjoying it. :) :)