Who are you? Genesis 2

One of the things I looked forward to the most when I started at Moore College was tackling Philosophy. I couldn’t wait. I wasn’t the only one, either – I think it was the most eagerly-anticipated course for a lot of us. And so, six months into the first year, after we’d all recovered from our first experience of exams, we filed into the main lecture room. Our lecturer walked straight in, and without so much as an introduction, fired off his first question.

“Who are you? Why are you here? Discuss with the person next to you. You have five minutes.”

An interesting thing happened. After about two minutes, most of the conversations had stopped. And it was pretty obvious that after three minutes, we were pretty stumped about what to say. So the lecturer went around the room. “Who are you?”

There were some amusing answers. One anonymous voice said “Cookie Monster!” And one person held up a driver’s licence. “Why are you here?” produced more answers – because God willed it was a good Calvinist answer, and because my timetable said this is where I have to be was a good, honest answer.

I posted the same two questions on Facebook a couple of days ago, and some of the answers were priceless:

I’m Grammy, or Mum, or Tick, or Lucy, or Annistacia – oh dear multiple personalities ….. I’m here because where else would I be? Too stubborn to go anywhere else.

I’m me and I’m here because one day my mummy and daddy decided they loved each other very much….

I’m Simon and I’m told I’m here to do what God has planned for me to do. Stuffed if I can work it out yet…

I am no one and I am not here

I’m Andrew and I’m here because Mark’s mummy and daddy decided they didn’t get it right the first time.

I’m Robyn, and I am here to be your friend.

I am Peter, and I am here to help Dave reduce his smoking by shamelessly bludging smokes off him……

My name is Liz and I’m here (right here right now) because I’m too tired to move.

I’m Kyle and I am here to pave the way for my daughters future.

Here’s the kicker, though. That exercise confirmed something I’d suspected for quite some time – it’s a lot easier to answer those two questions with humour, deliberately making an effort to deflect the seriousness of the questions… and possibly to avoid the fact that, after two minutes, we’re out of things to say.

Who are you? Why are you here? The lecturer turned around and announced that this was the single most important UN-answered question for most people today. And then he followed it up with this very dry, quiet observation: “The fact that these questions remain unanswered goes some way to explaining why there’s such a massive statistical blip in fatal single-vehicle car accidents involving males between 17 and 25.” The room went deadly quiet, and we suddenly realised that there’s a lot more to philosophy than witty arguments at the pub. Philosophy’s most basic question is simply this – who are you? Why are you here? And we seem to be completely bereft of good answers.

So many people ask themselves the question, and have absolutely no answer. And not having an answer explains some of life’s strange horrors. Why cutting and self-harm is such a feature of the culture of young women between 15 and 25. Why successful men and women turn to alcohol, unfaithful sex and illicit drugs, and other behaviours that we would normally pass off as absolutely stupid. Why kids join gangs and do whatever it takes to belong to a warped image of family – in the hope of forging an identity.

Who are you? Why are you here? Simply lacking an answer can have a devastating effect on the most secure, the most wealthy, the most intelligent people, as well as the poor and the outcast in society.

Who are you? Why are you here?

Let’s wrestle with the most basic question in philosophy… and see what the Word of God says about us.

 There was a Frenchman by the name of Jean Cauvin (we know him as John Calvin), and he made this point as an opening statement: “Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God. Nearly all wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”[1] And immediately Calvin shows us the problem. We need to have knowledge of God before we can truly begin to understand ourselves – but at the same time we need to have knowledge of ourselves so that we can see our place in God’s world and in God’s great heart.

And that’s true, isn’t it? We need to understand something of God’s holy justice and right-ness before we can begin to appreciate why sin is so abhorrent to Him. We need to come to grips with how much God loves us before we can understand how hurtful our sin is to God. And we have to face both our place in His great heart and our own helplessness in sin before we realise how painfully expensive grace is to God the Father.

We need knowledge of God to begin to understand ourselves. And we seriously need to understand who we are and why we’re here to understand God more clearly. Hang on to that whenever you read the first few chapters of Genesis. Genesis is more than creation-mythology. It’s more than an account of how everything started. Far more importantly, this is an account of the why, and the who, of creation.

Genesis 2 is one of the very few places where we see man and woman exactly as they were made by God. Sinless. Blameless. Walking with no barrier between man and woman, no barrier between Creator and His finest creation. Naked, not ashamed. It’s like peeping through a tiny hole to see the splendour of the world as it was supposed to be… before evil and temptation and sin and separation ripped up the picture.

Let me read from a translation by Robert Alter: On the day the LORD God made earth and heavens, no shrub of the field being yet on the earth and no plant of the field yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not caused rain to fall on the earth and there was no human to till the soil, and wetness would well from the earth to water all the surface of the soil, then the LORD God fashioned the human, humus from the soil, and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living creature.[2]

For me, this is one of the most beautiful images that I’ve ever read or seen. The writer paints virgin land, full of water and vitality. Even the earliest readers and hearers would know that without rain there is no life at all. Without rain there’s lifeless desert. But at the beginning of all things, life doesn’t need rain… and rain, and crops and sustaining food would be made for the man… The things that all humans need will be given to them.

And then the LORD God – Yahweh Elohim – does the most extraordinary thing. He descends upon his newly-created earth, stoops low and scoops, moulds, and forms with His hands­… a human. If we look back to Genesis 1:26, we see a change in God’s pattern. There’s a change in the language – instead of let there be, He says let Us make.

And… here He makes. Here He forms. Here He fashions.

There’s a beautiful, tender cleverness to the words now. You can hear it in the Hebrew, and in Robert Alter’s translation, he captures a gentle pun… the human, humus from the soil… In Hebrew, man/human is ’adam, and the soil (or dust, in some translations) is ’adamah. And we’ll get the name Adam from this construction a little later.[3] I like the way that this guy calls the earth humus – you get both the pun and a picture of moist, rich, life-holding soil. Who does gardening? Do you see the way the writer almost makes you smell the richness?

But that’s not the most extraordinary thing. He fashioned the human, humus from the soil, and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living creature. This isn’t mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. This isn’t one equal to another. This is a little like how we’re taught in first-aid to breathe life into a tiny baby – breathe into the nostrils. It’s a gentle, tender, unbelievably loving picture. Man’s first-ever breath is the Spirit of the Living God.

Think about the sense of smell for a second. I think we write it off as the least strong of all our senses. It’s nowhere near as strong as sight, or hearing, or touch – and probably not as well-regarded as taste. But it’s the unsung gift, the unsung sense. It is the sense that is most keyed to the memory. A baby, who can hardly make any use of any other senses, instinctively knows – and bonds to – the mother by smell. A baby knows who Mummy is.

Now – hold that thought in your head for a moment. It’s really important. The first thing that the human ever smelled is the breath – the Spirit – of the Living God. The human is born by the breath of God – and the human became a living creature. Hebrew and Greek both use the same word for breath, or wind, or spirit – Ruach in Hebrew, pneuma in Greek.

Who are you? Now our minds should be racing a little. From the lips of Jesus, from a famous passage, we should be able to connect the two. John 3 – Jesus to Nicodemus: You shouldn’t be surprised at my saying, you must be born again. The wind [same word for breath, for Spirit] blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of [same word again] the Spirit.

Wow. Every time I read it. Wow. Our first breath was when God first filled our lungs – and our being – with his breath, pneuma, Spirit… and we become living beings. You must be born again. The Greek is more emphatic, more urgent. John 3:3 – If someone is not born again, he is not able to see the Kingdom of God. Verse 6-7 – The thing having been born of the flesh is flesh, and the thing having been born of the Spirit is Spirit. Don’t marvel that I said to you, it is necessary to be born again.[4] We must be born a second time… no longer dead in sin, but alive – brought back to life – in Christ, by the Spirit, to the Father’s great glory. Wow.

Who are you? Genesis 2 tells us about… us. We are most highly treasured in God’s great heart. If we didn’t see it in Genesis 1 when we are made in the image, we can see it now. We can almost swim in the picture. We are made. We are formed. We are fashioned by the deliberate, creating will and hand of God Almighty. The same One who made black holes and planets of solid diamond made you. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. The Psalmist had it so right (Psalm 139):

From behind and in front You shaped me, / and You set Your palm upon me.

Knowledge is too wondrous for me, / high above – I cannot attain it.

Where can I go from Your Spirit, / and where from before You flee?

If I soar to the heavens, You are there, / if I bed down in Sheol – there You are.

If I take wing with the dawn, / if I dwell at the ends of the sea,

There, too, Your hand leads me, / and Your right hand seizes me.

Should I say, “Yes, darkness will swathe me, / and the night will be light for me,”

Darkness itself will not darken for You, / and the night will light up like day, the dark and the light will be one.

For You created my innermost parts, / wove me in my mother’s womb.

I acclaim You, for fearfully and wonderfully am I made.

Wondrous are Your acts, / and my soul knows it very well.[5]

Who are you? Nothing less than that. Nothing less than that. Don’t ever, ever forget that.

This is how much God loves his most magnificent creation, Jesus goes on to tell Nicodemus. He sent His only, unique Son… on a rescue mission that would see that Son tortured, hung like a piece of meat, butchered… so that whoever believes in that Son will not perish. Don’t ever forget that. That’s how much God loves you.

Who are you? You are made – fearfully and wonderfully made – and the breath of the Almighty has given you life.

 Moving on… Verses 8 and 9: And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, to the east, and He placed there the human He had fashioned. And the LORD God caused to sprout from the soil every tree lovely to look at and good for food, for the tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge, good and evil. [6]

For His most precious creation God plants a garden. He does the ultimate Backyard Blitz – he has already proclaimed everything very good, but now he goes one better, and gathers together such a collection of botanical wonder… not just to provide this human, this ’adam with physical provision and keep him nourished and alive, but to please the human! Not just in taste and smell, either – pleasant to the sight and good for food, as the NIV puts it. Every tree lovely to look at and good for food. How strange. God didn’t make it just for His own pleasure, but for the human’s pleasure and enjoyment as well.

Genesis 2 tells us something about us. Why are you here? He designed us to be pleased, to be able to be happy, to be content, to be stimulated by beauty. There’s something about us – and something about how thoughtful this designing, creative, loving Almighty God is, and the strange gifts He lavishes upon us. What an odd gift – the ability to be pleased and satisfied! But it makes sense, doesn’t it?

One of the things I love about being a daddy is seeing the kids smile – really beam. And they do it when (surprise, surprise) we give them stuff. It’s not as crude as that, though. Example… Grace got her Pen Licence from her teacher on Friday. I’d never heard of a Pen Licence, but it’s apparently a big deal. When the teacher considers that your handwriting is good enough, you get an official Licence to use a pen in class. When I heard about this, I got a nice pink pen, and I engraved her name on it. And on Friday we gave it to her. Her face was just… the surprise was priceless. It seriously lifted my heart to do something that made Grace happy. It lifted my heart that she was happy. I didn’t get the pen just to get that pleasure, even though I knew that it would happen… but the sheer act of doing something that gave Grace a lot of joy brought me joy as well.

Here’s a question – is that how God feels whenever we enjoy His goodness? Is that how God feels whenever we say thank you, and we praise His name? Is that how God feels when we fall in love with His Son, Jesus?

Who are you? You are made – fearfully and wonderfully made – and the breath of the Almighty has given you life. Why are you here? We’ve been designed to enjoy every good thing that our Father God has willingly, gladly, generously made for us. God Himself has given us the ability to feel happiness, to experience and love beauty and beautiful things. To taste and go WOW, to smell and to smile. God’s master plan was for us to be a happy people, and to KNOW that we’re happy. And that our outrageous happiness brings great pleasure to His heart.

Moving on… Verse 15: And the Lord God took the human and set him down in the garden of Eden to till it and to watch it… to work it and take care of it, in the NIV. Before there was sin, before there was labour, before there was slavery and exploitation and mortgages to repay… there was work. We have this enduring image of Eden as some sort of nudist luxury resort – but that’s a fiction. Adam gets his hands dirty in Paradise – but that’s okay, because so did his Creator.

God makes the earth, God comes to earth, God makes Adam out of the earth, Adam works the earth – he tends it and takes care of it. Remember verse 5? We had a hint – no shrub of the field being yet on the earth and no plant of the field yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not caused rain to fall on the earth and there was no human to till the soil… The language we see is actually quite agricultural: field, till, take care of – tend and keep would be better translations. So what does this say?

Adam worked. Not for food, because all the best food in the world was at his fingertips; God surrounded him with all the food that he could eat. Not as God’s slave – the God who made the universe, and made Adam, and made a garden for Adam’s pleasure doesn’t need anything that man can make by his hand. Not for a wage – not to repay any debt to his Creator. Why?

God gave Adam satisfaction. And that’s an odd thing to say about work, because our society has this picture of Paradise as sitting on a cloud eating Philly cheese, or sitting on a beach in Bondi or Bali – either way, doing nothing. But that’s a fiction, too.

I like mowing my lawn. Actually, I’m not a huge fan of stone-chips whacking me on the shins, or getting grass up my nose and sneezing like the dickens. And I hate the whipper-snipper. But I do like mowing the lawn. And – at least for me – there’s a lovely satisfaction in switching off the mower and listening to the quiet, having a cool shower, then going back outside with a cup of tea or a beer, sitting down and just going aaaahhh. Watching the pigeons and the pee-wees and the willy-wagtails coming and eating all the disturbed seeds and bugs and worms or whatever. Smelling that new-mown grassy smell. There’s a very real, physical, visceral satisfaction in doing good work, and in enjoying it afterwards. For some people it’s physical. It might be helping a neighbour out, or donating time… but there’s satisfaction, and that satisfaction is, again, a gift from God.

The curse after sin wasn’t being made to work. The curse wasn’t being evicted from a 500-star lazy-town resort. The curse wasn’t being made to work. Adam was a worker from the start. The curse was this: having to survive by his labour. We see it in Genesis 3: By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food. That was the curse – not the work itself. God wanted humans – people – to be fulfilled, satisfied, content.

We have to remember that. There is satisfaction in work. Work is not the evil thing that our society often makes it out to be. Talk to someone who’s looking for work; the unemployed people I regularly deal with end up being unfulfilled, discontent, dissatisfied and unsatisfied. I think I’ve said it before – I suspect that one of Satan’s dirty tricks is to keep some people from being fulfilled, content and satisfied by denying them the opportunity to work.

Who are you? You are made – fearfully and wonderfully made – and the breath of the Almighty has given you life. Why are you here? We’ve been designed to enjoy every good thing that our Father God has willingly, gladly, generously made for us – and to do the work that He sets for us, and to take satisfaction from that, too.

Last stop. Verse 18 – And the LORD God said, “It is not good for the human to be alone, I shall make a sustainer beside him.” There’s an odd sound here, isn’t there? It is not good… In Genesis 1, light was good, land was good, veggies were good, sun and moon were good, birds and fish were good, animals and creepy-crawlies were good… and the sum total was very good. And now there’s something that sounds like a discordant note. It is not good for the man to be alone. I think that God is signalling that He hasn’t finished yet. All things are declared very good when they’re completed, but we’re not quite there yet.

God isn’t suddenly filling-in a gap in the plan. He’s not scratching his head and saying, I really should do something about that. No. And I don’t think Adam is getting bored or lonely or in any way dissatisfied. He’s not going up to God, saying that porcupine I tried to hug… uh, not good. Worse than the shark… No.

Verse 21 – And the LORD God cast a deep slumber on the human, and he slept, and He took one of the ribs and closed over the flesh where it had been, and the LORD God built the rib He had taken from the human into a woman and He brought her to the human. God brings her to the man. Not as some afterthought. Not as an improvement on the prototype. Not made from the clay that Adam walked on, but made from Adam. Shaped, like Adam, by the hands of God. And God brings her to the man. Who gives this bride away?

And the man knows instantly who she is, where she’s come from – and the words are of such longing fulfilled! I love how the first speech of Adam (that we’re given) is when there is another human to respond to. We see that he has obviously talked before – God brought him all the animals to name, so speech is implied… but the first words that we are privy to is when the man has another human to respond to. What does Adam say?

This one at last, bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. And, we read on, they become one flesh. One flesh. It’s not a yucky morph. It’s not a prudish euphemism for sex. It’s completion. The two become one flesh. It’s completion, it’s fulfilment, it’s the delight of God to give His most precious creatures this happiness beyond expectation… but such a perfect creation that Adam recognises her – knows her – straightaway.

Who are you? You are made – fearfully and wonderfully made – and the breath of the Almighty has given you life. Nothing less than that. Nothing less than that.

Why are you here? You’ve been made in God’s image, and in His pleasure, and to have pleasure. You’ve been made to revel in His company and in His creation. You’re made for relationship with the Lord God, and for relationship with each other.

Genesis 2 is a glittering gem. I want to live in Genesis 2. I want to stay there. But I can’t. In Genesis 3 we see why. We see what happens when we’re no longer fulfilled or content or satisfied. We see what happens when we hunt for satisfaction without God – when we try to wrestle control away from God. When we sin. And that sin scars up everything. This earth still has so much beauty, but it’s so tainted, so poisoned, that it’s hard even to hold the image of Eden in our minds without a little bit of cynicism. We know that we’ve been so bent and so warped that we can hardly recognise ourselves as we were made. We can hardly recognise the concept of glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. But we can sneak a peek. Here it is, in Genesis 2. Here we get a picture of God creating perfection. One day at the end of days, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and they will be made perfect, and those whom Jesus has rescued will be with Him, glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. This is what God intended all along, and this is what He wanted us to be, and this is what He still wants us to be.

John Piper put down a very deep line: Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God… The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It’s a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God.[7]

I want Genesis 2 back. I want it. I keep hearing that expression: “the church is the bride of Christ” and seeing that intimacy – bone of His bone. Flesh of His flesh. Brought to Christ by God, and enjoying each other forever in the love of the father.

This is who you are.

This is why you’re here.

Genesis 2 is where God tells us about us – and it’s a love song.

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[1] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. Louisville, Kentucky: the Westminster Press, 1960. Translator: Ford Lewis Battles, Editor: John T. McNeill. p35

[2] Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2004. p20-23

[3] Or, possibly, a lot later. Many translations do not name Adam until Genesis 5:1, and translate ’adam as man/human up to that point.

[4] Translation from Greek New Testament, United Bible Societies’ Fourth, Corrected Edition. Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House, 1990. p325. Italics mine.

[5] Psalm 139:5-14. Robert Alter, the Book of Psalms, A translation With Commentary. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2007. p480-481

[6] Alter, Five Books of Moses. p21

[7] John Piper, God is the Gospel. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2005. p47

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