2
1. Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them were finished. 2. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work He had done.
3. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all his work which God had created and made.
On the seventh day God rested from all his work and created (if you will), The Sabbath day. He Blessed the seventh day and sanctified it from the rest of the days of the week.
This is the day that God set apart from all of the other days. There is more to it than just; God rested on the seventh day. We must remember God blessed this day and set it apart from all the other days of the week. If we look at Exodus
chapter 20 we can get a clearer picture of what it meant when God blessed the seventh day and sanctified (To separate), the seventh day from all the other days of the week Sabbath and why we should keep it.
Exo 20:8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger within your gates.
Exo 20:11 For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day, and sanctified it.
Out of all the ten commandments God gives, this particular commandment is the longest of all of them. God goes into great detail concerning the Sabbath. First we are to keep the day holy. Verses 9, 10 and 11 describe how to keep it holy. First we are to do no work, nor require anyone else to do so. Not even the animals are to work. Then we are to remember that this day is God’s day, not mans. (Mark 2:27,28). God is our creator and as such we need to honor and worship him on the Sabbath. In my opinion this is the first step in developing a relationship with “Abba” Father, to get to know Him in a more personal way. God wants a relationship with us. He doesn’t want to just be our God, He wants to be our Father and our friend. He wants us get to know every fabric of His being so that one day when we grow up we will be just like Him: Holy and perfect in all His ways, righteous and loving, for love is the epitome of who He is. On the Sabbath day we come together with like minded people to learn about Him, why we are here and what our purpose is in this life.
(G5): Ἀββᾶ
Abba
Thayer Definition:
Abba = “father”
1) father, customary title used of God in prayer. Whenever it occurs in the New Testament it has the Greek interpretation joined to it, that is apparently to be explained by the fact that the Chaldee “ABBA” through frequent use in prayer, gradually acquired the nature of a most sacred proper name, to which the Greek speaking Jews added the name from their own tongue.
It’s not until we get to know our father that we can learn to understand him. God left us with this beautiful book of books that we know as the bible, telling us His- story to mankind. As we see here The Sabbath begun on the seventh day of creation, not in the books of Exodus or Leviticus when God gave his law to Moses and the Hebrew people. So when people say that the Sabbath was nailed at the cross, and done away with, and that nowadays the Sabbath can be observed on any day of the week in which each individual prefers, is just not scriptural. If the Sabbath was done away with at the cross, then it would stand to reason that Jesus and his Apostles would have told us so in their teachings and writings, but this is not the case. We see throughout the new testament that Jesus taught on the Sabbath all the time, “A was His custom.” (Mark 6:2, Luke 13:10-16). These are just a few examples in which Jesus Kept the Sabbath. Not only did he keep the Sabbath, but on a few occasions He clarified to the Pharisees and Jews on to how to keep it. If His death and resurrection was to do away with the Sabbath, I would think that He would have taken these opportunities to teach this to His followers. There is no evidence in the scriptures that He ever claimed to do away with the Saturday Sabbath. In the book of acts we see many places where the Apostles kept the Sabbath. (Acts 13:13-15, 43-44, 16:13, 17:1-2, 18:1-4), As we can see even the Apostles taught on the Sabbath after His death and resurrection Acts. 13:42 –44 stick out for me. Here the people of Antioch asking Paul and Barnabas to come back on the next Sabbath to preach to them again. This would have been the perfect time for Paul to proclaim to the people that the Saturday Sabbath was done away with, yet he did no such thing.
4. This is the history of the heavens of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and heavens,
5. before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground;
6. but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
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 being.
I was confused about verse four, for some time, so I decided that I need help in clarifying what meant in verse four. I asked a teacher of my church to come over and help me. The way he explained it to me, and also showing me what the Jews teach, he brought with him a book called The Pentateuch and the Haftorah: which I would love to get my Hands on a copy. I will put into my own words what is taught on these verses, only because I didn’t make good notes, and the copies I made had portions cut off. First I must note here that verse four is the beginning of a new thought from the previous verses. As you see: according to the format I created, verse four is in red, so as to distinguish a new paragraph. From what I gathered, and I must say this makes sense to me, That what is being described here is an explanation of how the mist of the earth is what helped plants to grow before God caused it to rain, and before man was around to till the ground. Then man was formed later. It was also explained to me that, since there is no mention of rain in the bible until the time of Noah, that all plants and trees grew from out of the mist, up until Noah’s time.
8. The lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9. And out of the ground the lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
After God planted the garden of Eden God put man there. It appears to me that Adam was already around when God planted the garden of Eden,because it says that God put Adam in the garden. We can go back to chapter one of Genesis and use this chapter as our template for the order of creation. Here in chapter two God is filling in the blanks. The garden has three purposes, one is for food, the other is for the pleasure of man, and the third is for God to test man. It says plainly that God made every tree grow that is good for food. This is one reason why I claim that man was only supposed to eat the fruits of the trees and the vegetables and herbs in the garden, He doesn’t say the animals were for food.
Trees: (H6086): ‛êts
BDB Definition: 1) tree, wood, timber, stock, plank, stalk, stick, gallows.
Now if we look closer at the definition of some the words used here like stock or stalk we can see that there were more than just trees in the garden. From the Webster dictionary:
STALK, n. [G., a handle, and a stalk or stem. Gr. from the root of stall; to set.]
1. The stem, culm or main body of an herbaceous plant. Thus we speak of a stalk of wheat, rye or oats, the stalks of maiz or hemp. The stalk of herbaceous plants, answers to the stem of shrubs and trees, and denotes that which is set, the fixed part of a plant, its support; or it is a shoot.
2. The pedicle of a flower, or the peduncle that supports the fructification of a plant.
STOCK, n. [G., a stem, a staff, a stick, a block. This word coincides with stake, stick, stack; that which is set or fixed.]
1. The stem or main body of a tree or other plant; the fixed, strong, firm part; the origin and support of the branches. Job 14:7-9
I take from these definitions that there not only trees, but also plants of all types. The garden probably had a fantastic aroma about itself. I think of the lavender tree that not only has beautiful buds but the buds put out an aroma that man still use to this day for all types of fragrances, from potpourri, to perfumes and body sprays. Just use your own imagination as to beauty of the garden, and then magnify that by 1000 times and you have a sense of the magnificence of the garden.
10. Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four river-heads.
11. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
12. and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. Ex. 25:7; Num. 11:7
13. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 10:6
14. The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. 15:18; Josh. 1:4
I have been doing some research as to the location of the garden. Before I give my conclusion, let me explain what we know about the gardens location. First, there is one river mentioned that is still called by the same name today (the Euphrates) which we know starts in modern day Turkey and runs through what is now known as Iraq and ends up in the Persian Gulf. Then we have the river Hiddekel that is mentioned as going eastward of Assyria. We know that Assyria was also located in modern day Turkey as well as parts of Iraq. Another clue as to the identification of Hiddekel is found in the book of Daniel ( Dan 10:1-4). We are given a time frame as to when Daniel was at the river Hiddekel. During this time Daniel was living in modern day Iraq as a captive from the Babylonian empire. This has led Many to believe that the river Hiddekel has to be the Tigris river, as it is known today. That leaves us with two more rivers. First Gihon. This river can also be easily located because the bible says that in encompasses the whole land of Cush. History tells us that the land of Cush is modern day Ethiopia. That leaves us with the location of the river Pishon. ( Gen 25:18 and 1Sa 15:7). Most scholars agree that Havilah is what we know as the Arabian desert. The following assertion is from the UCG article titled Searching for Eden in the Middle East by peter Eddington:
The location of the Garden of Eden is generally believed to have been in the area of what is today Iraq and neighboring countries. Some Bible scholars feel it could have been near the Persian Gulf, either on the north side near Basrah or along its western coast in Kuwait or Bahrain. Others locate it in the north near Mosul, or to the northeast near Tabriz in Iran. In any case, it’s in the area of the Middle East.
Most archealogist, scholars and churches agree with this theory. However if you notice in this article and from others I have ever read, no one is for sure where the garden existed. So this is just my opinion: God Closed up the Garden to mankind because of his fallen away in the Garden. He closed it, shut it up, and placed angels at its entrance to keep man from entering into the garden. (Gen 3:24).
15. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. v. 8: 1:28
As we see from this verse the Garden of Eden was already in existence when Adam went into it.
16. And the Lord God commanded the man, Saying, “of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
17. “but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” v. 9; 3:1-7
The next two verses are very important in understanding, that when God gives a command, we should honor God by obeying Him. Just like when a father tells one of his kids not to do something. A father does this because he knows it will be harmful to them, and that it could also be harmful to other people (depending on the circumstance). As a father you only want what’s best for your children, and you do it out of love. When children disobey their father they get punished for that disobedience. Remember, God is our father and there is no difference. It wasn’t until I really gave myself 100 % to the Lord, that, as a father myself, I started to understand what God is doing, in regards to how he treats every one of us in our own lives. Once you become a father yourself, you realize that you are raising your kids in the same manner that God is raising us as his children. That is, for fathers who have spiritual upbringing themselves and living according to God’s will. There are Many places in the bible were we can find examples of consequences for disobeying God. (Deut 28:15-68), If you read all of the verse’s in parentheses, you can see what happens when a people disobey the Lord God. God warned the nation of Israel what would happen to them for their disobedience. Like any father however, when His children disobey Him, He Chastises them and gives them chances to turn back to Him and his commandments. For centuries through to His prophets, he warns them. And when the people truly repent and ask forgiveness, God who is rich in mercy forgives them and blesses them. God is very patient with people and it took 100’s of years of backsliding by the Israelite s before God said enough is enough; When that happened, God made good on his word and the curses that he said that would befall them. There are also many verses in scripture that tell us of the rewards that come from obeying God and his commandments. Compare the following: (Exo 20:5-6, Lev 26:3-12, Deu 4:40). I could go on and on with examples of what happens to a people or nations when they either obey or disobey God’s command. Many people say that the old testament was strictly for the Israelite nation, but this is not so. If you go to the new testament you can see where Jesus and the Apostles quote from the old testament frequently. Since Jesus came to earth to save all of mankind, both Jews and gentiles (non-Jewish people), God chose the Israelite nation as an example to mankind of how to follow God and his statues. Don’t get me wrong, The Israel nation are a blessed nation, and are very dear to God above all other people, but God uses them to exemplify how mankind should live. America was founded on Judeo Christian beliefs and as such was blessed tremendously for the first two hundred years. I personally believe that God blessed this nation partially because of our beliefs in Him and trying to live the way He intended all people should live. The demise of America began around the 1960’s When we took prayer out of school. June 25, 1962 to be exact, was when the Supreme court decided that prayer in schools was unconstitutional. Also during this time period There began the right to abortion issue in America. As a matter of fact in 1963, in Chicago a group calling themselves “The Abortion Counseling Service of the Chicago Women’s liberation Union: led by a group of laywomen, created an underground feminist abortion service. In the first four years of operation this group performed over 11,000 first and second trimester abortions in the United States. I got this information from a website a group called Our Bodies Ourselves, from and article written march 28, 2014, by some of their contributors. It wasn’t but ten years later that abortion became legal in the U.S. The 1960’s was also known as the sexual revolution. This led to the practice of all kinds of sexual immorality (which God Hates) including homosexuality, wife swapping, sex before marriage, and sexual promiscuity. Ever since then America has been declining. I believe this decline is solely because we have taken God out of our lives, and continue to do so even now and on a very rapid pace., But I digress. I know I kind of got off subject here, but hey! It’s what I felt from the heart, I was in the moment.
18. And the Lord God said, “it is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 1Cor. 7:1; 11:8,9
19. out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.
1.:20, 24; Ps. 8:6
Adam (H121): אדם: ‘âdâm
BDB Definition: Adam = “red”
1) first man
20. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. v. 18
21. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.
22. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man he made into a woman, and he brought her to the man. 3:12; 1 Tim. 2:13
23. And Adam said:
“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.” 3:12; 1 Cor. 11:8,9
24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Prov. 5:18, 19; 18:22; Matt. 19:5,6
25. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. 3:7-10; Lev. 18:6-19; 20:11-21
I had written down once before what I took from these verses I thought it was spot on back then. So I hope I can word this the same as before. When I get intimate with my wife, and I hold her close to my body, I feel as though I cannot get close enough to her. I feel that I want to be inside her just as Eve was once in the womb of Adam. I want us to become as one, just as Jesus and God are of one mind, body, and, Spirit. A child being born of man and woman is a representation of this oneness, because in that child is a part of both the father and mother. Now because Adam and Eve have not yet eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, sin had not yet entered the world, this is why they were not ashamed of their nakedness.