Day 7 – Rest
Why rest? Is God tired already? Perhaps all that creating took more out of him than we realized? Maybe he’s just not as efficient of a creator as we thought. Maybe he needs regular recharging, or lunch breaks. Coffee break, maybe?
Or not. But then, why rest?
Because he was finished. I have a little footnote in my Bible that points out that “rested,” could also be read “ceased.” He ceased creating because everything he had planned to create had been created. He was done. So he ceased working, he rested. Maybe he even sat back and gave it an approving “tetelestai.” It is finished. Complete. Perfect.
Now we come to the first real transition between passages. Genesis 2:4 begins a new account of creation, with a completely new focus: man. Also, we get our first mention of who this creator God actually is. You might notice the name LORD. This is a very specific title. It is literally his personal name. Yahweh. Jehovah. I am who I am. He’s not just some eternal space god anymore, now he’s personal. And he is completely wrapped up in this unique creation of man.
At this point, there’s no rain. Why not? I don’t know. But if we think back to the idea of that ‘water above’ as some sort of atmosphere, it seems possible that such a shield could block the sun enough so as to prevent evaporation as we think of it, thus preventing clouds, and rain. Still, it’s just a random idea…
No rain? No problem. Eden gets along just fine without it. The garden is pretty, tasty, and basically perfect. A river flows from this magical place, and splits to give life to all the surrounding areas. And in all this perfection, there are only two trees that are really special, or different. The tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, I find this next part very interesting, because God gives a very specific decree not to eat from one of these trees.
Yep, that’s right. He only says anything about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As far as I can tell, the tree of life was included with all the other trees that were approved for eating. If you didn’t catch that: the tree of life was never off-limits. Now, this begs the question: why wouldn’t Adam have eaten of this tree? I mean, I’m sure there were a lot of choices of other trees to eat from, but something about “tree of life” just has a nice ring to it, wouldn’t you say? This brings me to an interesting idea. What if he did eat from it? Nothing was stopping him, why wouldn’t he? Now, I’ve always envisioned and/or been taught that this tree was an “eat and gain eternal life” sort of deal, but what if that wasn’t really the case? What if it was simply something that could sustain you forever, if you had access and regularly ate? In Revelation, the tree of life is mentioned in a vision of heaven, in which it bears twelve different fruits, and yields fruit every month. To me, this seems to imply that the fruit would be eaten more than once, more as an ongoing thing. Adam eating of the tree of life before the fall, then, wouldn’t have granted him “immunity” to sin. He would have to remain at the tree afterwards, continuing to eat of the fruit, to truly have eternal life. Spoiler: God doesn’t let him do that. Anyways, what is clear is that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is NOT to be eaten from.
Now comes the fun part, when Adam gets to name everything. This act completely sets him up as the head of all creation, and shows that he is in charge of every living thing. However, no animal is found to be a suitable helper. Not even a monkey. So, to fix the situation, God creates woman. Created from Adam, a part of him is extended and re-created into something new. Then together they become one. And while the wedding isn’t really mentioned, the dress was definitely scandalous. In that it was missing.
No sin, no shame.
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