Genesis 2 moves on to present the arrival of humankind. And what it gives us is extremely important; it describes humanity, our identity and concerns, `as we were meant to be’, before everything went wrong.
Here God presents the first truly human being; and this is before the Fall, so what we’re seeing here is humans being as God intended them to be. What do they do? what do they care about? what has God made them for? What we have here is a confident, attractive vision of at least 11 further aspects of what it means to be truly human – a confidence we badly need amid all the depersonalizing forces of our world. Human beings, we can read, are:
… built for enjoyment! God is not miserable – He’s the most joyful being in the universe, and joy is what he’s made US for! When we’re enjoying what’s `pleasing` as it says in 2:9 – a landscape, a work of art, a skilled craftsman making something beautiful, a good Youtube video – our enjoyment is not something unrelated to God, it’s His planned gift! (And we should say thank You!)
… marked by an aesthetic sense ‑ enjoying what is ‘pleasing to the eye’ or `good for food’ (2:9). So again, the love of artistic beauty, or good food at Chinese new year!, isn’t just an accidental by-product of the evolutionary process; it correlates to something deeply human. (And likewise to something in the nature of God, who also is an Artist who creates, sees and enjoys what is `good’ (1:4).).
… something of an explorer, and an adventurer. (Look at the interests expressed in 2:10‑14.) Don’t we feel something deeply human as we read of folk exploring the depths of the Pacific, or planning to get to Mars? (Or with missionaries venturing across frontiers where the gospel has seldom been taken before – often among the most exciting and human people I know?)
… a being capable of making use of the earth’s (or rather, God’s) wealth for artistic and practical purposes (2:12). Some of us do that every day at work. It’s something God made us for!
… a worker (2:15). The way God made us, work is not merely an unfortunate necessity, a means only to the acquisition of food and material goods (which is how both capitalism and marxism tend to see it). God chooses to have coworkers, and we’re built to be fulfilled in purposeful, constructive activity in a place where we belong; this again is intrinsically bound up with being human, even if its nature has been changed by the problems created by the Fall. That’s why unemployment is such an important issue, and can be such a real challenge to go through with God, where we do need each other’s support. (We can be sure there are some fruitful things God still has for us to do while we’re unemployed, but the fact is it’s like not being able to walk too far.) If you’ve got work this time tomorrow, thank God for it: it’s something very basic to us!
…in real relationship with God, where they genuinely know what God wants. God is not silent or hidden from them (2:16). Having God’s Word is central to being human!
…marked by genuine and responsible freedom; these first human beings both know the commands of God, and have an ability to obey or ignore them (2:16‑17). This is very basic to being human – in fact it decides our eternity. God is Sovereign but He gives us freedom. (And sometimes, like here, because freedom is so basic to being human, God gives a command and it’s not immediately obvious why; and He does this sometimes – even to us? – because then in our freedom we can choose whether to express obedient love for Him or not; we can choose to keep our hands off the fruit just because that’s what He commands, and we’re obeying Him.)
…a scientist! (2:19) ‑ called to discern and define the nature of each member of the animal creation. Microbiologists and others are doing it still! This too is part of being human, and we should be proud of it, worship God for it; it’s part of what God has given.
…an artist with words (2:19‑20 again) ‑ capable of taking language and using it to create something new, that will give expression to what is present in God’s created reality. Again if that’s you and your secret vice is writing, it’s from God, enjoy it WITH him, it’s basic to being human!
a poet, who bursts out in exuberant song as he sees Eve for the first time (2:23). The first recorded human utterance is a love song – Hoo-whee! Alright! This one at last…!
…and in the climax, built for friendship and companionship ‑ and a lover, a sexual being (2:18, 22‑24) (see PS).
What a list! These are things basic to being human as God intended. It’s good to be human! And that needs saying in our century. Thank you Lord! Sometimes people talk as if it were better if the human race had never existed. But look at this: God knew what he was doing – if we’re in real partnership with God, it’s great to be human. Here are things worth living for – things we were made for. And when our hearts respond to the skilled craftsman, the Arctic explorer, the brilliant guitarist, the creative developer of natural resources, the campaigner for the environment, the loving parent, the innovative scientist, the imaginative novelist, the good cook or the exuberant lover ‑ when we sense joy at seeing the glory of the human being expressed in these ways, we aren’t just being sentimental; we’re seeing the glory of what God made humankind to be, expressed in things we were made for. Our gut reaction is an accurate perception of truth: of what it is to be authentically human as God created us. Indeed, doing these various things before God and for His glory (giving thanks for our work, for good food, for a good TV comedy, for travel, for friendship), is an aspect of 24/7 worship (cf Col 3:17); it is being what God has put us on this earth to be. The biblical vision isn’t shrunken and shrivelled, rather it takes in every part of life; `every thing God created is good’ (1 Tim 4:4), a gift we receive thankfully as from His hand. And the more we grasp this, deep down, the more our entire life becomes a unified act of lived-out worship before Him.
But: there is a danger we need to be aware of, of idolatry: we can try to centre life on any one of these gifts, rather than on God himself. We can try to live by enjoyment, or adventure. We can live by today’s equivalent of gold-digging. We can try to live for work, or science, or art, or sex, or for try to live for marriage. (Which is the most likely danger for me?)
What happens if we do? The Bible makes clear that if we take any one of these & make it an idol, there will be two results. First, we’ll end up ruining it; because turning it (work, gold-digging, marriage…) into an obsessive idol at our life’s centre, something God never designed it for, will distort it, and we won’t get what we hoped; we’ll probably lose the free joy it should have given us. (Think about it…) And secondly, we ourselves will be reduced, shrunken, by our idolatry; because we grow like, shrink to the size of, what we worship (live for); and God made us for something so much bigger than anything we can idolize. God made us for Himself; and only He is big enough to live for, to fill the God-space in our lives. He made us for all these things; but only living close by faith to Him can we get each one into its glorious, right place and balance.
But: if we can bring these things into place as God intended, what a rich thing it is to be human! And how much there is (not just mealtimes, but sport, good comedy, the arts, time with friends…) to thank God for as we head into them! And when the Bible talks about worship, it includes us living in these things, to God’s glory, where life is unified, 24/7, as a succession of His good gifts to which we consciously respond in offerings of praise. Life in God’s presence isn’t something shrivelled & shrunken; everything that’s genuinely good fits together as gifts from God; and we can and must receive them as from His hand, and respond thankfully to His goodness. Let’s make it our aim this week to give thanks & worship much more often — for good food, & for sport, & for our jobs, & for our friendships; and perhaps right now look at that list and maybe pick one we’ve never before seen so clearly was the gift of God, and thank Him for it!!
PS – or three PSs – on vv18-26: It’s worth noting that here love, marriage and sex are firstly about companionship, not just for child-bearing. It’s failure to grasp this that has led parts of Christendom to ban contraception. But the point here is togetherness and partnership; children are not mentioned here at all; nor is Eve just a child-bearer!
Second, something much more speculative: vv18-20 are odd. It might seem rather obvious that when God brought the hippo or gorilla to Adam they could not serve as a `suitable` mate for him! But I wonder if this makes sense if there were other humanoid creatures around, but without the spirit that God had breathed into Adam; and Adam looks into the eyes of this creature, and there’s a vital spark that just isn’t there. And this happens to some of us as Christians: we meet a potential partner, good-looking, caring and interesting; but when we look into their eyes, they don’t know God, and there’s a spark that’s just not there. And we know this would be an `unequal yoke` (2 Cor 6); it lacks a shared foundation, it can’t be God’s calling, because nothing but a partner who shares that spark of eternal life in God will do.
Finally, it’s worth noting God’s essential order in v24: leave your parents; be united in complete and unambiguous commitment to your spouse; only then become `one flesh’ (which Paul explains is sexual in meaning, 1 Cor 6:16). God’s order here is vital. First, unless there is a genuine leaving of the parents first, trouble will come. And equally we see why premarital sex is a dumb thing to do: the total physical openness and oneness of sex becomes something very different if it isn’t built upon the preceding total, permanent mutual commitment of marriage. Statistics show the huge difference in domestic violence and unfaithfulness between people living together and people who are married. We need to do things God’s way if we want relationships that last and stay healthy longterm.
