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The narrative of Gen 2:4–24 reiterates the sixth day of creation from a more intimate perspective. It describes the Lord’s provision for and relationship with those created in his image (Gen 1:26–30).

After forming Adam from the ground and breathing a living soul into him, God placed him into a well-watered, luxuriant garden to perform the priestly function of serving, working, cultivating, and keeping it.

This beautiful park was full of trees which produced wonderful food, including the tree of life which stood at its center. The Lord gave Adam freedom to eat from any of these (Gen 2:8–15).

However, there was one prohibition. “The Lord God laid charge upon the man, saying, ‘From all of the trees of the garden you are able to eat, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, because in the day you eat it, you shall surely die’” (Gen 2:16–17).

Adam was to acquire wisdom through his relationship with the Lord, rather than seeking it on his own.

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Recognizing that it was not good for Adam to be alone, God paraded the animals he had created before him.

While exercising the authority of an image-bearer of God by naming each animal,[1] Adam reached a devastating conclusion. Every animal had its mate, but an equal and adequate partner did not exist for him (Gen 2:18–20).

Now that God had awakened Adam’s longing, the Lord placed him into a very deep, supernatural sleep.

God took raw material, not from the ground, but from Adam’s side to fashion the first woman. Upon awakening, the man recognized his true counterpart and enthusiastically uttered a covenant of unalterable loyalty:

This, this time,

[is] bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh.

This shall be called woman,

for from man was taken this![2]

In harmonious intimacy, the two became one flesh; they were naked but knew no shame (Gen 2:21–25).

Image via Wikimedia Commons

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Go to Serpents in the Ancient Near East (Gen 3:1)

[Related posts include What Became of the Heavens and the Earth (Gen 2:4–6); The Lord Breathes Life (Gen 2:7); A Well-Watered Garden (Gen 2:8–14); Serving and Keeping (Gen 2:15); Forbidden Fruit (Gen 2:16–17); Not Good! (Gen 2:18); A Parade of Animals (Gen 2:19–20); An Equal and Adequate Partner (Gen 2:21–23); A Transfer of Loyalty (Gen 2:24); Naked and Not Ashamed (Gen 2:25); Marital Separation (1 Cor 7:10–11); Concerning Mixed Marriages (1 Cor 7:12–13); Contagious Holiness (1 Cor 7:14); Dissolution of Marriage (1 Cor 7:15–16); and The Holy Mountain of God (Rev 21:18–22:3)]

[Click here to go to Marriage throughout Redemptive History; or to Chapter 6: A Serpent in the Garden (Genesis 3:1–13)]

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[1]Kline, Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview, 75.

[2] Translation by G. Wenham; see Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 69–70.