Genesis 2:4-7

Good morning, everyone!

I have heard this before, and Jon Courson says it also about chapter two: while chapter one is the wide-angle view story of Creation - the story told to give the big picture - in chapter 2 the zoom lens gets down to specifically deal with the creation of man. In verses 5 and 6 we get a description of the "greenhouse" atmosphere of the earth before rain: "...for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to till the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground... " Courson says, "The LORD evidently had a built-in sprinkler system on automatic timer which kept everything watered."

Verse 7 says, "... the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." As one who teaches the fifth grade science unit on matter, I'm always amazed that EVERYTHING in the universe comes from about 100 natural elements. We are all made up of the same stuff basically. What accounts for the differences? The way the "stuff" is put together. I looked up the facts online, and man is made up of 60 chemical elements. We are about 65% oxygen, 18% carbon, 10% hydrogen, 3% nitrogen, 1.5% calcium, 1% phosphorus, then just tiny traces of the others. Further, the average adult contains 6.7 x 10 to the 27th power atoms! Now, man was fashioned out of ordinary "stuff," but the LORD breathed spirit into man and brought him to life as a triune being of body, soul, and spirit. Science can attempt to form a man with this stuff, but only God can breathe life into us, because our spiritual being is straight from the breath of God. It cannot be broken down into elements!

Why does the creation of man matter? If we are all just accidental mixtures of the random collision of atoms, if we truly are just glorified apes, then we have no special place on earth or with God. But the Bible is very clear that our great Designer, our Creator God, our Father had a plan! He knew exactly what He wanted and He built it "from the ground up" to have a special place on earth and a special relationship with Him. This Bible we study is the story of His dealings with us from the beginning of time to the very end. It is the TRUTH about God and the TRUTH about us. It is worthy of our time in study!

Thanks for doing this with me!