Formed and Breathed: Genesis 2

 Formed and Breathed: Genesis Chapter 2

Welcome readers to The Daily Manna! Here we read God's word as our daily manna. Allowing it to nourish and transform us into the image of Christ. 

Today's topic is the very first book of the Torah and the old testament: Genesis. Chapter 2. Genesis was written by Moses along with the first other 4 books of the Bible. This book is the story of our creation and beginning. 

Last time we saw how God created everything in the first 6 days from how the earth was formed to the living beings; now today we’ll look closer at how He formed mankind and gave purpose to His creation. I do want to remind you that these posts are meant to be a helping companion not a substitute for reading your Bible. This works best if you read the section before reading any further. 

Summary of Genesis 2

The seventh day of rest was emphasized and blessed as a Holy day.

The creation of man (Adam) from dust and the breath of life. 

The Garden of Eden: perfection, beauty, and provision.

The creation of woman (Eve) — God’s design for companionship.

God’s command and boundary: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Key Themes and Meaning

Intimacy with God

He didn’t just speak man into existence; He formed and breathed life into him. The dust of the ground often symbolizes Humility in scripture and God's own breath symbolizes the Holy Spirit. 

I also want to point out in this chapter is the first place we see “Lord God” mentioned. This actually is two words that come together which is “Elohim” and “Yahweh” which are the Hebrew names for God. “Elohim” means creator and “Yahweh” which is God's personal covenant making name. We will get into that in the section of relationship. 

Purpose

 Humanity was placed in the garden “to work it and take care of it.” This is seen in verse 15. He was given dominion which we learned in chapter 1 last time. He was set over all to take care of or to serve all that God had made. This is important to note that we were made to serve not to be served. An example of this is in the new testament when Jesus said he came to serve not to be served.

This was the original way God intended the world to be. We were to serve and take care of what God had given us and walk closely with God In relationship with him, which brings up our next point. 

Relationship 

 In verse 18 we see that God said “it is not good for man to be alone, we will make him a helper” there are two points here to make.

The first is that the helper is not subservient or beneath. The word used for helper is “‘Ezer” in Hebrew, This is a strong term which means to nourish or sustain. It is a term used for God himself throughout the Old Testament.

We also see after God had formed all the wild animals out of the ground he brought them all to Adam to see what he would name them but still realized Adam didn't have a suitable helper. This is when he put Adam in a deep sleep and took from his side and then made a woman out of his side. 

From here we see God's plan of marriage. 

Notice how in verse 23 Adam says “this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called “woman” because she was taken out of man.”. This is when we see the first form of a covenant relationship. We see this in verse 24 “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh”.

This is also a mirror to how our relationship with God should be. Marriage is a picture of the union of Christ and his bride the church. We can see this in Ephesians 5:23 -27. 

Freedom and obedience

 God gives boundaries for our good, not restriction. To go back a little bit we see that in verse 16-17 that God says “you are free to eat from any tree in the garden but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” This was God's first commandment to Adam and also to Eve. 

Now a lot of people say if he didn't want man to fall, why did he even put the tree there to begin with? To that I answer If the tree had never been there man never would have had free will to make the choice. We have the choice to obey or to not obey. That's the gift of free will. If we didn't have free will we wouldn't have the choice to love and obey God. However not obeying does have consequences as we will see later on with the study. 

Reflection for Today

Are we cultivating what God has given us (home, family, gifts, faith)?

Do we seek intimacy with God or just knowledge about Him?

How do we honor God’s design for relationship and obedience?

Closing

As we close today’s reading, let us remember that we are not just formed from dust, we are breathed into by the very Spirit of God. We were made for intimacy with Him, to walk in His presence, to serve with purpose, and to live in the freedom of obedience. May we return to that garden posture daily, letting His breath fill us anew as we tend to what He’s placed in our care.

Lord, thank You for forming us with purpose. Breathe Your life into us today, that we might walk in the garden of Your presence and care for what You’ve entrusted to us.