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| Chapter Overview:
This chapter is an appendix to the history of the creation, explaining, and enlarging on that part of it, which relates immediately to man. We have in it,
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[1] Thus the heavens and
the earth were finished, and all the host of them. [2] And on the
seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the
seventh day from all his work which he had made. [3] And God blessed
the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from
all his work which God created and made.
(1.) The settlement of the kingdom of nature, in God's
resting from the work of creation, Genesis 2:1,2.Where observe,
2. That the heavens and the earth are finished pieces, and so are all the creatures in them. So perfect is God's work that nothing can be added to it or taken from it, Ecclesiastes 3:14. 3. That after the end of the first six days, God ceased from all work of creation. He hath so ended his work, as that though in his providence he worketh hitherto, 5:17.preserving and governing all the creatures, yet he doth not make any new species of creatures. 4. That the eternal God, tho' infinitely happy in himself, yet took a satisfaction in the work of his own hands. He did not rest as one weary, but as one well - pleased with the instances of his own goodness. (2.) The commencement of the kingdom of grace, in the sanctification of the sabbath day, Genesis 2:3. He rested on that day, and took a complacency in his creatures, and then sanctified it, and appointed us on that day to rest and take a complacency in the Creator; and his rest is in the fourth commandment made a reason for ours after six days labour. Observe,
2. That sabbaths are as ancient as the world. 3. That the sabbath of the Lord is truly honourable, and we have reason to honour it; honour it for the sake of its antiquity, its great author, and the sanctification of the first sabbath by the holy God himself, and in obedience to him, by our first parents in innocency.
1. Here is a name given to the Creator, which we have
not yet met with, Jehovah. The LORD in capital letters, is constantly used
in our English translation, for Jehovah. This is that great and incommunicable
name of God, which speaks his having his being of himself, and his giving
being to all things. It properly means, He that was, and that is, and that
is to come.
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[8] And the LORD God planted
a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
[9] And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that
is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the
midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. [10]
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was
parted, and became into four heads. [11] The name of the first is
Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there
is gold; [12] And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium
and the onyx stone. [13] And the name of the second river is Gihon:
the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. [14]
And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward
the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. [15] And
the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress
it and to keep it.
1. A description of the garden of Eden, which was intended for the palace of this prince. The inspired penman in this history writing for the Jews first, and calculating his narratives from the infant state of the church, describes things by their outward sensible appearances, and leaves us, by farther discoveries of the divine light, to be led into the understanding of the mysteries couched under them. Therefore he doth not so much insist upon the happiness of Adam's mind, as upon that of his outward estate. The Mosaic history, as well as the Mosaic law, has rather the patterns of heavenly things, than the heavenly things themselves, Hebrews 9:23.Observe, (1.) The place appointed for Adam's residence was a garden; not an ivory house. As clothes came in with sin, so did houses. The heaven was the roof of Adam's house, and never was any roof so curiously cieled and painted: the earth was his floor, and never was any floor so richly inlaid: the shadow of the trees was his retirement, and never were any rooms so finely hung: Solomon's in all their glory were not arrayed like them. (2.) The contrivance and furniture of this garden was the immediate work of God's wisdom and power. The Lord God planted this garden, that is, he had planted it, upon the third day when the fruits of the earth were made. We may well suppose it to be the most accomplished place that ever the sun saw, when the All - sufficient God himself designed it to be the present happiness of his beloved creature. (3.) The situation of this garden was extremely sweet; it was in Eden, which signifies delight and pleasure. The place is here particularly pointed out by such marks and bounds as were sufficient when Moses wrote, to specify the place to those who knew that country; but now it seems the curious cannot satisfy themselves concerning it. Let it be our care to make sure a place in the heavenly paradise, and then we need not perplex ourselves with a search after the place of the earthly paradise. (4.) The trees wherewith this garden was planted.
[2.] It had two extraordinary trees peculiar to itself, on earth there were not their like.
2. There was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - So called, not because it had any virtue to beget useful knowledge, but because there was an express revelation of the will of God concerning this tree, so that by it he might know good and evil. What is good? It is good not to eat of this tree: what is evil? To eat of this tree. The distinction between all other moral good and evil was written in the heart of man; but this, which resulted from a positive law, was written upon this tree. And in the event it proved to give Adam an experimental knowledge of good by the loss of it, and of evil by the sense of it. (5.) The rivers wherewith this garden was watered, Genesis 2:10- 14. These four rivers, (or one river branched into four streams) contributed much both to the pleasantness and the fruitfulness of this garden. Hiddekel and Euphrates are rivers of Babylon. Havilah had gold and spices and precious stones; but Eden had that which was infinitely better, the tree of life, and communion with God. 2. The command which God gave to man in innocency, and the covenant he than took him into. Hither we have seen God; man's powerful Creator, and his bountiful benefactor; now he appears as his ruler and lawgiver.
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[18] And the LORD God said,
It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet
for him. [19] And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast
of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to
see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature,
that was the name thereof. [20] And Adam gave names to all cattle,
and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam
there was not found an help meet for him.
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