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Genesis 2:4–14 — The Garden and the Rivers · A Tithe of Time Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to a tithe of time, verse by verse.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Today we begin reading from the ESV, Genesis 2, 4-14, the Garden and the Rivers.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land, and was watering the whole face of the ground.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: The name of the first is the Pishon, it is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the gold of that land is good, Bedelium and Onyx stone are there.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: The name of the second river is the Gihon.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush, and the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria, and the fourth river is the Euphrates.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's look closer.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Genesis 2 does not restart creation from the beginning.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: It zooms in on the human part of the story and gives us details that Genesis 1 did not.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: The passage says there was no man to work the ground, and then describes exactly how the man was formed.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: God forms him from dust from the ground and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: The man does not become a living creature until God gives him that breath.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: There is a word connection here that is easy to miss.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: The man is formed from the ground, and throughout this chapter, his relationship to the ground becomes important.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Humanity is not pictured as detached from creation.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: The man is physically formed from the earth, he will later be given responsibility to work.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Then God plants a garden in Eden and places the man there.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Notice the order.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: God prepares the place, provides what is needed, and then puts the man within it.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: The trees are described as both pleasant to the sight and good for food.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: The garden is not only functional, it is also beautiful.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Two trees receive special attention, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: The passage does not yet explain everything about them.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: It simply places both in the garden.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Keep this in mind, it matters later.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then Genesis gives unusually specific geographic details about the river flowing from Eden and dividing into four rivers.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Two of those names, the Tigris and Euphrates, are familiar from later geography, while the locations of the Pishon and Gihon are much less certain today.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: One line says, And the gold of that land is good, bedelium and onyx stone are there.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Bedelium is usually understood to be a fragrant resin that came from a tree, although its exact identification is uncertain.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: This passage gives us a much closer picture of humanity's beginning.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: The man is formed by God, given life by God, placed in a garden prepared by God, and surrounded by provision before any command concerning the garden is given.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: This concludes Genesis 2 4 14.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Next, we'll continue with Genesis 2 15 25.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, tithe your time.