Genesis 2:5–14

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—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. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. 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.

God could have created man by snapping His fingers, or by speaking, or any other way He desired.

But He formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. Why?

Note that there are two facts here. God chose to create man from the dust of the ground, and He chose to tell us about it. He wants us to know we are created from dust.

The point is that we’re made of the same stuff that everything else is made of. Like so many things in the Bible, this is to humble us. God doesn’t want the “created in God’s image” thing to go to our heads. Our egos are big enough already.

Imagine how much worse they’d be without this check.

Pay close attention to the last sentence of the first paragraph in today’s passage.

The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

These two trees will play a major role later. Each one does what its name implies. The tree of life gives life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil gives knowledge of good and evil.

The thing to note now is that the text mentions these trees because they are important.

They are not there for no purpose.

One is for eating from, and one isn’t. These roles will be critical.

To forward this devotional, see the link in green below.

These weekday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. Saturdays' by Matt Richardson. Subscribe here: https://www.ailbe.org/resources/community

The weekly study guides, which include questions for discussion or meditation, are here: https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies

Scripture taken from the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.