Our pastor has started a new series for the Advent season on the first few chapters of Genesis. Last week he compared the first chapter in Genesis to the first chapter in John. (Which, alas, I didn't take notes and I don't remember the finer points of his sermon. For those interested, you can listen to it here. Incidently, his sermon last week coincided with the Jesse Tree passage of the day--Creation.)

This Sunday we had a guest speaker who continued the series and expanded from last week. This week's passage was Genesis 2:4-9.

4 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.

5 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, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 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. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 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.

The pastor discussed how when God created the heavens and the earth, He created by Himself. Man can only respond to the creation God has made, and was created to be completely dependent on God. He gave Adam the breath of life, a garden to live in, food to eat, and an earth to tend. When God created the tree of knowledge of good and evil he instructed Adam to not eat of it, since man should turn to God alone for his needs. The pastor likened God's instructions to driving eastbound in a westbound lane of Interstate 10--God gave the command for our own safety and protection, since the result of the offense would be death. Adam, of course, utterly rebelled against God's grace and care and now would experience death. God in His continuous grace gave Christ in the Incarnation in order to redeem us, His chosen people.