Adam and Eve

God's People: Adam and Eve

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!  I took some time during the past week to visit my aunt, who had been in the hospital until later in the week, and to think about what to do next with my daily devotional.  I think my time with the ELCA readings are spent for now.

So, I have come up with something new.  Let's take a look at God's people in Scripture.  Who they are, how they play a part further God's story, and what if anything we can learn from them.

First, since they were first, Adam and Eve.

Genesis 2:7-8 &15-24 (NRSV)

 7 then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed.9 Out of the ground the Lord God made 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 the knowledge of good and evil.

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” 19 So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,
    for out of Man this one was taken.”

24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

Adam's name literally means "dust from the ground."  He is, as I've heard other's call him, "Dustman" or "Dirtman."   But it isn't so much a name here, as it is a description of his creation - of his genesis.

The woman will not get a name until the next chapter.  Until after the fall. (We seem to know more about the fall then we do about life before the fall, don't we)?  

I have always seen this section of Genesis as somewhat comedic.  And it's important to note that it is a second view of the creation story.  Here God makes Adam before the animals, and then parades them in front of him to see if any would be good helpers or partners for him.

And the man names then.  Names them, perhaps, because they aren't indeed proper partners for him.  Instead, they are creatures for the man to watch over as part of his stewardship of creation.

But the woman - created from the man is part of the man.  And so, here, in this perfect creation, equal to the man.  He does not name her.  Instead, she is his partner and together they are one.

It is only after the fall that this all falls apart (pun intended).  After the fall is not God's intended view for creation.  After the fall is humankind asserting their own will.  Their own way.  God's grace protects them, but death and sin and disobedience have come into the world and are not God's will for the world.

It is only then that Adam names his wife.  With the advent of sin, the rules have changed. God's holistic creation has been turned upside down.  

The trajectory from here on out in the Bible will always be about God's continued desire to return the creation back to the hope of its promise.  It will be about God building relationship with his people in attempts to bring creation back to its intended place as a blessing.  The arc of God's relationships with the people in scripture will build and fall apart and grow and change and lead ultimately to God doing something new and bold and permanent and fixed in the person of Jesus.

So, I will spend some time with some of them that have stood out to me over the years as we move through the books in the Bible.

Gracious God, help us to remember that we are fragile.  We are dust.  We often trust too much our own strength and ignore the breath of life that you have implanted in us.  Bring us ever closer to you so that we may be partners of your continual blessing of creation.  Amen.