In The Beginning - Chapter 10 (The Creation of Man)

Chapter 10

What was to come was different from all that had come before.

Each of the creatures of the Earth was made after their own likenesses, each species propagating more of its own kind in a never ending succession of life.  But these creatures would not persist.  They were there for one reason and one reason only, and that was for the benefit and the pleasure of man.

Man, however, would be created in the likeness of God Himself.  He would be given aspects of God like no other creature.  Not only would man have the free will to choose whether or not he would love God, but he would also be an eternal entity.  Man would be created with an immortal soul which would be the essence of his being.  It would be attached to his body so long as his body had physical life, but a man’s soul would be a heavenly entity.

He would rule over all the Earth and subdue it and use it for his own needs and pleasure.  Although this species called man would be an animal, but he would be an animal like no other.

Jesus entered the earthly timeline at the point where all else which he had created was perfectly suited for the creation of man.  He knelt on the ground and spat on it.  Rubbing the mud between his hands, he formed the clay which would become the first man.  Using the same programming language he had used to create all other living creatures, and like the fine artisan that He is Jesus formed the body of man.

Jesus bent over the form of the man and breathed into his mouth.  With his breath he imbued man with not only with the breath of life, but also with an eternal spirit, his immortal soul.

Jesus arose and took man to a garden which he had created and called Eden.  It was beautifully covered in lush vegetation.  Rivers provided water, and fruit trees grew in abundance.

Jesus turned to the man and said, “Your name is Adam; look at all I have prepared for you.”  Adam spun slowly around looking at the awesome beauty which was created for him.  His newly created mind struggled to take it all in.  He was overwhelmed with emotion. 
The sights, the sounds, the smells and the feel of the physical Earth was magnificent.  He was overcome with the joy of life and love of his God.

“You may eat fruit of any tree in the garden,” said Jesus, “except for this one.”  He pointed at a massive tree growing in the middle of the garden.  The fruit growing on this tree was much larger and looked much more inviting than the fruit of any other tree.

“This is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” he explained.  “The day that you eat of it you will most certainly die.”

Adam understood perfectly and acknowledged his consent with a nod of his head.

Throughout creation, the higher life forms were created in two sexes dependent upon each other for the survival of the species.  Jesus wanted Adam to fully understand the specialness of the relationship of a man to his wife who was yet to be created.  The relationship of a man to his wife would be a typology of the relationship of God to all mankind. Just as a husband and wife would trust and depend on each other for the survival of their family and the species, mankind would be dependent on God.

It was important that Adam understand this and so God gave Adam the opportunity to see how special his wife would be to him.

“To you I now give dominion over the entire land,” Jesus said to him.  “I will bring to you every animal and bird and whatever you name it, that is what it will be called.  It is not good that you be alone, we will find you a helper such that your burden will be light and your joy may be full.”

One by one a representative of each species in Eden came before him.[i]  Adam considered each carefully, but after all had come before him none was on par with he himself.  None was suitable to be a helper, to be his equal in intelligence, spirit, and emotion.

With is point being made that a man was incomplete without a relationship with his wife (and that mankind was incomplete without a relationship with God),  Jesus caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep.  The creator then pulled a part of the man’s flesh from him and along with it a part of his soul.  The essence of man was ripped in half.  The part of him which was violent and strong – his masculine side - was left behind.  The weaker part which was more nurturing and peace loving – the feminine side- was used to form the woman.  The two of them working together would accomplish the goals that neither could accomplish separately.  Some of the masculine was given to the woman and some of the feminine was left with the man, in this way each individual could be self-sufficient, not having to depend on the other for life, but together they would accomplish much more than either could alone.

By grand design and the knowledge of what was to come, Jesus created man and woman as a typology of his relationship with mankind.  The man would protect and die for the woman as Jesus would protect and die for his people.  The woman would follow and support the man as Jesus’ people would follow and support Him.  Man and woman would bind together to reunite the soul into one flesh just as Jesus’ people, who would be separated from him in the earthly realm, would one day be reunited with him in Heaven.  The love of a man for the woman would only be surpassed by Jesus’ love for his people.  Thus, the bond between the man and the woman became the fundamental bond that would hold all society together.

Together Adam and Eve tended the garden.  They lived in perfect harmony with each other and with Nature.  Their constant diet from the Tree of Life regenerated their human bodies and they remained ageless and in perfect health.  They communed with and worshiped God, not because they had to, but because they chose to, and their joy was complete.

From Heaven the triune God gazed upon his creation.  He observed the history of the universe from beginning to end.  He watched Adam and Eve in the garden experiencing perfect joy as it was designed to be.

He saw how man struggled with God over himself.  He saw the results of his handiwork as millennia after millennia passed and man struggled with the choice of loving Him or only himself.

As man chose to love God he was rewarded with peace, love, and joy.  With no negative influence in the world, nature thrived and man excelled in all of his endeavors.

With this, creation was complete.  In six eras He had created the entire universe and everything in it.  The living and ever changing book of the history of the Earth was written and his perfect plan was set into motion.

He experienced the love of the entirety of the universe, every particle of which He held together with his limitless power.  All at once he was aware of the temperature of the air moving out of the mouth of a rabbit in North America and the temperature of a drop of water dripping from the mouth of a Hippo on the African Savanah.  He was aware of them because it was his might that kept the particles which formed them from flying apart into nothingness.

He knew the exact number of scales on a fish swimming down the Amazon River and he knew the number and lengths of hairs on every human’s head which ever existed in the earthly realm over the entirety of his life.

To the God who created everything which existed in all of its amazing complexity, knowledge such as this was mere trivia.  He also knew that everything was about to change.

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[i] Since God’s creative work was completed on the sixth day and Adam and Eve were His final creation, there would have been millions of different species on the planet to be named.  Even if we exclude all the fish of the sea, insects, and species which would have been too small for Adam to see there still would be far too many for Adam to have named in a single day.  According to Keil & Delitzsch (Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament) “there is no difficulty in this, since it would not have required much time to bring the animals to Adam to see what he would call them, as the animals of paradise are all we have to think of”.  Likewise, Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown state “not all the animals in existence, but those chiefly in his immediate neighborhood to be subservient to his use”.  Nothing in the original text requires that a representative of every single species on Earth was paraded before Adam.  The text literally says: “And Jehovah God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the heavens out of the ground.  And He brought them to the man, to see what he would call it.  And all which the man might call it, each living creature, that was its name.  And the man called names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the heavens, and to every animal of the field.  But no helper suited to him was found for a man.” (Genesis 2:19-20).  Nowhere in the text does it specify that the animals and birds came from around the entire Earth.