Genesis 2: 5-9…..The story repeated.

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.

Comment: I have to be honest that without taking sides in any discussion this sounds less like a 24 hour seven day creation. It does nothing to deny the Creator and follows the same order of things appearing but to my reading it seems a bit more ‘stretched out’ time wise. If the writing is strictly chronological then the garden in Eden wasn’t prepared before man was made. He was then placed in it to care for it. We saw before that the man was given a position in charge of the creation but he had to get dirt under his finger nails and care for it. Without it being explained more fully we again have the statement about God breathing into the man’s nostril the breath of life. His body was made out of dust and we know that after death we go back to gradually being a heap of dust. But his true life, that made him different from the rest of creation, God breathed into him. And in that beautiful place with many trees and plants we hear, not of an apple tree, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. What sort of tree is that?

Prayer: Please open the eyes of my understanding to see what You want me to see here.