Genesis 2:8-25 - “8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

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15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Introduction

According to Genesis 2:4-7, Adam was created from the dust of the ground. When you consider that, scientifically speaking, God started with molten lava (perhaps the ultimate source of dust), there forms a rather striking parallel between God's creation of adam from dust, and the theory of Evolution for how that was done. Mankind utlimately evolved from dust. God allowed it. Adam was born.

8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.

Adam was Born

The Biblical implication is that Adam was born. He grew up. He was now a man, created in God's image. He was capable of believing God, though He had never met God. He was capable of obeying God, though God had never compelled Him to do anything. He knew all about agriculture, having been born in the agricultural age. He knew about shame, and may have worn skins to hide his otherwise naked body. He was fully mature. He was not alone, but he had no wife. He was like every other man who did not know God. Until that moment, no one did. But God chose Adam, made a garden in Eden, and put Adam there to care for it.

9 The LORD God made all kinds of

trees grow out of the ground—

trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.

In the middle of the garden were the tree of life

and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The Garden

God had prepared a garden for Adam. Of all of the fruit trees God allowed to evolve on Creation Day 3, He took the most pleasing ones and grew them in Eden. Did He just command them to grow? Did Jesus manifest Himself physically and plant the seeds Himself? The scripture is not specific. But where God mere allowed seeded fruit trees to evolve in Genesis 1, here God made them grow... a different thing entirely.

In Genesis 1:27-31, God had given mankind a blessing, which included all of the fruit trees in the world to eat. Here, God grew new trees which did not exist at the time, and provided them specifically for Adam. This included two additional trees: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Neither of these trees existed at the time of God's blessing to mankind, but they existed here and now.

The First Righteous Man

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;

17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Being in God's image, Adam was capable of believing God's command to care for the garden and refrain from eating of the Tree of Knowledge, and God surely accounted it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6, Romans 3:22). As Adam obeyed, so would that righteousness manifest in real fruit (Deuteronomy 6:25, James 2:18, Matthew 7:16-20). But, as Adam would eventually learn (Genesis 3), remaining obedient is harder than it looks; and his eventual disobedience would have grave consequences.

Conclusion

Adam's work was hard but rewarding. We know it was hard, because God would seek a helper for Adam in verses 18-25. We know it was rewarding, because tilling the land after the Fall would begin a cursed life that only Jesus could redeem. Adam's life in the Garden of Eden, by contrast, was blessed, as is the life of any man who works hard in obedience to His God and sees the fruits of his labor.

Adam was not the only man in the world, for God had blessed mankind to subdue it, and they had. However, Adam was unique among men, having been chosen by God for a special purpose. It was the same choice God would make again and again, in a legacy of blessing shared by the likes of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and King David. Adam may not have been the first man. But, he was the first righteous man, and the first chosen man in the earthly line that would lead to Jesus Christ.