Genesis 2:4-7 - Second time around...

This second account of the creation of the world is not a contradiction to the account found in Genesis 1; it is a closer look at the details. If you're musical like me then the explanation in my Bible reading notes (Explore) will help:

Genesis 1 could be described as an overture, which Genesis 2 is like individual musical 'movements'.

In this account of creation the focus has shifted onto the man's world - that bit for which he will be responsible. Creation is waiting:

Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground... (Genesis 2:5)

Waiting for man... Who is now created from the dust; but not just dust... God breathed life into him.

Heavenly Father, thank you that I am fearfully and wonderfully made by you.

Genesis 2:1-3 - Take a break!

After six days of creating God takes a break:

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested [ceased from action] from all his work.

We think 'a day of rest' is to help us recover from the week we've just had and preparing us for the week to come; people enjoy counting down to the weekend and are happy once they've got past Humpday (aka Wednesday)! But God rested, not to recover from his work, but to enjoy the results of his creation. God blesses the seventh day and makes it holy. 

But 'rest' is more than just ceasing from action; after the Fall (Genesis 3) 'rest' becomes an expression of the hope of salvation (entry into the promised land for Israel and entrance into the kingdom of heaven for Christians):

• Psalm 95:11 - "So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”" Rest here means the promised land, a physical place.
• Hebrews 4:8-11 - "⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. ⁹ There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; ¹⁰ for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works,^[a] just as God did from his. ¹¹ Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience." Rest here means to cease our efforts to gain salvation to through our own works and rest in Christ's finished work on the cross.

We should rest as it is important physically, but more importantly it's a foretaste of what we were created for - to be with and rejoice in our God and Saviour.

Genesis 1:28-31 - This is my Father's world

We stand not under God's world, as inferior to it, nor over God's world, as indifferent to it, but in God's world as representatives of Him.

Imagine a world with nobody in charge, such as in Lord of the Flies or even in a classroom after a teacher leaves the room... It's absolute chaos with some people trying to assume power; others being trampled over. There is no order.

God tells mankind - Adam, and then us, to rule over the beasts of the earth, the fish and the birds of the air. Because mankind is made in the image of God, the rule that we have been given is to reflect the way God rules. God rules with love and compassion, and care for all he has created (Job 38-39). I, therefore, need to reflect God in the world around me - with concern for people, animals and creation. God saw that everything was good, so I need to see the world with the same pride and love.

On one of Zoë's DVD there is a song entitled This is my Father's world which reminds me of the creator God and his creation.