Genesis 2:10–17 (ESV)
THE CREATION OF MAN AND WOMAN (Part 2)
10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that
flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the
second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man,
saying, “You may surely 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 surely die.”
We get a picture of the Garden of Eden. This is before the fall, so what did man have to do? Man had to “work it and keep it.” So before the
fall, man had to work. Many think I’m crazy when I say we will have work to do when we are in heaven, but it will be a joy and not a burden. Part of the punishment of man from the fall is that he would work by the sweat of his brow.
More on that in Chapter 3. Verse 16 & 17 is very important… it was the only law given to man before the fall: Don’t eat from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. The punishment is that surely you will die. We will come
back to verse 16 & 17 in chapter 3. I think about working in heaven and I will be just happy to get in (by his grace) that I will clean toilets and mop floors. I look forward to serving and worshiping you.
I pray: O Lord, you gave man one law and we broke it. You gave us the ten commandments… and we broke them. Help us to turn from evil and to walk in your ways. Help
to trust in the faith you gave us. Amen.