1. Creation of humans
We started the series on Genesis and learned previously how the Book was given birth from chapter 1. The people complied it under the sorrow of nation¡Çs downfall and Babylonian captivity. We live still in the world covered with chaos and darkness like Jewish people of the time. They felt hopeless and desperate. But, despite harsh circumstances, ; - God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.4 God saw that the light was good, so he divided the light from the darkness.(Genesis 1:3-4)

Captives in Babylonia were looking for the hope that the chaos would turn into the order through God¡Çs words. Genesis 1 point to that hope. Today we read chapter 2 which represents another episode of the Creation. Chapter 1 told how the universe was enlightened and in which order the sky and earth, plants and animals and human being were created. Today¡Çs passage teaches that the man was formed of dust from the ground, then received the breath of God. Thanks to the breath, the man became the master of plants and animals. According to philological studies, Genesis 2 was realized in 10th century during prosperous time of David and Solomon.*
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The whole nation rejoiced in secular happiness. But the people became so arrogant that they pretended to be capable of everything by themselves. Genesis 2 reminded those people that the man had been made from mere dust and should have remained worthless without the breath of God. It still teaches us that all of us come from dust and will back to it after death. Jewish people should lean from Genesis 2 that their life was void without God. They should recognize that prosperity and wealth were gifts given by God alone. It was the alert to the ungratefulness.

God continued to improve the world. ; - When the Lord God first made the earth and the sky, there were still no plants on the earth. Nothing was growing in the fields because the Lord God had not yet made it rain on the land. And there was no person to care for the ground,(Genesis 2:4-5)

At the beginning of the Creation, the earth was like a desert for lack of humans who should work fields. So God created newly the man. ; - Then the Lord God took dust from the ground and formed a man from it. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nose, and the man became a living person.(Genesis 2:7)

Therefore the man was called ¡ÉAdam (אדם) ¡É after the Hebrew for earth (אדמה-adamah) (see verse 20). Humans were made with dust and remain still mere dust in the eyes of God. We cannot control freely our life and must return into dust after death. Nonetheless God breathed the breath of life into the nose of the man to make him a living person. Therefore we are said to become animal if the breath is taken away from our body.

God appointed such a fragile human to the manager of the Eden. ; - Then the Lord God planted a garden in the east, in a place called Eden, and put the man he had formed into it. (Genesis 2:8) And ; - The Lord God put the man in the garden of Eden to care for it and work it.(Genesis 2:15)

Eden is also called Paradise. The word ¡Èwork¡É is ¡Èלְעָבְדָהּ(lahbadh)¡É and translated in ¡Èdress and keep¡É in King James version. Humans¡Ç labor made the earth fruitful, which had been infertile. Working fields to get crops and fruits is cultivating. And the word ¡Èculture¡É derived from ¡Ècultivate.¡É The act of working fields was considered to be the starting point of human civilisations. That interpretation represents the biblical definition of work. Humans were made to work. The Bible says that the act of working should give humans joy of living. Besides, working justified humans¡Ç life before all. But that joyful activity turned into burden because of sin. Genesis 3 tells that the labor became painful when sin entered into humans¡Ç heart. Indeed, though it is weary, we find pleasure too in working. Therefore we must know that the labor was at first conceived to generate our happiness.

After the earthquake and tsunami, Japanese people are concerned about how to restore the devastated region. One of main key must be job creation. Working isn¡Çt a mere act of earning money. It makes us feel useful and productive. It is very important to dress the morale. Matin Luther*2, the Protestant Reformer, considered ¡Èprofession¡É to be ¡È vocation (Berufung).¡É He thought that humans must respond the calling of God through work. ¡ÈThe Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism¡É by M. Weber*3 is said to be based on such a notion of ¡Èwork.¡É

*1 Book of Genesis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Genesis
*2 Martin luther http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_luther
*3 Weber http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_Spirit_of_Capitalism

2. Creation of the partner
The man came to life without partner in the first place. ; - Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is right for him.¡É(Genesis 2:18)

God thought that humans shouldn¡Çt live alone. They are social lives according to God¡Çs will. Thus the Bible teaches that we must see each other to have an appropriate life. However, human relationship is sometimes disturbed by some causes. For example, we are concerned with today¡Çs phenomena so called ¡ÈConnectionless Society¡É in Japan. We talk about a lot about luck of relationship among relatives and neighbors recently. But the catastrophe in the north-west region seems to alter the course of tendency. Since then, numerous persons show the willingness of supporting victims and contributing to restoration of devastated places. During the Golden Week holidays, many volunteers went to the region to help those who are struggling there. Majority of taxpayers are ready to pay more tax in order that the government can raise enough money to reconstruct damaged infrastructures. They wish to be involved in bringing the victims back to the normal daily life. Reading Genesis 2, I had the impression that the tragedy can turn into remedy for reviving normal relationships inside Japanese society.

God created animals but the man couldn¡Çt find his partner among them. Humans cannot tie personal fellowship with animals. Therefore, ; - The Lord God caused the man to sleep very deeply, and while he was asleep, God removed one of the man’s ribs. Then God closed up the man’s skin at the place where he took the rib. The Lord God used the rib from the man to make a woman, and then he brought the woman to the man. (Genesis 2:21-22)
The woman was created as the partner of the man. ; - And the man said, “Now, this is someone whose bones came from my bones, whose body came from my body. I will call her ¡Æwoman (אִשָּׁה-Ishah),¡Ç because she was taken out of man(אִישׁ-Ish).¡É (Genesis 2:23)

Man and Woman need each other by nature because they were created from one body. They get together again to give birth to another new life. Family will be formed in that way. But in the time of David and Solomon, that tradition of monogamy wasn¡Çt respected in the aristocratic class. Genesis2 was written in that background as a criticism of the discrediting moral. Besides women were considered to be tools of procreation in the Jewish patrimonial society. If a wife was sterile, her husband could divorce her freely or keep other female partners to have children with them. Contents of Genesis 2 blame implicitly the Jewish society of the time for that custom too. It teaches that the monogamy alone is the suitable and natural social system for humans. Frankly, I was rather astonished by the fact that the people who had lived 3000 years ago advocated the monogamy as the indispensable factor to the household.

3. We will be changed to love
God made the woman for the man to live with her. But their original relationship fell into disgrace because of sinful conducts. Today¡Çs invocation verses Genesis 3:12-13 tell us what was the real reason of human discredit. ; - The man said, “You gave this woman to me and she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “How could you have done such a thing?” She answered, “The snake tricked me, so I ate the fruit.”

The trouble took place as this. ; - In the middle of the garden, God put the tree that gives life and also the tree that gives the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord God caused every beautiful tree and every tree that was good for food to grow out of the ground. (Genesis 2:9) Then God said to the man and woman, ; - ¡ÈBut you must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil. If you ever eat fruit from that tree, you will die!¡É ( Genesis 2:17)

Nonetheless, regardless of God¡Çs alert, the man ate the forbidden fruit. Generally, we think that because of the violation they were thrown out from Eden. However, when we read more attentively the text, we might be lead to another interpretation. The most undesirable conduct of the man was accusing the woman as responsible of his act, not breaking the interdict. For that reason, they lost the most joyful gift of God.

Though God made the man and woman live in partnership, he blamed her instead of apologizing to God. When God gave him the partner he cherished her as ¡ÈSomeone whose bones came from my bones, whose body came from my body.¡É Nevertheless, when God rebuked him for eating the forbidden fruit, he tried to put the responsibility on her shoulder. ; - ¡ÈYou gave this woman to me and she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it."(Genesis 3:12)

He implied that he shouldn¡Çt have had such a wrongdoing if God didn¡Çt give him her. He almost accused God for causing indirectly the sinful conduct. He was not only egocentric as regards the woman but also unfaithful to God. He might even curse God! As a result, his relationship with God was broken and the couple were casted away from Eden.

Since then, humans must live in a deserted land, out of Eden. Furthermore, the Original sin makes the human world more than more difficult to live in. The passage of Genesis criticizes today¡Çs our living way in that implicit way. Though we rejoice in apparent prosperity of modern world, our internal sin makes us arrogant and ungrateful.

However, despite ingratitude of humans, God didn¡Çt let them perish. ; - The Lord God made clothes from animal skins for the man and his wife and dressed them. (Genesis 3:21 )

God prepared the protection over the man and woman before casting them from Eden. Since then, humans must sweat to gain foods from fields. They were exposed to famine if the sky doesn¡Çt give rainfalls or sunshines. They learned thus that the nature was beyond their control and they could live only thanks to God¡Çs merciful. They also learned that God loved them so much that he let them live, regardless of eating the fruits which should have killed them. Humans recognized God¡Çs love just after loosing the Paradise.

If we read Genesis 2 as a mythology, like Creation story of Babylonia or of Japan, the text doesn¡Çt seem concerning us in today¡Çs world. But, instead, we must consider the passage as a witness of Jewish people to God. Than the contents give us an important lesson. Our inner sin prevents us from loving each other from the heart. We must admit that, to protect ourselves, we would betray ¡Èsomeone whose bones came from our bones, whose body came from our body.¡É The recognition brings humans¡Ç sinful entity in light. Also we learn that broken relationship with God makes us incapable to communicate sincerely with neighbors too. As a result, we will make efforts to be forgiven and freed from sin. Then God will reopen the door before us. To this end, we come to church and reflect on the Scripture. Reading Genesis together should lead us to the path to sincere communication. We will pray God for that change.