Uniform Lesson Study for September 8

1. Call to Worship (Jeremiah 18, Psalm
139)
We come with praise for the wonderful works of God.
Even before we speak, God knows us completely.
The Holy One knows us and sustains us, even in our moments of
confusion and doubt.
Who can count the thoughts of God?
They are more than all the sands of the desert.
Like clay in the hand of the potter, we are shaped into vessels of
divine will.
We come with praise for the wonderful works of God.

2. Invocation (Jeremiah 18, Psalm 139)
Creator of people and nations, you are beyond our
knowing, yet closer to us than our every breath.
You are before us and behind us, surrounding us with your
love, and fashioning all of creation in the secret depths of
your heart.
With every thought, with every song, and with every
prayer, turn these fragile, earthen vessels of our lives, into
the Spirit-filled body of Christ.
Amen.

3. Genesis 2:15-25
FIRST THINGS

4. First Things
“First Things” is the theme for our coming lessons. We will see not only
the first days of creation, but also how God formed his people Israel
as the first nation, and then how their first freedom came about.

5. First Things
The study's aim is to discover what God did and purposed when He
created mankind.
The study's application is to learn to embrace God's relationship
patterns so that we can experience His blessings in life and to bring
our thinking and actions into conformity with God's established plan
for mankind.
.

6. First Things
Moses wrote Genesis. Inspired by God, he recorded things that only
the Creator could know. Because of this, Scripture gives the only
definitive account of creation. Each day is described in Genesis 1.
Today‟s text provides more details about what happened on the sixth
day, when the Lord created land animals and the first humans (1:24-
31). .

7. First Things
It explains in particular God‟s relation to men and women.
The Lord declared, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,
so that they may rule over . . . all the creatures that move along the
ground” (v. 26).

8. Genesis 2:18-20
For everything God created, He said it was „good‟. Yet one thing was
not good!
“It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable
for him.”
Woman can provide the perfect counterpoint for man. She can meet
his physical, emotional, and social needs, as he can hers.
Together they are able to reproduce and carry out their
responsibilities in the world.

9. Genesis 2:18-20
God placed Adam in charge of all the animals. Naming them was his
first duty.
James E. Smith points out that this process “enabled man to exercise
the gifts of language and reason, manifest his sovereignty over all
creatures, and discover for himself his loneliness. . . . Adam saw clearly
that for him there was no suitable helper among the animals” (2:20).

10. Genesis 2:15
The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till
it and keep it.

11. Genesis 2:15
When God created Adam, God gave Adam a beautiful and good
garden in the midst of His creation.
God also gave Adam the responsibility “to till” the garden (to sow
seeds and reap food in perfect conditions) and “to keep” the garden
(maintain the good and beautiful condition of the garden

12. Genesis 2:15
The garden would be a place where he could grow mentally,
physically, and spiritually.
Over time he could learn how to till the garden and produce a
variety of good foods.
More importantly, he could learn more about God and himself in
communication with God.

13. Genesis 2:16
And the LORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of
every tree of the garden;

14. Genesis 2:16
God created people in the image of God, which included the image
of the Son of God (see John 1 and John 17:5, 24). God has the ability
to make moral choices and God gave people the ability to make
moral choices too.

15. Genesis 2:16
By giving Adam a good and reasonable command, God enabled
Adam to live as a person who could freely make moral choices and
choose the consequences of his moral choices.
Adam could exercise all of his attributes as a person created in the
image of God.

16. Genesis 2:17
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 die.”

17. Genesis 2:17
God withheld from Adam only one thing, one tree in the garden. God
made only one law for Adam to obey or disobey as a person free to
make ethical or moral choices. God told Adam the consequences if
he ate of the forbidden tree.

18. Genesis 2:17
God withheld from Adam only one thing, one tree in the garden. God
made only one law for Adam to obey or disobey as a person free to
make ethical or moral choices. God told Adam the consequences if
he ate of the forbidden tree.
At this point, we have no record of Adam having any personal
knowledge of what death truly was.

19. Genesis 2:17
Adam knew “good” by experience, and “good” was all he knew by
experience. If Adam disobeyed God, he would know “evil” by
experience.
Adam could choose to keep good in the garden or he could choose
to bring evil into the garden.

20. Genesis 2:18
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be
alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”

21. Genesis 2:18
God was not alone, because God the Father, God the Son, and the
Holy Spirit communicated with each other, loved each other, and
worked together before and after God created all that exists. God
wanted Adam to have someone like himself as a companion so he
would not be alone.

22. Genesis 2:18
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit worked together in the
creation and redemption of human beings. God wanted people to
experience this same joy of living and working together with others
similar to themselves.

23. Genesis 2:18
Lesson: When we need someone and no one is there Jesus is always
at our side (2 Tim. 4:16-17)
At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me.
May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me
strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the
Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth.

24. Genesis 2:18
Reflect:
God never intended for man to be alone. What causes „loneliness‟ in
this life and how do we impose it upon ourselves?

25. Genesis 2:19
So out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the field
and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what
he would call them; and whatever the man called every living
creature, that was its name.

26. Genesis 2:19
Though God had already made plants and animals (Genesis 1), God
wanted to teach Adam about what it meant to be creative and
create so Adam would also be creative and create.
God took the ground, the dust of the ground, to make animals and
birds so Adam could watch the process of creation.

27. Genesis 2:19
God wanted to help Adam develop his imagination and reasoning
ability. God wanted Adam to discover that he needed someone
more like himself in order to have a real helper and partner.

28. Genesis 2:20
The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to
every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a
helper as his partner.

29. Genesis 2:20
God may have taken “years” or “a long time” helping Adam develop
his mind and understanding. God is so great that He could also do in
a day what would take us thousands of years to do or wait a
thousand years for us to learn.
Based on all Adam learned about these animals, Adam concluded
that none were equal to him in the image of God or fit to be his
helper and partner.

30. Genesis 2:20
Lesson: God gives us companions to help enjoy the work of our hands
(Eccl 4:8)
There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was
no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. "For
whom am I toiling," he asked, "and why am I depriving myself of
enjoyment?"

31. Genesis 2:20
Reflect: Our wise God often allows us to recognize our deficiencies so
that we might appreciate His provision and seek Him (Gen. 2:19-20)
That is the power of confession.

32. Genesis 2:21-23
The Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. Although
Adam had been made from the dust of the earth, Eve was made
from Adam‟s side (1 Corinthians 11:8).
When Adam awoke, God brought the woman he had made to him.
Adam experienced a new sense of completeness with this perfect
companion that the Lord had provided for him.

33. Genesis 2:21-23
C. F. Keil wrote, “She was formed for an inseparable unity and
fellowship of life with the man, and the mode of her creation was to
lay the actual foundation for the moral ordinance of marriage.”

34. Genesis 2:21
So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he
slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.

35. Genesis 2:21
God did not want Adam to experience pain. God created Adam
with the ability to experience pain, but pain would not come to
Adam until after he disobeyed God.

36. Genesis 2:21
Lesson: God's omnipotence is displayed by His ability to create
however He chooses (vs. 21)
Which is harder for you: to believe that God has all power or to
accept His answers as given? Why?

37. Genesis 2:22
And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made
into a woman and brought her to the man.

38. Genesis 2:22
Perhaps God allowed Adam to watch Him create the woman out of
Adam‟s rib.
Adam would know that part of himself was within the woman as
created by God. Because God taught Adam about what God was
doing, Adam could exclaim that the woman was bone of his bones
and her flesh was like his (from the ground).

39. Genesis 2:22
Lesson: God's provision is always exactly what we need (vs. 22)
How is it that we miss His provisions if they are exactly what we need?

40. Genesis 2:23
Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my
flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was
taken.”

41. Genesis 2:23
Adam also expressed the emotion of appreciation at least, if not love,
to God and to the woman who had come from a part of him and
would be his partner.
Just as Adam named the animals, so he would name the woman,
Eve.

42. Genesis 2:24
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his
wife, and they become one flesh.

43. Genesis 2:24
This is God‟s plan (Luke 17:27). Marriage is to be monogamous.
Instead of remaining under the protective custody of his parents, a
man leaves them in order to establish a new family unit with his wife.

44. Genesis 2:24
Based on the creation of men and women, both created in the
image of God, they can be partners.
Husband and wife are of one body, just as the Church is one body
(Eph. 5:28-30)
In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He
who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but
he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- for we are members of
his body.

45. Genesis 2:24
Reflect: God's creation of woman forever symbolizes His designed
oneness for a husband and wife (vss. 23-24)
How has culture changed our view of that „oneness‟ in marriage?

46. Genesis 2:25
And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

47. Genesis 2:25
God created Adam and Eve, man and woman, as husband and wife
to be able to stand before each other as partners and be
unashamed.
Just as the animals and birds need no clothes other than the clothes
God gave them, so in the garden of Eden Adam and Eve only
needed their skin covering as the clothes God gave them.
They did not know shame or the emotion of feeling ashamed
because they did not know evil by experience.

48. Genesis 2:25
Consider: Only the forgiveness of God can restore man's sense of
innocence (vs. 25)
What part of your innocence would you like to have back?

49. Conclusion
The phrase "and God saw that it was good" appears at various stages
of his creative work (Genesis 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25). The assessment of
the creation as "very good" concludes the entire account (Genesis
1:31).
However, we now learn of a situation that is not good: the fact that
the man should be alone.

50. Conclusion
Something of the purpose for the creation of woman is already hinted
at even before her creation takes place. She will complete the man,
helping him become what he would not be capable of becoming
were he to remain alone.

51. Benediction (Luke 14)
Holy One of life and grace, you have shown us the cost of being your
people.
We give you thanks, for the crosses that are ours to bear, and for the
strength to carry them.
Help us follow the path of Jesus, who shows us the way.
Amen.

52. Blessing (Psalm 139)
The Holy One rejoices in our repentance, reshaping us into vessels of
love and service.
In the grace-filled love of Christ, we are forgiven.