Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: Welcome to Through the Bible. I'm Steve Schwetz, your host, and in a few minutes, Dr. J. Vernon McGee takes us back to the Garden of Eden with some solid practical wisdom on building a strong and successful marriage. But before we open to Genesis chapter 2, Greg's here with an update on what's new.

Greg: Yes, Steve, every so often we just like to share with our listening family what's new because this ministry is, in my life experience, one of the most dynamic ministries I've ever been close to. And so this is fun for me because every once in a while I get to flip the tables and say, "Well, Steve, why don't you tell us what's new because you just got back not long ago from Scandinavia?"

Steve Schwetz: Yeah, I did. I was in Norway and Finland and Sweden. And the interesting thing is, in Finland and in Sweden—and these ministry partners don't necessarily talk to each other on a regular basis—but we go and see them. And so we talk to the Finns and we talk to the Swedes, and independently they both brought up that they are seeing a revival of sorts among young men.

Greg: Wow, that is so encouraging.

Steve Schwetz: It is. And they're getting feedback. And we've got some history with Through the Bible supporting Western Europe in a big way, and we weren't seeing a lot of fruit there. This goes back what, 2017?

Greg: Okay. So yeah, ultimately we stepped away almost ten years ago, and really unbeknownst to us, our ministry partners continued to air Through the Bible. I remember sitting across from the director and the chairman of the board for the Swedish ministry, and they said they were glad that we were there. But their heart was for Through the Bible at a way that I never anticipated. They said, "We have tried so many other things, and Through the Bible is the only thing that is working in the Swedish language." And it was just such a blessing to hear them be excited about how now we're going to re-engage with them with all the Nordic countries in a more substantial way.

One of the things that we're going to do—and you can be praying about this—I'm actually going to be going back in the coming months and spending some time with those partners and helping them rework the program a little bit. Not the core teaching part, but the intro parts. And it turns out that they weren't really spending a whole lot of time telling about the testimonies and the impact that their ministry is having. And so they don't have a very engaged listening audience engaged with them. They're engaged with the Bible, they're engaged with the teaching of Dr. McGee, but they're not forming that what I call virtuous cycle of coming back to the ministry and saying, "Hey, we're being blessed," and supporting the ministry.

In some countries, it's not really practical. You go into parts of Africa, and they're not going to have a whole lot of money to support. I remember Dr. McGee says on the program, "We cannot ask the Chinese and the Russians and the Indians," but the truth is a lot of that's changing, even in those countries. And do not assume that people don't want to support the ministry just because they don't have a lot of money. And Western Europe does have money. And even though there's not a lot of Christians there, there is a solid core that's there that love the teaching of God's Word.

So you can be praying as I go back and help the team maybe rework the beginnings of the program and help it to be a little bit more effective and that we would see fruit from that. That there would be a more engaged listening audience with those partners and that they would have the funds that they need to continue the ministry and to grow it.

Steve Schwetz: Absolutely. Greg, would you do that now?

Greg: Heavenly Father, you have heard my brother Steve's words, and thank you for your Word touching lives all over those Nordic countries. And we pray that his trip would help them to communicate more effectively, to tell the story so that the Christians will want to support these ministries, and then we can support other ministries around the world. Father, we leave all of this in your hands and just thank you for the power of your Word in Jesus' name, Amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: We return today to our study in the book of Genesis, and we are in the second chapter. We begin today at the fourth verse, and in this particular section we are coming up now to these verses. We have the summary and sum total of the first five days of restoration—partial creation, of course. Now let me read this particular section here beginning at verse 4. It says, "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." It says, "these are the generations." Actually, this word "generations" means families. This is the book, we said at the beginning, the book of Genesis is the book not only of beginnings but the book of the families. These are the families of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

"And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground." Then will you notice verse 6, "But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." Do you see this was here long before man was here upon the earth? And I think that we now begin to see, to discover, the purpose of God in chapter 1. What was God doing in chapter 1? Well, he was preparing a home for the man that he had made. And now God is getting ready to move this man into the place here that he has prepared for him. I think that's one of the remarkable things about this particular section.

You see, we come now actually again to the method of man's creation, beginning here in verse 7. We have seen in chapter 1 that there was from nothing to inorganic matter. Nothing, and then the inorganic came into existence. That's in Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." And then from the inorganic to the organic, that is to life. And we saw that in chapter 1 and verse 21 where it says God created great whales, and then from then on all plant life and animal life. But he created animal life. Somebody says, "Well, didn't he create plant life?" Apparently the plant life had not been destroyed. The seed was apparently already in the earth. I would not want to be dogmatic about that, but that would seem to be the implication here. As we've said, God's told us very little.

And then now we have from the organic to man, and there is no natural transition, and evolution cannot bridge the gap that brings us to the appearance of Homo sapiens upon the earth. Now the earth was prepared for the coming of man. Verse 7: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Now this is the method of the creation of man. And again we're limited in what God has told us. Physically, God took man out of the ground. It's quite interesting that our bodies are made up of about 15 or 16 chemical elements. Those same chemical elements are in the ground.

Man was taken out of the dust of the ground physically. And if they would take you or me and boil us down and separate us into the separate chemical elements that we are, there was a time that it was worth $2.98. I'm told now we are worth about $3.38. You see we're going up all the time. Now that's what you are worth because we were taken physically out of the dust of the ground. But you see man is more than dust. Physically, dust he is and to the dust he'll return. But his spirit's going to God. Why? Because God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

Now what did God breathe into him? Well, the breath of life. God gave man at this time life that is physical, that's psychological, by the way. And then he gave him life that is spiritual. And in other words, man now is brought into a marvelous relationship with his creator. He has a capacity for God. He has that in his being, and by the way, that separates him from all other creatures that you find in God's universe as far as we know. Now of course there are the angels, and believe me we know very little about them.

Now we find as we move along in this section that this man now that God has created, that the theistic evolutionist—you know they say it was evolution up to here and then God took this product of evolution and this creation crowd also take that position—but may I say to you, any form of evolution cannot account for human speech. It cannot account for human conscience, and it cannot account for human individuality. These are three things that evolution just has a little difficulty with. It's mighty easy to take the bones of a man and compare them to the bones of some anthropoid, probably an ape or to a horse, and there's striking similarity, I'm sure. And yet there's wide divergence there, I'm told.

But nevertheless, I would expect a certain similarity because these creatures are to move in the same environment that we move in as human beings. And naturally, the chassis would have to be the same. Now there is a very striking similarity between the chassis of a Ford automobile and a Chevrolet automobile. May I say there is a definite similarity. But you better not tell that to your local automobile dealer, and certainly not to the Ford Motor Car Company or General Motors. They're going to tell you that there's a wide difference between the two, but there is a very striking similarity when you see the chassis.

You've got to have something fixed where you can have four wheels and put one at each corner. It has to be square to a certain extent. And that is the thing, why? Because the Ford and the Chevrolet are both going to get stuck on the freeway at 5:00 in the afternoon, and they have to be able to balance and have a motor in them and so you'd have a similarity. But that doesn't mean they came out of the same factory. I feel today that there's been such an exaggeration made. Man is a different creature. God breathed into his breathing places the breath of life. Man became a living soul. Man is fearfully and wonderfully made, by the way. And that is something that we need to keep in mind.

Now the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And I can't tell you where the Garden of Eden is. I'm sure it's somewhere in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. In fact, it may be the entire valley. That valley originally was a very fertile place, still is for that matter. It's part of that green crescent, that fertile crescent. And at one time they didn't even plant grain there; they just harvested it. It grew itself. Probably that area will become the very center of the earth again.

Now verse 9: "And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." Now these are unusual trees that are mentioned specifically. You have the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I can't tell you much about them because frankly they are not around today. They've been removed from the scene. But there was every tree, and the trees you'll notice were pleasant to look at, and they were also good for food. There was the beauty of them and then the practical side of it.

Both of these were combined. In other words, it's like going into a furniture store today and having the salesman there say, "Well, this article of furniture is very beautiful, but it's also very functional." Well, that was the important thing in the Garden of Eden. They had some beautiful trees, but they were functional, the fact of the matter is, very practical. They were good for food. This earth on which we live, you still see something of the beauty in spite of the curse of the fall upon the earth, the fall of man. There is still the fact that it brings forth today the thorn and the thistle. There's still a beauty here.

In a recent trip out to the Hawaiian Islands, we were on the island of Maui, and I'd never been to the place called Hana. I'd heard so much about it and it's difficult to get to. We drove down that road. I have never been in such a fabulous, fantastic, and wonderful foliage in my life. It is beyond description. And we made a certain turn, and there are many turns to make, but we came up on a very scenic spot. And you could look down that coast and a little peninsula was stuck out there. There were the coconut trees, the papaya trees, the hibiscus, and the bananas and the bamboo. And a little church among those coconut trees, the church the missionaries started.

And you just couldn't help but be startled as you stood there. In fact, so much so that I asked that the group pause and bow their heads in prayer. And we asked a member of our party to lead us in prayer that we were just privileged to see that spot. My, the Garden of Eden must have been a beautiful place. Now I read on, verse 10: "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone."

"And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates." And I think the one in Ethiopia would be the Nile, and the Hiddekel would be the Tigris. Verse 15: "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." Now this man, remember, had dominion, and the forces of nature came at his beck and call.

The Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Now it wasn't God's original intention for man to die, but man now was put on probation. You see man has a free will, but privilege always creates responsibility. That's an axiomatic statement today that is true. And this man who's now given a free will, he must be given a test whether he'll obey God or not. And we're not going to have a question of whether the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was poison. I think it was the best fruit in the garden. And the day you do it, you'll die. Now you'll die—remember, he's a trinity—and he'll have to die in a threefold way.

He didn't die physically until over 900 years after this, but God says, "In the day you eat, you shall die." Well, death means separation. He was separated from God spiritually the day he ate. You may be sure of that. Now we read: "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." Now there was a purpose in God putting man there for a period of time alone, to show him that he had a need, that he needed someone to be with him. And now we're told that out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

Believe me, that man had to be a smart man to name all the animals. And some wag said that when God brought an elephant to him and said to him, "What shall we call this one?" that Adam says, "Well, he looks more like an elephant than anything else." And I guess he did. Verse 20: "And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help"—and the word "meet" should not be here—"a help for him." That is one agreeing and answering to him. In other words, a helper as his counterpart. The other half of him. And a man is but half a man until he's married. And that I think is very important to see. I'm not here to promote marriage, and yet I would say that that is God's intention for both man and woman. And she's to answer to him.

And notice what God did: "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof." Now she's taken from Adam, from the side of Adam. And as Dr. Matthew Henry said years ago, God didn't take her from the head to be superior, or from his foot to be his inferior, but took her from his side to be equal with him, to be along with him. And that is exactly the purpose as she is to be the other half of man. And that's exactly what God meant when he said, "Wives, obey your husbands."

It means respond. It means answer to. You're the other part of him, the other half of him. He's only half a man. "And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man." And believe me, she was beautiful. Any woman today that you see that's beautiful, she inherited it originally from Mother Eve because there's no beauty that she didn't have. She was a doll, let me tell you. Now she's the other half of Adam. And Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

And actually the word for woman in the Hebrew is very similar to man, *ish* and *ishah*. Very similar. Just the other part of man. She's to answer to man. And that's the reason that God intended man to take the lead. He created him first, but he created woman to just follow. And the man is the aggressor, and God even made him that way physically. He's the aggressor, and woman is the responder. And don't tell me that a wife has to love her husband. God doesn't say that. God says that she is to respond to him.

Now if he says to her, "I love you," then you know what? She's going to say right back to him, "I love you." She's to respond to him. When a man tells me today, and every now and then one does, "You know, my wife is very cold," that's a dead giveaway that he's not really the kind of husband he should be because if he's the right kind of husband, she'll respond because he is the one to take the lead. "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."

In other words, he's now subject to his wife in the sense that he's responsible for her, and he's no longer under the control of father and mother. "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." I think they were covered with some sort of a glory light. And may I say I think this is the loveliest and the freshest account of the creation of woman and of man. Here is a couple that God really joined together. Now there are certain things I think God's given to his people that they should obey.

But God has given to the human race marriage, and that's one of the things men are trying to throw off today. Let us break their bands asunder, cast away their cords from us. What's man trying to do? Well, he's trying to get rid of God, friend, because God is the one who established marriage. Now you have in this chapter something quite wonderful. You have the creation of man. You have him where he's placed, what his occupation is, the condition that he's there with a responsibility. He had a need for a companion, and then God created the woman. There is to be an identity between the husband and the wife, and God says to the husband, "Husbands, love your wives." This is the creation story.

The man who was the chaplain at Nuremberg prison tells about the last days that he had with those men. One was Hermann Göring, and he tells about that. He says the last evening, "that evening around 8:30, I had a session with Göring during which he made sport of the story of creation, ridiculed divine inspiration of the Scriptures, and made outright denial of certain Christian fundamentals." Less than two hours later, he committed suicide. May I say one of the ways to get rid of this alarming suicide rate is to let men and women know they're a creature of God and they're responsible to their creator. How important that is. See you next time. May God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: For more terrific Bible teaching, don't miss Dr. McGee's never-before-aired Sunday sermon, "Cain and Abel." You can listen on the app, online at TTB.org, or call 1-800-65-BIBLE, and we'll help you find a station near you. 1-800-65-BIBLE is also the number to call for our voicemail line where you can share your Bible bus story, or you can email us at biblebus@ttb.org. I'm Steve Schwetz, so grateful to be riding the Bible bus with you.

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain; He washed it white as snow. Our story on the Bible bus today is just one step in a five-year journey through the entire Word of God. Come along for the ride and you'll study both the Old Testament and New Testament, discovering God's great redemption story. Is this your story too?