Please read the passage before reading the commentary.
On Monday we heard from a story of creation arranged in a seven-day week. It began telling us when the Lord made the heavens and the earth. Today we hear another tory of the creation, this time of the earth and heaven. Monday’s reading gave us a transcendent God, almighty and powerful who can create by direct command. Today’s reading presents a God who can get his hands dirty even forming the human out of clay.
The God who created the heavens and the earth is also the God who planted a garden and made various trees and other things small in size and useful in daily living. The God of Genesis one is likewise the God of Genesis two.
These two chapters are part of the prologue to the Bible. They introduce us to God and to the whole of creation, nearby and faraway. The sun, the moon and the stars direct our daily activities, and the fish, birds and land animals make up partners where we live. The plants and trees provide us food. In these chapters we are vegetarians; in a later chapter we shall be given meat to eat.
At this time, we have knowledge only of the good. Later knowledge of evil will be associated with us. At this time, we have a good relationship with God, but this will not last for long. How God will deal with this is the subject of another day.
The eventual struggle between good and evil in the prologue will continue throughout the rest of the Bible. The Bible will report the ups and downs of our relationship with God and will record God’s constant fidelity and our frequent infidelity. In the end, God wins and God’s good prevails over our evil.