Genesis 2:1-4

LITV ¹ And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their host. ² And on the seventh day God completed His work which He had made And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. ³ And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because He rested from all His work on it, which God had created to make. ⁴ These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created in the day that Jehovah God was making earth and heavens.

Only God is said to enter His rest on the seventh day, after doing the very good work of creating heavens and earth and all their host. Didn’t all of creation rest with Him? What day do the typical generations of heaven and earth fit into? Was it only a 24 hour day with a 24 hour rest? Augustine saw humanity (the new covenant church) as living in a prophetic 6th day that had yet to be sabbatized or millennialized, even in his day. According to Augustine, humanity has yet to enter God’s rest.

At the end of the day will the heavens and earth be made into a new and very good unfallen creation for God’s image to indwell all of creation? Will Jesus take the place of the firstborn human so humanity can enter God’s rest? Will humanity fulfill Adam’s original commission? Why did Jesus say He was working alongside His Father on a typical sabbath day? Did Jesus came to make a new place for us to work alongside Him? When will we be able to enter His rest. Did He overrule the typical sabbath?

Jesus and His Father were working on a 24-hour sabbath day when the Pharisees accused Him of sin. Maybe He was working with another day in mind. The Hebrews in diaspora were certainly not keeping the 24-hour sabbath in the typical land. Yet even they were instructed to work toward entering the sabbath that remained for the people of God in Hebrews 4:11. Yet the typical land (and all it’s sabbaths) was about to go away, even for the Jews in the land who claimed to be guarding it. Jesus came to complete the work His Father gave Him to do. Jesus came to sabbatize all His people with God’s very good sabbath rest.

John 5:17

LITV ¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, My Father works until now, and I work.

Hebrews 4:9

CLV ⁹ Consequently a sabbatism is left for the people of God.

Genesis 2:5-6

YLT ⁵ and no shrub of the field is yet in the earth, and no herb of the field yet sprouteth, for Jehovah God hath not rained upon the earth, and a man there is not to serve the ground, ⁶ and a mist goeth up from the earth, and hath watered the whole face of the ground. The earthy source of life comes before the heavenly source. The first time we see rain in the Bible narrative is when God uses it to clean up the spirit realm corruption that comes down from heaven in Genesis 6.

God works over long periods of time to create. A mist rose from earth and was watering the ground that Adam was taken from before the rain came down to cause growth.

Genesis 2:7

CLV ⁷ And forming is Yahweh Elohim the human of soil from the ground, and He is blowing into his nostrils the breath of the living, and becoming is the human a living soul.

This is a picture of a physical soul. We breath in through our nose to sustain physical life not spiritual life. We eat through our mouth to sustain physical life. Adam was a typical mortal soul that was physical. He had a physical body before he became a human soul. Jesus used this preliminary picture to indicate the new covenant breath that is the immortal soul. The Pentecost Jesus pointed to was the one where humanity got the breath from heaven. Jesus sent that spirit-realm-life from heaven, in the Spring. Not coincidentally the later rain refers to the Spring rain. The final destruction of the former types came in like a flood and culminated in the Fall.

John 20:22

YLT ²² and this having said, he breathed on them, and saith to them, `Receive the Holy Spirit;

Acts 1:4

YLT ⁴ And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, `Ye did hear of me;

Genesis 2:8-9

ECB ⁸ And Yah Veh Elohim plants a garden eastward in Eden; and there he puts Adam whom he formed: ⁹ and from the soil Yah Veh Elohim sprouts every tree desirable in visage and good for food; and the tree of life midst the garden with the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Everything Adam needs to thrive in Eden is planted and caused to grow by Yahweh. Among the three categories of trees are: trees to see, trees for food and a tree for something else. The trees that are desirable sights that enter the eyes and feed the aesthetic nature are followed by food to sustain the physical nature. Then there is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God gave Adam everything he needs to live with Him and I presume get to know Him better every day. Without any elaboration there is an additional tree in the midst of it all that also seems desirable. It is called the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:10-14

LITV ¹⁰ And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it was divided and became four heads. ¹¹ The name of the first was Pishon; it is the one surrounding all the land of Havilah where gold is; ¹² the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium gum resin, and the onyx stone. ¹³ And the name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one surrounding all the land of Cush. ¹⁴ And the name of the third river is Tigris; it is the one going east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

Four is a biblical number indicating all of creation. In Peter’s sheet vision four indicates all of earthly creation that was to be brought into humanity. Here in Genesis, the never ending water from the garden flows out to all of creation, picturing Adam’s great commission to tame all creation. The first river flows into the good land of gold and resin and stones. The final revelation pictures a city of gold and precious stones kept incorruptible in heaven. Only believers are there, to whom Jesus promised rivers of living water springing up from within.

John 7:37-39

LITV ³⁷ And in the last day of the great feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ The one believing into Me, as the Scripture said, Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. No OT passage ³⁹ But He said this concerning the Spirit, whom the ones believing into Him were about to receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Genesis 2:15

ECB ¹⁵ And Yah Veh Elohim takes Adam and puts him into the garden of Eden to serve it and to guard it:

The garden of Eden is feminine in the Hebrew language. She needs cultivated and kept. The humanity that flows out of God’s land is both male and female.

Genesis 2:16-17

YLT ¹⁶ And Jehovah God layeth a charge on the man, saying, `Of every tree of the garden eating thou dost eat; ¹⁷ and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou dost not eat of it, for in the day of thine eating of it—dying thou dost die.’

Here we get a dual meaning for the word death and the word day. Adam died the day he ate yet didn’t die physically until he was 930 years of age. Did he die two different kinds of death in two different kinds of days?

Genesis 2:18-20

ECB ¹⁸ And Yah Veh Elohim says, Not good – Adam being alone; I work a helper for him. ¹⁹ And from the soil Yah Veh Elohim forms every live being of the field and every flyer of the heavens; and brings to Adam to see what he calls them: and whatever Adam calls every living soul, is its name. ²⁰ And Adam calls names to all animals and to the flyers of the heavens and to every live being of the field; but for Adam, no helper is found for him.

Adam IDs all the living souls God created but does not find another human soul to live with him in the garden.

Genesis 2:21-23

CLV ²¹ And falling is a stupor on the human, caused by Yahweh Elohim, and he is sleeping. And taking is He one of his angular organs and is closing the flesh under it. ²² And Yahweh Elohim is building the angular organ, which He takes from the human, into a woman, and bringing her is He to the human. ²³ And saying is the human, “This was once bone of my bones and flesh from my flesh. This shall be called woman, for from her man is this taken.

Here we see the man goes into a deep sleep caused by His covenant God. God performs an operation while Adam is out cold. From that old covenant human he forms a bride. Adam realizes that she came from him and we see Adam formulate a future reversal. The typical man would thereafter come from the woman. Even Jesus who came down from heaven was typically formed by the law in the land (feminine) after coming from Mary, until the corporate old covenant bride is released from the side of eschatos Adam while He is in a deep sleep on the cross. The law man doesn’t kill Jesus by piercing His side. The law released the widow from his flesh and blood side. The man actually dies to reform the bride. The fulfillment woman once again comes from the side of an old covenant man in order to stand in a new creation and marry a new firstborn of the covenant man not in flesh and blood. By the time of the new creation, the humanity of Adam had become a first born nation. The new firstborn changes the inheritance from death to life for all of the born again humanity: both male and female He recreated them in the image of Christ. Whether we use the analogy of marriage or birth, both are finally accomplished in the spirit realm, by the Holy Spirit Jesus sent from that realm.

Genesis 2:24-25

LITV ²⁴ Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife and they shall become one flesh. ²⁵ And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed.

The spirit of humanity in the flesh and blood mode is still within every human. We are not in the fallen old covenant man or nation yet we replay the paradigms as we grow toward maturity. We never arrive in the flesh and there is no longer a covenant breaking sin that gets us removed from the New Jerusalem; also called the church or the bride or the body of Christ. When we typically get married we are generally “naked and unashamed”. My wife was less so than I was. She became my eye-opener in marriage. In fact our pre-marital counselor had us take a test to estimate how accurately we saw each other. The counselor said, “She knows exactly what she’s getting into. You don’t have a clue.” Another reversal of sorts. Adam knew what he was getting into when he ate the fruit yet Eve was deceived. As our eyes are opened in marriage we tend to blame each other and hide ourselves from each other and from God, rather than grow up and see correctly.

There is no longer a tree of the knowledge of good and evil that comes with the promise of the death. Knowledge of good and evil was fleshed out in the law after Adam became a nation married to Yahweh. but the law only exposed them. The temporary animal covering had to be continually renewed. The purpose of the law was the gospel. The knowledge of good and evil was spelled out to Israel who planted a synagogue in every city teaching the law of Moses to the nations as the pre-evangelism.

To continue to live in the land with the Spirit of God in the temple they had to keep all of the law. Knowing the impossibility of that Animal sacrifices were continually delaying their inevitable death. They inherited the position of dead and dying from the first human in the old covenant. Adam was the death-giving first born. Jesus took the place of the first born on the cross and was resurrected as the life-giving first born.

Jesus telosed both Adam and Isreal with His 70 years. There can not be anything more good or more evil than the tree Jesus died on in Adam’s place. No generation can repeat the most evil thing ever done and there is no tree of the knowledge of good and evil that leads to a day of death in the New Jerusalem.

In the type God caused Adam to sacrifice part of himself to form a single wife. Jesus sacrificed all of His old covenant life to reform all of His people.

How the Hebrews entered sabbath (verses 1-5)

“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it.” God made it possible for His people to enter his rest by regenerating them while they were in the wilderness. He gave them a new body. There are no old covenant Hebrews in diaspora today awaiting the final sabbatism of God.

 Verse 2 tells us, “For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.” They were supposed to enter God’s rest by means of the gospel. They were not united by faith with Joshua and Caleb.

The typical exodus Israelites had the good news of entering the promised land. But he people did not have faith in God and the gospel did not do them any good. Can we make the same mistake today? Are we in a 40 year transition to the new covenant promised land?

But wait! Didn’t God rest thousands of years ago? And didn’t God place Adam in His place of rest?And didn’t God eventually bring the Israelites into the promised land after 40 years? How can we as covenant transition Hebrews reading the letter written to us strive to enter a promised land when both Adam and Israel fell short so long ago? Neither unfallen Adam nor unfallen Israel lived in God’s land to arrive at their millennial Jubilee.

Hebrews 4:1-11

LITV ¹ Then let us fear lest in any way a promise having been left to enter into His rest, that any of you may seem to come short. ² For, indeed, we have had the gospel preached to us, even as they also; but the word did not profit those hearing it, not having been mixed with faith in the ones who heard. ³ For we, the ones believing, enter into the rest, even as He said, “As I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter into My rest,” though the works had come into being from the foundation of the world. LXX-Psa. 94:11, MT-Psa. 95:11 ⁴ For He has spoken somewhere about the seventh day this way, “And God rested from all His works in the seventh day.” Gen. 2:2 ⁵ And in this place again, “They shall not enter into My rest.” LXX-Psa. 94:11; MT-Psa. 95:11 ⁶ Therefore, since it remains for some to enter into it, and those who formerly had the gospel preached did not enter in on account of disobedience, ⁷ He again marks out a certain day, saying in David, Today (after so long a time, according as He has said), “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” LXX-Psa. 94:7, 8; MT-Psa. 95:7, 8 ⁸ For if Joshua gave them rest, then He would not have afterwards spoken about another day. ⁹ So, then, there remains a sabbath rest to the people of God. ¹⁰ For he [Jesus] entering into His rest, he himself also rested from His works, as God had rested from His own. LXX-Psa. 95:11, Gen. 2:2 ¹¹ Therefore, let us exert ourselves to enter into that rest, that not anyone fall in the same example of disobedience.

Luke 12:50

YLT ⁵⁰ but I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I pressed till it may be completed!

Jesus did the hardest work ever by overcoming the old creation death of humanity as an unfallen human. It is the work He was sent to do. He gave His people the rest that Joshua couldn’t typically do. Nobody falls out of the covenant land of God today. The firstborn keeps the inheritance of eternal life incorruptible in heaven. Born again into the family is to be born into God’s rest. His work is, as always, very good.