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As we look at Scriptures through the eyes of the ancients, we discover how their narrative builds, detail upon detail. Last month we saw that the Creation story begins with the broad picture, or first level of detail: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This verse tells us all that really matters. God is the Creator. He created everything.

A second level of detail begins with Genesis 1:2. God creates the world in six days, using the first three to create environments. On the first day He creates light, separating night from day; on the second He creates the firmament by separating the waters above from the waters below; on the third day He separates the seas from the dry land. The next three days are used to populate each environment—the day and night with the sun, moon, and stars; the firmament with birds; the sea with fish; and the dry land with animals and man. But the seventh day has no parallel. It is a day set apart and blessed by God for a very special purpose.

Beginning with Genesis 2:4, we see the third, and most important level of detail. The first thing we notice is how personal God becomes. Instead of referring to the Creator as God, or Elohim in Hebrew, the Bible suddenly starts calling Him the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim. Why this change? The author of Genesis is stressing the personal interest God takes in mankind. Elohim is the God of power, but Yahweh is the God of covenant—a God of relationship.

Watch as He takes the dust of the earth and tenderly shapes it into a man’s form: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. . . .” The word “formed” in Hebrew is yatsar, “to form, to fashion, as a potter.” This is definitely a hands-on Creator! But it gets better.

Now we see God tenderly breathing life into man’s nostrils, then hovering closely to see Adam’s expression as he opens his eyes! Studies have shown the significant bonding that takes place between a newborn and its mother. In fact, babies under one month of age have a fixed focal length in their eyes of around 8 inches—the approximate distance of a baby’s face from its mother’s while breast-feeding. When Adam opened his eyes for the first time and stared into the face of his Maker, an incredible bond was formed.

The timing of this event is significant, too. Adam is created on the sixth day, and beginning that evening, God spends the first Sabbath—an entire day—with Adam. Creation Week is over and God longs to spend the Sabbath hours with his newborn—without a single distraction.

Here’s another example of God’s personal concern for Adam: As He brings each living creature to him to be named, it becomes distressingly clear that each one has a companion—but he does not. God’s solution is to put him into a deep sleep (the first anesthesia), remove one of his ribs, and tenderly fashion a woman. Imagine the joy (and bonding) Adam feels when he awakens, and the first person he sees is his beautiful wife, Eve! In ecstasy he breaks into poetry, exclaiming, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Genesis 2:23.

Poetry and song are used in the Bible to signify something of importance. In Exodus 15, after God delivers the Hebrews from certain annihilation at the Red Sea, Moses breaks into song (poetry set to music).

Songs and poetry were special ways of remembering important events for generations to come, so therefore anything in poetic form was important in the Hebrew mind, since it contained the high points of the story.

Next artcile, we’ll look at the Garden of Eden and examine God’s design of our ancestor’s wonderful first home.

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