April 29, 2026:

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”

( Genesis 2.25)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

As I have suggested, those verses at the beginning of Genesis 2 concerning the Sabbath day are the pivot point for understanding God’s purpose in creating those called Adam and Eve. That pivotal understanding is living a righteous life with God. Chapter 2 concludes with the simple truth: Adam and Eve felt no shame. Why should they have felt shame? Was it because they were naked and fully exposed visually to each other? We would not hear of this thought again until the days of Noah after the flood. In a drunken stupor from having drunk too much of his own wine, he lay naked in his tent and was exposed to anyone who entered in. (Genesis 9) It was a normal day for Noah’s sons- Ham (who was the youngest of the three would be the father of Canaan), Shem and Japheth. It was probably not unusual for them to know their father’s love of the grape was at times, intoxicating. We don’t know the reason why Ham went in to see his father. It happened on one occasion that when he did, he SAW his father naked and felt no shame. His brothers, however, when learning from Ham that their father was exposed, put a garment over their shoulders. Walking backward into the tent to avert their eyes, they laid the garment over their father to keep him from further shame. Was the shame on Ham who saw his father’s nakedness? Was the shame on Noah whose drunkenness left him vulnerable and uncovered? Did this covering by a garment reflect upon the events in Genesis 3 where having disobeyed God, Adam and Eve saw their own nakedness and for the first time felt shame? Their attempt to covering up their “sin” with fig leaves was insufficient to the cause of standing before God. We might imagine that they were not actually making clothes from the fig leaves. Rather, they were trying to blend into the background being camouflaged by the leaves of the low lying branches of the fig tree. They were unable to stand unashamed before God and were thus made unrighteous in their disobedience. This disobedience kept them from being able to celebrate the Sabbath. Their disobedience had become their work instead of cultivating, shepherding and steward all of creation which had been made for them. Creation in Genesis 2 expands upon the principle we considered yesterday which Jesus proposed, “Man was not made for the Sabbath, rather Sabbath was made for man.” In chapter 2, God first created man, not humanity but man, from the dust of the raw and wet earth. There was no life on earth yet (reference Genesis 1.9 for this, approximately the middle of the Jewish day which would have been just before dawn on the third day). Before there were any other living creatures, God made Adam. He had made a garden just for Adam to live in while He created all other living things: birds of the air, fish of the sea, things that lived on the earth and even creeping things. Adam was to work the garden and take care of it while God populated the earth with living creatures. Plants and vegetation had already been formed by God. They exceeded the boundaries of the garden and spread into all the world. Thus we know that the Garden was made for man and not man for the garden. The fellowship of God’s presence was celebrated not in setting aside a day to be without labor, however, as in the Sabbath day. Rather, it was being in obedience to God in all Adam would do. The ultimate expression of obedience was never to eat of the tree in the middle of the garden. That tree was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which stood alongside of the tree of life. And Adam remained in obedience to God doing his “righteous” work. Adam was not bound to works righteousness because Adam had known no sin. He had not transgressed the word of God. He was naked and unashamed which meant “he knew no sin.”

It is strange that in all of this creation story, there is no mention of Sabbath. The story itself flows out of an accepted reality of Sabbath. It existed perfectly without direction. It was assumed but not unassuming. In the Garden of Genesis 2, all work would have been considered worship serving the will of God which was good for man. They lived in perfect harmony, those “two”- God and Adam. They were as one but distinctly different. God was the creator. Adam was the created. However, their unique relationship existed because Adam who was made from the dust of the earth came alive by the very breath of God breathed into Him. Adam was “the inspired word of God.” He was unique among all other living things in this regard: they shared the breath, the ruach, of God. Adam was created to rest in God as God rested in Him. And while God loved Adam who was the works of His hands, God knew that as a created being, Adam could not live alone. Adam could not prosper nor become fulfilled as a created being by procreation. Adam was not, by a description used by Martin Luther in describing sinful man, “a worm crawling in the dirt” who could, as some species do, reproduce themselves. God’s work, therefore, in creation was not finished until Adam literally and figuratively found himself. He found himself in Eve who was created out of him by God. They would become helpmates accomplishing full and completely the purpose for which Adam was created. That purpose was to care for all creation, be prosperous and multiply. They were to bring future generations upon the earth to live without shame. They were to be “the righteousness of God” on earth in a Sabbath that would know no end. How? Because their labors were not for their provision. God had given them all they needed. They merely had to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (obedience to the truth in love and follow God’s word) and all else would be provided. Creation existed in love by God’s choice. God’s love created the reality that man must choose.

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.