Two things: God instituted the first Sabbath, and God demonstrated the importance of rest. He set a precedence for Man that He wanted Man to follow. Work for six days, and rest on the seventh day, which is a holy day to God.
In Exodus 20: 8-11 in the Ten Commandments, God said,
8Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Biblos.com, 2011)God completed creation within six Earth days and rested on the seventh day. He blessed that Sabbath day and made it holy. Therefore, we must also rest, bless the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
Genesis 2 goes into a more indepth description of some of God's creation.
There was no rain on earth - God allowed a mist to water the ground and all the plants and herbs that He caused to grow on the earth. We don't see rain occuring until when it rained for the Flood, which we will look at shortly.
What does that mean? God made the Man from the dust of the Earth, which is why the Man was called "Adam", "the Man of the soil" (Barnes' Notes on the Bible, Biblos, 2011). Man was made from actual soil (Wells, n.d.). This Breath that God breathed into Man was a part of God. So Man was connected both with the Earth and also with God, the Creator (Barnes, 2011).
A "living soul" refers to immortality. Man had God breathing through his soul (Keil and Delitzsch Bible Commentary on the Old Testament, Biblos, 2011).
God had planted a beautiful garden, in a place called Eden, in which he put beautiful flowers, and trees that bared fruits. Based on the locations of the four rivers mentioned in the Bible, Eden is felt to be within Iraq, Africa, and the Persian Gulf. (Wikipedia, 2011) The rivers mentioned in Genesis 2 originated within Eden and flowed outwardly in four separate directions. Please note, though, that it is quite likely that although two of the rivers mentioned in Genesis 2 exist today (Euphrates and Tigris), their locations may have changed after the flood - which seemed to have also obliverated the other two rivers (Pison and Gihon).
Eden was fertile and filled with precious stones. The garden of Eden was planted to the east of Eden. And it was in this garden that God had placed Adam.
In the middle of the garden. He placed two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The garden was well watered by a river and had very precious stones. This is where He placed Adam. And He told Adam that he could eat of every tree in the garden - except one: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And we'll talk more about that, when we come to Chapter 3 of Genesis.
God brought all the creatures on the land and all the birds that He had created to Adam; and Adam named them all. Then God looked at all the creatures in the animal and birdkingdoms, and then decided that the Man would need someone to help him in the Garden.
Causing Adam to sleep, He took one of his ribs and created a woman. This woman shared Adam's DNA and was meant as a companion for him. She would be equal to him.
Adam acknowledged what God had done and he acknowledged the woman by saying that she was of him and from him. He then said something important: the man and the woman together are one flesh. He speaks of marriage and the process of marriage - leaving the parental home to join together to become one flesh. He accepted the woman as his mate.
It is interesting that he speaks of leaving the father and the mother to join together, becoming one flesh - since heretofore there were no other people in the earth. Neither Adam nor Eve had physical parents, since they were the first created humans.
It is quite possible that this revelation by Adam came later on in the garden, and did not occur at the point where God brought Eve to him. It is also possible that this is something that Adam said to his children at a later time.
Adam and Eve were naked and uncorruptable (Christian Classic Etheral Library, n.d.). They were unashamed in this uncorruptableness because there was no sin on earth and no cause for shame.
Reference:
Barnes' Notes on the Bible, Biblos, 2011. Genesis 2:7. Retrieved May 20, 2011 from http://biblecommenter.com/genesis/2-7.htm
Biblos.com, 2011. Exodus 20. Retrieved May 20, 2011 from http://kingjbible.com/exodus/20.htm
Christian Classics Etheral Library, n.d. Commentary on Genesis - Volume 1. Retrieved June 1, 2011 from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom01.viii.i.html
Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament, Biblos, 2011. Genesis 2:7. retrieved May 30, 2011 from http://bible.cc/genesis/2-7.htm
Snyder, A. N., 2007. Nina's Gallery. Retrieved June 2, 2011 from http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ninasgallery.net/images/genesis_2a_sm.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ninasgallery.net/Biblical.html&usg=__OlCIFXTMVHW9rc6pSWvq9DIabSQ=&h=3268&w=2347&sz=403&hl=en&start=2&sig2=dOT2N1y_QRMzJjfsN62dsQ&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=6Qz5zg4vb4pwZM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=108&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dgenesis%2B2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26biw%3D1003%26bih%3D619%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&ei=KlfnTaThLYrV0QHc1KjBCg
Wells, M., n.d. Genesis Chapter 2 - Commentary by Mike Wells. Retrieved June 1, 2011 from http://cornerstonebaptist-tyro.com/Documents/Genesis%20Chapter%202%20Commentary%20by%20Mike%20Wells.pdf
Why I Believe Ministries, 2009. The creation declares the Creator! Retrieved June 2, 2011 from http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.christian-apologetics-resources-and-education.com/image-files/creation.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.christian-apologetics-resources-and-education.com/Creation.html&usg=__NncXitMvC7MbYDyo1JkvYuDmt1A=&h=313&w=329&sz=17&hl=en&start=10&sig2=qkqxCbVI2zya7ODI_fyJ2g&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=PFhyBPaicnrLhM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=119&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcreation%26hl%3Den%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&ei=uFfnTayaKoeltwfsyL3FCg
Wikipedia, 2011. Garden of Eden. Retrieved June 1, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_Eden
