If you were in church on Wednesday, May 29th, I told you that I had a moment in my study that made me feel like a preschooler learning their A-B-Cs all over again. Here’s the scenario.
Our Vacation Bible School theme is Camp Genesis: Adventures In God’s Creation. Lesson one is all about the creation week. Trying to find an attention-grabbing way to teach this to 1st-6th graders alluded me. However, the Lord gave me a great opening illustration and I was fast on my way.
Studying out each day, reminding myself of what was created on those days, and developing a PowerPoint slide seemed simple enough – that is, until I got to day six. While on the Answers In Genesis (AiG) site, I was reading how Adam was created, the earth roaming animals were created, Adam was given the task of naming the animals and tending the Garden, then Eve was created. Here’s the statement that got me:
So Adam had plenty of time to name all the animals God brought to him—leaving plenty of time for Eve’s creation on the same day. Eve was created on Day Six, just like the first two chapters of the Bible say.1
WHAT?!?!? I had never – and I mean never – heard or been taught that Eve was created on the same day as Adam. Surely, AiG and author Mariah Smith got this one wrong. Afterall, they are human and are bound to get something wrong on occasion. This isn’t a serious breach of Bible doctrine and it’s not a Heaven/Hell/Gospel issue. Still, I needed answers.
Genesis 1:24-31 says, “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. (25) And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. (26) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of
God created he him; male and female created he them. (28) And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (29) And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. (30) And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. (31) And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
Hmmmm…now we wrestle with Genesis 2. Genesis 2:1-3 says, “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. (2) And on the seventh day God ended 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 that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”
Obviously, we have reached the end of creation week. Then, Genesis 2:4-25 backs up and gives us more details about how day six unfolded. Even though I have read this hundreds of times and taught on it a significant amount of time, I always assumed Eve had been created after creation week had ended, even thought the context of Genesis 1 and 2 shows her creation on day six.
How had I missed this?!?
I made a call to two men that I trust implicitly, love, and respect. One is a senior saint who has been in ministry 25-30 longer than me. The other is a fellow pastor and friend who is older than me but I’m still the “senior” pastor, having been a pastor longer than him. Both men are Bible students. Both men love the Word of God. Both men will dig for answers, hungering for truth as much as I do.
And my question stumped them both.
As we poured over Scripture and did our own research, we concluded that AiG was correct. In fact, the senior saint called another Jewish ministry seeking answers to the question. The order of day six is: the creation of Adam, the creation of animals, the creation of Eden so man would have a place to work, God gives instructions to Adam, Adam names the animals, then Adam takes a God-nap while the Lord performs the first surgery, removing a rib, forming Eve, waking Adam, and conducting the first wedding. Day six is complete!
Mind blown! I got schooled! In fact, I would say that I got pre-schooled!
I wish I could convey in words how exciting and thrilling this was for me. The creation story seems like Bible 101 after all these years. And, yet there is always more to learn.
God’s Word is never dull. There is something that God wants to reveal to us every time the pages are opened. We’ve never learned it all. Though I have always believed this 100%, I was stunned by the simplicity of something I had missed for 57 years.
It just goes to show you the truth of Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
1https://answersingenesis.org/adam-and-eve/eves-birth-certificate/
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