Genesis chapter two gives more details about day six of creation and Adam and Eve, whereas chapter one just says that God made male and female in the image of God. But before that, it says something interesting about the vegetation.
Genesis 2:4-6 says, “This is the book of the origin of the heavens and the earth, when they came into being, on the day when the Lord God made the heavens and the earth, 5and every green plant of the field before they came to be upon the earth, and every herb of the field before they had grown up. For God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no human to work the earth, 6but a spring came up out of the earth and watered all the face of the earth.” It seems that the elements of plant life were there but waiting for humans. So, there were no mature plants when Adam was formed from the dust.
At first glance, those who believe that the days of creation took thousands or millions of years could say that the seeds lay dormant all that time until humans cultivated the land. But I see a problem. Fish and birds were created on day five. What did the birds eat all those years while waiting for humans to cultivate the land? Also, at the end of chapter one, God told Adam and Eve that they could eat from all the seed-bearing plants and seed-bearing fruit. Wouldn’t that mean that the vegetation created on day three remained seeds at the beginning of day six and were mature fruits and vegetables by the end of day six? Otherwise, what was God telling them they could eat if nothing had produced any food?
Next, it says that God planted a garden in the land of Eden. The Garden was not Eden, but it was the Garden of Paradise in the midst of the land of Eden. Adam was placed in the Garden, and verse nine says that God brought up from the ground every tree that was good for food. It was after man was created that the plants sprung up.
In the middle of the Garden, God placed the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. As we will see in the next section about the fall, when Adam and Eve had taken of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, God prevented them from ever accessing the Tree of Life or else they might live forever in their sin. We read in Revelation 21:1 that John saw a new heaven and a new earth, and in Revelation 22:2 we see that the Tree of Life will be there yielding its twelve fruits for each month. The tree was taken from sinful man but will be available to the redeemed to live forever.
In Genesis 2:16, we see the first commandment given to Adam that comes with a punishable consequence. The very first command was in 1:28 when God told Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth and subdue it.” But there is no punishment if they do not do this. The commandment with a punishable consequence came when God told Adam that he could eat from all of the trees except for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil because Adam would surely die if he ate of that fruit. This was the torah (instruction) that was given to Adam. Some like to say that the Torah was given to Moses at Sinai. But towrah (H8451) means law, direction, or instruction. That can be found throughout God’s Word.
Next, we see that God formed all of the animals from the ground and brought them to Adam to name, but no suitable mate was found for Adam. So, God put Adam to sleep and brought forth Eve from the rib of man. This topic could be a post in itself, but we won’t spend that much time on it. It’s enough to say that from Adam came woman, which means that from man comes the DNA to create woman. It is from the man that gender is determined, so this should be understandable from a scientific principle. Man’s seed has the ability to create male and female.
Verse 24 of chapter two is of most importance as it is referenced more than once in the New Testament. “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Matthew 19:3-9 and Mark 10:1-12 both recount the story of Yeshua telling the Pharisees that divorce was not God’s plan, but that man and woman should be one flesh in marriage. Paul even references the two becoming one flesh in 1 Corinthians 6:15-20 and again in his letter to the Ephesians in 5:21-32.
Marriage was God’s plan from the beginning. Male and female together in union, in one flesh; working in conjunction, the wife as a helper to her husband, complementing each other. Together with God.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 “And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him–a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
It’s an erroneous argument that the Bible is misogynistic. God’s view of marriage is that man and woman would be of one flesh, joined together in union. Yes, the wife is supposed to be submissive to her husband, but Paul’s writings on this matter have been taken to the extreme. In any partnership, even if the partners have equal say, one has to make decisions. According to the Bible, the husband has the authority because Adam was created first, and Eve came from Adam. That is not to say that man can dominate his wife in any manner he wants. When we get to the story of Abraham and Sarah, it may become clear that Sarah was submissive to her husband, and even called him lord, but Abraham listened to the concerns of his wife and followed her lead as well.
We’ll have to leave it at that because this topic has been discussed ad nauseam for generations, and people still have vastly opposing opinions.