Plantings in the Mist

"These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth, when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to til the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." (Genesis 2:4-9)

 It turns out that these particular passages seem to present a lot of trouble for some folks. They have found a way to "interpret" these to indicate that there was a second creation. I don't believe this to be the case at all; in fact, I think it takes quite a stretch of imagination to read that into these verses. I believe it is false teaching and so we won't delve into it here.

The same folks seem to have an issue with the fact that elsewhere God created everything by speaking it into existence, yet here He "forms" man out dust. Those same folks perhaps need to read Genesis 1 over again, only this time more slowly and more carefully.

"God said" and "it was so" happened with 1) light, 2) the gathering of the waters, 3) the grass, herb-yielding seed, and fruit trees, and 4) the lights in the heavens. The things God "made" or "created" (indicating that some effort other than just speaking them into existence occurred) were 1) the firmament, 2) the sun and moon, 3) the creatures of the sea, 4) the living creatures of the earth, 5) and man. Not to say that God could not have spoken these into existence if He so chose, just that it is stated differently in the scriptures. And if we just take the Word at its Word, it appears these things were created a bit differently, for purposes that God alone understands.

Thus, rather than come up with some weird second creation story, the simpler way to read these verses is to say that the author of the book of Genesis gave a quick accounting of creation in Genesis 1, and went into more detail in Genesis 2. We often do this ourselves when relating a story…we give the important highlights and then go into more detail if time allows.

But the other trouble here (or so "they" say) is that the verses declare that every plant and herb was created "before" they were IN the earth and "before" they grew. I still don't know how that relates to a second creation. All it tells me is that God created the plants BEFORE He put them in the ground. Not impossible for Him. Perhaps He didn't want to start from seed. Who knows?

Sometimes, we get a little TOO deep into things, when it's just not necessary.

Oh, but then there's the troublesome "mist." But then God HAD just "divided the waters," hadn't He? Couldn't mist have been formed from all that was involved in that process? Couldn't there have been enough mist to last a while, until He decided to bring rain (the first account of which is at the flood?) Or could it also be that there was rain in between the mist and the flood, but it just wasn't mentioned?

Well, let's end this discussion with another theory:

"The Chumash, a Jewish commentary, has a very simple and quaint approach to the origin of plants and Genesis 2:5-6. It says that when God created the plants in Genesis 1, they were waiting under the surface of the earth. They were waiting for man. When Adam came and prayed for food, and was ready to work the ground, God sent water, and the plants sprung up." – quote taken from GoBible.org

Tomorrow we'll tackle the "tree of life" and the "tree of knowledge of good and evil."