Genesis 2:15

Genesis 2:15 says, And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.  After God created the garden of Eden, He put man in it to take care of it.  Man always had a purpose, and that was to obey God and take care of His creation.  Verse sixteen states, And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  Man was given everything needed to live a life of abundance.  He simply had to enjoy what God had provided, and so must we learn to do today.  We have been promised that God will meet our needs, and we must be content to enjoy what God provides.  Verse seventeen declares, But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.  This was the first time where we see that man was given free will.  There were only two trees that man could not eat from, and if he did, he would die.  We today are too often tempted to see only what we think God is denying us instead of what He is providing for us.  Verse eighteen says, And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.  God had provided for all of man's needs except for companionship.  Verse nineteen states, And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.  I don't believe that this contradicts the order of creation from chapter one, but is simply a statement that God had created the animals and brought them to Adam to name.  Verse twenty adds, And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.  Though God brought the animals to Adam to name, none were fit to be a help mate for him.  The animals were not intellectually or spiritually equal to Adam and could not provide the companionship that he needed.  Verse twenty-one says, And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;   While Adam was in a deep sleep, God removed one of Adam's ribs.  Verse twenty-two declares, And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.  God created a help mate for Adam out of one of his ribs.  God could have easily created any number of men from the dust, but He chose to create a woman out of the rib of man, establishing the unique relationship between men and women.  I believe that this is a relationship that only a man and a woman can fulfill for each other.  The woman was not made to be the servant of man, but to be his equal and his completion.  Verse twenty-three proclaims, And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.  Adam recognized the equality of the woman.  She was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.  Verse twenty-four states, Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.  Though not stated by the name, this is God's plan for marriage.  A man shall leave his mother and father and take a woman to be his wife, and the two will become on flesh.  The concept of marriage did not come later on, but it was God's plan from the beginning.  Verse twenty-five declares, And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.  Shame at being naked came after the fall of man.  Until sin entered into the life of mankind, there was no shame.