0:02 we're ready to to really see what the
0:05 Lord is teaching in in Genesis chapter
0:07 2. Now, there are scholars out there
0:08 that see this as two completely
0:11 disconnected creation accounts. Uh,
0:12 that's one way to read it. Another way
0:15 to read it is to see chapter one as more
0:18 of a a big picture and then chapter two
0:20 drilling down into the most important
0:23 portion of that chapter 1 creation
0:25 account. And that's the creation of Adam
0:28 and Eve. You get more detail here than
0:31 what we saw in in Genesis chapter 1. And
0:33 to me, it puts things in more of a
0:37 temple kind of context to see chapter 2
0:40 of Genesis as I'm not saying that this
0:43 was Adam and Eve's endowment, but in a
0:46 way it's so similar to ours in terms of
0:49 some kind of initiatory ordinance that
0:53 helps you see yourself in profound and
0:56 meaningful ways, including your body and
0:58 what it was, what it's meant to
1:00 accomplish in creation.
1:03 from there to go to an endowment where
1:06 you truly see who you are and what your
1:08 purpose on in life is supposed to be.
1:10 And then the culminating act in the
1:14 temple, the ceiling ceremony where two
1:17 become one eternally and a family is
1:21 formed. Wow. To see chapter 2 of Genesis
1:24 as an initiation into an understanding
1:26 of our physical reality
1:29 into some kind of an endowment of of
1:31 power through an understanding of
1:33 identity and purpose and then a
1:37 culmination in in creating a new eternal
1:39 unit of man and wife. All of that
1:42 happens in Genesis chapter 2. So let's
1:44 dig into it. First this focus on the
1:46 body as part of our initiatory
1:49 ordinance. Genesis 2:7, "And the Lord
1:52 God formed man of the dust of the ground
1:54 and breathed into his nostrils the
1:56 breath of life." Now there with this
1:59 confluence of dust and breath, we see
2:01 the formation of a soul which is
2:04 described as or defined as body and
2:06 spirit. Well, body there's element,
2:09 there's the dust, and spirit there's
2:13 breath. But most pe other people who see
2:15 creation here think, "Oh, well that's
2:18 God's breath." And so our existence is
2:21 simply the breath of God. That in a way
2:25 we don't exist separate from him.
2:27 Now the book of Abraham would clarify
2:29 this and it does an amazing job. It says
2:31 the gods formed man from the dust of the
2:34 ground and took his spirit. And how's
2:37 this for clarification? That is the
2:40 man's spirit and put it into him and
2:42 breathe into his nostrils the breath of
2:43 life. You see what difference that
2:45 makes? Remember the book of Abraham is
2:47 our best source on premortality. It
2:49 described the council in heaven. It
2:50 described the war in heaven. It
2:52 described these noble and great ones and
2:54 and they will go down to help
2:56 participate in the creation of the
2:58 earth. Well, how's this verse for
3:01 premortality also? That premortal
3:03 individual existence that this isn't God
3:07 breathing in some kind of kind of vague
3:09 uh non-differentiated
3:12 uh life. rather taking the person's
3:15 spirit and putting it into that person's
3:18 body. This is individual premortal existence.
3:20 existence.
3:23 That is the man's spirit. It's amazing.
3:24 I remember having one conversation with
3:27 with someone on my mission. We got to be
3:28 really close and so we could really kind
3:30 of have fun with each other in
3:32 disagreeing over doctrines. And he was
3:34 really pushing back against premortality
3:35 going, "No, there's no such thing. We
3:37 were just the breath of God." And and I
3:38 was kind of pushing back and going,
3:42 "What? No, it it's like it makes it
3:44 sound like creation is a process of God
3:46 blowing bubbles. Remember that those
3:48 that the little container you'd have and
3:49 you had the little stick and you'd put
3:52 it down into this jar and pull it up and
3:54 it had the the soap on it and then you'd
3:58 blow and your breath combined with this
4:00 this liquid element would form these
4:03 bubbles that would then go spread off
4:06 through space. Is that creation? Is God
4:09 just blowing bubbles? And then I laughed
4:10 and I said, "Well, what are wicked
4:13 people? Is that bad breath?" No, this is
4:16 this is individual existence and God
4:20 allowing our spirits to inhabit our
4:23 bodies. That's the definition of a soul,
4:25 an individual soul. Now, if that helps
4:27 us understand breath, and breath in
4:29 Hebrew is a great a great word because
4:32 it's it's breath and it's wind and it's spirit.
4:34 spirit.
4:37 Well, what about dust? How does this
4:40 factor in? Now, I I had a student years
4:42 ago. His name was John. He was
4:45 hilarious. Uh we've we've kept in touch
4:46 ever since this. This was like 20 years
4:50 ago. But he g he gave me a gift. And it
4:51 was not meant to be much of a gift. It
4:53 was meant to be a joke. Not just to me,
4:55 but to the teacher he originally
4:57 submitted it to. You see, at the time,
4:59 John was in a ceramics class in high
5:02 school. I taught him in seminary. And he
5:05 realized at the very last second, my
5:07 final project is due tomorrow. I am
5:10 dead. And it this was the culmination of
5:12 all he learned in this ceramics class.
5:14 And he thought, I'm I'm dead because I
5:16 haven't I haven't put in the time to
5:18 create the masterpiece that my teacher
5:21 wants from me. But then he realized this
5:24 stroke of of devious inspiration. He
5:26 said, you know, my my teacher is kind of
5:28 a hippie of sorts and I bet this would
5:31 work. And so what John did was he took a
5:34 bunch of clay. He didn't even put it on
5:37 the pottery wheel to create something
5:40 polished and and beautiful. He just took
5:42 a bunch of clay and started to mash it
5:44 together with his bare hands. And he
5:47 turned it into something that sort of
5:50 had a human form. Okay. Not like legs
5:52 and arms so much, but just kind of smash
5:54 it all together with some sort of torso
5:56 and and kind of pi pinch in the neck.
5:57 And here's the head. And then he took
6:00 like a pencil, I think he said, to poke
6:02 some holes for the eyes and to draw some
6:04 lines across the head as if it were
6:07 hair. This thing was hideous. Uh, and
6:09 then he just let it hardened and and
6:12 called it good. Now, this was the gamble
6:14 on his part because he knew that once
6:15 his teacher looked at this and thought,
6:17 "This took you like two seconds. Uh,
6:20 this was this does not show you or does
6:21 not show me what you've learned through
6:24 this process of ceramics." Well, John's
6:28 genius came in what he named it. And as
6:29 he turned it in, and his teacher
6:31 probably looked at it with horror, John
6:33 just presented it with this total poker
6:34 face and said, "Oh, this is my
6:38 masterpiece. I call it Adam from the dust."
6:39 dust."
6:41 And knowing the personality of his
6:43 teacher as as they looked at it and just
6:47 said, "I love it." It's like you can
6:50 just picture God fashioning him from the
6:52 clay and he's still in this this
6:55 rudimentary condition, not yet ready to
6:57 breathe life into it. But man, I can
7:00 just see the the divine fingerprints all
7:03 over this this creation. It's a
7:06 masterpiece. And sure enough, John got
7:09 an A on this project. Hilarious. And he
7:11 there he was in my office as he gives me
7:14 this this this this
7:18 creation of his. He has been laughing
7:21 about it ever since. And to me I keep it
7:24 just as a reminder that that is not what
7:27 God did with us. This was not God
7:29 looking at the clock and going day six
7:31 is almost over and we got to call it a
7:32 day soon and I still haven't done my
7:34 crowning creation but uh what am I going
7:36 to And so he just grabs, you know, grabs
7:38 together some clay, some dirt and kind
7:41 of fashions it into some rudimentary
7:43 human and pinches the neck and and pokes
7:47 in the eyes and gives some hair and then
7:51 last breath before day seven begins.
7:56 No, that is not our divine origin. In
7:57 fact, Brigham Young himself had a bit
8:00 had some fun with this as he described
8:02 that that view that Adam was made
8:04 literally from dust. And Brigham just
8:07 laughed and said, "What? Like an adobe?"
8:09 I just picture old Frontier Brigham and
8:12 an adobe kind of mud bricks being formed
8:15 to to make houses and and dwellings and
8:17 so on. And he's like, "No, that is not
8:21 how God created Adam. We are not adobes.
8:25 We are children of God. Then what's the
8:27 point of dust? Well, on the one hand,
8:31 it's a great metaphor, a great symbol
8:33 for our nothingness. Remember, King
8:35 Benjamin teaches that uh Samuel the
8:38 Lammonite teaches that that we are
8:39 nothing. We are or even last week when
8:41 we were proving contraries on humanity,
8:44 that we are dust and divinity.
8:46 We're both. and to understand our
8:49 nothingness from that perspective.
8:51 Maybe that's the the combining of the
8:54 contraries with dust and breath. That
8:56 yes, it's our spirit, but if we see it
9:00 as the divine spirit of God, there's our
9:03 divinity. There's that side of our dual
9:07 nature, but yes, we are made of fallen
9:10 earthly element. And that dust side of
9:13 us should keep us humble. Or as Samuel
9:14 Lemonite said, you are less than the
9:16 dust of the earth because the dust
9:19 obeys. Now remember what Abraham taught
9:21 us that maybe the dust was a little
9:24 obstinate early on in creation and God
9:27 had to watch it until he was obeyed.
9:29 Well, it's taking us a lot longer to
9:32 figure it out to to learn to exercise
9:34 our agency in the right way and submit
9:36 our will to the will of God. That does
9:39 make us less than the dust of the earth.
9:41 We're less obedient than it is. But when
9:43 it comes to both our physical and our
9:46 spiritual creation, we have heavenly
9:49 parents to thank. One of my favorite
9:51 statements along these lines comes from
9:55 Parley Pratt in a masterpiece of writing
9:58 called Key to the Science of theology.
10:01 He put it this way. In after years when
10:05 paradise was lost by sin, when man was
10:06 driven from the face of his heavenly
10:10 father to toil and droop and die, when
10:12 heaven was veiled from view, and with
10:14 few exceptions, man was no longer
10:17 counted worthy to retain the knowledge
10:20 of his heavenly origin. Then darkness
10:22 veiled the past and future from the
10:25 heathen mind. Man neither knew himself
10:28 from whence he came, nor whether he was
10:31 bound. At length a Moses came who knew
10:34 his God and would fame have led mankind
10:37 to know him too and see him face to
10:39 face. But they could not receive his
10:43 heavenly laws or bide his presence. Thus
10:46 the holy man was forced again to veil
10:49 the past in mystery and in the beginning
10:52 of his history assigned to man an
10:56 earthly origin. Man molded from the
10:59 earth as a brick. A woman manufactured
11:03 from a rib. Oh man, when wilt thou cease
11:07 to be a child in knowledge?
11:09 That is such an incredible statement
11:11 from Parley P. Pratt. When are we going
11:14 to grow up in God enough to know that we
11:18 that growing up in God is a literal part
11:20 of our divine inheritance? It's we are
11:22 children of heavenly parents and
11:25 children are meant to grow up to become
11:28 like those parents. Yes. Jesus is the
11:31 only begotten son of God in mortal flesh.
11:33 flesh.
11:36 But Adam and Eve are begotten son and
11:40 daughter of God in immortal glory placed
11:43 in the garden of Eden.
11:46 If we could understand that
11:48 there is no greater initiatory
11:53 into seeing ourselves, seeing our body
11:56 for the gift of God that it is, that ye
11:58 are the temple of God, the spirit of God
12:01 is within you. Oh, when will we cease to
12:04 be children in knowledge?
12:08 The moment we look in the mirror and see
12:11 divinity staring back.
12:14 The moment we can pray and call God our
12:18 father with real feeling
12:20 and real understanding of what that
12:23 title entails.
12:26 This is profound truth which takes us
12:29 from the dust of the earth to the
12:32 glories of the garden of Eden.
12:35 In Genesis 2:8, it speaks of God
12:38 planting a garden eastward in Eden,
12:42 eastward toward the source of light. We
12:45 we are coming from God's presence to
12:48 inhabit this earthly sphere. He focuses
12:50 his brief description of Eden on two
12:54 trees, a tree of life and a tree of
12:56 knowledge of good and evil. Those will
12:58 be our focus next week and so we'll hold
13:00 off to talk about them when we discuss
13:03 the fall. It then speaks of a river
13:05 flowing through Eden to water it, then
13:07 parting into four heads. We don't have
13:09 to worry about the specifics of those
13:10 four rivers. Names change and are
13:13 repeated with time and so on. But to
13:16 think of four different directions you
13:18 could head as you are leaving the
13:21 garden. To me, there's a great symbolism
13:24 there. Uh because if you think about the
13:26 parable of the sewer, there's four types
13:28 of soil. If you think about Lehi's
13:31 dream, there are four types of people in
13:33 in their relationship to the tree of
13:37 life. And so to think about us again,
13:39 this is part of our our endowment so to
13:40 speak as we're trying to situate
13:44 ourselves in Eden. Understand who we are
13:47 and where we should go from here and
13:49 what path will I follow throughout my
13:53 life. Which type of soil, which group in
13:56 the dream will I find my way back to the
13:58 Garden of Eden where I can ultimately
14:01 partake of the tree of life? Even things
14:04 like the river flowing out of Eden, that
14:06 means Eden must have been at a higher
14:09 elevation than its surrounding. And when
14:10 it talks about the fall, we'll see next
14:13 week when when when they are cast out
14:14 east of Eden, there's that great
14:17 Steinbeck novel. East of Eden is the
14:19 fallen world. So to go back to Eden,
14:21 we'd have to go west. To go back to
14:24 Eden, we'd have to go climb back up
14:27 going upstream through these rivers. And
14:29 we don't ultimately have to find our way
14:31 past cherubam and the flaming sword,
14:33 which we'll meet next week, to get back
14:35 to the tree of life. All of that, by the
14:38 way, is temple imagery. the temple of
14:41 Solomon, uh the temple in Ezekiel's
14:43 vision, the tabernacle of Moses in the
14:46 wilderness, the salt lake temple, so
14:49 many uh latter day latter- day temples
14:53 are situated facing east and on a hill
14:55 or even built with steps upward or
14:57 progressing from room to room in an
14:59 upward climb. So that what does entering
15:03 the temple do? You go west. You're no
15:08 longer east of Eden. You go up back into
15:11 the presence of God. You pass cherubam,
15:15 these sentinels that stand before you so
15:17 that you can return to the presence of
15:21 God. Like I said, tabernacle, temple,
15:23 you are going west, you are going up.
15:25 You are passing cherubam that are carved
15:27 into the wood of the doors or
15:31 embroidered into the fabric of the veil.
15:33 You are coming back to God's presence.
15:36 You're enter. You're re-entering Eden
15:39 and coming back to the tree of life
15:40 again. We'll see more of that next week,
15:44 but the imagery here is so drenched in
15:47 in temple that that I hope we think of
15:48 that at the next time that we attend the
15:51 temple ourselves. Now, in verse 15 of
15:53 Genesis 2, God places Adam in the Garden
15:57 of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Now,
15:59 what does it mean to dress the garden?
16:00 To keep the garden. If you look at the
16:03 Hebrew originals, the word for dress can
16:08 also mean to till, to work, to serve, to
16:11 worship. Is that what we've covenanted
16:14 to do through our own endowment, to
16:18 sacrifice, and to consecrate, to give
16:21 all we can to God to fully serve him. We
16:25 are here to dress the garden and to keep
16:28 it. That word can mean to watch, to
16:32 preserve, to guard, to care for, as in
16:34 to keep the commandments, to guard the
16:36 garden, to watch it, to preserve it. In
16:38 some ways, they were supposed to be
16:40 their own cherubam and flaming sword
16:43 before they were replaced.
16:46 That's another part of what we covenant,
16:50 to obey God, to keep his word, to care
16:54 for the covenant that he is bringing us into.
16:55 into.
16:58 Adam and Eve, this is your role here in
