Genesis 2:4-9,15-17; Psalm 103(104):1-2,27-30; Mark 7:14-23
This, the second account of creation, is strikingly more spiritual than the first. God here moulds man from stuff he had already made - we are thus a part of Gods creation from the beginning. God breaths His Spirit through this dust to make man come alive - thus we contain within us from the very beginning, part of God himself. The word used - Ruach - is full of meaning and is used in these writings for breath, wind and Spirit. The barren creation God has made is now filled with life by the arriving of water, which floods up through the soil in an abundance of life giving.
The resultant garden is the garden of delights (that is what Eden means) and man is at the centre - yet only man is given this breath, spirit. wind. Only man is complete. In the garden God plants the tree of life and knowledge - which of course features in the account soon to come. If we eat of this tree then we shall die - and clearly we are not to do that. We can neither create our own life, nor take it away - only God can do those things.
And we must take care of this garden - there can be no thought of harming it. That last point - we as a species of life are manifestly failing to do, and must change our approach - and fast!. God made a perfect, delightful world, and must be suffering as we destroy it.