BOUNDARIED BLESSINGS
Opening Prayer
‘Speak, Lord, in the stillness / speak your word to me; / hushed my heart to listen / in expectancy.’*
Read GENESIS 2
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Adam and Eve
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth[a] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams[b] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man[c] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin[d] and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.[e] 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam[f] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[g] and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib[h] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Footnotes
- Genesis 2:5 Or land; also in verse 6
- Genesis 2:6 Or mist
- Genesis 2:7 The Hebrew for man (adam) sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for ground (adamah); it is also the name Adam (see verse 20).
- Genesis 2:12 Or good; pearls
- Genesis 2:13 Possibly southeast Mesopotamia
- Genesis 2:20 Or the man
- Genesis 2:21 Or took part of the man’s side
- Genesis 2:22 Or part
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘… love the Lord your God … walk in obedience to him … keep his commands, decrees and laws; then … the Lord your God will bless you’ (Deuteronomy 30:16). Think about how keeping God’s laws yields rich blessings in different areas of life.Life was good in Eden. God himself had planted the garden, provided a river to water it, and ‘made all kinds of trees grow’ for utility—‘good for food’—and beauty—‘pleasing to the eye’ (vv. 8–10). Adam and Eve enjoyed fruitful and fulfilling work (v. 15), the blessed companionship of a harmonious partnership (vv. 18–25) and a share in the abundant life of God himself through unrestricted access to the ‘tree of life’ (v. 9). They had everything they needed, not simply to survive but to thrive.
But God’s boundless blessings are boundaried! Just as God has established boundaries in nature—for example, setting limits on the sea, which symbolized the forces of chaos (Genesis 1:9, 10)—he also sets boundaries for his people (vv. 16, 17). Satan would have us believe that living without boundaries is an attractive alternative
(Genesis 3:4, 5). But without boundaries, there is no protective framework to keep out fear, shame, and guilt, and to create a safe space within which we can freely explore, experience, and enjoy God’s blessings. By breaking bounds, we place ourselves outside this place of blessing (Genesis 3:23); and there, stripped of divine protection, fruitfulness and flourishing are replaced by futility and frustration.
Apply
Do you need to rethink your attitude about God’s boundaries?
Closing prayer
Loving Father, when I chafe at your limits, feel displeasure, discontentment, or resentment, forgive me—remind me that you have given them to me for my good and for your glory.
*‘Speak, Lord, in the stillness’, Emily Crawford, 1920
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2025 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.