Chapter 2 is Myers’s defense and exposition of the covenant of works. He begins by acknowledging the objection of John Murray and others that the term berith (covenant) does not occur in Genesis until chapter 6. Myers has three rejoinders. First, the Davidic covenant is not called a covenant in 2 Samuel 7; the language of covenant is applied only by later Scripture passages. Second, Hosea 6:7 refers to a covenant made either with Adam or with all mankind, and this is likely a reference to the covenant of works. Third, covenant first appears in Genesis 6 as part of a Hebrew phrase that indicates the establishing of an existing covenant. This indicates the presence of a covenant or covenants prior to the first use of the word in Genesis 6:18. (Myers, however, does not think that Genesis 6:18 is referring back to the covenant of works.)
Myers then turns to Genesis 1-3 to see if the elements of a covenant are present in these chapters. Covenants involve relationships, and Myers begins by establishing how the creation of man in God’s image established a relationship between God and man. Myers then notes that covenants involve parameters, and he outlines four creation ordinances (procreation, subduing, Sabbath, and marriage) along with what he calls “the focal command” (the prohibition upon eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil). Finally, Myers observes that life is the reward for keeping the covenant of works. If a covenant is “a binding relationship between parties that involves both blessings and obligations,” then a covenant exists in Genesis 1-3.
But is this a works covenant? Myers grants that the very giving of the covenant was gracious (he refers to this as condescending grace), but the covenant promised eternal life upon condition of obedience, which means that it was not a covenant of redeeming grace.
Myers concludes the chapter with warm, pastoral observations about the relevance of the covenant of works to the believer today.
This chapter successfully argues for the existence of the covenant of works in Genesis 1-3, and it does so with such warmth and exegetical insight that I’d recommend it to anyone preaching on those chapters. My differences with this chapter would be one of emphasis. First, I’m more convinced that the correct reading in Hosea 6 is Adam (the person) rather than all mankind. Second, while Myers is clear that procreation and subduing are blessings and not merely ordinances, I would argue that the text presents them as primarily blessings. 1. This is what the text explicitly calls them. 2. The curse following sin explicitly falls on these blessings. 3. Redemption includes the establishment of a kingdom (subduing) on an earth that is full of humans ruling creation in submission to God. That said, I grant that these blessings do reveal what is normative in God’s creation and that they therefore carry an obligation to live according to them and not contrary to them.