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INTRODUCTION
We’re continuing to make our way through the book of Genesis, raising questions and giving answers to some of life’s most foundational questions.
This morning we’re in Genesis 2 and we’re getting to that point in the chapter “when a maaannnn loves a wooomannn....”
It’s interesting that we find ourselves approaching this text as we arrive at the Sunday before Valentines day.
Today we’ll focus on God’s creation of Eve and God’s design for human sexuality.
Next week we’ll focus on God’s creation of Marriage and God’s design for the family.
If there’s any area where there’s a “conflict” between the worldview of Scripture and the worldview of our culture - it’s in the area of human sexuality and marriage.
Our culture is reaping the fruit of abandoning God’s design for human sexuality and marriage and it’s only going to get messier and messier.
Opening Your Mind
This “conflict” in worldviews is going to make today’s message somewhat controversial; maybe even upsetting.
So before we begin know this: my only aim is to properly represent what I believe God’s Word teaches on this topic.
If you think I’ve misrepresented God’s Word then by all means share how and why you think that’s the case.
But, if your disagreement isn’t with what I’ve said but rather what God’s Word teaches then I’d encourage you to really examine the angst in your heart.
If there really is a God and he really has revealed himself through his Word, can we really expect that God to agree with us on EVERY topic?
Of course not!
We must allow God to challenge our assumptions and provide an alternative perspective.
We appeal to this book on so many other topics because we find it’s contents true, good and beautiful.
If we can take it as God’s truth on those matters then why not also on matters where we tend to disagree?
From General to Specific
Before we read our text let me try and situate our passage in it’s context.
We’ve been in Genesis 2 for the past two weeks now and it’s important to note that Genesis 2 isn’t a repeat of Genesis 1.
Some take these two chapters as two entirely different creation accounts.
If you see Genesis 2 through that lens then you’ll find many contractions and incompatible statements.
Genesis 2 “fills out” what Genesis 1 left unspoken.
It’s a complement and commentary on the six days of creation in Genesis 1.
The camera “zooms in” and focuses on one particular act in creation: the creation of Adam and Eve.
Genesis 1 presents God’s general purpose for mankind.
Genesis 2 presents God’s specific design for how men and women partner together to bring it about.
Genesis 1 concludes with God looking at his creation and deeming it, “very good.”
(Gen 1:31)
Yet our passage opens with words, “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is NOT GOOD that the man should be alone...” (Gen 2:18)
It’s as if our passage is telling “the rest of the story” of God’s creation of man on day six and how God took something that was incomplete and made it whole through his beautiful design.
Genesis 1 gives the general frame.
Genesis 2 fills in the specific details.
Forms and fullness.
I’d like us to examine two things out of this passage: (1) why did God make women?
(2) Do the differences between men and women really matter?
Why Did God Create?
Let’s begin by examining God’s reasons for creating woman.
That’s what our passage is mainly concerned with.
Let’s pick it back up in verse 18.
Genesis 2:18–20 (ESV)
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.
And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.
But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
Genesis 2:20 ends where Genesis 2:18 begins: it is NOT GOOD that man is alone.
The simple answer for why God made a woman is because it wasn’t good for man to be alone.
Over and over again in creation we see God say “it was good.”
It isn’t until this dynamic with Adam and the absence of a helpmate that God says, “this is NOT GOOD.”
So God finds a way to complete what was incomplete.
Completing Creation
None of this is to say that Adam was incomplete as a person.
Otherwise all single men would be “incomplete” as individual beings.
Men do not need women or marriage to complete them.
However, even though Adam might’ve been complete as a person the creation itself was incomplete until God made the woman.
We’ve seen this before.
First, God creates the form then he fills it: form to fullness, structure to significance.
Genesis 1:2 says the earth was without form and void… darkness was covering then earth.
So? Genesis 1:2 God said “Let there be light...”
In Genesis 2:5 there was “no bush…no rain…no man...”
So? Genesis 2:7 the “LORD God formed the man....”
Now in Genesis 2:18 it was “not good for the man to be alone...”
So? God says, “I will make a helper fit form him...”
That’s what’s going on here with Adam and the creation of Eve.
God’s Image & Our Need
This inherent need we have for "another” is central to God’s image in us.
Remember, in Genesis 1, God is not just a “me.”
God is an “us.”
God is fundamentally relational and therefore mankind has been made to be fundamentally relational.
It’s interesting that even though Adam had paradise (the greatest food, pleasure, beauty, etc) it still wasn’t enough to “be good.”
Adam needed something else, someone else.
Someone like him.
It’s a reminder that God has made us FOR relationship.
We were made for friendship and communion with other people.
You can have a great relationship with God,
consistent personal quiet time,
moral uprightness, and on and on.
But it won’t be enough to truly satisfy because God made you with an additional craving.
Central to our nature is a craving for relationship.
Paradise isn’t really paradise without friends and community.
In addition to a longing for God we long for “the other.”
Does this necessarily have to be with another person from the opposite sex to whom you’re married?
I think not.
Jesus was single his entire life and he was the perfect representation of God’s image.
However, he still connected relationally with other human beings.
So at the broadest level God made man both male and female because relational connection is core the image of God in man.
Fulfilling The Mandate
But God’s creation of Eve extends beyond that.
It’s not just that creation is incomplete without woman.
God’s creation mandate is left unfulfilled without the creation of woman.
You can see this, in our text, as God parades all of the animals before Adam to name.
It’s interesting God chooses to do this.
He could’ve just handed Adam a list of what he wanted but he didn’t.
Why is that?
It’s a reminder of something important.
God accomplishes his purpose in creation through MEANS.
And Adam is God’s means for naming all of the animals.
By naming the animals Adam is engaged in the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:28.
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