The Earthly Family

He Created Male and Female

Dr. Jim Bohrer / General

Now we have seen God move in space and time creating a place for an earthly family to dwell.

There we learn about our position as the Lord’s highest act of Creation in the World and Universe. We bear His image.

He gives us a broad overview of all of the material realm and the place God intended for His Heavenly and Earthly family to live together.

We see between Genesis 1 and also Job 38:7 the Lord enjoins His Heavenly family to rejoice in the Creation of Humans.

Eden get described in terms other religions would signal the gods and other spiritual beings lived, but not the place of people. The gods might come to our realm and mess around with us, but they had it easy.

The Lord will gives us a picture of a beautiful garden where God lived with Adam and Eve.

Everything is good initially. God maintains order and keeps things under His rule.

He will invite Adam to join Him in His creative work of subduing the rest of the world.

Once again the account of Creation in Genesis 1 is about our position in God’s Creation as the purpose and pinnacle of why He made the Universe and Earth in particular to have people bear his IMAGE.

The account in Genesis 2 then covers our RELATIONSHIP to creation as rulers/managers and our family relationship through Adam and Eve as the first family.

So we move to Genesis 1:28 where we get three commands to fulfill as Humans.

Genesis 1:28CSB

28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

1. Three Commands for Men and Women to Fulfill:

I believe Genesis 1, 2 and 3 are real historical events that summarize the beginnings of life on planet earth. Even more importantly, everything later found in the Bible about women, about social order, social structure, social dysfunction is measured, explained or defined by Genesis

a. Be Fruitful and Multiply .

He says first of all, to fulfill your humanity as a man, you need to be fruitful and multiply. This speaks to the bearing and releasing of a healthy next generation -- healthy children – into the world that God had created.

b. Bring Creative order over the earth.

He says subdue the earth, which means that, on whatever part of the planet you’ve been placed, you need to use your creativity and your intellect to bring out the best in that part of the planet.

That is a command to both men and women. So sometimes there’s a question about what is a woman’s place. At times I believe that is not a robust question or a loaded question. I point out that the first command men and women have refers to the home and the next generation. So the command to be creative and subdue the earth is subordinate to raising a family. So the question both men and women need to ask to be faithful is what does out career and lifestyle look like in order to maximize the raising of children. That means sacrifice of job, lifestyle, and time.

Once that can be answered in a way that honors God then, I see men and women both participating in the act of subduing the earth. That means a woman can do it as an environmental engineer, she can be a pilot, women can design computers, be a PhD cancer researcher. Both men and women are called to be part of that.

We can see that in Proverbs 31. The lady called Ruby clearly meets the needs of the family first. But then we see her function as an entrepreneur and mananger. She supervises many people, she purchases and trades. She is a wheeler and dealer.

So while we can see the Lord provide gender and role differentiation, we also need to be aware of opportunities the Lord has open for all people to participate in the stewardship of the earth.

We need to recognize God endowed both men and women with the intellect and creativity to bring out the best in the planet.

See Proverbs 31.

c. Steward the resources of the earth.

Animals and plants do not get rights on par with Humans. God commands us to rule over the earth, meaning that you’re to be a good steward of the earth and its resources.

2. In Genesis 2 God gives the Social Structure to find relational fulfillment through.

We live in a modern age, the 21st Century. Our culture has idolized individuality, expression, and personality. Our modern age would immediately feel a sense of discrimination because God creates Adam first, wouldn’t they? There is great discomfort today for those who discuss the differences between men and women. My daughter mentioned that she feels tension at college as she goes through orientation. She can sense that her beliefs will not be received and she prays about how to not lose her voice or become discriminated against because she doesn’t agree with her professors’ social religion. Don’t you feel that even today? Don’t we hear about people feeling uncomfortable at school, work, or even family events if it becomes known that they don’t believe similarity between men and women DOES NOT EQUAL sameness. Even as I read the text – even as I said God called the male and female ‘man’ did you feel kind of funny, just a little bit, maybe you didn’t know why, but you did, even in church? Well it doesn’t feel politically correct, does it? Because it’s not. We live in a politically correct world. Or better a world where those in power want to change our thinking and attitude by demanding certain phrases to be OK and other phrases to be off limits or canceled. That’s the world we live in! It’s because in our world, sameness and uniformity are the only acceptable direction.

The world wants to force us in those directions. When it does, it brings the richness of male and female down on a kind of a bland, uniform level. But that’s not true in the original blueprints. The original blueprints have something different to say. Here at the beginning, regardless of how we feel, God chooses to create male and female: Why?

So these are the 3 wide-angle observations that stand out in Genesis about value and calling and social structure.

What does Genesis 2 have to tell us about manhood? I think you’ll find this even more interesting. Maybe even a little bit more uncomfortable, but that’s okay, because we’re men, right – and we’re on a journey.

1. Here’s the first. I want you to notice when we go into Chapter 2, one of the first things we’ll notice as the lens goes from this wide-angle view of creation to a little bit more of a close-up over this first couple – One of the first things you’ll notice as an original researcher is this: Adam was created first.

Now in Genesis 1, you didn’t know that. It just said He created them male and female. But when we go back over this 6th day of creation and take a closer look, we realize it didn’t just happen instantaneously like that. It happened in sequence. Adam was created first. Here’s what it says in Genesis 2:7:

Genesis 2:7CSB

7Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

2a. God designates leadership for the family.

Now, you go, ‘okay; he was created first. Is that really significant?’ If you’ve been to the mountain, you know it’s significant. Everything at this mythical mountain is significant. God could have easily created both the man and the woman at the same time, couldn’t He? Why didn’t He? That’s the question that’s being asked here to any original researcher in the book of Genesis.

He could have created them at the same time, brought them into existence with just a spoken word. But he didn’t do it that way. And the question is “Why? Is there meaning here?” Listen, everything in Genesis has meaning.

‘First’ always means something, especially in the Scriptures as you go through it, because it speaks of some kind of preeminence. For instance, when Jesus was asked what was the first and foremost commandment, He was able to tell them; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind; with all Your strength.”

The firstborn son throughout Scripture is the son who receives the blessing; the special blessing of his father. In Proverbs 3:9 it says, “Honor the Lord from the first of your wealth.” ‘First’ is very significant there. It’s to come off the top -- right at the beginning; not at the end of what’s left over. That’s significant.

In Revelation 2, Jesus speaks to the Ephesian church and He says, “you’ve left your first love.” (‘You’re doing a lot of things well, but at the core – the most important thing – has been forgotten, the first.’) Jesus is called the firstborn from the dead, the first fruits of creation. We are called, as Christians, to seek first the kingdom of God, and then, all these things will be added to you.

If you just took the word ‘first’ as you go through the Scriptures you get a sense of that priority, don’t you. In the beginning of man, as male and female, Adam was created first. First. The question is “why?” I think it’s because God was making a statement about social structure, social positioning, and manhood as it should be. Not necessarily as it is now - we’re looking at the original blueprints -- but the way God created it to be.

Now I’m going to bring us up to a really tense social issue. Thousands of years later, in Paul’s day, he was asked why women couldn’t be pastors of churches. A lot of us ask that same question today as we see both males and females become pastors, but in Paul’s day, he was asked the question, ‘why can’t a woman be a pastor of a church?’ - the leader. You want to see Paul’s answer? Here it is in 1 Timothy 2, Paul says this:

1 Timothy 2:12–13 CSB

12I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; instead, she is to remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve.

See, here he was in his day – thousands of years removed from the day God created man and they were asking him about an intensely difficult issue. This was especially true in Ephesus, because Ephesus was a city of pagan religions where all the religious leaders were women. These people who had become Christians were wondering why the women couldn’t lead this church too. So Paul goes back to the myth, back to the mountain, and he says, ‘well, here’s why I don’t think that should happen….because I think God had some original designs in mind.’ And he points to this ‘first’ in creation.

SEcondly,

2b. Adam receives an occupation and responsibility before Eve’s creation.

Genesis 2:15CSB

15The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.

After He created the man as male, He gave him a job to do – a vocation in the garden of Eden. Then He gave him other responsibilities, orders to obey. During this whole time Eve’s not been created yet. These directions are given to the man exclusively and not to his wife, Eve. We ask “Why?”

All it does is invite the question “why?” It doesn’t answer it; it just asks it by the way it’s set forth there. But if you look at it long enough, you begin to think that it’s almost like there’s some kind of leadership training program going on here.

I believe in many ways, that that’s exactly what’s taking place, because it hints at something central to, and basic about, authentic life and relationships that the Bible will define more specifically later on. I just want you to see the original blueprints at this point.

2c. God Instructs Adam with the responsibility of leading with His word .

Genesis 2:16–17CSB

16And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

I don’t know how much time has passed at this point before God created the woman, but here’s what we do know; that God created the man. After He created the man as male, He gave him a job to do – a vocation in the garden of Eden. He names the animals. He learns how to till the garden. The Lord gives him other responsibilities, orders to obey. During this whole time Eve’s not been created yet. These directions are given to the Adam exclusively and not to his wife, Eve. We ask “Why?”

All it does is invite the question “why?” It doesn’t answer it; it just asks it by the way it’s set forth there. But if you look at it long enough, you begin to think that it’s almost like there’s some kind of leadership training program going on here.

I believe in many ways, that that’s exactly what’s taking place, because it hints at something central to, and basic about manhood and womanhood that will get more definition throughout the Bible. I just want you to see the original blueprints at this point.

Eve has still not been created. At this point, there was no Bible, there was only the spoken word of God. God literally spoke to Adam. He’s saying ‘okay, I’ve given you this place. I want you to cultivate it. Now I want to give you some instruction about how to live in this place.’ The thing that’s fascinating is the instruction was not given to Eve, but was given to Adam to then give to Eve, which is what we’ll see a little later on.

But we have to ask the question “Why?” Why did it occur this way? Again, I believe it hints at the spiritual responsibility that God created men to assume as part of real masculinity. A responsibility that thousands of years later is stated outright in Ephesians 5:25-26, when Paul is speaking to men about how to live with their wives. And he says this;

Ephesians 5:25–26 (CSB) 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word.

In other words, a man should lead with spiritual truth when he’s in relationship to a woman. He should lead with spiritual truth – not she should lead. He should lead. That’s a real key — a real nugget to satisfaction and social health, not just for the marriage itself, but for the community at large. It comes under the banner and command, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” - not with dysfunctional kids, but with healthy ones.

To do that, someone’s got to deposit the truth and be the standard bearer. In the “original blueprints”, that scepter is given to the man.

2d. God then gifts Adam is given a helper to compliment him and fulfill the call to build an earthly family and rule the earth.

1 Corinthians 11:3 CSB

3But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ.

That rubs many people wrong today. Why? I think it’s because they initially go to COMPETITION and arbitrary CONTROL. Because those things come out of the flesh. The sinful and selfish desires of our own making.

Before the fall, I don’t see competition or control, I see COMPLIMENTING Roles. Like a quarterback and receiver in football, a setter and a spiker in volleyball.

Or consider the beauty of a Ballroom dance. Now recently Aaron Hackney married Chloe and they would have an opportunity to dance at the wedding for all the couples. Sarah wanted us to learn some basic steps. Now before I go further, that really got initiated by Paul and Heather Painter. They started talking about getting ready and it was game on. Well we’d watch a Youtube video and the lady instructor would say, now the man needs to lead and direct the lady. After a few toes getting stepped upon and some practice. Now if Sarah moved first we would not look graceful and we would end up out of sync. Ultimately, we got to where we didn’t make an absolute fools of ourselves, but we only had a limited amount of moves before we would be done. Now Paul had really worked and when they danced, they showed how things flowed as two people worked in harmony with one leading and one joining.

It’s interesting that Bible doesn’t state leadership the negative way it is viewed in our modern culture. Turn to Ephesians 5:21-31

Ephesians 5:21–31 CSB

21 submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. 22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, 23 because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. 27 He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. 28 In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30 since we are members of his body. 31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.

Leadership is not about controlling another person but becoming one in Christ for His glory, to make a beautiful family. Isn’t that the ultimate goal, caring for one another as a family? Any time there is more than 1 person involved, there needs to be someone who takes the lead. God’s blueprint from the first family, before the Fall is that the man leads and the wife compliments him in the dance of living and raising a family.

Even the social sciences demonstrate the power of a man in the life of a family. That is not to say that God doesn’t love people who find themselves out of step with His plan. It is to say that when we get out of step with His plan, there will be more toes that get stepped upon and more times we trip in life.

The Bible teaches and our experiences reveal that men and women while similar also have differences. There are differences in interests and the way they get involved in subduing the world and relating to others. Simply imagine where we’d be if no men would show up to work as plumbers, electricians and carpenters tomorrow or the rest of the year? Where would that put us? FYI, those jobs skew almost 99% male. Further, imagine if all women stopped showing up for healthcare work, social work, and teaching (especially kids and teenagers) where would we be? FYI those tend to skew 80-90% female. That’s not saying men or women can’t do those jobs. But it demonstrates an innate preference that is not there simply because of culture as the Scandinavian studies reveal. Contrary to what secular social scientists want to believe, when men and women have more freedom to choose, live in more open cultures, and even have incentives to make equity in those fields, they didn’t see a greater parity. They saw given the freedom to choose the career choice and interests skewed even more radically towards a particular gender.

They also found that men, fathers have a particular impact on child development that does not come about from a mother. A mother is needed. But a father’s contribution is profound in ways and necessary to compliment a child’s development. One particular surprise is that a Father’s leadership profoundly develops a child’s empathy for others. Whereas a mother’s love while necessary, without the father’s balance of teaching the child boundaries tends to make the child look inward and only aware of his or her own feelings. A mother offers a child a sense of safety and protection, a father tends to be watchful but not as quick to respond to a child when they express frustration or take a risk. That leads to a child learning to problem solve and also learn by taking an adventure that involves risk and growth.

In other words mothers tend to create the nest and a sense of safety, fathers tend to push the eagles to fly and take risk. Both are needed to grow healthy persons and they compliment each other and should not be seen as competition.

Thoughts to discuss about family and marriage:

• 1. How can couples apply the principle of leaving and cleaving in their marriages?

• 2. What does Genesis 2 teach us about the roles and responsibilities of husbands and wives?

• 3. How can couples cultivate intimacy and emotional connection in their marriages?

• 4. What does it mean to have a God-centered marriage, and how can couples strive for this in their relationship?