Secondary to Primary

Genesis 2:19-20 ESV

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.

Something that we all will say with regularity is that God is in control. Now, that God is in control is not wishful thinking, it is not a crutch to help get us through hard times, it is a reality. Therefore, I hope that when we declare that God is in control that we indeed recognize and believe it to be a reality.

But, like I said, we say that so often that many times I believe that we say it superficially. You know, we passively say it, may even somewhat believe it, but we still have this strange feeling that so much is not dependent on God, but on us.

It’s almost like we believe that God is generally in control, you know, as if He generally oversees everything, but we have a hard time believing that He is actually in control of all of the particulars.

You know, when we think of decisions that we make, things that we will do, the paths that we take, the evil in the world; when it comes to those things, we often think that God, in a way, supervises what happens, but that ultimately, not He, but we are in control of those things. But the scriptures say otherwise.

The scriptures speak of God working without means such as when He made the bush in the wilderness of Horeb burn, yet not be consumed. God took a passive, inanimate object and directly caused it to burn. This means that God caused this to happen without using anyone or anything to make it happen. Thus, He did it without means.

The scriptures also speak of God working againstmeans, such as when Balaam over in the book of Numbers was summoned by Balak so that he may curse the approaching people of Israel. And though cursing the people, as requested, is what Balaam earnestly desired to do, still, when he opened his mouth to curse Israel, God caused blessings for Israel to proceed from his lips.

Thus, God caused this to happen in spite of the fact that Balaam sought to do the complete opposite. Thus, God performed what He performed through Balaam against means.

And lastly, and most commonly, the scriptures speak of, and experience tells us of God working with means. We call these secondary causes.

And what is so amazing about secondary causes is that in them we are privileged to see great extents of God’s sovereignty as He works even through the everyday decisions that we make to accomplish His purposes.

Thus, when we feel as though we are in control, God is steady as ever upon His throne.

We could describe it like this, let’s say that you know that if you put a twinkie in front of me, that I’m going to eat it. Furthermore, let’s say that you wantme to eat that twinkie, and so, you put it in front of me. And just like you thought, I picked it up and I ate it.

Now, who was it that wanted me to eat that twinkie? It was you, but it was also me. You wanted me to eat it and so you put it in front of me, but I also wanted to eat it, because I was hungry, or it looked tasty. But who was responsible for me picking it up and eating it? That was me.

But though I am responsible for picking it up and eating it, someone could look at you and say, “You know that he’s not supposed to be eating twinkies! And he wouldn’t have eaten one if you didn’t put it in front of him!” In other words, we as people can do things and have ill intent for one another.

But God, on the other hand, never has ill intent. Everything that God does is good, everything that God does is just. So, God may use you, who has ill intent, to place a twinkie before me, knowing that I will eat it. And then I will pick the twinkie up and eat it. And all of this happens because God wants me to eat that twinkie. And while the one who places the twinkie before me has ill intent, the intent that God has behind wanting me to eat that twinkie is never ill but is always good and just.

This is what we call secondary causes; God using, in fact, ordaining the actions of others to accomplish His own purposes. And because God’s intent is always good, because God in no way makes anyone do anything evil, because while God ordains evil, it is willfully embraced by evil people, it is in this way that God is in no way the Author of evil.

And in the exposition of our reading for today, what we will see is a wonderful example of God ordaining secondary causes to accomplish His own wonderful purposes.

You see, in our message last week, we had spoken of how God had made the observation that it is not good, that it is not befitting to the maximizing of man’s bliss that he should be alone. Now, in our reading for today, what we will see is that it was the purpose of God for man to feelthe loneliness that he was experiencing in the garden so that he would long for one like himself. And the secondary cause that God uses to accomplish this purpose here is actually quite interesting.

We begin to see the introduction, if you will, to this secondary cause in the first part of verse 19 of our text, where it says:

Genesis 2:19a ESV

19a Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens

As we begin our reading, we are reminded of how God had formed the animal kingdom. Like man, the animal kingdom was formed out of the ground. And like man, this formation out of the ground was to show the humble origins of the animals, being graciously brought up from the dust.

What is different though, between the formation of the animals and the formation of man is that God did not carefully sculpt the animals as He did the man, nor did He breathe the breath of life into the animals as He did the man.

But as we read of how God had previously created the animals, the animals are now called to our attention as we observe next that which concerns them.

We see in the next part of this verse that God had,

Genesis 2:19b ESV

19b brought them to the man to see what he would call them.

We see another instance here of the sovereignty of God in that He causes the animals to come to the man; to the one whom God had made to have dominion over the animals.

How exactly this was accomplished, in what way did God summon the animals to all gather before the man is not known. But we see the animals submissively obeying the command of their Creator as they are brought, by the command and working of God, to the man, he who held dominion over them.

And we see too the purpose for which the animals were brought to the man. It was “to see what he would call them”.

We see here yet another remarkable instance of the grace of God in that He gives the man the remarkable privilege of identifying the lower created order.

Now, this is a gracious provision because God freely chose to make the man hold this capacity. God freely made the animals one way, and He freely made the man another way. And God freely assigned the capacity which the animals would serve, and God freely assigned the capacity in which the man would serve.

And still, we see yet another instance of the man’s God-given dominion at the end of this 19th verse and at the beginning of verse 20, where it says,

Genesis 2:19c-20a ESV

19c And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20a The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field

Thus, we see the fulfillment of God’s command in Genesis 1:28, when speaking to man, God said:

Genesis 1:28 ESV

28 “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

We see it fulfilled here in that God brought the animals to the man, the man then called the animals by specific names, and the icing on the cake is that whatsoever the man named the animals so was that its name.

In other words, God showed that the man held dominion over the animals in that He gave the man the right to identify them, to declare that they were who he said they were.

But as was said earlier, these are all secondary causes. God bringing the animals before the man, God having the man to name the animals, these are secondary causes to a primary cause.

And we see that primary cause at the end of verse 20, where we read:

Genesis 2:20b ESV

20b But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

We start here by recognizing the first three words of this half of the verse: “But for Adam”.

Now, something that we will notice here is that this, at least in the translation that I am using, is the first time in the Bible that the man is identified by name.

Prior to this, he is simply called “the man”. And while God commands the man to exercise his dominion of the animal kingdom by naming them, so now we see that God exercises His dominion over the man by naming the man.

His name, Moses tells us, is “Adam”. What the name “Adam” means is, “Son of the earth”.

Man, as we have discovered already, was formed of the dust of the earth. His humble beginning is that of one who was formed out of a lowly substance. Thus, his name is Adam, Son of the earth.

This was the name that God graciously gave to the first man to remind him, indeed, to remind us to humbly acknowledge that our entire being is owing to God alone. Without His determinate counsel, without His gracious disposition towards His creation, particularly towards man who was made in His own image, we would not, could not be.

But as for Adam, Moses tells us, “there was not found a helper fit for him”.

Now, this is what we read last week. But last week we read that God had observed this, but here we see that the man, that Adamobserves this.

Concerning the observation that Adam makes here, that there was not a helper to be found who was fit for him, Henry Spence, the early 20thcentury theologian tells us:

“This was the chief reason for assembling the creatures. It was meant to reveal his loneliness. The longing for a partner was already deeply seated in his nature, and the survey of the animals, coming to him probably in pairs, could not fail to intensify that secret hunger of his soul, and perhaps evoke it into conscious operation.”

We have spoken of the secondary cause, that cause being the animals coming to the man that he may name them. But here, at this final portion of our reading we see the primary cause, the chief reason, and that was to reveal to man his own loneliness.

As we had read last week, God had declared that it was not good for the man to be alone, thus there was obviously a longing already within the man, even if the longing had not been fully manifested to him yet.

Man had a longing, but he knew not what that longing was for, but now, as he observes the animals, likely coming in pairs, he realizes that there is none other like him, there is none for him to enjoy his pleasure with.

And what a miraculous thing this is, that God evokes our minds, our spirits, to long to receive those things which He has graciously ordained for us to receive. For it is when we receive those things which He has ordained is He glorified.

But what is so remarkable is that God uses secondary causes to not only give to us those things which He has ordained for us to receive, but He even uses secondary causes to incline us towards those things which He graciously gives.

Most importantly of those things which God inclines His elect people towards is the salvation that He freely gives to them. In every one of God’s elect people, there comes a time, which usually comes after a lengthy time of preparation when he or she longs for God as He truly is.

And as the elect people of God find themselves strangely drawn towards God when before there was no desire for God on their part, they now find that there is nothing that they want more.

These are all secondary causes; they are the application of irresistible grace on God’s part towards those whom He has willed to save. And of course, the primary cause of those secondary causes is the full salvation of God’s elect people.

May we ever praise God that He willed to draw us to Him!

Amen?

(Invitation to salvation).