Male and Female, God Created Them

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 89:19-37

Psalm 89:19–37 ESV

Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one, and said: “I have granted help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people. I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him, so that my hand shall be established with him; my arm also shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not outwit him; the wicked shall not humble him. I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him. My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’ And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens. If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.” Selah

Scripture Memorization: Genesis 50:19-20

Genesis 50:19–20 ESV

But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Scripture Reading: Matthew 19:1-6

Matthew 19:1–6 ESV

Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Sermon:

Good Morning Church I was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord.

Well, this week, as I prepared for this sermon. I started sinking through the groups of people that would probably have already been offended by our series through the Book of Genesis. In the very beginning, our first sermon in this series, I basically said God exists. If you don’t think so, you’re wrong... Deal with it. So, the atheists probably didn’t like that very much.

In the second sermon, I said, you know, why science works? Science works because God says that it does and that it will and will continue too… so those who view science as the highest good and right, they probably were a little offended.

I said that man was higher than all the other animals that they were to have dominion, and we were more special, and we could use the Earth in appropriate ways as we exhibit dominion over it. That would probably offend those hardcore environmentalists who want to think all creatures are the same, and man is just like every other animal.

I said man was created in a special way. He didn’t evolve. God breathed the breath of life into the dust of the earth, and thus Man became a living being. So if you base your entire world view on the fact that man evolved from Apes you’re wrong, and probably that offends some people.

But all of that? Is is merely. A Prelude. Towards the offense that people take. To the passage that we’ll talk about today. We will be looking at the second half of God’s creation of man wherein God creates woman. Male and female, God created them. And there’s a created order. Man was created first. The woman was created as a helpmate. So we will offend modern feminists… In truth, Many people find that language offensive.

Then there is this: God created male and female. God decides the genders of these people. And they are giving them by God. That is a phrase that will offend many people. and may earn one the title from the world of “trans-phobe”.

Marriage, instituted by God in Genesis, chapter 2, was designed to be for man and woman, one man, and one woman becoming one flesh in holy Union before God. That is a statement that will offend the world today. And earn one the title of “homo-phobe”

And yet, here it is. At the very beginning of the Book of Genesis. And I don’t think it is a Surprise, but I also don’t think it’s a coincidence That when the world wants to rebel against God, they go here to foundational fundamental principles. If the world can get you to believe male and female is just something we’ve made up in our own minds. Well, then everything God says about it, we can ignore, and therefore we can ignore almost all of scripture. If marriage isn’t designed to be between one man and one you woman becoming one flesh United together in holy matrimony. It’s something else well, then everything else about morals and sexual Purity, and everything else God says about this. Well, we can just throw that all out. If marriage is to be cast out if you don;t like it any more, or the bonds of marriage taken for a test drive before entering into the covenant, well then why would we listen to What God says about this or really anything…

Thus what we will talk about today comes to the center of our culture Wars. If we want to use that term, But ultimately, the center of creation, how God has made us.

The phrase male and female he created them comes from Genesis 1. In the creation of man in Genesis 1, but as we noted, Genesis 1 gave us the spark notes edition of all of creation days one through seven. Genesis 2 We are zooming in on day six. And we are seeing what God has done in the creation of man, and here in particular the creation of woman…

And so today, we will be looking at the second half of Genesis 2. Genesis 2, verses 18 through 25. And with this, we will have finished the first two chapters of Genesis… We can note, it only took us six sermons.

Let’s read our text Genesis 2:18-25

Genesis 2:18–25 ESV

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 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. 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. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning. Let’s open our time together with a word of prayer.

Dear Lord, we thank you for your goodness and Grace Given to us. We are grateful that you see fit to care for us to work in us to make us In your image according to your goodness. You do so in a way that is very good. We thank you that you meet every need of ours. Help us to see your work in this passage. Convict our hearts, open our eyes to see all that you have said and done. I asked this morning that you would speak through your servant. It’s in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. And amen.

In this beautiful text, a wonderful text influential and important text. There’s a bit going on. And really, there’s two things in particular that we need to wrap our minds around. The first is this: God is going to to make Creation good. And the second he is going to Institute something that will impact mankind for as long as mankind is mankind.

There’s a need being met . And an institution that God is doing in this passage. And it’s beautiful. And it’s wonderful.

The text opens up in what should be for many of us shocking, right? If you were reading through Genesis 1 and 2 blindly, and this is the first time you’ve ever read Genesis 2, 18, you will find that it is actually a rather shocking passage. Because you’ve heard this echo in Genesis 1, and it was good. And it was good, and it was good. In fact, seven times. “It was good”, which is the number for completeness, so it was perfectly good. And in case you missed that counting the goods and doing that. The last time it was said was Genesis 1, 31, God saw everything that made and, behold, it was very good.

So all of creation, all of creation up to Genesis 2, 18. It’s been good. It’s been good. It’s been good. It’s been good. It’s been good. It’s been good. It’s been very good.

Genesis 2: 18

Genesis 2:18 ESV

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone

Something has happened… And maybe something hasn’t happened because God’s creating everything. But something is shown that needs to be remedied. And really what we’re finding here is Adam’s Great need.

ADAM’S Need

Adam has a desperate need to not be alone. It is not good that man should be alone. And so God says — God knows the remedy.

We need to figure this out as we read through this. It’s not like God made man and then was like, oops, I messed up. This isn’t good. I need to go fix it. That’s not how this reads and not what’s being presented here. Instead, God looks at man. He knows what is needed. He knows how he’s going to fix it. This isn’t God fixing a mistake. This is God making man, if we may, even more good.

There was something missing. Something that man needed. That God knew the solution too. The solution— we read it — is going to be to create woman. The complementary other half the, the the perfect fit and complement to man. It’s told to us. In this phrase: “I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Adam’s need Is for a helper.

But we have to pause here at this word. Again, for many this is a controversial word… And If I may be so bold… it should not be.

To say that woman is man’s helpmate. Many people will be up in arms. Does that give women a lesser role? Does that make women less than does that mean that that men are far superior because they rule and women are just the hired help. That is not what this word means, and to read that into the text is abusive to women and the text.

The word here that we read that man should make that God will make a helper. Is most used, not of women, But of God!

To say this explicitly, The person in scripture who is most called a helper Is God.

So if this means “less than” if this means “powerless”, if this means “must be subservient”, we have some wrong theology.

We can illustrate this in many ways, as you read through all of the Old Testament we see that God is the helper of Israel, but here’s one of my favorites. It comes from the book of Psalms. Psalm 121. It’s a Psalm of ascent. As the people are returning to the promised land because they’ve been in Exile. They’ve been having some trouble, and they are in desperate need of God, his provision, and his goodness. And THEY KNOW THAT they need God and His provision and his goodness. So, what do they say?

Psalm 121, verse 1?

Psalm 121:1 ESV

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?

same word as in Genesis 2. Where does my HELP come? Verse 2

Psalm 121:2 ESV

My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

And so, what this Psalm is telling us is. God is the one who helps us. He cares for us. We keep reading.

Psalm 121:3–8 ESV

He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

In this psalm, This keeping is God’s helping.

So then, To say in Genesis 2 that God looks at man and says, man needs a helper. Is in fact a vast and beautiful complement to the role that women play.

This passage should never be read as “well, man had some problem and well woman She kind of helps fix it.”

Instead, what God is saying is, I will make for man the perfect companion. When we keep reading a helper “fit for him”, this phrase “for for him” means it technically means opposite or “to his front” him and what is going on here is that everything that Adam needs, Eve (who’s not named Eve till chapter four...), but Eve will complete.

They fit together in perfect, beautiful Harmony. The man and the woman? Perfectly created for one another to meet each other’s deep need. Because it’s not good for man to be alone.

feel the need here to make another note, We also need to be careful not reading this entirely on a individual level. Because part of what’s going on, here is the picture for all of mankind because I don’t want us to read this also in such a way where we think. Well, I need, and really EVERYONE needs to be married.

Because God has taken care of this problem of aloneness through marriage But because there’s marriage, and therefore there’s children. We now have a whole human race, and so we can get Fellowship through the church. We can get Fellowship through Companions... as iron sharpens iron, so one person, so one man sharpens another. SO lets be careful, again there are many pitfalls here if we are not careful...

What Genesis 2 is not teaching as women is less than. what it’s not teaching Is that everyone has to be married because all of us have this deep-seated need to be married.

Instead. This is a human all of humanity’s problem. That God is going to fix.

With that being said, also, it will glorify and say marriage is something holy and beautiful and perfect. So We should treat it. As such. But before God meets Adam’s need, he’s going to have Adam SEE his need. That is, I believe, what is happening in verses 19 and 20.

In verses 19 to 20, we read that “out of the ground the Lord God had formed every Beast” So all the beasts that were created and all of the everything. On days four and five, and then the first half of day six. God’s going to bring them to Adam. And Adam is going to begin to name all of the creatures.

Now, there’s this is what we will talk about in Grace group. This idea of Adam naming the creatures. But the short version today is that there’s two things going on here.

One is Dominion, but the other one for our purposes today. What I want us to see is that as Adam is naming the creatures, he begins to realize something. Adam’s naming of the creatures is not just like, oh, here’s a. A duck. Here’s a cow. Here’s a hippopotamus. Here’s an elephant… That’s not what Adam is doing.

Instead, this idea of naming is… He’s claiming dominion, but also looking into the very nature and and the Heart of these animals. These beasts, these birds, these things that creep. Seeing what their nature is and then giving name to that nature. There’s there’s a deep thing that’s going on here. And as Adam does that.. You’re a dog... This dog is useful and helpful and a good companion. Still not perfect.

He’s, like, cow. Cow can do stuff. We can plow fields. We can do all sorts of stuff. There’s usefulness to Cow, but no companionship. There’s no friendship. This doesn’t fill the hole in my soul.

He names all these creatures. And the important part of what’s going on here is the very end of verse 20. “But for Adam. There was not found a helper fit for him”.

Adam is going to realize what God has already said. Every animal, he named every animal that came, and there was this thought: maybe this one.

And this animal comes, doesn’t meet my need, and the next one comes. Doesn’t meet his need, and the next one comes. It doesn’t meet his need, and the next one comes. It doesn’t meet his need, and the next one comes. And it doesn’t meet his need.

And then, after naming every animal in heaven and on Earth, as Adam gets to the end of this process, he looks and sees there’s not a single animal here, though they are Beautiful arrayed in all of their Glory, all of them bringing glory, honor, and praise to God. There’s not a single animal here that meets MY need. There’s not a single animal here, that is my companion, not a single animal here, can be a helper fit perfectly Fit, aligned, uniquely made for me. There’s no helper. God knows it, he said it. Adam now knows it. And so where do we move to? God’s supply.

GOD’S Supply

In a beautiful and stunning Act of Creation, God doesn’t do what we might think he should do. Adam needs a friend. I’ll just make Adam another friend, or he could have done this.

Dust, breathe into it. Adam… but now Adam needs a helper. Dust, breathe into it. Friend. Now we got Adam. We got friend. They can work together. That’s not how God goes about this.

Instead. He Fashions. He, he creates. He actually. So, there’s something going on in the Hebrew. We might miss here. In verse 22, it says the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man. The ESV says he made into a woman. But it’s actually a different word from making that’s gone on before, and it’s much closer to like. Building. So, what God does is he takes Adam, he causes him to fall asleep. Then, as Adam is peacefully sleeping. God takes a rib from him. With surgical Precision. He closes up the side. So that Adam is still complete in his Adamness. This is the the importance of the side being closed up. And from that rib, God builds. He Fashions carefully, forms and tenderly makes… He creates the woman — From out of the man.

She is made of the same stuff. She is his perfect match and help mate for she comes from him.

And we cannot miss the beauty and wonder here.

Matthew Henry famously said, I think this is important. The the picture of of God removing a rib from Adam points us to the value and worth and importance and roll of both men and women. This is what Matthew Henry says:

She is not made out of his head, To top him. Nor out of his feet, to be trampled on by him. But she is made out of his side — to be equal with him; under his arm — to be protected; and near to his heart that she may be loved.

The the fact of Eve being created fashion built out of the rib of Adam pictures her worth and value and goodness. And this we can and should say: God’s supply is perfect for man in every way.

And then we read this: That God is the one who presents her… notice this in verse 22

Genesis 2:22 ESV

And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

I have been recently blessedly been doing really A lot of weddings recently.

And I used to stand here, if you remember as We were going through Ecclesiastes. Many of you heard me say I’d much rather do a funeral than a wedding because weddings are hard.

Now, I still stand behind that. Weddings are hard, and there’s a lot of pressure in weddings. But more and more doing more and more weddings (and may I note, doing more and more weddings of people that I love and cherish and am honored to be the one doing the wedding of.... I’m beginning to like them. And beginning to loves being the pastor who does weddings.

And no small part of that is that you get a front row seat of the beautiful things that God has ordained these pictures that happen at weddings. Some pictures work in a downward way, that what God has done is seen in the wedding, and some of the pictures go the other way, that what is done in the wedding points you to see what God has done. One of these second ones comes in one of the first things you do.

Everyone Rises. The bride comes down after the processional. The bride comes down. Accompanied by her father, Lord willing. If this is Appropriate and still able to be done. The woman is accompanied by her father. And the question: “Who is it that gives this woman To be married.” and it is the Father of The bride. This is called in the ceremony. The presentation of the bride.

lets look back to Genesis then, Who presents Eve To Adam? God Does. This picture of God, bringing the woman to the man is, is mirrored in our modern marriage ceremony. Eve is brought to Adam. And Adam immediately sees in Eve everything he did not see in anything else in creation. \

Immediately He sees God’s perfect Supply.

immediately He sees a person a, a figure. He sees a creature of wealth and beauty and goodness in order for him to see and love and cherish. He sees in Eve everything his heart desired. This is said in his very words verse 23, the man said.

We can take this line by line: “this at last”.

This deep longing in Adam has been cured. He sees the woman “at last”. It wasn’t this animal. It wasn’t them. I know that. Everything I named everything that went on all of these things. None of them met my heed, but this, at last, this at last.

was “bone of his bones, flesh of his flesh”.

She is from him of him. They are the same stuff and what is more, they are intimately tied together. In modern English we might say, they are my Blood… same thought here, we have a close and intimate relationship.

She shall be called woman. Because she was taken out of man. ISHA in the Hebrew ISHA from the ISH. In English it is still the same idea we have a similar woman. Man, wo-man!

out of man Adam sees God’s perfect. Supply

God created for man. The perfect. Helper. The one who would care? For him, and that he could care for. The one that he could treasure. And love. The one who would assist, but also help in a beautiful and wonderful way. One that Adam would be tasked with caring for. Loving. Shepherding. Guarding. And protecting.

And then we have verses 24 and 25, which are fascinating.

Up till now, Moses has just been teaching us how God created everything. This is what God did. In the beginning, God created the heavens, the Earth, and this is how he did it day one He did this, day two he did this. Here we go, just so you know. On the seventh day he rested. These are the generations of the Heaven and Earth. This is how God created man. He created man. He formed him out of dust, breathed into him, planted him in the garden when he was planted in the garden He had him name the creatures. after he named the creature. There was no helpmate for him, so he created woman.

And something Moses has not done yet. And he’ll not do later. Is, then say. And now, let me tell you exactly what this means theologically. And for your life.

Here in Genesis 2, we have teaching. Wherein marriage Is instituted.

MARRIAGE Instituted

Therefore, verse 24 starts with. Therefore, Moses said, here’s the argument: man was created, woman was created and here’s the payoff:

therefore. A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Because of how God created the world because of how God created man because of God’s care and Splendor and God’s goodness in fashioning and creating man this in such a way that you have man and his help made together. They perfectly complement one another, therefore. This idea of marriage becomes a god-sanctioned God, ordained visible, valuable and important part of the fabric of humanity.

Marriage is not just some fun little thing. Marriage is instituted by God in the very fabric of creation. Therefore. A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife: the the bonds of family that are created in marriage. The Bible is teaching us are stronger, bigger, and more important than the bonds of family that are formed from blood from progeny From “seed”

We’re going to talk about this a lot in Genesis that offspring is very important. The seed of the woman, the seed of the serpent, the seed of Abraham. The Bible says here. The bonds of marriage are even more important than those. Because a man leaves his father and mother

This is not… We shouldn’t read this as like, physically. You have to just up completely abandon your family. Scripture doesn’t teach that scripture doesn’t picture that ever. Instead, there’s a a hierarchy of importance and a hierarchy of closeness is being said here. We still have a responsibility to love and care for our parents. We should still. Take care of them. They still take care. They’re still a part of our life. But this is even leaving his father and mother is saying this. This flesh and blood family relationship that I had I am leaving that, and then I’m cleaving to my wife. The perfect compliment to me.

And in the marriage relationship, the one instituted by God, wherein a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, leaving and cleaving.

That’s the way we like to talk about this. There is no shame. The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.

There is a beautiful, sweet and precious innocence that the man and woman have here.

We will see. As we continue through scripture. This state of Innocence has been damaged. And it’s difficult. And marriage. Those of us who are married? Know that the picturesque version we see here in Genesis 2 is not always exactly the way marriage feels because sin warps and taints everything. And yet. Here’s the picture. Here’s the holy ideal. Here the precious gift of God. Man and woman created. To complement one another. To to be married to one another, ultimately. For the for the procreation and filling of the earth as we do Dominion, right? That’s definitely part of it, but that’s not even here. As we read through.

This idea here is man’s helper, his help mate. Part of that sure is going to be. This is how they will fill the Earth and multiply. But it’s so much deeper and more profound than that, and so much more beautiful. God perfectly meets man’s need, God’s Supply perfectly fashioned and created to help man in a perfect and beautiful . And it’s wonderful. And we should praise God for all of his precious gifts.

Let’s pray.