Genesis 2:18-25
Notes
Transcript
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.
20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.
22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”
24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Introduction
Introduction
We are going all the way back to the beginning, here in Genesis.
This is where everything started for everything we can know and experience, except for God.
God created everything by the power of His will and His word, in 6 days.
There was nothing, and we cannot even comprehend this, there was no material, time, or energy for God to shape into everything that has ever existed.
There was only God.
And for His glory and His purpose, He spoke everything into existence.
And what He created was good, so good that after it was created, the Bible says, “God saw that it was good.”
Brothers and sisters, as we can not conceive of there being nothing, we also don’t have a conception for this kind of good.
We only know a good that is mixed with sin in our fallen states.
Everything we experience has the taint of sin in it, but that is not how it was from the beginning.
The author of Genesis, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, goes through a play by play of the first 7 days that ever passed, and describes the amazing creation that God was bringing into existence.
Everything that we know came from this event, that spanned seven days and was done in order, as God does everything.
This is the beginning of something else as well.
The first eleven chapters of Genesis also present the seed of every aspect of our theology as well.
As Philip goes through the Epistle to the Ephesians, all of the great theology that Paul explained began here in the first book of the Bible, and in its first section.
I want you to really grasp the profoundness of this.
People have all kinds of ideas about the Bible, from conservative to liberal.
About who wrote the books and when they were written, and about their authority and what they mean.
But there is no one who could say that this is just a work of a man or a group of men written to look like a coherent whole.
It is historically and empirically proven that there are hundreds of years between the writing of Genesis and Ephesians, yet you can see a steady progression of the building of a coherent story from one to the other.
And so it is important to see and study this section of scripture and how it builds the foundation of truth that supports God’s word until the twenty-second chapter of the Book of Revelation.
Our passage today is set in Eden, the central location of God’s new universe where He has planted a garden and created a creature made in His image to work in it.
7 Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
8 The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.
He created Adam in a distinctive way compared to the other creatures.
He made him from the dust, and then breathed life into him.
By the way, Adam comes from the Hebrew word for ground, adamah, so his name is like a play on words.
Like human and humus come from the same root, an acknowledgement of our start as earth.
We were created for a purpose, to work God’s creation, to use what He had made in a way that brings glory to Him.
15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
We were given responsibility as imagers of God to do the work of God in His creation.
So there Adam was, in this beautiful garden, with all of these animals, and with a close, intimate relationship with the God of the universe.
And we cannot even begin to realize what it was like.
After the fall, everything has changed, but try to use your imagination and picture what it might have been like.
Everything was perfect, the weather, the food; there was no reason to fear at night.
We have two cats.
One is large and docile, her name is Cosette, but we call her the Fat Cat. She really is like a tank.
The other’s name is Starfire. We let Josh name her and that was a character on a cartoon that he liked at the time.
We never call her that though, she is called the Bad One.
This thing is mean to everyone except Josh.
She will hiss, and bite, and scratch.
She may be demon possessed.
You have to watch where you are stepping, or you will get swiped from a dark corner and she draws blood.
But there were no evil animals in the Garden before the fall.
Adam could fall asleep next to a Panther and be fine.
And just like we can’t picture the reality of that, he couldn’t picture it any other way than everything being at complete peace.
So God, knowing His plans for the future, saw the situation and instead of seeing that it was good, like He did with other aspect of creation, He saw that Adam was alone and this was not good.
It was not good that he was alone, but it also was not good because God’s plan was to fill the earth with His image-bearers and Adam couldn’t do that by himself.
As we will see God did something about this, and what God did in the creation of man and woman would reverberate through all of creation.
What a great designer!
In the best of humanity, we can’t find such genius as God displays in a couple of verses in Genesis.
And in the worst of humanity, we can see that after the fall touched every element of our existence, we need grace and help.
Let’s dig into our passage and find God’s glory in how He designed man and woman.
Every Believer Must See God’s Original Design For the Sexes.
Every Believer Must See God’s Original Design For the Sexes.
By Seeing the Need For Two Sexes v. 18-20
By Seeing the Need For Two Sexes v. 18-20
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.
20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
Why did God make us this way?
We could ask Him that about a lot of things we don’t understand!
But the more we understand about the way God made things, the more we see the wisdom.
Can you just imagine when we are with Him in glorious eternity, in our glorified bodies, with no sin or stupidity that comes with it, when He answers our greatest questions?
What a day that will be!
He gives us a glimpse as to why here in this part of our passage.
Because it was not good for man to be alone.
There are couple of reasons why it was not good for Adam to be alone.
First, being made in the image of God, Adam was made for community.
The Godhead has existed for eternity with perfect communion between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
It is obvious that we are designed to be with others.
One of the worst punishments in prisons today is solitary confinement.
Although it sounds good to some of us to go and live in a cabin in the woods all by ourselves sometimes, most of us would not be good with that for extended periods of time.
But the main reason is that God’s ultimate plan for His creation couldn’t be fulfilled with Adam alone.
28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Adam and Eve were to be the first parents to the human race, so that the imagers of God would fill the earth and have dominion over it and all of the other creatures for God’s glory.
Because we complement each other.
The second part of the verse says that
18 …I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
She is to have the role of a helper.
She is to be his aid and his support in fulfilling the command of God to fill the earth and have dominion.
She is to bear the children that will make mankind fruitful.
I cannot begin to express how amazing this is.
Our culture has demeaned the role of woman to the point where children are looked at as parasites when still in the womb and hinderances to our goals after they are born.
This is the work of Satan to get our culture to rebel against God’s first command to His imagers.
This can clearly be seen in a poll that was recently published.
Of the top 10 life goals that young women had, getting married and having children were number 9 and number 10!
This may be the first time in history this has happened.
The feminists aren’t the only ones happy with this, the prince of the power of the air smiles at this as well.
So she is to be his aid and his support, but God also makes her suitable for Adam.
Suitable may sound a little utilitarian, but other translations, like the ESV, use the word fit.
The idea is that she complements him.
The things that he lacks are the things that she provides.
What a beautiful picture of the relationships of husbands and wives.
Can you imagine if God created only men or only women?
How much have we gained as a human race by the strength and ingenuity of men, and the beauty and compassion brought by women!
So God decides to create a complement to Adam, but He doesn’t do it right away.
He lets Adam see the need for himself first.
19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.
God causes all of the animals to come before Adam, and as they do Adam gives them names.
God delegates some of the work of creation to His imager in Adam’s first task of dominion over them.
And as they come before him, he notices something about them.
20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
A male and female lion come to him, and he names them lions.
A male and female wolf come to him, and he names them wolves.
A male and female sparrow come to him, and he names them sparrows.
And over and over again, he sees male and female animals come, until he realizes…
There are two of each of these creatures, but there is only one of me!
None of these will do for me to fulfill God’s commands!
So now we can see why God created mankind as man and woman, and Adam understood it as well.
Let’s turn our attention to how God created the two sexes, as we see more of God’s original design for us as men and women.
By Seeing How God Created the Two Sexes v. 21-22
By Seeing How God Created the Two Sexes v. 21-22
21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.
22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
Remember, all of this is happening on the sixth day of creation.
We think that it would take longer, because it seems like a lot, but it’s not to God.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.
All of this happened in an instant, at His command.
He spoke and the animals couldn’t resist His word and came into existence.
There was no intricate planning committee required, as they came into living, all of the ecosystems required for their surviving and thriving were in place to the level of perfection and goodness that is expressed by a perfect and good God.
We saw earlier that Adam was created separately and specially from the dust, in distinction to how the animals were created.
He was unique in that He was to bear the image of God, and represent Him in this new creation.
Again, our culture has this skewed sinfully when it views mankind as just another animal.
How many lives were lost and homes burned to the ground when California didn’t fill reservoirs or exercise proper dominion over their forests because of their concern for the lives of certain fish or animals, but at the same time celebrate and pay for the killing of the innocent boy or girl in the womb?
Another way Satan fights against the image of God in our world, that Genesis brings an answer to.
So Adam is created uniquely from the dust, and here we see that Eve is created from Adam.
21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.
God performs the first anesthesia and surgery as He causes Adam to fall into a deep sleep and removed a rib.
There are a lot of people who say a lot of things about why it was a rib, or side of Adam that was used to create the first woman.
But I think the main thing is that they are made of the same stuff.
That because God used material directly from Adam as the basis for creating Eve, that they were fit to be together.
Paul uses the body as a major illustration of true community several times in his letters.
18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
19 If they were all one member, where would the body be?
20 But now there are many members, but one body.
So God uses part of Adam’s body to make Eve so that they would be of the same stuff.
Look at the next verse with me.
22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
Yahweh fashioned the rib he took from Adam into a woman.
The word fashioned is a construction term, so God is not just the first surgeon, He’s also the first builder.
Again she is specially and uniquely made.
The animals were made at His command, Adam was made from the dust, and Eve was made from Adam.
They were both unique, but there was something that was the same with both of them.
They were both created bearing the image of God.
This is important.
Again
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
When our culture tries to tell us that the Bible was created by men to oppress women, they are either deceiving or being deceived.
From the very beginning, it is crystal clear, that they were both created distinct from the rest of creation, with equal standing before God.
It is clear that they both serve different roles in creation, but in those difference roles they were both, and so are we, imagers of God.
MacArthur says
As far as saving grace goes, as far as sanctifying grace goes, a woman comes as deeply into communion with God as a man. She is made equally in the image of God, and that image is equally restored through faith in Jesus Christ. She is as much capable of being like Jesus as any man is capable of it. She is capable of an eternal reward like any man would be in the spiritual realm; there is no difference. But in the human realm, she bears a position under the authority of man; therefore she reflects the glory of man who reflects the glory of God in looking at the sovereign responsibility of man.
Don’t fall for this nonsense that when we study 1 Corinthians 11 or Ephesians 5 that we just want little women to do little things behind the scenes of big men who do little things.
I know that this is the air we breath in our culture, but it is not what the bible teaches.
Satan would have us look at this amazing account of our first parents, and say, “Is God really good?”
The stance of this preacher is yes, God is good, and the way and purpose He created man and woman is proof of that.
Are you a man? Then praise God that He made you a man, and fulfill the role that He gave you to the best of your ability.
Are you a woman? Then praise God that He made you a woman, and fulfill the role He gave you to the best of your ability.
He made Adam, and He made Eve, and He made you. All on purpose and for a reason!
The last part of our passage shows us God’s original plan for the sexes was very intentional.
By Seeing God’s Intentions for the Two Sexes v. 23-25
By Seeing God’s Intentions for the Two Sexes v. 23-25
23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”
24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
The end of verse 22 says God brought the newly fashioned Eve to Adam.
Remember, Adam had just realized that he was alone, and that all of the animals had a corresponding partner, but he didn’t.
So he sees this amazing creature that God has brought him, he feels his side with its missing rib and puts 2 and 2 together.
Just imagine all that has happened to him on his first day alive!
Then he breaks out, not only with the first words spoken by man, but with the first love poem!
23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”
I want you to see this.
The NASB says, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.”
We might say, “At last! Someone like me!”
He realized he was alone, but now he sees he is not!
There is someone for him!
There is absolutely a basis for romantic love in scripture, right from the beginning and before the fall.
Like the man standing at the front of the church, hearing the music start, looks back and see his love coming up the aisle to be his wife, Adam is overwhelmed with love for his wife.
And parallel with him naming the kinds of animals, he names this new beautiful creature woman.
23 …She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”
Adam is a poet, and calls her woman, which is a play on words in English and in Hebrew,
The word for man in Hebrew is Ish.
The word for woman in Hebrew is Ishshah.
Again, there are all kinds of different ideas as to what the roots of these two words mean, but it is clear that Adam understands that they are made from the same stuff, so they are for each other.
There are two more verses in our passage, and so much could be said, but the main point is very clear, men and women are complementary and specially designed for one another.
Our next verse takes this understanding, and creates an institution from it.
24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
This is the basis for the institution of marriage, and this is God telling us, from the get go that sexual relationships were not only created by God, but encouraged by Him from the beginning.
But it also sets the bounds for those relationships.
Satan, again, attacks us by attacking the Word of God.
God creates us, and therefore has the ultimate authority over our lives and what we do with them.
But Satan would destroy what God has made, so he convinces us that we are just cosmic accidents, not created by God, but just appeared after billions of years of happy accidents and mutations.
Because we are just animals, it won’t hurt to act like them.
But it does hurt.
How much pain is created in the world because people believe the lie that God has nothing to do with how we live our lives?
He has created the marriage of a man and a woman as the boundary for oneness, but we have destroyed every aspect of that in our culture.
We have approved abominations of marriage between men and men, and women and women.
It is now the norm for men and women to live together in fornication, despite not only the clear teaching of scripture, but also the clear data of pain that it causes and harm it does to their future relationships or children.
And, in America, the divorce rate is so very high, and the pain that it causes on families and children is very great.
Satan uses rape and pornography to attack the imagers of God, and the ordained bearers of the sword pass over them and bring little to no justice to the victims.
We have stopped calling them pedophiles, and have changed the title to Minor Attracted Persons.
As believers, changed by the grace of God, to obey Him and come under His word, none of this should be named among us, and our understanding and worldview should be brought in line with the clear teaching of scripture.
May none of this come to our families, but it will if we don’t understand and stand up for God’s truth, not only in our nation, but also in our families and our churches.
This is the basis for Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 5, as we will see, Lord willing, when we get to verse 31 which quotes this very verse.
And we will see that, Paul explains that this is to be a picture, from the very beginning, of Christ and His bride the church.
So very important to see this, that when we fall for Satan’s lie about the man and the woman, we are going against the very gospel, because it is designed to be a picture of it from the beginning.
But when a man and a woman are believers, and rely on God, are moved along the path of sanctification, and cleave to one another, it is an extremely beautiful.
Strong homes, built on Christ’s grace, bring strength and resilience to communities, states, and nations.
They build strong churches.
They raise up the next generation in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
They are fruitful and multiply, and subdue the earth for the glory of God.
And then God finishes our passage and this chapter with verse 25.
25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
This seems out of place, but it really isn’t.
The first husband and wife lived openly before each other, with no shame.
And the only way that could happen, is with no sin.
They had no shame, because they had no frame of reference for any evil.
They didn’t know about sexual sin or perversion.
It never occurred to them that they could be ashamed!
They didn’t have evil thoughts themselves, so they couldn’t imagine that anyone else would have evil thoughts.
On the other side of the fall, that is something that we can’t even imagine!
This is God’s intentions for man and woman, as husband and wife, cleave to one another, complement one another, love one another, to display His glory to the world through their relationship being an illustration of Christ’s love for the church through the gospel.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we close, I want you to see how God’s word is so relevant, and timely, for all of life.
Even the oldest story about man and woman is directly applicable to each of our lives.
And the things God had written from the very beginning, have laid the foundation for the things that He wrote all through the Old and New Testaments.
There is a building of this story, that will culminate in the end, when
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.
