Following Instructions

God Introduces Man to His Wife or Follow the Instructions

Intro: How many of you have bought furniture that you had to put together? How did it turn out? Did you use the instructions or did you just wing it? the picture on the front of our bulletin is from Ikea and it gives you some helpful hints on how to put their furniture together. Even if you have never been to an Ikea, if you have put together Wal-Mart furniture it is pretty much the same. You get the illustrated instruction booklet, with all the parts numbered or lettered, and you have to match the right item to the step you are on. If you use the wrong size screw it could cost you a bit of time later when you find out where the short screw or dowel goes.

The picture on the front shows having some one help you with the items when you are setting them up, and not being too rough with it so you break or damage the furniture and if you get stuck to call the manufacturer and they will walk you through the steps.

That is pretty good advice and exactly what we are going to talk about today.

Last week we saw how God created the world to include the garden, placed man in it and gave us animals to name and to help us work the land. God is establishing His community with us in it. However, God knows that it is not good for us to be without someone who is similar to us, but still different enough. And this is what we see with the creation of Woman.

Read Verses:

Main Point: God made man and woman similar, but different His purpose.

I. God Introduces Man to His Wife (17-25)

Adam has the animals, he gave them all names but none of them looked like Adam. They were all different. None of them had speech or opposable thumbs. Little known fact, lions cannot cook or hold a plow. So, God fixes the problem or enacts his next phase of the plan.

21 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.22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 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.”

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

This full description of the woman’s creation is unique to the cosmogonies of the ancient Near East. The Hebrews’ lofty estimation of womanhood and its place in creation was not widely held by ancient civilizations, and Israel itself failed at times to give proper recognition and honor to women. The law of Israel, however, was designed to protect those who were commonly subject to abuse by society: the orphan, widow, and alien (e.g., levirate marriage, ). Genesis’s account of the woman’s creation demonstrates that God intended women to be equally important in the purposes of Providence.[1] It is after all the woman who helps bring the messiah into the world.

The creation of Woman also shows that we are meant to be with other people. “God has created human life to have fellowship with him but also to be a social entity, building relationships with other human beings.”[2]

Man and woman share in the “human” sameness that cannot be found elsewhere in creation among the beasts. In every way the woman shares in the same features of personhood as does the man. In 1:26–28 this equality of the man and woman as image bearers has priority over their differences in sexual roles, although both were crucial to realizing the intended blessing.[3]

Adam is completely reliant on God for everything he has. Adam did not make the garden, he was put there to work it. He did not raise the animals, he is there to name them. Adam did not create his wife, God did that for him. So, it is with our salvation. It is personal, it is ours. My family is not saved through me. But we are not the ones saving anyone. God alone has done that.

Christ alone accomplished that This was one of the Five Solas if the reformation. We do not have apart in our Salvation or justification. We play a part in our sanctification. God’s creation glorifies himself. Christ’s sacrifice glorifies the Father. Paul tells us likes that we are to “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

God makes a covenant with Adam and here, like the subsequent covenants he makes with Abraham, and Moses and David, God is the one to up hold his bargain.

Application: Man and woman are created equal but different. Complimenting each other.

Man and woman share in the “human” sameness that cannot be found elsewhere in creation among the beasts. In every way the woman shares in the same features of personhood as does the man. In 1:26–28 this equality of the man and woman as image bearers has priority over their differences in sexual roles, although both were crucial to realizing the intended blessing.[4]

The term helper is not derogatory or secondary like you are just the person who holds the flashlight. There is no sense derived from the word linguistically or from the context of the garden narrative that the woman is a lesser person because her role differs. In the case of the biblical model, the “helper” is an indispensable “partner” (REB) required to achieve the divine commission. “Helper,” as we have seen from its Old Testament usage, means the woman will play an integral part, in this case, in human survival and success. What the man lacks, the woman accomplishes. As Paul said concisely, the man was not made for the woman “but the woman for the man” (cf. ). The woman makes it possible for the man to achieve the blessing that he otherwise could not do “alone.” And, obviously, the woman cannot achieve it apart from the man.[5]

In our terms this is called complementarianism.

1. Complementarians believe that God created male and female as complementary expressions of the image of God—-male and female are counterparts in reflecting his glory.

2. There is no rank. Complementarians do not believe that men, as a group, rank higher than women. Men are not superior to women. Women are not the “second sex.” Men have a responsibility to exercise headship in their homes and church family, and Christ revolutionized the definition of what that means. Authority is not the right to rule—-it's the responsibility to serve.

3. True complementarianism is not a patriarchy-or ruled by men. Complementarians stand against the oppression of women. We want to see women flourish, and we believe they do so when men and women together live according to God's Word.

4. Complementarians believe that males were designed to shine the spotlight on Christ's relationship to the church (and the LORD God's relationship to Christ) in a way that females cannot, and that females were designed to shine the spotlight on the church's relationship to Christ (and Christ's relationship to the LORD God) in a way that males cannot. Who we are as male and female is ultimately not about us. It's about testifying to the story of Jesus. We do not get to dictate what manhood and womanhood are all about. Our Creator does. That's the basis of complementarianism.

The opposite is called egalitarianism which in one or two sentences God created male and female as equal in all respects. makes no distinction between woman and man insofar as both are equally made in His image, and both are given the responsibility to rule over His creation. But remember Genesis chapter 1 is like big overview and then chapter 2 is a closer look at what actually happened, especially with regards to the creation of man and woman. and in the fall a few things change with respect to the relationship of man and woman.

These issues, even though this was written thousands of years ago has been making headlines for the same amount of time. Can a woman lead a biblically lead a church? Can she be he one to lead her family? This is not about who works and who stays home with the kids. Those are decisions that have to be answered by the couples.

This is about men being Biblically responsible for their households and serving their wives while they lead them. Modeling sacrificial servant leadership like Jesus modeled for the church.

Paul tell us in Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Christ is our example that we should sacrifice for others, this extends past our wives and husbands but to all people because we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. That is the second greatest commandment.

Feminism and Toxic Manhood are terms being thrown around lately. What is it? It is not following the instructions that we have been given by the manufacturer. When we put the furniture together how we think it should go together, we get furniture that is unusual, and not as functional or just broken. And we need to call on God to help us fix it. And what does he do?

He sends you a new box. He gives yo a new heart that makes the dresser actually a dresser and a table an actual table and you can use it as it as intended. God

Conclusion

The two main characters, God and mankind, have now been introduced to the story. They are living in perfect harmony, working for God tending His Garden. God has established the first community, with him and mankind.

Walter Breuggeman, who is a commentator and theologian sums up as “The destiny of the human creation is to live in God’s world, with God’s other creatures, on God’s terms.”[6] And we have seen this with our job to work the land, take care of God’s creation and live with other people, particularly if we are married.

The covenant is perfect and perfectly adhered to by both parties. The covenant that would be broken by the first Adam but restored by the Second Adam, Jesus.

This is one reason we take the Lord’s supper. To remember the covenant made with the Lord Jesus Christ. P49 Pastor’s Manual

Like any good book or story, there needs to be a problem that needs to be solved, otherwise the story is not really worth reading.

[2] K. A. Mathews, , vol. 1A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 213.

[3] K. A. Mathews, , vol. 1A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 213.

[4] K. A. Mathews, , vol. 1A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 213.

[5] K. A. Mathews, , vol. 1A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 214.

[6] K. A. Mathews, , vol. 1A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 183.