No Need To Live Alone

God came to Adam and Adam told him he was lonely> 

How can I fix that?

Could you make me someone who will be kind, sensitive, caring, meet my every need and never cause me any trouble?

Of course, said the Lord, but it will cost you

I see said Adam.  How much?

An arm and a leg.

Uh God, what can I get for a rib?

Eve was out walking along the Tigris River one day and came across a magical lamp.  A genie popped out and told her he would give her one wish. 

Eve asked the genie if he could make a road across the Mediterranean so she could easily go and explore other parts of the world.

The genie said, “Are you crazy.  Do you know how difficult that would be?  Give me another wish.

Okay.  You know my husband could you change him into being kind, and helpful and less domineering, and sensitive.

The genie looked at Eve and replied, many lanes did you want at that road?

Next week we will study the fall of mankind.  The fall is the basis for what happened between Adam and his sons one day after they had been expelled from the Garden.

Adam was taking a walk with Cain and Abel and they came by the devastated Garden of Eden.  What is that – the sons asked?  What happened there?

Adam said, “Well my sons that is where your mother ate us out of house and home!”

Note verse 4

The Record of the Heaven and the Earth

            This statement is used to cover the main themes of Genesis

The account . . . the record . . . generations of . . . the story of . . .

Chapter two is like a review.  The material in this chapter explains in greater detail aspects of God’s creation.  It centers on the creation of Adam and then Eve and it gives us some great insight into mans purpose on this planet.

We ask those questions:

            Who are we?

            Why are we here?

            Where did we really come from?

God Creates Man

Vss 5-6

5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground,

6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—

This is not saying that something new is happening.  Remember this is a review, or an explanation

The Lord God is the one who forms things

Before the earth could flourish under God’s blessing God focused his attention on the crowning point of his creation – human life

            He   breathes     into him the breath of life

The account describes something that is close up and personal

Vs 7

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

This is something very special.  Look at verse 19

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.

God intimately produces Adam’s life.  This act is probably associated with the fact that we are made in his image.

God Makes Him an Abode

            This is the place of man’s   responsibility                         

God provides the place where man will live in his service and responsibilities to God.

God Makes Him a Mate

Now we come to the highlight I think of this chapter.  God’s explanation of the gift of Eve to Adam

It is a highlight in that it describes the wonderful position of Eve in relationship to Adam, but also how Adam was in need of someone like Eve.

Genesis 2: 18, 20ff

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit forhim.”

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. 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.

Adam is alone, at least physically.  Remember, in the triune godhead there is fellowship.  Adam has no one like him.

She is a helper

I will make a helper fit for him; someone to help him.

Psalm 33:20

Our soul waits for the Lord;

He is our help and our shield.

Psalm 46:1

God is our refuge and strength,

a very present help in trouble.

     2     Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,

though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,

     3     though its waters roar and foam,

though the mountains tremble at its swelling

Psalm 146:1-2

I lift up my eyes to the hills.

From where does my help come?

     2      My help comes from the Lord,

who made heaven and earth.

Let me ask you.  God is our helper, right?  Which one of us is the superior?

Oh, you mean the help is superior?  Interesting!

It is no more right to say the women is superior to the man that it is to say the man is superior to the woman.

Helper does not mean slave.

Adam and Eve were to work together in the work God has given Adam to do.

She is fit for him

Secondly, it says a helper “fit for him”

The word is used 152 x’s

Guess what it means more than a hundred times when it is used?

It is translated 67 x’s as before

And 27 times as opposite

In other words, Eve sits before Adam has his opposite.  But not like we might think.  She is before him and different – but she is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone.

I don’t think that it is insignificant that Eve was taken from Adam’s side.  That is where she was to walk.  Not under Adam’s foot nor under his intellectual dominion.

They were to walk side by side, carrying out the divine commission to subdue and fill the earth.  It was to be done in unity and harmony.

She is the 2nd piece to a two piece puzzle!

She becomes his wife

This is why – a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife where they become one flesh.

God plan was that they would walk together and live in harmony with each other and with Him.  You know the tragic story.  We will study it next week.

Sometimes there are images that come to mind when studying a text that are probably not technically put there by God but do make a lot of sense as we ponder them.

For instance, Eve came from Adam’s flesh and bones.  She was fashion by God himself.  But there is a vitally important element that is not mentioned here that had to be present. 

What is it that gives life to our bones and our flesh?  Of course, blood.  For Eve to be a live person she not only needed the physical structure, bones and flesh, she needed life.  And the Bible says that the life is in the blood.

Here’s where those thoughts lead me.  This Adam, the Bible calls the first Adam.  The implication is that there is another Adam, and there is.

It is Jesus.  What Adam and the human race lost because of sin, the second Adam came to undue, to fix.

Jesus entered into a very deep sleep – we call it death.  When the soldiers came, what did they do to determine if Jesus was dead?  They pierced his side and out flowed blood and water.  The blood and water were a clear indication that Jesus was dead. 
But three days later he awoke from his sleep.

From the life of Adam – the blood sustaining his bones and his flesh – God made Eve, Adam’s bride.  Through the sleep of Jesus, (the resulting because he shed his blood) God has made us the bride of Christ.