More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
DWDP - Gen 2; 18 -20 Ancient Men - Dumb Brutes or Intellectual Geniuses?
Discover the foundational Christian belief in the need for companionship and relationships as we journey through the pages of Genesis in this episode. With Dr. Robert Jackson at the helm, we unravel God's early intentions for humanity, examining why it's stated that it is "not good for man to be alone." His reflections bridge scriptural insights with modern-day realities, revealing the consequences of isolation and the crucial need for community.
As we explore Adam’s quest for a suitable partner while naming the animals, we illuminate the deep-seated longing within us for meaningful relationships. Brace yourself for surprising revelations about the intelligence and capabilities of early humans, challenging the typical portrayals of our ancestors. Discover how ancient construction achievements showcase a level of sophistication and knowledge that defies common misconceptions.
Join us as we affirm the belief that companionships forged in love and faith are crucial for our emotional and spiritual well-being. Engage with us as we reflect on the gift of friendship, family, and marriage that God graciously offers, and tune in next week for a deeper look into the creation of the first woman. Subscribe, share, and join our community of believers exploring the truth of God’s Word!
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Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr Robert Jackson.
Dr. Jackson:Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr Papa. Grab your Bibles, gather around and let us look into the written Word, which reveals to us the living Word which is our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you're wondering what happened to all my grandchildren, they're still here. I just wised up and I'm recording at 5 am while they're all still asleep. The only sound I hear in the background is snoring and occasional coughing.
Dr. Jackson:Well, now we're at Genesis, chapter 2, verses 18 through 20. And let me read these verses to you. Verse 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 Out of the ground. The Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird 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 the living creature, that was its name. 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. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his word Now, verse 18. At the end of the six days of creation, god declared everything very good. Literally it meant exceedingly good. Yet the creation was incomplete and Adam especially was incomplete without a helpmate, literally a helper-like man, man. God said this was not good, that the man should be alone.
Dr. Jackson:Trust me, dear listener, when I tell you that my patients do not prosper when they live alone, doesn't matter whether they're male or female. I have male patients that I call maverick males and they drift from one female relationship to another for all of their lives. And I'm here to tell you they do not prosper. They live lonely, empty lives without a proper mate and without children and without grandchildren proper mate and without children and without grandchildren. And they are exceedingly lonely in their old age, without well, and I have to say it this way with a lot of sadness, I watch them drift into the sunset of their lives without family relationships, without children and without grandchildren, and it saddens my heart to watch the loneliness in their lives.
Dr. Jackson:And then I have divorced couples who war over custody privileges with their children and refuse to forgive one another or even speak to one another. They have no helper when they are old and feeble and need someone to drive them to the hospital or to a doctor's appointment. And when I order, for example, a colonoscopy, I'll say to them now who's going to drive you to the hospital? And they look at me and shrug. And they don't have a spouse. They're estranged from their children. They may not even have a friend to drive them to the hospital for a procedure. And it saddens me so much to see that the relationships in their life are so fractured and they're so alone. And then there's my patients who are widows and widowers, who are brokenhearted at the loss of their lifelong partner and they don't know which way to turn. And if they're old they tend to decline in health without the love of their life by their side. And I'm here to tell you again God is right, he's always right, and when he says it is not good for man or woman to live alone, god made us with an innate desire for companionship that first hear me clearly first must be met with an intimate saving relationship with Jesus Christ and then with a lifelong monogamous heterosexual partner within the sanctity of marriage. Now, I hate to have to qualify that statement with so many qualifiers, but that's just the world in which we live today.
Dr. Jackson:Now go back to the scripture verse. All the critters were male and female, and God had told them to multiply and fill the earth. Only man could not comply with the original command to multiply and fill the earth because he had no suitable companion. If you recall, god personally formed Adam's body from the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life. In like manner, he would personally form the woman's body and in so doing he would perform the first and the most amazing surgical procedure ever. But we're not there yet, and in next week's lesson I'm going to tell you about my first surgical procedure that I ever attended. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. You wait until we talk about that.
Dr. Jackson:Now, verse 19 to 20. So there are two purposes here when God brings all the animals before Adam. First he's fulfilling his mission. You remember he was to exercise dominion over all the earth. So he's exercising his dominion. And then, number two although he would rule over all the cattle and the birds and the fish, he realized suddenly that he could have no fellowship with the beast of the field. He stared into the eyes of cows and giraffes, and dogs and monkeys and he realized that he could not relate, he couldn't communicate with them, he couldn't copulate with them. And there was one burning question in Adam's mind they all have a female partner. Father in heaven, pardon the intrusion, but where's my female companion? Now, did he say that out loud or was he just thinking that? Well, who knows? Only God knows.
Dr. Jackson:Although God had formed every creature out of the ground, just like Adam, unlike Adam, none of them was created in the image of God. None of them had the capacity to relate to God, the Father, in the same way that Adam did. None of them were created in the image of God. It would require another creation on God's part, another creation in his image, to be able to relate to Adam. Now let me ask you another question. Does it seem strange to you that God would bring all the animals to Adam? I mean it does. It seems a little strange to me, but not any more strange than him bringing them to Noah to lead them up into the ark before the flood, because the Bible tells us that's exactly what God did. And if God can create all of them just by speaking a word.
Dr. Jackson:I submit to you, very respectfully, that he can lead them to Adam in pairs, in order for Adam to name them. So let me ask you another question how many could he name? Well, let's just speculate. Let's just say he named 10 kinds of animals per minute. That would be 600 in an hour, be 600 in an hour. In a five-hour half-workday. He could name 3,000 kinds of animals. Now, that might stretch my brain. But you see, adam was the original man and he was not impaired one little bit by brain fatigue. He wasn't impaired by sin. But wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Dr. Jackson:I thought our ancestors were dumb brutes who lived in caves, carried clubs and dragged their women around by their hair. More than that, their language skills were minimal, causing them to point and grunt, to communicate like the apes. Well, at least that's what the evolutionists tell us. But you see, there's a biblical worldview that's entirely opposite to the viewpoint of the evolutionists. The holy divine revelation of scripture informs us that Adam, the first man, was highly intelligent from day one. He was discerning and he was able to swiftly name thousands of animals without second thoughts. The Bible says for whatever the man called a living creature. That was its name and, more than that, he remembered those names. Now look, I've got 18 grandchildren and sometimes I have to stare at them like a dumb brute. Sometimes I have to stare at them like a dumb brute, running through the list of names in my mind trying to recall which child that one is and which parent they belong to. That's just 18 grandchildren. Adam named thousands on the spot and recalled their names the next day and forever. That's not a dumb brute caveman.
Dr. Jackson:Now let me just ask you a question. If you started life with a superior intelligence, untainted by original sin, and then you lived 900 years, like Adam did and most of his peers, up until the time of the flood, how much could you learn, how much could you create or manufacture in those 900 years? How many songs could you write? How many skills could you acquire? How many new hobbies could you take up? You know, I've got friends that in their 70s retire and they take up golf and become good at it, or they decide they're going to become a deer hunter or a turkey hunter late in life. I've got friends who decide they're going to take up sowing later in life and become good at it. What if you live 900 years? How many hobbies could you take up in 900 years? Listen, listen. Noah built the ark when he was 600 years old. He took up ship building when he was 600.
Dr. Jackson:It was only after the worldwide flood that the lifespan of man became so abbreviated, but much of the skill and knowledge acquired before the flood still remained for a time. But just like our physical bodies began to decline after the flood, so did some of the ancient knowledge acquired before the flood. Nevertheless, the ancient skill and knowledge existed for some time span, and there is much evidence of ancient man's genius in architectural skills, in construction, in astronomy, in transportation. In fact, their architectural skills are still an unsolved mystery Without the use of modern power tools or machines or computers. Early man constructed large buildings with incredible precision. Many of them were built in line with astronomical events such as the solstices and the equinoxes. This is known as archaeoastronomy, evidencing an advanced understanding of the sun, moon and stars. Let me give you just a couple of examples, and this comes from the Answers book number four, and this information is there and I think you would enjoy reading it sometime.
Dr. Jackson:There's a place called Puma Punca. It's part of a large ancient city known as Tiwanaku, and it's in Bolivia. This archaeological site displays one of the greatest examples of advanced stone cutting techniques, and the blocks are cut and shaped so well they fit together perfectly. In fact, they're so well cut that even robots today would have trouble making the stones so precisely. And in the Answers book you'll see pictures of those stones and they are quite amazing. And then there's the Great Pyramids of Giza.
Dr. Jackson:You've seen pictures of the Great Pyramids and they're amazing. They're out in the middle of absolutely nowhere in the desert, and it's one of the most famous ancient structures in the world the Great Pyramids and it's the pinnacle of ancient man's ability to construct advanced buildings. It's not only massive in size, it is precisely aligned with true north, within 360th of a degree. Its base is only 7 eighths of an inch out of level and it covers an area of 13 acres. Along with the two neighboring pyramids. It may be aligned with Orion's belt. Another factor exhibiting its advancement is that the mortar used was stronger than rock most, with less than 1 50th of an inch between them. Over a million stones were used in its construction, averaging 2.5 to 15 tons each, and the heaviest weighs around 80 tons, and it's a mystery still as to how the rocks, the big stones, were even moved there. And then everybody knows about Stonehenge, located in England. This is one of the greatest examples of archaeoastronomy in the ancient world. It was likely used to predict when the solstices, equinoxes and cross-quarter days would occur each year. It's still a mystery as to how these stones were moved, because they're so giant and massive, but they are perfect examples of ancient man's knowledge of the heavens. Well, those are just a few examples, and in the Answers book there are about a dozen examples of ancient man's ability to construct giant buildings and to coordinate them with archaeoastronomy.
Dr. Jackson:There was genius in ancient men. They were not dumb brutes, as the evolutionists would say to us. Now listen, adam and Eve were created very good and innocent. Nevertheless, their sin began the devolution of man, the steady decline of man intellectually, morally, spiritually and physically. I once saw a book entitled the Ascent of man, describing man's progress from cavemen all the way to the technological age of today. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Referring to the title of that book the Ascent of man when we take into account the millions of people killed by Hitler, stalin, lenin, mao Zedong and other tyrant dictators in just the last 100 years, we realize the descent of man into inhumanity and moral depravity. We may have better technology, but our hearts are far from God. We have descended into intellectual and moral insanity. The truth is, man was brilliant, brilliant in all the splendor of unspoiled creation, brilliant in intellectual and imagination, brilliant in creativity and invention, but with the entrance of sin and the curse, creativity and invention, but with the entrance of sin and the curse, man began and continues a downward spiral in his rebellion, without the hope of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, man is ultimately doomed to the wrath of God. But we who are believers in Christ have this hope. Believers in Christ have this hope that one day, because of Christ's atoning work, we will again be brilliantly glorified with Him.
Dr. Jackson:As Romans chapter 8 tells us, the Bible is true in far more ways and detail than ever imagined by today's believers. Do not undermine its authority and do not doubt its inerrancy. Stand firm, test all things and hold fast what is good. It's what 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, tells you and me. Now let's go back to Adam. As he finishes naming all the animals, each had its mate, male and female, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. There was no kinship between him and the animals, not even the apes, and he was really alone and that was not good. Stay tuned because God's fixing to do something really amazing. You're listening to Devotions with Dr Papa. Be back with us next week as we look at the Scriptures as it describes the creation of the first woman. I pray the Lord will bless you real good.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books, or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Slone Audio Production at bobslone. com.
