The Creation of Woman

Genesis 2:18-25

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Well, here we are again, the Bible in me podcast. Welcome back. And I want to say to all the listeners and viewers, thank you for tuning in. I've got a lot of great feedback. Got Brother Brad Kotrell and Brother Brett Kottrell here. We've been in the Genesis study and we've uh uncovered some amazing things, and there's always so much more you can do. And I want to challenge any of our listeners to sit down and do this very thing. Uh, repeat it in your own context. Sit down in the Sunday school class or with a group of friends and just slow down and ask questions. Hopefully, we're asking some questions that maybe provoke thought and other conversation. That's the goal, right?

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Uh so we're gonna start in Genesis chapter number two, verse number sixteen is where I'm gonna begin reading from. This is the command of the Lord God, and the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them, and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, to the fowl of the air, and to the beast of the field, for Adam there was not found and help meat for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of the ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof, and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She was called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh, and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Here again we'll go let's go to let's back up. Verse number eighteen. God had already called what was good and what was not good. We talked about that. He implicitly let Adam know it's not good to eat of this tree. Now he explicitly says in verse number eighteen, it is not good that the man should be alone. So twice now we find out what God says is not good. And this time it's very explicit. It's not good that a man should be alone. And God says, I'll solve that problem. I'm gonna make an help that is adequate for him. I'm gonna make a help, which the word help is azer in the um Hebrew. I'm gonna make a deliverer. That's what the word azer means. I'm gonna make a deliverer that is adequate for him. So God acknowledges that there's something about humanity that is not good. It's not good for this human to be alone. And then in verse number 19, the expectation would be what? If God says, I'm gonna solve the problem, you would think what? Verse number 19 should be the solving of that problem, right? Yes. So here again, we're at another one of these passages that's like, okay, if I was arranging these verses, right? If God says, I'm gonna make and help, I'm gonna make a deliverer that's adequate for him, the next thing you read is how God made that deliverer. But the next thing you read is what? Naming beasts. Yeah. But here again in verse number 19, it says that the Lord formed every beast of the field. Have we heard about the field yet? Verse number five, every plant of the field before it was. Seems like here again, that is talking about the beasts being created on the dry land part where there's not a lot of inhabitants. So again, I've said this already, but chapter two is not a zoom in on one particular day.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

But the land creatures were created on day six. So we're pulling from that time period. But yeah, here again, what goes on with the land creatures, God has his hands involved in. Not in the same way that he did the human, but he still is personally connected. Right. Okay, so let's fast forward now in the biblical storyline and think about what these beasts of the field are going to become for man. Anything? They do become a help for man. They do in what way?

SPEAKER_02 5:14

For work. Beast of burden?

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Burden. For work. What else with um also for food? Okay. And they become sacrifice and worship. Up until now, man's not a meat eater. That doesn't happen until the Noah story. But up until now, we've got something for to help work and something. Again, this doesn't come until uh the sacrificial system is not instituted yet. Right. But they're going to be a substitute in some way in worship. We actually get the first substitute of that. Here again, it's implicitly said, but with what God provides with the coats of skin at the end of chapter three after man sins, that's fast-forwarding. So God says, it's not good for a man to be alone. I'm going to make a deliverer that is adequate for him. And verse 19, we find out that God forms the beast of the field and brings them to Adam. And what does he allow Adam to do? First of all, this is something I've never noticed until before we started recording today. But this is the first time Adam is used. It's the man, the man, the man, the man, the human. And then now it's Adam. And the Lord brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. So he brings the beasts of the field, these animals, and he allows Adam to do something that he had done in Genesis chapter number one. He called something. Your thoughts.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

So is this another example of heaven and earth working together? Man formed from earth. So this is where God invites his creation to work in partnership with him.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Yes. He's partnering with man and saying, I'm going to allow you to do something that I have been doing. I've been calling everything. I've named things. In chapter number one, God called the day. He named them. Now Adam is brought land creatures by God, and God says, Whatever you call them, that's what they're going to be called. There's another thing that's uh maybe lost on a lot of Bible readers. We think that Adam was an unintelligent being. He was a highly intelligent being. He had the job of calling the animal kingdom by their family names, their species. Yeah. So here's again, God sharing his rule with part of his creation. He shared the upper rule with keeping the division between day and night with this upper creation, sun, moon, and stars. Now he's sharing the lower rule on the earth. I'm giving man dominion over this. I'm going to share this with you. Whatever you call them, that's what they're going to be called. I'm going to allow you to image me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

Just a brief callback to something that was said in some previous episodes of when God created like plants and animals to create them in a mature form, not from a baby or from seed to create it in a mature form. So same as Adam, you see a man. A many intelligence. Already with knowledge and intelligence. Right. Right. The same pattern as all of other creation.

SPEAKER_03 8:37

Yes. Something I just reading through this, the time frame, we're not told we're not, you know, time frames of things. So when when it says in the Lord God said it's not good that man should be alone, how long had that been? How long before that was realized? Yeah. You know, I just my thought was Great question. You know, he commanded Adam not to uh partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Did he see did he see man walking close to it and and looking at the at the fruit? I mean what what made him you know what made him that command what what made him say it was it's not good that man should be alone, you know?

SPEAKER_02 9:16

I mean and the the jumping back and forth because 19 actually it actually goes back to the fifth day when it talks about every foul of the air. Yes. So it goes back to day five or six. So we're stepping back into that.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

So yeah, this is not a zoom in again, it's not a zoom in on one day, it's pulling different things out of different days of creation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

I've often read this like chronologically, yes, and I think maybe that's where some of it don't make sense. And I get to 19 and I'm like, wait a minute, the plants and that was chapter one is when all the animals was created, and then Adam, and but now it says God creates them. It doesn't, it's not necessarily saying then he went and created the animals. Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Otherwise that would be we read chronologically, but the literature is working in a different way. Yeah, very good point. And it's something you have you need to pay attention to. We have to respect this literature for what it is, it's not written like any other book in the world. Yeah. So yeah, those are the kind of things that I'm trying to highlight, and you're you're picking up on it very well. Uh we're leaning into this, okay. There's a whole lot of things that are kind of disorienting with with the way you normally read literature. Yeah. So God says, I'm gonna create a deliverer that is adequate for him, someone that would be completely adequate to deliver him. And then the next thing you read is God bringing all the animals to Adam to name them. Whatsoever Adam called them, that's what they were called, that's what their name was. He gives names to all cattle, fowls of the air, beast of the field. Here again in verse number 20, it's repeated. But there wasn't anybody to deliver Adam. There was not anybody that was adequate. What is that saying there? Is that God realizing that? Or is that Adam realizing that?

SPEAKER_02 11:15

I think given the fact that he allowed Adam to call to name all the animals, would give him a personal connection, would give Adam a personal connection with the animals, with the so I would think that would be Adam saying that.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Yes, very possibly. Adam realizing what else is he realizing? If there's animals brought to him and they are doing what we said in the in the the Genesis chapter one study, they're carrying on the abundance and given the blessing of multiplying.

SPEAKER_03 11:48

Multiplying. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

If animals can multiply, it takes male and female to multiply to carry on the blessing. It's like verse number 19 through um uh verse number 18 rather through verse number 20 is creating this problem here, and it's like Adam sees this. If I'm gonna be someone who multiplies the blessing of God, then I can't do that alone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

I always see Adam sitting there and he sees one animal walk by, but the animals would have multiplied by then. Um could have been a whole herd of zebras, whatever it was.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

He had the understanding that it takes it takes two male and female to multiply.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

Yeah. And you know, yeah, seeing the animals, but where's where's mine?

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

I've seen the same, I've just imagined Adam kicked back and one by one, God just all right. Now what's this one called? What's this one called? Yeah. Yeah, what an elementary thought. Yeah. Can I mention something real quick? Yeah, go ahead. What is this? There has to be a significance in verse 20 that Adam names everything but the creatures of the sea.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

I was wondering the very same thing when we was reading through that. I don't know. Is that because that is the realm?

SPEAKER_02 13:08

The chaotic realm of the unknown?

SPEAKER_00 13:10

And and it's the uninhabitable. Yeah, there's still creatures in there that we don't know about. Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

I don't know. As we read that, it just made me think something's missing there.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

And it's yeah, I thought the same thing. That's a great point to bring up. It comes through just looking at the literature. Yeah. So we have this repeated phrase and help meet for him, a help that was adequate for him. God says, I will make that deliverer that is adequate for him. But after verse 20, there's not found that. Like in all of creation, there's nobody to deliver this man. There's nobody that's adequate to be his deliverer. And also, there's no way he can image his creator fully. He's doing some things that the creator is allowing him to do. He's calling things, he's naming things, but he's still not be being able to carry on the blessing. So this is how God solves the problem, verse number 21. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. So something that's lost on the English translations is what's going on here in verse number 20 with the ribs, and I'm going to get to that in a second, but verse number 21 says, The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. This is something that is called a motif in in biblical literature, and it's like a pattern. So you see something here, and you're going to see that repeated several times throughout the Old Testament storyline, where men are put into a deep sleep. Here again, these are foundational texts. So they are the building foundation of what happens throughout the rest of the Old Testament. When men go into deep sleeve, there is this pattern of God doing something while man is in that deep sleep. So I want us to just take that uh little phrase there and do just a quick exercise of times that you can think of where man was put into a deep sleep and see if this pattern doesn't repeat itself later on in the biblical storyline. Can y'all think of any on the top off the top of your head?

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Uh Abraham is one.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Abraham in Genesis, when God says that I'm going to bring about, I'm going to make a covenant with you. And it's the broken peace covenant where Abraham takes these animals and divides them, and there's blood running down between these animals, the pieces of this animal, and God says, I'm going to enter into a blood covenant with you, and you and I are going to go through this bloody aisle together, and we are going to. This is a new creation moment for you, Abram. I'm going to make a nation out of you. And so when Abraham is about to walk into that covenant, which would be an unbreakable covenant by either party, can Abraham keep his side of the of the covenant? If you enter into a covenant, it's it's unbreakable. Abraham can't can't keep his side of the covenant because he's he's human. He's the human partner that is sinful. So God causes a deep sleep to fall upon Abram, but he also is fully aware of what's going on. Even though he's in this deep sleep, he sees God's presence as a smoking lamp go down the middle of this bloody aisle. It's God saying, I know you're human, and I know you won't be able to keep this part of the promise, but I'm going to accept my part of the covenant and yours as well. And I'm going to represent both of us. I'm going to represent the divine side and the human side both. And I'm going to keep this promise for you because you're inadequate to do that. Here again, calling back to what happens to Adam, he's inadequate to produce his own help. Like I can't fully image God, but God says, I'm going to give you this gift. I am going to make a help that is adequate for you. Other times in scripture where men fall into deep sleeps and they find out that God's going to do something special is with men like Jacob, who's running out of his boundary land, going to find a going to find a wife. And he lays down to sleep. He don't have, he don't have anything to provide anything for himself. And he lays down to sleep and goes into this deep sleep, but all of a sudden, in the middle of this deep sleep, he's aware of something bigger going on. And God shows him this is a heaven and earth moment. Heaven and earth are connecting right here to provide something supernatural for you. I don't want to just go on this line over and over, but I use those two examples to talk about, to let us know this is a this is a gift of God's creation right here that's going on. So those are things to think about when you read through the rest of the biblical storyline. When you find that men are in deep sleep in the Old Testament, these are times where God is wanting at least to do something uh supernatural, and and it's it's times where God is about to step in or wants to step in and bring about something wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Something else I see here relating back to a previous episode as well, is God getting his hands dirty to make this happen. Where I mean, if I if you look at cer the word surgery is what I would think of here. Yeah, it follows that exact same pattern of putting Adam into a deep sleep, and then obviously he cuts him open. Yeah. Because he has to he closed up the flesh afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

He's got his hands in the clay.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

He's got his hands in the clay again. You know, I and I I don't know that I've ever really thought of it like that of God actually I've I've thought of it more of just speaking it or Abracadabra has a rib in his hand. You know, I I hate to even say that, but you know what I mean? Like that's just kind of what I've thought. But you really think about it to physically, I'm sure, lay Adam down, yes, puts a deep sleep on him and cuts him open and pulls out surgically remove a rib. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Okay, so that's a perfect segue into what I was gonna talk about with the rib. So if you look up this word for rib, it's used a f just a few times in the Old Testament. I had it wrote down somewhere and I can't find it, but it's very few times actually, and it's always used to describe a complete side of something. So it's the word that's used to describe the side of the tabernacle or the complete side of the temple. So in our minds, what happens is God opens a little part of Adam, takes a little part, and then makes something bigger out of that and brings it to him. But what actually is being described is that God separates a complete side of Adam from him and separates the mirrored opposite of him and closes up the flesh on Adam's side, and half of Adam, essentially, in in our way of conceiving this, half of Adam is standing there. And so he brings that complete side of Adam to him and stands her before him, and what's his reaction? Verse number 23. It's now part of me. Me. Not now part of me. This is me. Yeah, this is this is this is my bone flesh. Yeah, in her. Yeah, so it's it's describing more of a what he pulled from man, separated from man. It's the mirrored opposite. So when they look at each other, they realize in order for us to image God, we have to be together. Relationship. Yes, this is beautiful. It is. It's Adam sees this is my bones, my flesh. And so she's gonna be called woman because she was taken out of man, she was separated from man, and I will forever be incomplete without her. I cannot image God. We can't carry on the blessing or the ability to multiply without each other. Now look at verse number twenty four. Who's writing or what's being said? Is that telling more to the story or is that offering conflict? Commentary on the story. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's like he's going down through the Lord caused a deep sleep, he takes a rib, he separates the woman from the man. Verse number 24 is different.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

Therefore, that means because of this, this is the whole reason why man leaves father and mother and cleaves into his wife. Adam didn't have a father and mother. Right. So whoever's compiling this text to Israel, it's like, this is the reason. I want you to understand this. This is the whole reason why we marry. That there's a stronger bond between man and wife than man and father and mother.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

I mean, those are the strongest ties until it's time for man to break away because he's forever incomplete and not able to carry on the blessing and the abundance of God without an adequate deliverer. And it's like God's given Israel this idea. This is the reason. This is the reason why it wouldn't make sense for you to leave that strongest family tie, father and mother, who sustained your life. What would make a man break away from that and cleave unto his wife? It's because there's something incomplete inside of man. And he comes to that realization at some time in his life. Verse number 25, and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. That word for naked means they were completely vulnerable with each other. And there was no shame in that. They could be completely open and honest. I know there is an intimate relationship being talked about there, but how hard is it for you to become completely raw, honest, and open everything about yourself to another human being?

SPEAKER_02 23:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

That was all complicated from the fall, but before the fall, you're completely open and honest. There's not a thought that's between us that's hidden from one another. We're not hiding from each other here. This is the most beautiful thing at the end of chapter number two. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

But I thought of the word vulnerable, but then I don't know if that's it almost has a negative connotation to it.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

It does. Yeah. In our context, but that's a good word. It's like completely you.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Just think about this. Now, as I said, the reason why people can't is because the results of the fall. And we're going to study that when we get there to Genesis chapter 3, verse uh 15 and 16, the fallout of what happened after they sinned. But think about that context. You can be completely open and honest with each other and have a unified relationship, and God is present, and the humans are present, and it's it's um humbling and beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_03 25:02

Yes. It really makes you think about your how we view our relationship and how my relationship with my my wife. And when you hear the the term communication is key, and in this, it was obviously very open communication. There's nothing hidden, there's no no guilt of hiding anything from each other. It's all on the table. And that's shown a uh a successful marriage from the from the basis.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

How many relationships do we have, period, that we're trying to hide what really is going on? It's like, oh, if they really find out the real me.

SPEAKER_03 25:38

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Because there's a fear in that. If they find out the real me, they're gonna find out there's some things here that's not great.

SPEAKER_03 25:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

Because we've all been touched by sin. All that was a fallout of sin.

SPEAKER_03 25:48

Yeah, correct.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

But before this, there's nothing impure, there's nothing unholy. You could be, you could be completely vulnerable with each other. Yeah, and somehow that's imaging the creator for here again, one to become two, to become one again, and multiply.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

What a picture of joy and peace. Oh, yes. And it's something that we can't we can't imagine, no, really, because of sin.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

Um, I'll give a caveat to that. Okay. Until you read Ephesians chapter five, and the relationship that Christ allows the Christian to have between man and wife and children and work relationships, all have been restored in Christ. And we can get a little piece of that. I'm I'm I'm not saying to its fullest, sure, but what Christ came to restore in relationships is something to be studied. Mutual submission to each other, living after God's order. The children are honoring father and mother. The man is loving wife as Christ loved the church in a sacrificial manner, not seeking anything in return. Right. The woman is reverencing her husband. The children are giving honor to father, following his commands, but the father's not provoking children to wrath. And then work relationships, your interpersonal relationships, you're treating the person who may not even know God like they live in God's kingdom, and they're like, what in the world's going on with this guy? What's going on with this employee? And I know in the context of Ephesians, it was a master slave relationship, but in our context, it's the work relationship. They're being treated with dignity and respect, and it's restored only in Christ. The only way to know it closest to Genesis chapter number two is inside the bounds of uh a Christian home. That's awesome, ain't it? It is. Closing thoughts?

SPEAKER_03 27:50

To me, once again, a challenge in the end, just in in that last verse uh 25, just a challenge with with uh following God's perfect order.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Yeah, the last verse is like, okay, God solved the problem. Now let's see what happens.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

What a gift. What a gift Adam and Eve were giving. Yes, very much. But also what a gift we're giving as well. What a high responsibility. I've I I appreciate you highlighting that, brother Brett. It's it comes like these lessons have come with some. It's been this way every time we've talked. It's really heavy. It is.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

Yeah. When you this is gonna go back to what we talked about in the very beginning when this all started, when you started in Sunday school. And I'm trying to remember what we had just gone through right before we went to Genesis. Well, what was you teaching right before that?

SPEAKER_00 28:45

It seems like we did Galatians.

SPEAKER_03 28:48

Yeah, I believe it was. Then when you you know, you said you were gonna go back through Genesis. It was, you know, the first thought is kind of a why? Mm-hmm. We all know, we all know where it all come from. But then reading through the through this, like, no, we didn't know any, we really didn't know anything. And the the basis of everything else started here. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Foundational text of the rest of the word of God and uh a foundation for all humanity. Yeah, yeah, it's awesome. Well, I appreciate y'all's uh input, and we're gonna meet back here. Um, this next I'm looking forward to it. See what happens in chapter three. How do they deal with this gift they've been given?

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Gives me a purpose for my life. Jesus is my treasure is the reason that I'm still living. When I die. When I die