Why did God make Adam sleep while he made the woman?

We are looking at the book of Genesis in Sunday School, this morning in Gen. 2, the detailed account of the creation of man and woman.

Gen 2:18  Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."

Adam lived in paradise, absolute perfection, yet God said that there was something lacking.  Adam’s problem was that he was alone, and while he was alone, he was only half the story. The image of God in him, the imprint of the nature of God, needed a counterpart. The image of God on earth could only reflect the reality of the Triune God, the three one God who lives in perfect community, through a plurality of persons. God created humans social beings who need to be in relationship.

God said that to rescue Adam from his aloneness, he would create a helper for him.  The word translated helper is the Hebrew word Ezer, which has no meaning of inferiority or subjection.

The word is generally attributed to God himself when he engages in activities of relief or rescue among his people.

Other places that the English uses the word “helper”;

Psa_30:10  Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me! O LORD, be my helper!"

Psa_54:4  Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.

Psa_72:12  For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper.

Adam was alone, which God declared to not be good. God provided him with a rescuer to become with him the community that God had intended to create all along.

Gen 2:21-22  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. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

As we looked at this in class today, someone asked the question, “Why did God make Adam sleep? He didn’t have to do that.” True. He didn’t have to make Adam sleep to do the surgery. So, why did he?

One thought is that God took Adam out of the process. Adam had nothing to do with the creation of the woman. She was created by God alone, just as the man was. Good point.

Then, one of our ladies, Teressa, who is really a Bible scholar, said that she thinks it is so that the woman had time alone with God after her creation. The man had time alone with God, to establish an intimate connection and to come to understand that the man’s primary relationship with God, more important than any human relationship. Now, God created the woman while the man slept. The first person that the woman saw was God. She had time alone to establish an intimate connection with God, just as the man had. It was only after the woman came to know God, that God, took her and introduced her to the man. 

What a great insight that is! 

Joy

We are about to start a new Bible Study called Fight Back with Joy. Such an interesting title.  I believe that joy is a very important characteristic, a crucial virtue of the Christian life. I have never thought of it as a weapon in our arsenal, but I have thought that joy is an aspect of the fruit of the Spirit that we have overlooked somewhat. I am excited to see how joy can be important in fighting life’s battles.  

Early this morning, as I was sitting in the back yard on a swing, I whispered thanksgiving to God for the sweet cool breeze. I heard in my heart, “Stop long enough to really enjoy it.”  I closed my eyes, and leaned my head back to just delight in the feel of the breeze on my face. This made wonder how often I take the time to truly experience the joy in the little things that come my way every day. We often speak of the importance of gratitude, of giving thanks to God for everything. I appreciate the emphasis we place on giving thanks, knowing that a grateful heart is pleasing to God, and that giving thanks is an act of obedience. 

Today, though, I was convinced that we need to go beyond gratitude. We need to take the time to enjoy the gifts that God gives us. We need to be grateful people, and also joyful people. Jesus is here giving us gifts that he designed to give us joy. If I give someone a gift, I hope that they will say, “Thank you”, but, more than that, I hope that they will enjoy it, that they will use the gift and the gift will bring them joy.

Do you remember what the angel said when announcing that Jesus was born?

Luke 2:10-11  And the angel said to them, Do not fear. For, behold, I proclaim good news to you, a great joy, which will be to all people,  because today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, was born to you in the city of David.

And, just before his death, Jesus promised us that we could have full joy.

John_15:11  I have spoken these things to you that My joy may abide in you, and your joy may be full.

And, finally, a promise for the future, that we will be before him in joy.

Jude_1:24  Now to Him being able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you before His glory without blemish, with unspeakable joy;

The Bible is actually filled with commands to rejoice, with promises of joy, and with reasons to be filled with joy. I am looking forward to a study of joy in the coming weeks. This should be fun. 

No one is too…anything for Jesus to reach

John chapter 3 and 4 contain so many wonderful truths that books could be written about just those two chapters. One thing that I am thinking about from them is the stark contrast in the people Jesus speaks to in those chapters; Nicodemus, and the woman of Samaria. These two could not have been more different. Just look at the characteristics of each of them.

Nicodemus	Samaritan woman
A Jew- of the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, with the privilege of having the Word of God, the knowledge of the things of God, the ability to worship God in the temple.	A gentile. When Assyria conquered Israel in 722BC, they deported the Israeli people and brought in foreign people to live in the land. These new inhabitants mixed the worship of Jehovah with the worship of idols.
A man	A woman- during that time most of the world, and certainly Jewish culture, considered women far below men. Jewish men did not speak to women in public. Jewish men did not consider it correct to teach women the Scripture.
A Pharisee- trained and educated in the Scripture, and in Jewish religious traditions	A woman whose knowledge of God was incomplete, mixed with tradition and idolatry.
A ruler- respected, honored for his position and education	Rejected- having been divorced 5 times. Women did not have the right to divorce. Men could divorce wives for any reason. Since no children are mentioned, she may have been unable to have children, which would have been reason for divorce.
High morality-the Pharisees were at the top of the religious hierarchy, who lived very strictly according to the Jewish law, even adding many restrictions to the law given by God to Moses	After being divorced 5 times, this woman was living with a man who was not her husband.
He sought Jesus, went to him at night to question him.	Jesus reached out to this woman, addressed her at the well
Nicodemus called Jesus teacher, acknowledged that he had power that must be from God.	This woman had no idea who Jesus was.
He came to Jesus as an equal, one Jewish man to another	She was shocked that Jesus would speak to her, a woman and a Samaritan
He came to Jesus to learn	She just wanted water
Jesus revealed wonderful truths to Nicodemus, of God’s love, of regeneration and justification	Jesus revealed that he was the source of living water in her spirit, and that he was the Messiah. This is the first time recorded that Jesus told anyone that he was the Messiah.
The story ends with Jesus discourse to Nicodemus	The woman immediately went to her village and told her people that she had met the Christ.

When we look at the great differences between these two people, we see that Jesus came to the great and the low, the good and the bad, the seekers and the oblivious, the knowledgeable and the ignorant, those you would expect and the least expected. 

I so love this principle. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. A person’s deep lostness does not disqualify them. I especially love the story of the Samaritan woman. 

Throughout ancient history, women were despised. The Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, almost everyone considered women as inferior to men, just above the status of an animal. Without knowing the historical context, we cannot understand John 4:27, “Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?"

The disciples wanted to question him, but, after all, this was Jesus, so they just marveled. Jesus took time to speak to this woman, he treated her with respect, he even revealed something to her that he had not yet told anyone, that he was the Messiah. He did not hold back anything from her. She was not too low, to uneducated, too ignorant, too immoral, too anything for Jesus. This woman, despised and rejected, touched Jesus heart; maybe because he knew that he too would be despised and rejected.