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!
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