When our two younger children were at school, the often spoken about topic was … “What came first, the chicken or the egg?” As they grew up into teenagers the topic changed to … “If a woman births children, did Eve exist before Adam?” The last comment as their completed secondary education was … “It is a proven fact that Eve was made from Adam. Count man’s ribs and you’ll find he has one less that a woman.” Today we come to another most informative passage in Genesis chapter 2, that liberals natural discard. Although we can’t deal with the whole passage today, please read it as a unit.
Ge 2:18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
1) God created the male human first.
Ge 2:18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
We need to rest in what the Bible teaches because it is God’s Word. In chapter 1 He explained that He created the human being, male and female. In that account, God explains the basic principles of Him creating the human being:
Ge 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Then we read:
Ge 1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Yet we find:
Ge 2:18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
(1) Loneliness. Some people try to argue a discrepancy between the “very good” of chapter 1:31 and the “not good” of chapter 2v18. There is no problem here because in the latter God is saying that man is incomplete without another human companion … on of the opposite sex, as in the animal kingdom. No female, no partner, no companion, no help meet and no procreation. It is not good for man to be alone. That would defeat the objective and purpose of God creating the human being! Here we find another of the “likeness and image” characteristics of God. Within the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, there is fellowship and companionship. True God is One but He is Three in One. When He created man, He created a being who would be a social being. He said … “one like us”. Therefore, as said, man cannot be alone. He needs one like himself. Although we shall visit these verses again, God presented the animals to man. Look at this:
Ge 2:19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
The last sentence actually implies that as man surveyed the animals, none amongst them could be his equal for companionship.
(2) Companionship. It is not good for man to be alone … and there was none like him to engage with on his level … and likeness. There saying is … “a dog is man’s best friend.” Is it? No!
(i) Suitable. So God says He will make a helper suitable for the man. The one God would make for man would be compatible to man. That is what suitable means. Just as a female cow is suitable to a bull or a female horse is suitable to a male horse making them compatible, so with this one God will be making for the man. Although we are stepping ahead of the text, the implication is God will make the man a woman. She will be suitable for him. They would match and blend in every way … from looking (the eye) similar to speaking, hearing and understanding (intellect), to being fulfilled and having happiness, to sexual intimacy and raising children, to morality and ethics and to union with each other as they have union with their God and Father.
(ii) Helper. This term is interesting. From the modern usage it could mean servant, slave or subordinate! Yet it means “like him” … or literally, “agreeing with him” or companion”. I am reluctant to use the term “partner” because in our day, a couple living together, especially when not married and when not heterosexual, refers to each other as “my partner”. We do not want to be confusing as we shall see Adam and Eve entered into an agreed union, signifying marriage between a man and a woman. The point we need to see in the context of “companion” is that the woman would not be inferior to the man. We shall come to the concept of headship soon, but right now we must understand the absolute equality between the man and the woman God would make, both created in the image and likeness of God, both having the creation instructions of being fruitful, increasing numerically, filling the earth and subduing the earth as well as ruling the animal kingdom.
Ge 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
It is true that at times we labor the point. Because of all the ideologies in the world we need to do this to bring ourselves back to what God is saying in the Bible.
Our Father in heaven, grant us an understanding of the equality of the male and female in creation. But more, help us to appropriate this teaching in our hearts. Amen.