So in this creation account in Genesis, after every day of creation, God says it's very good, but something happens now. All of a sudden, we have something that's not good. What is that? Yeah. Do you know what that is?
Well, I think we should find out today if we read. We'll do it today here on Moore. Hey, good morning. I'm Dorothy. And I'm Jim.
And this is More Than Inc. And we're sitting here at our dining room tables talking about Genesis. Yes. And last week we left off with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden, this beautiful place that God had created for fellowship with the human beings he was creating. Yeah, a special place for men.
Amazing. And we got a lot of detail about the garden, not nearly as much as we want, but enough to know that it's this set-aside place where God has intended to be with the people he was about to create.
So when we pick up today, we get a little bit of geographical information that's hard to sort out. We'll read that.
Well, and it's key for a certain reason. We'll see.
Okay, it's important. That's why it's here. But we're going to read through that, and then we're going to zoom right back into the story where we talk about the Lord God. Putting the man in the middle of the garden, and then the story just takes off from there. And Eve comes into the story.
So let's talk about the place, and then we'll talk about the people. And we've kind of circled back into the narrative of that sixth day. Yeah. So, okay, you want to read? I'll do that.
So, we're starting at verse 10 of chapter 2, and we're back to talking about this great place to live.
So, a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon, and it's the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there's gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bedellum and Onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon, and it's the one that flowed around the whole island of Kush.
And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria, and the fourth river is the Euphrates.
Okay, well, we got two there that we know, because they're still called that. Tigris and the Euphrates. What about the other two?
Well, these are water systems that probably got covered over in the flood.
So they never continued on in history. Perhaps. You know, it's because the flood happened and these flow, you know, these river systems are going to get all messed up by a global flood.
So that's possibly the case. But the fact that two of them... You can go fly there today. Right. They're still called that.
They're still called that. And even the description of where they are, it's there, the Tigris and your free. That's pretty astonishing considering this was written 4,000 years ago. Right. And, you know, I mentioned a key part of it.
The key thing about this is that this really pins down as history. This isn't a myth. Right. You can point to this on a map. This is a real, real place.
And as a result of that, we can kind of make an educated guess, sort of, about where the Eden region is that the garden was to start with. It's somewhere over there in that fertile crescent in the Mesopotamian Valley.
So, wow, that's crazy stuff. It is. And it's interesting to me, too, that. That in the description of the garden, we've got the trees that we just talked about a little bit last week. And then suddenly we're talking about rivers and water.
And there had been this great emphasis on there being no rain, and the ground was dry, and God created Adam out of the dust of the ground. Right, right. But we're going to see in this week's passage that one of the things Adam was going to do was cultivate the garden.
So that implies that some of the work that Adam was going to need to do was. Irrigation. He was going to need to tap into this water source. Exactly. Exactly.
And yeah. And fascinating too. We talked last time about the Sabbath, and this is the place that the Sabbath is going to take place. This fellowship between a man and God. But interestingly enough, what God's going to do is He's going to put Him to work.
He's going to give him a job.
So, where's the rest part of that? We'll have to talk about that more as we go on because it actually is quite restful. And it's a way for God to train Adam to understand something about who God is based on the creation of the place He's put on, to be involved in it, not just to sit around like a couch potato, but to actually be engaged with it.
Well, it's an activity of cultivation. Yeah, right.
So, um, that's actually coming up in the next verse we're going to read. Right. So, it's a fascinating thing. God gives man a stated purpose and role in his creation, which is crazy. Exactly.
So, he's not just sitting on a palm leaf somewhere watching it happen. Let's go see what his involvement is with this great place.
So, we moved to verse 5. And the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Huh, interesting. What?
So there's a command point.
Well, there's a limitation on something. There's a limitation on something. Everything is his, everything is his to eat, except for this one thing, and it pertains to knowing what's good and what's evil. Yeah. And at first glance, most people would say, well, what's wrong with knowing the difference between good and evil?
And that's not really what we're talking about. And that's not what we're talking about. The easiest way to look at this is Jesus and other places in the Old Testament say that God's the only one who's good.
So to understand good and evil, you have to understand Good. And you have to understand God.
So, in a way, what he's saying here, this is the knowledge of what God is and what God isn't, and those opposites. And so, for you to take that fruit and take it, says, I don't care. I don't want to understand who this God is. I think I can figure this out on my own.
So, really, the simplest kind of look at this, it says, I want to be on my own deciding what good and evil is. And God says, No. No, I'm going to tell you this is good and that is not. And so, the presence of this tree was a continual reminder: oh, if I believe God, then I will respect what He has told me. Right, right.
And if you really want to know the difference between good and evil, the best way to do that is to understand who God is because He's the definition of good, He's the definition of good, and everything that's not like God is evil.
So, even though it might present itself as good, which we're going to get into next week, there's deep theology in that as well. But, what we're talking about here, taking of this tree is really a sign of independence. I want to. I do this on my own. And indeed, the temptation is going to sound like that.
You know, God just doesn't want you to be like him. Or I'm going to take those good gifts and I'm going to use it for my own purposes.
So don't overthink this too much. But this is, God just says, don't eat of this. Right. Because you'll die. You'll die.
Oh, okay. Which is interesting in itself because nothing had ever died.
So that's a terrifying threat because it's a total unknown. Yeah. You will find yourself with a lack of life. Huh. Yeah, because life is what God breathed into the nostrils of man.
Okay, so that's where we're at. That's this context. We're in this garden. There's stuff there, and there's a tree you don't want to eat of.
Okay, so you remember we read back in chapter one a little while ago that God created them male and female in his image and likeness, right? That was whack in chapter 21. But here we have kind of circled around, backed up, and zoomed in. Zooming in on day six. Not an overview, but now a detailed how did that come about.
So picking up in verse 18, then the Lord God said, so right after he gets the instruction about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it's not good. That man should be alone. Oh, right after he said something is good and something good. There's a not good. It's not good that man should be alone.
I will make him a helper fit for him.
Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to man to see what he would call them and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the heavens and every beast of the field but for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. Do you want to stop there? Let's stop there. Isn't that a crazy thing?
I hopper fit for him.
So immediately, now since you said we're in the middle of the day six of creation, and we know at the end of day six, everything's good. But in the middle of the day, God says, okay, this is not good that man's alone. And he'll fix that by the end of the day.
So the day will end up good. But he says it's not good that the man should be alone, which I find fascinating because did God make him? Why would God make him needy for someone else? And that's exactly the point.
Well, that touches back to chapter one, which says: male and female together represent the image and likeness of God. Exactly. So Adam is not yet. All that he will be. All that he will be.
And it's a way of just saying that man was made in such a way that he needs a companion. Man is made for fellowship, is what I always say. He's not a self-contained creature. And God did that on purpose. I mean, totally on purpose.
And at one level, he made it on purpose between males and females. But in another way, he's basically saying, and you're also made for companionship with me, God. Remember the Sabbath idea of fellowship with God. But you're made for fellowship with somebody who's like you. And God is not like us.
But we're made in his image. We're made in his image.
So there's a whole we're alike, but different. There's a door open there. Yeah. But we're different. Yeah.
And I think that's what's the fascinating idea of this word that's going to come up in a second. We do need someone that we can relate to, but not someone who's a clone of us. Right. Because if relating to a clone of yourself would be the most boring thing in existence. That's so true.
Some people have said, well, you'll get along really well. And I'm thinking, no, I'm not. I'm going to be bored all the time. I don't think you'd even get along well. You never even have to ask a question.
Yeah. So, yeah.
So, this fellowship, you need something outside of yourself. That's all he's saying. Man was not meant to be a self-contained creature like an amoeba or something. He's meant to relate outside himself.
Okay, but he says a helper fit for him.
Well, a helper. A lot of women, especially, get hung up on that word, helper, which just means someone who is called alongside to. Participate with, right? It's not, it's a word that's used to apply to God Himself in other places in the scripture. He is our helper.
A ton of places. In fact, I counted them in just the Psalms. Just the Psalms.
Well, that's where they show up because it's a very poetic idea. It's 11 times in the Psalms where that same word is used about God, about Him being our help.
So, yeah, so that's. That's just a super important thing. I also, for the first time, I looked more closely at that helper word. It also strongly gives the idea of surrounding.
So the helping in terms of being total, in terms of being sufficient in every context.
So I'll make a helper fit for him. Fit for him. And that's another interesting phrase. That's a really interesting idea. Did you dig into that word a little bit?
Well, it's one of my favorite words in the Old Testament, yeah. I mean, I think the... The easiest English translation is counterpart, because when you think of part, it's part of a whole, and counter means it's other. Right. And the word is used many times in terms of opposition.
So if you think about... If you think about an opposition in war, think about two boxers in a boxing ring. They're against each other. They're like each other, but they're kind of counterparts. They're sort of oppositional.
So it was used in a negative way. Right. I didn't mean oppositional. Like, if you stick your sword towards me, I'll stick out a shield.
So it's matched to it, but it's different. It's a co-respondent. Right. So I like to say it's like a jigsaw puzzle, like contours of a jigsaw puzzle, where to make the two pieces go together, they have to be exactly the same in contour. But different.
Opposites. Opposites. So that's the compound idea that's going with this: the same, but opposite. There's also a kind of an implication of this word that means facing, like directly facing, it does, because that's the counterpart in your face, right? Which is really interesting because God is going to, well, we just read it.
He has paraded all of the animals in front of him, and Adam has not found anybody that properly corresponds to him or anything, any creature that corresponds to him. But they all seem to have their corresponding mates. Right, right. And it's, you know, a lot of women get kind of twisted up when they read this. It's like, you mean I don't have a life?
I can only help him. You know, that is exactly the opposite of what it is saying. Totally the opposite. Yeah. Totally the opposite.
All he's saying is that a woman here in this sense is a companion in the best kind of idea. In the exact necessary way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and it's interesting too, if you were to ask.
a young man, are you looking for a companion? Most of them say, well, no, I've got career ideas. But if you ask a woman, they'll say, yes, I'm looking for a companion. I mean, the priorities are just very vastly different. And then you're seeing that here in the design of woman herself.
And what God's doing is he's making a composite human being between these two. And we'll see at the end of this how that kind of works. And both sides of this human being formed in the image of God reflect something about God himself. Oh, that's so important because, you know, we, well, we'll have to read it in a minute and then I'll make these comments about what Eve is and what she isn't. Right, right, right.
Right. Given her source material. Let's move to this crazy interlude where he's alone. And then the first thing God does is say, let's pray the animals in front of him and have him kill them. What is that all about?
Well, why?
Well, if you get the idea that from an ancient perspective, a name always reflected a characteristic or many characteristics of the creature.
So in saying that Adam was naming the creatures, he couldn't just say, well, I'll name that one Bob, and I'll name that one Sue. That's not what we're talking about. He has to actually study them to see what their characteristics are. Interpreting how they function and what they are like. And then giving them a name that represents their characteristics, right?
So it's going to force him coming up with these names to actually study the animals one by one by one. And the clue about why he's doing this is clearly at the end of verse 20. And there was not found a helper. Fit for him, suitable for him. Because he realizes there's not one of them that can think like he can think.
Right. That can feel like he can feel, can respond the way he can respond. Yeah, yeah. And I always joke about this, that, well, you know, golden retrievers are pretty good, but that's just a very different thing.
So they are very far second. That's right. That's not going to solve the problem of loneliness fundamentally for man. But that's the idea. In 20, God said, I need you to name all these animals.
He studies the animals. He says, you know, none of these are really doing it for me. I'm still lonely. I'm still lonely. So 21, so.
So, can I read? Yeah. 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 woman. and brought her to the man.
And then the man said, Ah, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. She is the same stuff. And he recognizes it. He does. He recognizes it.
But she's like him, but she's not like him. She's intriguing. She's like him so they can relate, but not like him so he won't get bored. Yeah, sometimes there'll actually be value in in the in the, what do I call it, the counterpart idea, the companion. There's value in an other, but you still have to be alike enough to relate.
Well, and one of the more interesting things to me is when you think, just spend a little time thinking about how was Eve like him and how was she not like him?
Well, she was made of the same stuff, right? She was also made in the image likeness of God. But... Eve had a womb. Adam was not capable of procreating without her.
Right, right. And that's pretty significant. Eve has equipment for the nurture, care, and nursing of babies that Adam doesn't have. Right? God has designed her to be a receiver of life and a giver of life in a different way than Adam.
So, even just in the biological sense, we're talking complementary beings. Right. Yeah. That they're not alike, but they're made for each other in a complementary way. And something will happen because of that.
Yeah. Right. New life will be formed. Exactly. And, you know, not to state the obvious again, but she's not made of dust.
No. She's made out of him.
So definitely she is made for him. to be like him.
Okay, that's really interesting because the fact that she's made from him tells us some things that she's not. She's not his property. Right, right. She's not his pet. She is his equal and adequate counterpart, right?
She's not his inferior because she's all the same stuff that he is, right? But she's not his clone, as you said earlier. She is his complement. And I think sometimes when we first read this passage, we don't pause long enough to realize what Eve was not because our society assigns all of those knots to her. Oh, God just says she's a pet.
She's a second thought. She's a come after. She's none of those things. And the very fact that she's made from Adam himself indicates that. All of that.
Yeah. And the fact that she is not like all the animals that have come before means she's not a beast of burden like you might want to do with those other animals. She is so far different from them by contrast. She provides more in the relationship in terms of companionship than any animal can.
However, it's fascinating that in our fallen society, when women are misused, they're treated like animals. I mean, really, really, really true.
So here she's just a tremendous gift to him, complimentary in every way, a great blessing in every way, a companion and a counterpart, so that living life together, they'll be complete which they weren't before. And he gets it the instant he sees her. I know. I really like that. Oh, my gosh.
I think they should write it here the Hebrew equivalent of hubba-hubba. Because I mean, he's just spent looking at all these animals. Not it, not it. But he sees her and goes, that's there. He might not have been able to articulate it.
But when he sees her, he goes, ah, this is her. This is the one. And he names her. She shall be called Isha because she was taken out of Ish. Right.
So the Hebrew words are closely related. Yeah. And he literally says, this is bone of my bones. Right. She's made of the same stuff I'm made of because she was made for me.
Yeah. It's really, it's really, really great. What a great love story. Ah. Should we go to 24?
I guess we should. It's important. This is such a famous verse, right? Jesus quotes this in the New Testament. Therefore, right, right after Adam names her, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother.
Now, there were no fathers and mothers in Adam's time, right? But this is Moses commenting now. Here's the significance of commentary after the fact. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one friend. Flesh.
And now we're back in the story. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Right. So we get that little editorial comment there that's going to rattle all the way down the scriptures until it comes back out of the mouth of Jesus in the New Testament. Right.
Yeah, if you want to check it out, I'll give you the references. It's in Matthew 19. You'll find it there. You'll also find the parallel passage in Mark 10. And then, interestingly enough, Paul quotes it in Ephesians 5.
So if someone's going to ask you, did Jesus ever talk about marriage? And you can say, yes, he did. He quoted one place, and he quoted this thing we're reading right in chapter two. And why is this as part of the creation process in the middle of days six of creating man? Why is marriage rooted in this narrative of God's creation.
is because Humanity was made for marriage. By design, man and by design, woman are made for this complementary relationship. It's because that's their design. That's their design. That's their design.
They are designed for a relationship. A particular kind of relationship is described here as a one-flesh relationship. And we already talked about the fact that when they come together as one flesh, More life is the result of that. Babies are conceived, right? That is one profound way in which mankind is created in the image and likeness of God.
God is a life giver and the source of all life. And when male and female are functioning together in that one flesh relationship, there will be life. Life results. That is amazing. Life.
Yeah. It's so humbling. It's fascinating that in God's plan for humanity, he doesn't say, well, you know what? The making of these human beings is too important. I'm just going to keep doing it.
I'll chunk some more out. But he says, no, I'm going to actually involve you in that process.
So in this union, you're going to be part of that process of life giving. I mean, it's just like, wow, really?
Well, it's overwhelming. We can't even get our heads around that. Yeah, yeah. But this oneness, this union is the source, is the source of life. That's really fascinating.
So, I mean, if you just pull back to 30,000 feet again, here we are up to our eyeballs in the creation narrative in day six. We're doing a focused look here in the six days. And he says, Moses gives us a little commentary blurb in the tablet. And he says, hey, by the way, if you notice what I just said about how man and woman were created, now they're created for each other. They're complementary.
They're the same but different. This is the foundation reason for why we marry because God made us for it. God made us for it. And so there you go. And then he continues on with the narrative.
But isn't that extraordinary that the God who made us for relationship with himself. Gives us this capacity to have someone who's like us but not like us to whom we can relate. Yeah, yeah, it's so important that he himself. when Jesus came, took on flesh so that we could fully understand. We could see God in the flesh, right?
There's something about this, the chasm between a created being and the uncreated God that needed to be bridged. Yeah, yeah. And later on, as we go through the entire thread of the Old and New Testaments, you'll see that this relationship that God deliberately built into the design of mankind is also the strongest, what do you want to say, the strongest clue to us about what our relationship with God is supposed to be like. That's what it's meant for. It's meant to glorify God in relationship with mankind.
And we can talk about that later.
Well, to give us some understanding. Yeah, to give us some understanding. I mean, that's what Paul talks about in Ephesians 5 when he talks about. Yeah, and how can you relate to someone or something that's so different than you, but still find great satisfaction as an antidote to loneliness? And that's.
The marriage relationship is one, and that just is a small indicator of what the relationship with God is like. Yeah. Let's read 25 again.
Okay. And we'll just finish with that because it confuses people. The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. What in the world is that about? Hmm.
There was nothing separating them. And there's nothing they needed to hide from each other. No, which we're going to see is the first thing they do after the fall. Yeah. So this isn't just talking about physical nakedness.
This is talking about soullish nakedness that you can be totally you, right? And completely open. You know, and we'll see later after the fall all the issues about us that are, you know, the warts and all you can expose. And so in this one relationship, this oneness of this one flesh relationship, you're suddenly in this position where you can be absolutely open and unguarded with another. And that's what he's saying.
And that's just a fascinating thing. You know, we wear clothes to cover up our private parts. And what he's saying here is that even on a soul level, you have private parts you'd rather not reveal. But in this relationship, you can. You can.
And you won't be ashamed. You won't be ashamed. That's what I find fascinating: the idea of shame is introduced so early in the narrative, because that's the first thing that comes in when we are. Right. It makes us want to hide.
Because we're ashamed to admit what we really are inside. Our failures, our weaknesses, our sin. Yeah, yeah. I made one closing comment, too. We went past it.
Hold fast to his wife. That hold fast is one of my favorite words, too. It means super glue. It means adherence. It strongly implies permanent.
Don't let go. It doesn't let go. Right. It's like. It can't let go.
Can't let go. Hold fast. And so the idea with this relationship, this one-flesh relationship, is it isn't just meant to be, you know, here and there for this week and next week and something else. It's a hold fast. It's a super glue.
It's a permanent kind of adhesion kind of thing.
So when we talk about marriage, we need to really talk about it in this sense. God made us for one another, and we need to consider it a long-term arrangement, not a short-term arrangement. Because something about God Himself speaks that. Exactly. Yeah.
Well, we're out of time. I know. Jim? I'm Dorothy. And we are really enjoying Genesis, and I hope you are too.
So come back with us next time here. I'm more than ink. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you are there, take a moment to drop us a note. What a great ending, you know, man and wife living in a great place.
They lived happily ever after, right? That's what it looks like now. Yeah, that's what it looks like now. We're gonna see. Come back and find out what happens here on More Than Inc.
Bye. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.
