Genesis 2:18-25

2006.Jun.02 22:24

A Helper

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Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.’
(Genesis 2:18, NASB)

The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
(Genesis 2:22, NASB)

Jehovah has placed man in a home, Eden, and sees (as though he wants us to believe this surprises him), that man needs a helper. He gives Adam the chance to find a helper of all that God created prior to man. The NASB phrases as "”Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky”" (Genesis 2:19, NASB) , again making me ponder that “create” in Genesis 1 is a mental act of creation rather than a physical, that is, laying out the specification rather than the construction. In any event, God passes all these animals by Adam, who gives them names but "”there was not found a helper suitable for him”" (Genesis 2:20, NASB) . Jehovah then places Adam into a deep sleep, grabs out a rib and closes back the opened flesh. Of this rib, Jehovah forms a specific woman, later to be known as Eve. And lo, for Adam, a helper, a companion, a wife. And naked they roam through the garden, unashamed and unfamiliar with sin.

Melissa and I have discussed that in addition to humanity created in God’s image, it seems to us he also made a distinction of making man (as in boys) in the image of God, and women in the image of humanity. Or, a better way of putting it, he made man in the image of God as bridegroom and woman in the image of humanity as bride. Now, I am used to the idea of the church (as in the unity of all believers) as the bride, although it takes a bit of a stretch to come to the conclusion from anything I’ve read in the Bible (Google’s thoughts). Still, since this whole paragraph and the next three are pretty much entirely me fleshing out ideas that may or may not have any real biblical grounding and the metaphor is useful, I’m going with it. I hope that this continued study will shed more light on what is useful in these thoughts.

The idea is that God uses male humans (see below for gender roles dicussion) to symbolize himself and female humans to symbolize humanity in the relationship between God and humanity, and specifically husbands and wives in these roles. Since we’re mostly like God, but separated from him due to sin, and since he wants us to develop a relationship with him, it’s useful for us to learn that relationship without so much of the being smitten. I have wondered if maybe God created gender roles (perhaps less at this point, as after the fall) in order to force us to learn to develop a relationship with someone similar in so many ways but also distinctly different. How much of these roles are biological versus social versus pick-your-argument is probably unimportant here, and it’s important to note that this would not be an endorsement of all gender roles. What matters is that he has men and women experience life differently so that we can help each other understand the dynamics of the relationship God desires with us, especially within marriage.

The distinction that man is to particularly understand God’s role and woman humanity’s role is also important and I think demonstrated twice in this passage. First, to the male is giving the role of naming things and since God creates by naming things, by speaking, Adam is experiencing this aspect of God’s activity. Second, woman is created from the flesh of man, reminiscient of man being giving life through the breath of God (maybe that’s a stretch, but it somehow makes sense to me). Then, it tends to make sense that God assigns the priesthood to men (he does not in contrast assign prophecy only to men), not because they’re better suited for it so much as to push this experience of men acting in a God role and women acting in a humanity role. Likewise, the man may not be head of the house for any inherent reason but rather because God wants husbands to experience the role of Christ so as to help the entire church understand that aspect of the relationship. (NB: I tend to focus on man’s role in this extended metaphor, because I am a man.)

Women experience the bride side. (And yet, we as men, probably because we learn to take on the authority–read: more often than not ignorance and pride–of the headship role, tend to think we are the best suited to decide how the practical aspects of the church should run. Seems to me the church survives largely because women–those experiencing the bride side–do what the bride ought to do, which is love and worship God, and serve him, while men try to think up new dynamics and terms–hello, emergent church, baby! Rant over for the moment). They understand better how to accept and respect authority and probably better understand God’s love because they have learned to respect and honor authorities that really ought not be, in contrast to God. Well, anyway, I could go all sorts of directions here, but the point I want to make is that it’s imperative that each gender learn from the other and learn how to interact and overcome the divisions implied by those gender roles, which again, I think God may have brought in order to teach us more about the relationship he desires with us. Again, how much of this is biblical, I don’t yet know.

In any event, it’s clear that God has a plan and that he does desire a relationship with us and that this is symbolized in the relationship between husband and wife. And it’s so awesome to realize that he puts all this into motion before the fall. He knew that we would forsake him and already he was building up the way to show us back. How awesome is Jehovah! He is great and greatly to be praised! It’s also important to note that man could not find for himself a helper, that even if Adam is being brought into the image of bridegroom role, he is reminded that he is in truth a part of humanity and God is the provider of all humanity. And, of course, this all comes even more into play when the serpent–whom, it’s worth remembering, the God of peace will crush under our feet (Romans 16:20)–shows up.

Genesis 1:1-2

2006.Mar.06 16:08

Above the Void, a Plan

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From Genesis, Entry 1

So, God’s chilling. Or whatever a omnipotent being apparently largely unaffected by time does before time begins. Since the subject of this blog category is neither metaphysics, nor philosophy, I’ll skip the required descussion on God’s self-existance. I’m more concerned with the relationship between God and I.

Let’s suffice it so, he has a plan, whilst chilling. So, he creates the heavens and earth (Genesis 1:1). Insofar as for the time being, I assume he had a plan by this point, I can’t exactly engage my wish of fanciful: “Well, I guess I’ll make a…earth!” Okay, I have some metaphysical thoughts on that. But I will refrain. Still, this seems a little disconnected. I’ll get to a point later.

Now here may be one of my favorite things ever written, from the NASB: "”The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters”" (Genesis 1:2, NASB) .

Why so cool? Because this is the one time I can think of that we really see, in the Bible, God just…chilling. Think of that, God hovering over a formless earth, moving across the waters. What was he thinking.

Okay, so, I am going to jump into theology for a moment. Here’s my theory.
Trying to refine my understanding, to correct, alter, drop if need be, this theory, is one of the major reasons that I am trying this step-by-step through the Bible. I imagine it will take most of my life, should I keep it up. Cool.

Here’s my guess:

God wants friendship.

Let me back up. To know God better, to begin to understand his reasons, motives, desires, I have several resources, among them: the Bible, the Holy Spirit, worship, prophecy, talking about him with other people, etc. All these being great, they also leave me wondering how I can understand him on a more “human” level.

There is one more source: myself. "Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness”" (Genesis 1:26, NASB) . That implies to me that I am enough similar to God that I can gather some of his desires by looking at my own. Among them, friendship. I’ll have a lot more to say about this when I actually get to that verse, say, sometime around June.

So, let’s propose that God wanted friends. And that’s what maybe he’s thinking as he hovers over the deep. About me and you, being his friends. But he knows it’s not as simple as just saying “Hey, you’re my friend”. And if you question the difficulty of that, I encourage a look at your friendships.

I hope to post in this once a week.