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| Creation by Michelangelo |
"A close look at these verses of Scripture,
thirteen in all, is very revealing. They reveal
the heart of God concerning the first man
that he made, why he made him and
his place in the scheme of things
on the earth that he had just created."
Men are VERY IMPORTANT to God. They are the very centre of His divine plan. And I am not talking about mankind here, as in men and women. I am talking about those you would otherwise call male; the ones with the ‘Y’ chromosome.
They
are so important to God that they were the first being He created in His image
and after His likeness; the ones whose forebear, Adam, who became the ancestor
of all, was chosen to partner in defining the identity of virtually the rest of
creation. He is so important that the other half of mankind, woman, was created
only because God saw that man would need help.
Chauvinistic
and therefore offensive to the sensibilities of the western-educated, modern
mind, as all of that might sound, it is true; as true as the Bible is the word
of God.
In
Genesis Chapter 2, we read the following account of creation:
These
are the generations of the
heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God
made the earth and the heavens, And every plant of the field before it was in
the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not
caused it to rain upon the earth, and there
was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth,
and watered the whole face of the ground. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul…
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it
and to keep it…And the LORD God said, It
is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet
for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field,
and every fowl of the air; and brought them
unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every
living creature, that was the
name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air,
and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet
for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept:
and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the
rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her
unto the man. And Adam said, This is
now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because
she was taken out of Man (Genesis
2:4-7,15,18-23).
Then in verse 7, God came up with the solution; he created man, a male: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” In other words, God created the man as his choice to fill the vacuum that existed. Man was his manager of choice, his preferred partner in the emerging enterprise. God’s immediate directive to the man he had just created clearly reveals his mind. In verse 15, the Bible records that “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” Put another way, God placed the man in charge. He assigned him to mind the store, as it were.
What happened next is also very revealing. In verse 8, the Bible recorded: “And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” Got the picture? God had created somebody and assigned him to the job, but he took one look at him and decided that, for this wonderful creation of his to succeed in the assignment that he had just given him and others that were to follow, he would need help. And he proceeded to find help for him
How God went about this phase of creation is quite
instructive. He knew that his man needed help, and that he could give him one.
But he wasn’t going any further without involving him! He could have imposed a
companion on him; he could have done it any other way he chose, but he didn’t.
He chose to bring his new creature that he had made in his image and after his
likeness into the creative process. He chose to give him a choice of who his
help-meet would be.
Interesting, isn’t it? God was looking for a help-meet
for his man. So, he made every beast of the field and every fowl of the air. He
brought them to Adam, hoping that he might find one or the other of them
suitable. But Adam did not find any. He gave them names reflecting his perception
of each one, but found none he could call companion. This is noteworthy because
had he found one amongst them, the cause of history might have been different.
The other half of mankind today, known as woman, might never have been created!
(TO BE CONTINUED)
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