REDISCOVERING MANHOOD (2)



creation by Micelangelo

"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."

You probably have heard the story too, but I’ll tell it anyway. It’s about an activist atheist. Yes, he doesn’t believe that there’s a God anywhere and he is boldly propagating his “faith” everywhere. He doesn’t stop at propagating it, he defends it and fights for it. You know, the way Gani Fawehinmi and Beko Ransome-Kuti used to defend and fight for human rights and civil liberties; and the likes of Joe Okei-Odumakin, Femi Falana and Festus Keyamo still do.

In his pursuit of a level holidaying ground for all “faiths” in the United States of America, this committed atheist went to court to demand that government at all levels be compelled to declare a day as public holiday for atheists. The status quo, he argued was unconstitutional, because it was discriminatory, in that Christians have many such days of public observance.

The judge, goes the story, ruled the petitioner out of order saying that there was indeed already a day widely recognized and celebrated as a day for atheists. He asked the atheist if he knew what April 1 and promptly came the reply, “all-fools day.” You got it, declared the judge, alluding to the Psalms where twice the Bible defined the fool as one who says in his heart that there is no God. Happy fools day to all atheist, then. Have a swell time preparing for hell.

Pardon the digression, please, but it’s just in the spirit of observances, to remember something as serious as our eternal destiny in as light heartedly as this.

Last time, I tried to show how very important men are to the divine plan of God. The man, Adam, had no part in it; it was simply the sovereign choice of God, the creator of the heavens and the earth

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As we said a close look at the second chapter of the book of beginnings, Genesis, 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.

Verses 4 & 5 identified a problem or challenge, depending on who is looking at it. And it is this: Everything else was in place, but there was nobody in charge! It says: “And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew… and there was not a man to till the ground.” Picture a well laid out estate with everything in place, sturdy structures, fine finishes, running water, breath-taking landscape, shopping arcade, recreational facilities and all, but no estate manager. That was the state of creation at that point.

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.

Next we read in verse 8: “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.

But as we said last week, God chose not to impose a helper on Adam. Verses 19 & 20 continues the story this way: “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.”

As we noted last time, in God’s search for a helper for his man, 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!“

 This led inexorably to the last process in the creation story as reported in verses 22 & 23: “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.”

 Flowing from all these is the truth that the man has preeminence in the divine order of things.

The import of this creation scenario, is neither to demonstrate that man, the male, is superior in any sense to man, the female; it is to show who is RESPONSIBLE AND ACCOUNTABLE for the overall headship of the new enterprise. It is not to show the man as an overlord, but to demonstrate that, irrespective of his power and authority, he is incomplete without the woman. (TO BE CONTINUED)