20240929 Genesis 2:18-25 Edenic Bliss Part 2: It is not good for man to be alone

I love Genesis 2! In a world of suffering, we want Genesis 2.

Genesis 2 portrays harmony like we have never known. It portrays life-giving rivers. There is food in abundance. The chapter ends with a wholesome, intimate relationship between the man and the woman. Genesis 2 was past, present in Christ in part, and future in the New Heavens and New Earth.

It is good for us to know what God has for us today. Our suffering includes broken relationships, physical pain, and emotional pain. In the midst of suffering, all people can still enjoy good things because God has created a good world. For Christians, it goes further. With His death and resurrection, Jesus begins the restoration of Genesis 2. In Christ, we already enjoy a foretaste of the new Creation that is to come.

We must not overpromise. The Bible promises persecution, and it is clear that many wounds will not be healed in this life. Life in Christ is a new existence in which the Holy Spirit allows us to enjoy new creation life today.

The Spirit-empowered life allows us to apply the gospel. We enjoy the forgiveness of sins. We enjoy emotional, spiritual, and relational healing. We can taste the idyllic state of Eden, today. We were created for a Genesis 2 world. It is also the world we are destined for. As we wait for this world to pass away, there is much delight to be found in Christ.

We are exploring Genesis 2:4-25 as the ideal relationship between the man and Creation, God, and other human beings, or the Land, the Lord, and the Lady! In Genesis 2:4-17, we looked at man’s relationship to the Land and the Lord. Today we look at the Lady in Genesis 2:18-25.

We look at our desire for community and companionship. We will look at God’s design of men and women to work together to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. Third, we will look at the delight of being naked and not ashamed. We have three D’s: the Desire (Genesis 2:18a), the Design (Genesis 2:18b-24), and the Delight (Genesis 2:25).

 

First, Our Desire for Connection in Relationships and Community (Genesis 2:18a)

In Genesis 2:18, God says, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” After reading the repetition of Genesis 1, “and God saw that it was good…” seven times, this verse should shock us. For the first time, something is called “not good.” The phrase, “It is not good that the man should be alone,” is a declaration about human nature. People need people. In the context of this verse and the rest of the chapter, this is also a positive declaration about marriage.

Application:

“It is not good for man to be alone” is true of all of us. I will apply this broadly to community, and then to marriage.

First, We Are Made for Community

By design, we are all born of a mother. So, we are born in a relationship. God gives the institution of marriage and commandments to promote sexual purity and to deter divorce. Ideally, each birth would occur in the context of a relationship bound by the covenant of marriage—loving, nurturing, and committed. This is the ideal setting for the beginning of life. It is a community of at least two people if there are no siblings. God made us for community.

Modern science teaches the importance of healthy community. Our developing brains learn from observation and imitation. The only way a child understands her worth is through the eyes of others. They learn whether they are a delight or joy, or a nuisance and disappointment. Our need for community never ends. Solitary confinement in prison leads to depression, hallucinations, panic attacks, and anxiety. We can all testify that we want people to know us, to show compassion toward us when things are hard, and to rejoice in our accomplishments. We are all communal beings.

Even in a world marked by sin, it is not good for man to be alone. The New Testament describes Christians as members of a body. The church is a new creation kind of community marked by confession and repentance, joy, hope, and love. The Holy Spirit living in us allows us to enjoy a relationship with God and with one another. We are made for community. In Christ, we receive a family in God’s church.

A second application from the statement “It is not good for man to be alone” is that marriage is good.

It is good to desire to be married. The institution of marriage is for the flourishing of mankind. I’m going to hype up marriage, but first, I will give some warnings.

 

Warnings

In Genesis 2, the solution to man being alone is a wife. Marriage is good. However, today, marriage is not a necessity. Marriage is not for everyone. The apostle Paul calls singleness a gift from God. He writes that the unmarried can be more dedicated to serving the Lord than those who are married (1 Corinthians 7:32-34). A warning against marriage comes from Proverbs 21:19, which says, “It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.” Sometimes it is better to wish you were married than to wish you no longer were married.

Now, Positively

When I was single, I wanted to be married. I wanted the intimacy that is appropriate in the context of marriage. I wanted the companionship found in marriage.

In Ruth 1:9, Naomi addresses her widowed daughters-in-law. She wishes them that one day they would find “rest” in the house of their future husbands. It is the word “rest” that is used for Sabbath rest, in anticipation of New Heavens and New Earth's relief, comfort, and satisfaction. Naomi uses this word to refer to marriage. If you are single and do not want to be, we can acknowledge your desire as a good thing. For some people, there is a rest that comes with getting married.

Tension and conclusion on Marriage is Good

We need to hold a tension. Marriage is great, and marriage is not the solution to all our problems. For some, marriage is the beginning of all their problems. In Genesis 2, when God creates the man and says, “It is not good for man to be alone,” He has marriage in mind so that they can fulfill the command of Genesis 1 to multiply, be fruitful, and fill the earth. Marriage is a good thing.

Studies and Surveys

Some studies and surveys highlight the benefits of marriage that include physical health, mental, and financial benefits. I want to celebrate marriage as a good thing. I think that if the same surveys were done with the focus on those living intentionally in community, we would see some of the same positive outcomes even for singles. “It is not good for man to be alone” implies that it is imperative for all of us to live in community.

Married people, don’t isolate yourselves from the community. Some will remain single by choice, others not by choice. For all, Christ satisfies our desire for companionship in a way that no human spouse ever could. He Himself remained single, as did John the Baptist and the apostle Paul. While we celebrate marriage, we must not turn it into an idol. We desire relationships. Community and marriage are good things.

Second, God’s Design for Marriage (Genesis 2:18b-24)

In Genesis 2:18, before the forming of the woman from man, she is described as “a helper fit for man.” Looking at how the words “helper” and “fit” are used elsewhere is helpful. Outside of Genesis 2, the word “helper” appears 17 times. Fourteen of those refer to God as His people’s Help! For example, Psalm 115:10 says, “Trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.” More than being an inferior assistant, the word “Help” means help without which success would be impossible! The word “suitable” in Hebrew is a very basic word, meaning “opposite” or “in front of.” It conveys a sense of sameness and matching, a good fit, but also a difference in a corresponding or complementary way.

Application of Gen 2:18

In Genesis 1:26-28, God made male and female to be partners to multiply and rule the earth together. Genesis 2:18 says the same thing. Without a woman, a man cannot multiply and rule the earth. Women are perfect partners for this task, which no one else could possibly do. The world needs both men and women. Together, men and women are to work as a team to live out God’s mission.

Gen 2:21-24

In Genesis 2:21-24, the author writes that God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. The word “deep sleep” is normally followed by a vision (Genesis 15:12; Job 4:13; Daniel 8:18, 10:9; Job 33:15). If this is a vision, Adam is seeing what is happening. God takes his side.

I do not think "rib" is the best translation. This word is used for the side of Noah’s Ark, the side of the tabernacle, and the side of the temple. It never refers to a rib. “Side” makes better sense of what comes next. God forms Adam's side into a woman. When Adam sees the woman, he says, “Bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh!” He sees the woman as his missing side or missing half.

Adam’s understanding of the woman helps to make sense of the marriage verse in Genesis 2:24, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh!” Two halves, man and his other “side,” woman, are brought back together and made into one.

Two Applications of Gen 2:21-24

First, the commentator Gordon Wenham comments on Genesis 2:23: “In ecstasy man bursts into poetry on meeting his perfect helpmeet.” Men, when we think of the concept of womanhood, in ecstasy we may burst into poetry! If we did that, I wonder how women would feel. The world would be a better place. Sexism is a tragedy. It is a form of rebellion against God’s design. Men and women are to be equal and fitting partners in the work that God has given them.

Second, this is a gospel application of marriage. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he talks about all things becoming one in Christ. Jew and Gentile become one in Christ. The slave and the master become one under the one head, Christ. When he gets to the husband and wife relationship, he quotes Genesis 2:24. He says the two becoming one is, in a mysterious way, also a picture of Christ’s work of uniting all things. Christ reconciles us to God and to one another. The man and the woman coming together is a picture of Christ's work and the good news! God designed men and women to work together to be fruitful and to rule this world. Every time a couple gets married and becomes one, even non-Christian marriages, it is a picture that in Christ, God reconciles all things. This is God’s design for men and women to work together.

Third, The Delight That Comes with Intimacy (Genesis 2:25)

Genesis 2:25 reads, “The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” This is the picture of the ideal human relationship. When one is naked, nothing is hidden, and there is full acceptance.

The human experience as we know it is one of hiding. We live in the fear that if people truly knew us, they would be disgusted or disappointed. One of our deepest longings is to have someone know the worst parts of us, and still commit to staying with us.

Application

This is what we all have in God. God knew the depth of our sin when He sent Jesus to die to forgive our sins. He is aware of our darkest secrets. He is aware of the harm we have caused others. He knows our dirty thoughts, and yet, He has pledged Himself to us and declares there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. What good news!

Still, in a world of sin, we desire intimacy. These definitions are probably not perfect, but I think they work. Joy is seeing the delight in others when they see us. Shame is a conviction that someone does not want to be with us. God delights in us and turns our shame into joy. Now we can be part of the solution.

Flowing from God’s love, as a people truly known and truly loved, we can bring joy to people around us. Our church is made up of sinners. But I hope that when sin is revealed, we can minister to each other with gospel-shaped joy that communicates we are not leaving you. I hope we can be the home of transparency, confession, and acceptance.

The gospel is that you are more sinful than you know and more loved than you imagine (Piper). This good news of God’s love towards sinners allows for vulnerability about our own sin and love towards fellow sinners. Genesis 2:25 pictures what we want: to be naked and not ashamed in the presence of another. It can be physically in the presence of a spouse. It can be figuratively in the presence of friends, colleagues, your family, your community, or your church. This was the delight of marriage and community. It is presented ideally in Eden, but we can enjoy it with Christ at the center of our relationships.

Conclusion

I love Genesis 2. I hope we can all love Genesis 2!

John Stott tells this story: “A pastor was visiting a church member who had missed church a few weeks in a row. He sat in silence before the fire. After a while, he leaned forward, picked up the tongs, took a burning coal from the fire, and laid it in the fireplace. It flickered briefly and went out. The pastor then picked it up and put it back with the other coals. Within a few seconds, it was on fire again. The minister left having said nothing throughout his visit. But the absentee was back in church the following Sunday.”

We all need companionship. We need people to cheer us on. People to hear of our sins and remind us they still love us and are not going anywhere. We were designed for friendship, community, intimacy, and marriage to an earthly spouse, but more importantly, to Christ.

It is not good for man to be alone. Don’t live this life in isolation.