After God created man, He knew that He didn’t want man to be alone. This devotional reading looks at how and why God created woman.
Nuggets
- We were not made to be alone.
- God wanted a suitable helper for the man to fulfill His purpose for humankind.
- The man and animals were formed from the ground.
- Because animals were not a suitable helper does not mean they are inferior to us.
- God took a rib from the man to create a woman.
We’re going to switch the order of the verses at the end of Genesis 2. Let’s finish the verses about creation before we jump into obedience and disobedience.
In Genesis 1, we were told that humankind was made in God’s image. We are told in His blessing that included male and female.
Moses has already recorded man’s creation in Genesis 2: 7. In these verses, he talks about the creation of woman.
Now, this one ran long. I’m saving the connections and application for the next post.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Creating Everything theme, click the button below.
Devotions in the Celebrating Creation’s Story series
A Helper for Man
“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.’ So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him” (Gen. 2: 18-20 NLT)
Not Good for the Man to be Alone
We were not made to be alone.
We were made to be social. We are to interact with others.
How could God have thought the man was alone? Wasn’t He with him?
Well, not all the time. In the next chapter, we are told, “When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden” (Gen. 3: 8 NLT).
That makes it appear that there were times when God was off doing God stuff. He wasn’t with the man 24/7/365.
God, in His loving kindness, wanted us to have relationships with others of our kind. That is where the multiply came into effect. “Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1: 28 NLT).
Let’s talk about loneliness a second. If you are like me, you need some alone time. It is when I focus on me and evaluate where I am at.
When I first started putting devotions online, I talked about my retreats. Those were really helpful.
But now that I am married, the loneliness isn’t there. There are more reasons for that than just having someone in the same proximity to me.
Pastor Steve and I get in a lot of discussions about God’s Word and the world in which we live. We are constantly refining and expanding on what we believe.
I know that has not only deepened my faith in God, but that has also made me a better person. And since our humor is similar, it should has brought a lot more laughter into the household.
Back to the man and the woman. If the didn’t have a mate with whom he could procreate, how would there be the opportunity for him to be sociable?
The man needed more of his kind.
A Helper Who Is Just Right
God wanted a suitable helper for the man to fulfill His purpose for humankind.
God had a very important task for the man — his first recorded act. He was to name all the animals.
Boardman described what this act was. He wrote, “Observe: it was an act of perception, discrimination, description.”
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Man’s first endeavor was no easy task. He had to have knowledge of the nature of each animal was so that he could give it the correct name.
It was more than that, though. This shows humankind’s authority over animals.
But he was multitasking. He was looking for a helper.
Does this mean God hadn’t originally intended to create the woman? No.
It means we sometimes have to be shown what is what. We have to be changed by the journey.
Besides, if we are straight off given everything, we don’t appreciate it as much.
Gibson thought the animals referred to her were only domestic animals because of the requirement of companionship. Part of me can see that. Part of me thinks Adam would have to name the wild animals, too.
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I really think that needs to go into the UNR book — understanding not required.
Back on track here.
Calthrop gave us a good definition of what is meant by helper. He wrote, “I will create for him one who shall tally and correspond with him as his counterpart.”
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I, personally, think that is what God meant. He sees women as He sees men.
- “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3: 28 NLT).
- “For God does not show favoritism” (Rom. 2: 11 NLT).
Formed Animals from the Ground
The man and animals were formed from the ground.
Wait! What??
“Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens …” (Gen. 2: 19 ESV). How is that different from “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground …” (Gen. 2: 7 ESV)?
I guess the part that is different is understandable. It is the “… and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life …” (Gen. 2: 7 ESV) part that separates us from other animals.
Let’s really muddy the waters. Let’s read this out of the Orthodox Jewish Bible.
“And out of the adamah Hashem Elohim formed every beast of the sadeh, and every oph HaShomayim; and brought them unto the adam to see what he would name them; and whatsoever the adam named kol nefesh chayyah, that was shmo” (Gen. 2: 19 OJB).
- Out of the adamah — out of the earth
- Beast of the sadeh — beast of the field
- Oph HaShomayim — birds or flying creatures of the heavens
- The adam — the human
- Nefesh chayyah — living creature or soul — i.e., animals and humans
That explains how Adam got his name. Mah in Hebrew is man or human — earth man.
But that means humankind and animals share the same origin, so they share the same fate. “For people and animals share the same fate — both breathe and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless! Both go to the same place — they came from dust and they return to dust” (Ecc. 3: 19-20 NLT).
We know that to be true. Squirt, the cat my sister gave me, died. Boo-boo, my beloved cow when I was little, died. So did Woofy and Luey, our dogs.
They do return to dust as we do.
To me, this shows why our makeup is so similar to animals. We were all made with the same building blocks. That doesn’t mean we have evolved from animals.
That doesn’t mean we should compare ourselves to animals. God made us to be different.
We shouldn’t even compare ourselves to other humans. God made us each different.
We should compare ourselves to God. We are made in His image.
No, that doesn’t make us gods. We will always be inferior to God. Our focus should be on Him and becoming more like Him
But all this points out another discrepancy.
- “Then God said, ‘Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.’ So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water, and every sort of bird — each producing offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good” (Gen. 1: 20-21 NLT).
- “Then God said, ‘Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind — livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals.’ And that is what happened. God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good” (Gen. 1: 24-25 NLT).
- “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.’ So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1: 26-27 NLT).
- “… ‘I will make a helper who is just right for him.’ So the LORD God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky …” (Gen. 2: 18-19 NLT).
I just had a wild thought jump in my head. Since God made man first, did He create the male animals first? Then in the Garden, did God form the female animals out of the dust of the ground?
Who knows? God does. I think that is another thing for the UNR book – understanding not required.
No Helper Was Right
Because animals were not a suitable helper does not mean they are inferior to us.
Animals were among God’s creation that He judged to be very good (Gen. 1: 31). There was nothing wrong with them.
They just weren’t what the man needed.
They can’t talk to us. I know, the serpent talked to the woman when he tempted her (Gen. 3: 1). Maybe they could in the beginning, but God stopped that after the original sin.
I think most of all, a man and an animal union could not fulfill the blessing to multiply and fill the earth (Gen. 1: 28).
Exell helped us to understand what the woman brought to the relationship that animals couldn’t. He wrote their help was, besides the purpose of being fruitful and multiplying the race, a woman shares in family governance and nurtures and comforts society as well as the family.
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Pastor Steve just added a thought as to why the timing was the way God did it. God not only wanted to see what the man named the animals, but He also wanted to see what the man’s wants were.
God knows what those are – even before we do – but He wanted to see what the man would do with those wants. Would he be obedient to God and “wait” for the woman, or would he make do?
No, I don’t believe every situation in which God puts us is a trial. I do believe in every situation we are in that we have a choice to make as to whether to follow God or not. Our mission statement says that we are to “… give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me” (Lk. 9: 23 NLT).
We have to rely on God’s provision, even if we don’t see how it will be possible.
But then even from the start, we wouldn’t see – other than the Garden – how God in His mercy is willing to provide for us when what we want is in His Will.
Yeah. What we want is in God’s Will. Only God can provide for us, and He will only provide for us what furthers His purpose for our lives.
Creating Eve
“So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. ‘At last!’ the man exclaimed. This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” (Gen. 2: 21-23 NLT)
Deep Sleep
The deep sleep that God put the man under is interesting. I don’t think it was a death sleep, even though we know God can raise people from the dead.
I, personally, don’t think it was the man’s first experience with a normal sleep. True, since it was still the sixth day, I don’t think he had slept yet.
But I don’t think it was your normal, everyday, run-of-the-mill nap. I don’t think it was a trance.
God basically operated on the man. That is why I think it was more of an anesthetic sleep without the drugs.
Took a Rib
God took a rib from the man to create a woman.
I have often wondered why God didn’t form the woman out of the dust. Why did He stress the relationship between man and woman over the relationship of woman to God?
Gibson tackled that. He said that it is a living, harmonious relationship.
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We still have the connection to God — being made in His image. We needed a connection with man.
Doesn’t God show what the connection should be? He took a rib from the innermost part of man. Babington also noted that the rib symbolized woman receiving strength from the man.
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Woman was created through God’s love.
Called Woman
I don’t think it was God’s intent to make women inferior to men.
Look what it said. God brought the woman to the man Himself. If that wasn’t permission and provision, nothing is. It is blessing.
Richards indicated that the correct relationship was established by creating the woman from a rib. God did not plan for them to be considered siblings. Instead, their relationship was to be based on love. She was a part of him.
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Other than in physical strength — and that is not always the case — nothing in a woman’s nature is inferior to men. Boardman noted, “Woman is something more than a supplement or appendix to man; woman is man’s complement.”
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God’s intent was to make a loving companion. Each were to uplift and support the other.
In other words, man (in Hebrew ish) and woman (in Hebrew ishah) were made to be a partnership, not a competition. Where one is lacking, the other excels.
Think about it. If God wanted the man to only have a servant, one of the animals would have sufficed. Instead, He wanted him to have someone with whom he could intelligently converse.
Exell told us how women can help men in this life. He wrote women compliment men
1. “To develop his intellectual thinkings.
2. “To culture his moral sympathies.
3. “To aid him in the daily needs of life.
4. “To join him in his worship of God.”
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I think Murphy was right. As God does not have a duality of gender, it was logical that He created the man first in His image.
The woman’s subsequent creation from the man does not make her any less in God’s image. It just makes her different from him.
Each of us are different. We are not a clone of the man.
By creating the woman separately, God allowed for those differences.
A thought just popped into my head. We are made in the man’s image as well as God’s image (Gen. 5: 3). We tend to limit that to our spiritual nature.
Does not the fact that God allowed for our individual differences because we were not all formed from dust fall under that, too?
Childbirth is another process that God utilizes to continue to create us. It is different yet.
If we say the woman is inferior because she wasn’t formed as the man was, what does that make us? More inferior?
No. I like the way Murphy put it. He wrote, “Again, he had met with his superior in his Creator, his inferiors in the animals; and he was now to meet his equal in the woman.”
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God sees us as one race — humankind. He doesn’t see us as make and female. He doesn’t see us as black, white, brown, red, or any other color.
God just sees us as His or Satan’s.
How Do We Apply This?
Father God. Thank You for not wanting man to be alone. Because of this, You created woman. Thank You for the wonderful animals that Adam named. Amen.
What do you think?
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