Genesis 2:18-25

In verse 18, God states that it is not good that man should be alone and that He will make a helper for him. When this verse is read in the light of the New Testament, it is apparent that God possessed the plan to provide man with a helper before He created man. I Peter 1:20 states that Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world to be as a lamb without blemish or spot. God had full knowledge of future needs before He created the earth and everything in the earth. It is safe to state that God knew that He would create a helper for Adam before He created Adam. God is aware of our needs before our needs become apparent to us.

Verses 19 and 20 provide a setting to God’s creation of a helpmate for man. We note that God’s starting material for every beast of the field and every fowl of the air was the ground. Man (Adam) also was formed from the dust of the ground (v. 7). There is a significant difference, however, between man and beast: God breathed the breath of life into man and he became a living soul. The starting material for man’s helpmate was dust of the ground which had been made a living soul by the breath of God.

God displayed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air before Adam. Why? There is a stated reason and an unstated reason. The stated reason is that God wanted Adam to assign names to each creature. The unstated reason was to familiarize Adam with each creature that God had made. Despite the fact that each creature was formed from the earth as was Adam, not one was found to be a suitable helpmate. After Adam surveyed all the creatures that God had made, Adam realized that none could serve as a suitable helper.

God knew there were none suitable before He paraded these creatures before Adam. God wanted Adam to discover this for himself. God wanted Adam to know that he was dependent upon God to provide the needed helpmate. In verses 21 and 22, God made the helpmate that He declared that He would make in verse 18.

When Adam awoke from his sleep in verse 23, he knew what God had done. Adam knew that God had made him a helpmate and he knew that God had fashioned that helpmate from his rib.

Learned men of today often challenge the account recorded in Genesis 2 because it is not in harmony with man’s understanding of nature. God is not the author of confusion. Men who make God subject to their understandings become confused. They are unable to hear the voice of God and discern truth. God wanted Adam (and us) to know that He provided man with a specially fashioned helpmate. Adam understood. Adam knew that woman was fashioned from man by the hand of God. Adam knew woman to be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Adam knew what God intended him to know. Adam knew his helpmate was intimately related to himself and was God’s provision. We also note that the bone which God chose was the rib, the closest bone to the heart.

God did not make man from man. God made woman from man. Woman, unlike the beasts of the field or fowls of the air, was made from man who was made a living soul. Woman was made from the man who had named every beast of the field.

In verse 22, God brought the woman He had made to the man. Because Adam named woman in addition to the animals, some have suggested that God intended man to have dominion over woman as he was given dominion over animals. That is not what the scripture clearly states: “. . . and they shall be one flesh.” The oneness of God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit is revealed through New Testament scripture. Man and woman are to be as one as the triune God is one.

The relationship between man and his helpmate is set forth in verse 24. God intends that man be closer to his helpmate than to his mother or father. Man and woman are to be joined as one flesh. This relationship between Adam and his helpmate is God’s plan for the offspring of all who would be born of man and woman. Man and his wife are to be of one flesh which is naked and unashamed.

Verse 25 states that both man and his wife were naked and unashamed. Exhibitionists of today may boldly display nudity with an in-your-face attitude, all the while concealing their shame. All men and women, regardless of body covering or lack there of, are ashamed when their wrongdoings or evil thoughts are exposed. That was not the case for man and woman whom God created. They were naked; nothing that they did or thought was hidden. They were unashamed because they had no wrongdoings or evil thoughts. They had no failings to hide from God or from each other. They were both created in God’s image.

Genesis 2 ends with man and his wife naked and unashamed. Man and his wife dwelt in the garden that God had given man to dress and to keep. Man and his wife were together as one flesh. All was as God had made it and all was good. All was as God intended. God’s will was on earth as it is in heaven.