CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 2:18. Help meet] Prob. “according to his front” (Dav.) or “corresponding to him” (Ges., Fürst, Dav.).
Genesis 2:19. To see what He would call them] Or: “that he [Adam] might see what he should call them.” Either rendering is valid.
Genesis 2:21. Deep sleep] Sept. extasis = “trance.”
Genesis 2:23. This] An exclamation of joyful satisfaction. Prob. no Eng. trans. can give out the striking threefold repetition of the feminine pronoun zoth: “THIS (fem.)—NOW—is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: THIS (fem.) shall be called Woman; because out of Man was she taken—this (fem.)” Woman] Heb., ishah, fem. of ish. Man] Heb., ish: perh. a prim. word (Ges. Dav.); but more probably = strong (Fürst, Dav.):—to be distinguished from, âdhâm (“Adam,” “man”) as Lat. vir from homo, and Gr. anêr from anthropos. This distinction, with the idioms growing out of it, will be found worth constant attention.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 2:18-25
THE CREATION OF WOMAN
I. Woman was brought to man in order that she might relieve his solitude by intelligent companionship.—“And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone.” When we thus state that man was lonely we do not mean to imply that the world in which he lived was a desolate waste, but simply that it was destitute of proper companionship for him. The beasts of the field were created, and were divinely presented to Adam that he might recognize them, that he might name them, that they might awaken his intellectual energies, and that their departure might awaken within him the thought of loneliness. But the brutes are not companions for man, they cannot enter into the high enjoyments of his intellectual life, nor can they join him in his devotional moods. He is separated from them by a wide abyss; he is their lord, they are unknowingly his servants. Then if man could not find a companion in the earth beneath, could he not in the heaven above? Was not God his companion and friend. God was his frequent visitant, but nothing more. The finite mind of Adam could not have found the rest it needed in the infinite problem and presence of God. As in the case of the brutes, Adam was too much their superior to find in them companionship. So the Divine Being was too much superior to Adam for the terrestrial companionship he needed. In order to true and happy companionship there must be a fair equality of intellectual power, of moral sympathy, and a real community of daily life, existing between the parties. Hence there was a deep necessity, in order to relieve the loneliness of Adam, that another human being should be created to keep him constant company. Man to-day can have no idea of the loneliness of Adam, as he first stepped out into life. He was the first man. He stood in a great silence. There were none to whom he could express the deep feeling of his heart. Things are altered now. The world is crowded. Instead of solitude, there are crowds. Instead of silence, there is uproar. Instead of loneliness, there are far too many companionships inviting the truant attention of man. And this condition of the world is more adapted to the number and strength of man’s mental capacities and moral energies. It is more likely to develop both. It is more conducive to his happiness. It may be likewise more conducive to temptation. Companionship may be a curse, as it often is a blessing.
II. Woman was brought to man that she might be his helpmeet in the struggles of life. “I will make him a help-meet for him.” Adam needed a help-meet:—
1. To develop his intellectual thinkings. When Adam was created he would have but few ideas, which would be very crude, more characterized by wonder than by settled conviction. His mind would need development. Eve would encourage this development; instigated by curiosity, and by a desire to know the meaning of the things around, they would together pursue the study of the material universe. Thus their minds would expand, and with this expansion they would attain mental sympathy, through being unitedly employed in the same research. They would have common themes of thought and conversation. Wives should aid and encourage the mental development of their husbands, together they should inquire into the mysteries of the universe, and they would find glad employment in so doing, healthful exercise as well as definite result.
2. To culture his moral sympathies. Adam was strong in manhood, and it is not often that strength combines pathos. Hence there was need that one of loving heart, and tender disposition should subdue by unspoken influence the lord of creation, and by awakening within his soul feelings of gentleness, should strengthen the sceptre which God had put into his hand. The influence of woman should make men sympathetic, should give them a heart to feel the world’s pain and enable them to manifest to those who need it, a patient love.
3. To aid him in the daily needs of life. Even in Eden man had certain physical wants, and though we never read of Eve as engaged in the very necessary pursuits of ordinary female life, yet no doubt they were not forgotten by her. In harmony with the early times she no doubt provided for the daily wants of her husband. Wives show their true womanhood by so doing. A wife who will neglect the temporal wants of her family and home, is unworthy the name.
4. To join him in his worship of God. We can imagine that the souls of Adam and Eve would be full of devotion and praise. They had been immediately created by God. They were the sole proprietors of the soil. They were to be the progenitors of humanity. Their lives were full of spiritual joy. Their souls were pure. God came to them in glorious vision. Together they would worship him. Let husbands and wives throughout the world join together in their prayers and praises. Thus woman is man’s help-meet, to rejoice in his joy, to share his sorrow, to minister to his comfort, and to aid his religious life and worship.
III. Woman was brought to man that she might receive his love, protection, and care. Eve was taken from the side of Adam, that she might be equal with him; from near his heart that she might be loved by him; from under his arm that she might be protected by him. Woman was not intended to be man’s slave. In many heathen nations this is the case, but wherever the Bible is taken, it teaches the moral elevation of woman. How intimate is the marriage relationship. The two become one flesh. They forsake all other relationship, comparatively, for the new one assumed. A man never shows more respect for himself than when he manifests love and respect for his wife. It is a great sin to violate this holy relationship, either by brutality or neglect. LESSONS:—
1. The Divine compassion for a lonely man.
2. That marriage is to furnish man with true companionship of soul.
3. That marriage is to aid man in all the exigencies of life.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 2:18. This complete loneliness, marking an imperfect life, was thoroughly unique. Whatever exileship or bereavement may effect, whatever selfishness, or misanthropy, or great grief for the dead may make you feel for the time, you can never have reproduced in you Adam’s loneliness. The world around teems with human life that wants your blessing; and there are in the biographies of men, in your memories of the departed, in the presence still on earth of the good and the noble, helpers to the heart and mind such as Adam could not know in his solitude. Even the “last man” will have interwoven with his very being memories of human companions, and have upon him uneffaceable impressions of them such as were impossible to the first man [Homilist].
The creation of woman:—
1. The occasion.
2. The resolution.
3. The preparation.
4. The presentation.
Loneliness is not good:—
1. For intellectual development.
2. For moral culture.
3. For true enjoyment.
4. A rebuke to monks.
Loneliness not good:—
1. For man’s comfort.
2. For man’s employment.
3. For posterity.
The woman a help:—
1. For assistance in family government.
2. For the comfort of society.
3. For the continuance of the race.
God knows all the wants of man and graciously makes arrangements to supply them:—
1. The sabbath for rest.
2. The garden for pleasure and work.
3. The wife for companionship.
A wife is not good, till it be not good to be without a wife.
A man may, and it is God’s will that he should, be the better for his wife:—
1. She builds up the House (Proverbs 14:1).
2. She profits him in his estate (Proverbs 31:12).
3. She easeth him of his cares in looking to the ways of her family (Proverbs 31:27).
4. She adviseth him by her counsels (Genesis 21:10).
5. She comforts him in his sorrows.
6. She helps to foresee and prevent danger (1 Samuel 25:18; 1 Samuel 25:33).
7. She furthers him in piety, by seasonable encouragements, reverent admonitions, and by joining with him in holy prayers.
Only the wife brought by God is likely to be good.
A wife the helper of her husband:—
1. Not his guide.
2. Not his ruler.
3. Not his slave.
4. But his counsellor.
A wife cannot be a good wife unless she be a meet and fit wife:—
1. In parentage.
2. In estate.
3. In education.
4. In disposition.
5. In religion.
Jehovah Elohim, man’s Creator, knows what in every kind is good for man.
The judgment of the great God is, that it is in no way good for man, in respect of natural, civil, or spiritual relations, to abide alone.
Man was not made for a solitary, but for a sociable life, and to commune with God.
God in goodness makes that good for man which he stands in need of.
The woman is God’s workmanship as well as the man.
The woman created last:—
1. The ground of her inferiority.
2. The reason of her subjection.
3. Her plea for protection.
The woman a help to man:—
1. God given.
2. Ready.
3. Willing.
4. Welcome.
Genesis 2:19. If man had been formed out of the ground, the ground could not give him a companion.
God brought the beasts to Adam before he created Eve, in order that the unserviceableness of other things should enhance the worth of the truly good.
God can order the creature to do what he wishes:—
1. The ravens to feed Elijah.
2. The she bears to destroy the scoffing children.
3. The lion to meet the prophet.
4. The sparrows. God is pleased to honour man so far, to employ them in many things which of right belong unto Himself:—
1. To encourage men to His service.
2. To unite men in love.
3. To increase their reward and talents.
Jehovah is maker, and will have Adam be the namer of all the creatures in the earth:—
1. A token of sovereignty.
2. A token of ownership.
3. A token of power.
“To see what he would call them.” If he had been permitted to name himself, it should have been, probably, the Son of God, as he is called by St. Luke (Chapter Luke 3:38) in regard of his creation. But God, to humble him, calls him first, Adam, and after the fall, Enosh, that is, frail, sorry man. [Trapp.]
Genesis 2:20. As the beasts were no companion for man, we observe that no creature ought to be applied to any other use than God at first designed for it:—
1. God hath made all his works in Wisdom
2. That God’s sovereignty may be acknowledged.
3. That confusion may be avoided.
Brutes no companions for man:—
1. They have not common speech.
2. They have not common employments.
3. Their lives are not guided by common rules.
4. They do not live for common ends.
Genesis 2:21. “A deep sleep to fall upon Adam.” Whether it was a sleep or a trance cannot be gathered from the text. It was such a sleep, questionless, that took from Adam the power of observation till the work was ended. Some conceive that he was cast into this sleep:—
1. To take from him the sense of pain, which the taking out of his rib would involve.
2. That the work might be wholly of God.
3. That the Divine Providence might be the more apparent in providing a helpmeet for him when he was asleep.
4. To hide the operation from man.
The rib was probably taken for its situation in the body:—
1. Not from the head or foot, to manifest that the place of the wife was to be neither above nor far below her husband.
2. That it was taken from a place near the heart, to indicate the true affection with which man must regard his wife.
3. Because this part of the body is covered with the arms, it denotes the protection the wife should receive. Perhaps the rib was taken because it could be the best spared from the body of man without deforming it. The bone was also taken, not so much to indicate the moral stiffness of woman as her firmness in help and need.
God does not shew men how He works, He only manifests the product of his toil.
God takes care of us, and provides for our good even while we are asleep.
God takes nothing from us but He takes care to recompense it to us again.
He that marrieth in the Lord, marrieth also with the Lord; and he cannot be absent from his own marriage. A good wife was one of the first real and royal gifts bestowed upon Adam; and God consults not with him to make him happy. As he was ignorant while himself was made, so shall he not know while a second self is made out of him; both that the comfort might be greater than was expected, as also that he might not upbraid his wife with any great dependence or obligation; he neither willing the work, nor suffering any pain to have it done. The rib cannot challenge no more of her than the earth can of him” [Trapp].
The woman was only made of one bone lest she should be stiff and stubborn [B. King].
Genesis 2:22. Man’s first sight of woman:—
1. One of admiration.
2. One of gratitude.
3. One of love.
God hath allowed but one wife to one man.
Every child of God must desire to receive his wife from God’s hand:—
1. That God, who looks at the heart, is only able rightly to direct their choice.
2. It implies an obligation to make a right use of marriage.
3. It sweetens all the crosses of life.
Genesis 2:23. True marriage:—
1. Of God’s making.
2. Of woman’s consenting.
3. Of man’s reception.
Man and wife are one flesh and bone.
The woman’s flesh was from man, not her soul.
Marriage is an emblem of spiritual union between Christ and his church.
Marriage is of God’s institution.
The happiest marriage is between souls stamped with God’s image.
Genesis 2:24. God hath not only instituted marriage, but given law also to rule it.
The union between parents and children is less than between man and wife, and therefore must give place.
God’s law warrants the children’s desertion of their fathers to contract marriage in a lawful way. No honour due is to be denied to parents.
Cleaving in mutual love to each other is the great conjugal law:—
1. Such cleaving must be sincere.
2. Such cleaving must be reciprocal.
3. Such cleaving must be without end.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Helpmeet! Genesis 2:18. “For Adam was not found an helpmeet.” This was an anomalous position. All the beings with whom hitherto he had come in contact were either above him or below him. No one was his equal—he was alone. Around him were innumerable servants; but the wide circle of his empire did not contain one with whom he could reciprocate affection—with whom he could in all points sympathise. To supply this blank a new creation had to take place—a fairer form was to enrich the earth than any which it yet contained.
For there’s that sweetness in a female mind,
Which in a man, we cannot hope to find.—Pomfret.
Home Duties! Genesis 2:18. The duties of domestic life—exercised as they must be in retirement, and calling forth all the sensibilities of the female—are perhaps as necessary to the full development of her charms as the shades and shadows are to the rose; confirming its beauty, and increasing its fragrance:—
For nothing lovelier can be found
In woman, than to study household good,
And good works in her husband to promote.—Milton.
Feminine Solace! Genesis 2:18. Washington Irving likens such a woman to the vine. As the vine, which has long twined its graceful foliage about the oak, and been lifted by it in sunshine, will, when the hardy plant is rifted by the thunderbolt, cling round it with its caressing tendrils, and bind up its shattered boughs; so it is beautifully ordered by Providence that woman should be man’s stay and solace when smitten with sudden calamity—binding up the broken heart.
“’Tis woman’s to bind up the broken heart,
And soften the bending spirit’s smart;
And to light in this world of sin and pain,
The lamp of love, and of joy again.”—Anon.
Wife-help! Genesis 2:19. Guelph, the Duke of Bavaria, was besieged in his castle, and compelled to capitulate to the Emperor Conrad. His lady demanded for herself and the other ladies safe conduct to a place of safety, with whatever they could carry. This was granted; and to the astonishment of all, the ladies appeared, carrying their husbands on their backs. Thus wives aided their husbands: and never in the gayest moods in tournament or court did those fair dames look more lovely.
“Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud;
’Tis virtue that doth make them most admired.”—Shakespeare.
Woman! Genesis 2:19. Hargrave says that women are the poetry of the world in the same sense as the stars are the poetry of heaven. Clear, light-giving harmonies, women are the terrestrial planets that rule the destinies of mankind.
“Ye are stars of the night, ye are gems of the morn,
Ye are dewdrops, whose lustrue illumines the thorn.”—Moore.
Adam’s Sleep! Genesis 2:21. When we look at Adam cast into a deep sleep, we take courage in the prospect of that change which all of us must undergo; for is not the first man’s trance or slumber an emblem of death? And may not God enable the believer to yield up his spirit at last, as easily as Adam did his rib? It was Jehovah who cast him into a deep sleep, and it is Jehovah Jesus who leads the saint down into the valley of the shadow of death for a little while. Of Stephen we read that he fell asleep. The execrations of his enemies were yet ringing in his ears, when God caused a deep and tranquil repose to fall upon him.
“Softly within that resting-place
We lay their wearied limbs, and bid the clay
Press lightly on them till the night be past,
And the far east give note of coming DAY.