Not Good for Man to be Alone (Genesis 2:18-20)

The Creation of Woman and the Need for a Helper

If you would, open up your Bibles with me and turn to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2. We're going to be reading verses 18 to 23, but I want to go ahead and give you a caveat. I don't think I'm going to finish all of those verses today.

You know me, I tend to go slowly through the passages, and as I was looking at my notes last night with my wife, I noticed that it's a little bit long, and so I think I may end up dividing this into two parts, because today we're going to be looking at the creation of woman.

If there's anything that deserves at least two weeks, it's the creation of woman. The title of today's message is, She Shall Be Called Woman. One of the key teachings of the Reformation was Martin Luther's understanding of the three institutions that God has established in the world.

Martin Luther taught that there were three institutions that God has established. The first institution is the home, the second institution is the church, and the third institution is the state. So we have the home, the church, and the state.

And in his writings on Genesis, as Luther was expositing Genesis chapter 2, he looked at the garden, and he said, If you can see the garden, you have here a prototype of the church. Because in the garden, you have the place where man came to fellowship with God, and you have the place where man...

You have the place where man fellowshiped with God, and you have the place from which man was excommunicated when he fell out of fellowship with God. Think about what happened when man sinned. He was excommunicated from the garden.

What happens when man falls into sin and unrepentance in the church? There can come a time where excommunication can happen, an exile. And it's interesting if you consider the analogy between the garden as a sort of prototype church, or maybe better yet, a prototype sanctuary.

You see the early institution of God's church. But then we see the institution that quickly follows the institution of the garden, and that is the institution of the family. You might say, Well, when did the state get instituted?

After sin, just so you know. The state comes in after sin. It's still a vital institution, but it's resultant from sin. The reason why we need government is because we are a people who, when left to ourselves, tend to seek evil continually.

That's what the Bible says. And so we have to be governed, we have to be managed. And that's a real thing, a real situation. But that's not prior to the fall. But here's the thing to remember. If it is true, if Luther is true, if Luther is correct, that the garden represents a temple or a church or a sanctuary, and the creation of woman represents the creation of the family, then what we see is prior to the fall, God has created two institutions for man.

The institution of fellowship with God, and the institution of fellowship with his wife. The creation of the church and the creation of the family. And again, Adam couldn't be a family all by himself.

One man alone in God's sanctuary would not be enough to constitute a family. God had to create for man a family, or at least a mate from which a family could come. So today we are going to begin studying the creation of Adam's mate.

Adam's help-mate, as the King James Bible says. Or the ESV simply calls her his helper. We're going to see that God created, and by which he created and how he created, the first family in history. So let's, with our Bibles open, let's read beginning at verse 18.

It says in verse 18,. Then the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.

And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. And while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with its flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he grew, rather, excuse me, he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh.

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. This is the word of the Lord. May God bless us and write its eternal truths upon our heart. This is our passage of study this morning. I was preaching, you know I've been in Genesis now for half, well more than half a year because of everything that's gone on.

I preached several Sundays on Genesis 1 and 27. Genesis 1 and 27 speaks about God making man in his image. And I preached several Sundays about what it meant to be made in the image of God. I'm going to venture a guess that probably you don't remember everything that I said.

Because it was a long time ago and it was a lot of sermons. But I do want to remind you of one of the things that I said from that sermon because it goes along with today. In Genesis 1 and 27 it says this.

It says God created man in the image of God. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. Male and female God created them. And in that message when I preached on that particular section, the male and female part, I made three points that I want to remind you of today.

The first point was this. When God created man and woman, he made the distinction between men and women from that point forward. Men and women would always have a distinct difference. We live in a world today where that difference is being erased.

Where that difference is being maligned. Where that difference is being avoided. Where that difference is being ignored. Do you agree? You see it? And maybe you don't see it as much because maybe you have decided I don't want to look at what the world is doing.

I'm going to focus only on what I'm doing and I'm not going to see what's going on around me. But if you were to just take a few moments to pay some attention to what's going on in higher education. If you would take a few moments to see what's going on in our government.

If you would take a few moments to see what's going on in businesses around our nation. You would see that this concept of the distinction between men and women and the idea that there should be a difference between men and women and that there should be a recognizable distinction is being constantly and perpetually put aside.

I brought an article with me today. This is from a publication that my wife shared with me. And this is about something going on at Boeing. Do you guys know what Boeing is? They make the airplanes and they make the rocket ships.

Boeing is a very big company. This is what it says. Boeing's chief of communications was forced to resign from his position. Was it because of scandal? Was it because he had done something wrong? Had he taken money?

Had he taken advantage of someone on the job? No, he was forced to resign because of an op-ed piece that he wrote 33 years ago. You know what an op-ed piece is, right? It's an opinion piece. Yeah, Ed, we have opinions about Ed.

No, it's an op-ed piece. It's an opinion piece. And he wrote a piece 33 years ago. And this is what he said. His name is Neil Golightly, and he was a young Navy pilot, and he argued that women should not be allowed in combat.

That was his argument in 1987. 33 years later, he is the chief of communications at Boeing. He is forced to resign because of an opinion he held about the distinction between men and women. 33 years ago.

The love that we live in the crazy. Just this morning when I opened up my news feed to see what was happening in the day, one of the first articles came up from a place called Friends of Journalism. I have no idea who the Friends of Journalism are, but I'll tell you what, what they said was out of this world.

It simply said on their statement on their page, Stop referring to women as females. And it didn't say it once. It said it four times in all capital letters. Stop referring to women as females. Stop referring to women as females.

Stop referring to women. Four times in a row in all capital letters, which if you're unfamiliar with Internet speak, that means you're shouting when you use all capital letters. So they were chanting as it were in this statement that we should stop referring to women as females.

The Bible says male and female. He created them. The Bible says God made a distinction from the very foundation of creation between men and women. We can't have that anymore. So that's what I wanted to remind you because that was what I preached about several months ago.

This problem is not going away. This problem is being exacerbated. It's continuing to grow and to flourish. The complementary relationship between men and women was formed at creation, but we don't want to see a complementary relationship anymore.

We don't want to see men and women created for one another, both to do what the other one can't do. We want to demand that everyone be seen absolutely the same and not see the distinction between the two.

And it is destroying our very sense of right and wrong, of social propriety in the results of such foolishness. Now I recount all of this and I remind you of this partly because I knew some of you weren't here, partly because I knew some of you would forget, but also to introduce my message for today because today we're going to begin looking at the creation of woman and see what we probably know instinctively but we often forget, men and woman were not created at the same time, they were not created in the same way, and they weren't created for the same purpose.

They were not created at the same time, they were not created in the same way, they were not created for the same purpose. Men and women are different from creation. And the problem, it doesn't mean unequal by the way, and if you remember back when I preached on verse 27, male and female He created them in His image.

Men and women both bear the image of God. This is not about equality in the eyes of God, this is about purpose for which we are created. And I tell you what, men, if you don't see a distinction between you and your wife and your household, then your household is out of order.

If you don't see a differing role for yourself than for her, if you don't see yourself as the protector, provider, and pastor of your home, then you do not understand what it means to be a biblical man.

And if your wife doesn't see you as the provider, protector, and the pastor of your home, then she's not getting what she deserves as your wife. I don't say that to be ugly, it's the truth. So today we're going to begin looking at verse 18.

We're going to look at this creation that God gives. This new creation, this different creation. I preached about the creation of man a few weeks ago. God formed man from the dust of the ground. Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

Man became a living soul. Powerful passage. That was the process God used for creating man. Now we're going to look at the process God used for creating woman. And James Boyce says this in his commentary.

He says, in these verses we learn that woman was created for man, that she was created from man, and she was given to the man. Hear that again. She was created for the man, she was created out of the man, or from the man, and she was given to the man.

And here's how we're going to look at this passage. There's four parts to verses 18 to 23. I'm going to give you the four parts. I should have put them on the screen but I didn't get a chance. There are four parts to this.

We're going to look at two this week and two next week. The four parts are this. The announcement of a deficiency, the exercise of dominion, the explanation of the origin, and then the recognition of the blessing.

I'll say that again. I know some of you are writing and that was probably too fast. The announcement of deficiency is number one. The announcement of deficiency. The exercise of dominion is number two.

The explanation of origin is number three. And then the recognition of blessing is number four. So let us first look at the announcement of deficiency. Verse 18. Then the Lord God, by the way that's the covenant name of God, Yahweh Elohim, the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone.

I will make a helper fit for him. One of the things that people often overlook about this passage is its importance in regard to the language that's already been used in Genesis chapter one. In Genesis chapter one everything was good.

God made the light and it was good. God made the ground and the water separate and it was good. God made the beast of the field. He made the fish of the sea. He made the birds of the heaven. It was good.

Everything was good. It was all good. Everything over and over and over is good. The great English word God. The word God in the name of the concept of it is good. We get to verse 18 of chapter two and we get the first instance of a negative.

It's not good. But what's not good? It is not. This is an emphatic negative. It is not good. Something's missing in the perfect creation of God. Something is off in the balance of God's perfect creation.

There's a missing ingredient in the recipe. You ever been eating something and you go, there's something missing? Maybe somebody didn't put any salt in your chicken and rice. I guess I can't eat chicken and rice without salt.

Right? If you got chicken and rice, I shouldn't be eating rice anyway. It's a carbohydrate. But if I eat chicken and rice and I don't put salt in it, it's very bland. It's missing something. It's missing a key ingredient.

John Currid in his commentary on this passage said this. He said this is an amazing proclamation since Adam was in a perfect state and environment. There was no sin. And Adam experienced the immediate presence and nearness of God.

But mankind was created with the need for a corresponding relationship. You see, Adam had a perfect vertical relationship. You ever heard the difference between your vertical and your horizontal relationships?

Maybe you've never heard this. Maybe you've never heard this. It's very important to understand. As a Christian, when you were born again, you have a vertical relationship with God. And based upon the blood of Christ, that vertical relationship does not change.

Your days may change and you may have good days and bad days. You may have days where you feel very spiritual. You may have days where you feel very unspiritual. But if you are born again by the blood of Jesus Christ, your vertical relationship is steady.

The Bible says He's holding on to you. You're not holding on to Him. So that vertical relationship is solid. And Adam had that. He had the relationship between him and God. But man also needs positive horizontal relationships.

What's the two great commandments? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's a vertical relationship. Love your neighbor as yourself. That's your horizontal relationships, right?

That's the people around you. And Adam didn't have that. He didn't have a companion. He didn't have a horizontal relationship. He didn't have, as John Kearns said, he didn't have a corresponding relationship.

And God said that's not good. It's not good that he is without a corresponding relationship. It's not good that he is without that person that's like him, but not just like him. That's another thing we're going to see later.

Adam was like Eve, but not just like him. Eve was like Adam, but not just like him. Now for a moment I want to look at this word helper. It says, The Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone.

I will make a helper fit for him. Now I know recently Brother Andy got him a new King James Bible. And he's been reading to us from the King James. And I love to hear the King James read. It has a wonderful, majestic English tone.

But one of the interesting things about the King James Bible is how it translates this passage. Because it doesn't say helper. It says help meet. And I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound right.

It sounds like it was a mistake in translation. Because I've never had a person that I said, This is my help meet. I might have said, This is my help mate. But I've never said, This is my help meet. And I even heard one guy one time, He said, Well that was just because the translators of the King James Bible, They were just using bad English.

If there's one thing the King James Bible translators did not do, They did not use bad English. They were tremendous scholars. And their English was amazing. And that word help meet in the English King James Bible is important.

Because the word meet in English, Especially when it was translated, It meant suitable. The word meet means suitable. So what the King James is trying to convey, And what I believe the original language of Hebrew is trying to convey, Is that God made a help that was suitable for Adam.

A helper that was suitable for him. She met his needs. Do you get help meet now? How that works? She was the help meet because she met the need that he had. He was alone. And so God's going to make a helper, A help meet.

One who meets his needs. He's going to make a counterpart, A companion. Somebody who's going to bring in assistance. This is from Benson's commentary. He says this, A most significant phrase is this phrase,.

Because one is before him or corresponding to him,. And his counterpart suitable to his nature and his need. One like himself in shape, constitution, disposition. A second self. One to be at hand or near to him.

To converse familiarly with him. To be always ready to assist and comfort him. And whose care and business it should be to please and help him. She is made with that as her purpose. She has functionality.

And the function is that she would meet the needs that he has. And some people get very offended by that. People get offended. Well, you're just saying a woman has no other purpose than to support her man.

Slow down. Helper or help meet being applied to a woman. Let me remind you that that word is also applied to God. I'll give you a few examples. Deuteronomy 33 .7. And this he said of Judah,. Hear, O Lord, the voice of Judah,.

And bring him in to his people,. With your hands contend for him,. And be a helper against his adversaries. God is our helper. Psalm 33 .20. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield.

God is our helper. Psalm 121 .1. I lift my eyes up to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, The maker of heaven and earth. He is our helper. And one of my favorite verses in the Bible is John 14 .16.

When Jesus is promising his disciples the Holy Spirit. And what does he call the Holy Spirit? A helper. I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper. To be with you forever. And you know that word helper, What's interesting about that in the Greek language, When that word is translated, You know how the King James translates the word helper there?

It's the word paraclete. And you might have heard that phrase paraclete before. The King James translates it comforter. And every time I used to hear that as a kid, I'd hear somebody say the Holy Spirit is our comforter.

I would think about the blanket that we put on at night. Because that's what I thought of as a comforter. You know you have your sheets and you have your comforter. And so I always thought that the Holy Spirit is something that you got underneath.

Like to keep warm or to be protected. That's not what comforter means. The word comforter comes from the Latin. Come means with. Forte means strength. So the Holy Spirit is one who comes alongside to give strength.

That's what paracletos means. One who stands beside. One who comes beside. One who is there to give strength. He is our helper. He's in the place of Jesus. Jesus said I must go away. If I go away the Spirit will come.

And He will be your comforter. He will be your helper. He will walk beside you. He will support you. He will encourage you. He will be there for you. As He will be there in my stead. That's the Spirit's role.

And think of that word helper. And now go back and you look at what the woman is called. I will make a helper. Now I know some of you guys are cross eyed. Because you're like wait a minute. Didn't she the one that led him into sin?

I didn't say she was perfect. I just know. I just know for what she was made. She was made to come alongside of Him. To be His helper. We shouldn't be offended by. If we get offended by that word. Just remember God's called that word.

Over and over and over. He is our help and our shield. This is no insult. It's not meant to demean a woman's purpose. She has great value. She will be the strength, comfort, support. She will be suitable for Him.

And I will tell you this. Every married man. Who has a godly wife. Knows the value of the title helper. And we know our deficiency without it. I tell you my wife and I have a lot of. A lot of conversations.

About life. And we know. We know that one day. One of us will go to the Lord before the other one. We've had that conversation. Many times. Not because we enjoy morbid thoughts. But it's just the reality.

That life will change for one of us one day. And the reality is that's going to be it. Whoever is here will be missing. A very essential part. An essential missing. It is not good that man should be alone.

I will make a helper fit for him. Now I want to. Some folks may have this rolling around in your mind. Some folks might say well hey. I'm single. Are you saying I can't be fulfilled unless I'm married.

No I'm not saying that. I am saying. That when God created Adam. He did not create Adam to have his sufficiency in and of himself. God created Adam with the need of a helper. There is in our current situation of life.

Potential that there could be single people who are happy. And who are satisfied. Because that's what God has called them to at this stage in their life. And the one thing the Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians.

Is that can be a good thing. Because Paul was single. And he says you know what. If you can be happy and be that way. Remain as you are. Remain as I am. You know Paul was talking about himself. And here's the thing.

I don't know what happened. But I believe Paul was married. And I believe his wife died. Now I'm preaching opinion right now. I know that this is opinion. Because the Bible doesn't say that. Here's my reason why I believe that.

Because I believe he's a Pharisee. I believe it was part of being a Pharisee. Was that you were a married man. And I don't think he abandoned his wife to go after Christ. I think that she probably passed away.

This is why we never hear of his wife. Do you know who we do hear of their wives? Peter. So you got one man who's a godly man who has a wife. You have another man who's a godly man who doesn't have a wife.

So I'm not saying to be satisfied in Christ. That you have to have a spouse. But what I am saying is when you go back to creation. God didn't create Adam to be alone. And even if you're single. That doesn't mean you're meant to be alone.

God has called you to the community of the church. So that even in your singleness. You have people. You still have horizontal relationships. You still have. You have the vertical relationship with God.

And some people think that's all they need. It's not all we need. We need the horizontal relationship of the church. Whether that is in our married life. In our home life. Or in a single life. Where the apostle Paul says in singleness.

You have more opportunity to minister. Because you are not bound to the marriage situation. That causes you to have to focus on that. You're free to minister within the church. So there's a certain freedom.

And a certain liberty that comes in singleness. So I just want to be clear to say that. I don't want anybody to leave today thinking. That if you're not married. Then I'm saying that you're somehow second class.

That's not true. You're just in a different situation. But I do know this. Adam wasn't gifted with singleness. If you can be single and be happy. That's a gift. Adam was not gifted with that. Because God said he wasn't.

God said it's not good that that one. Be alone. And most people aren't. It's just the reality of it. Most people are not gifted with the ability to be single. And fulfilled. This is the truth. So. Have I made myself clear?

Have I covered my bases before going to verse 19? And now do you see why I don't think I'm going to get to verse 23? I never do. So now let's look at verse 19. Because this follows of course verse 18.

As is the typical way of numbers. And we're going to look at verse 19. Because verse 19. Something really weird happens. Because God just made the declaration. I'm going to create for you a helper. And then.

We have this really weird situation. Where God makes Adam name the animals. And it's like. Where did this come from? This seems to come out of nowhere. And seem to have no part in this whole ordeal. But it does.

It is intricately connected to what God just said. God said it's not good for man to be alone. I'm going to make a helper for him. Now verse 19. Now out of the ground God had formed. Every beast of the field.

Every bird of the heaven. And brought them to the man. To see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature. That was it's name. But the man gave names to all the livestock.

And to the birds of the heavens. And to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. Now I told you earlier. I had broken this into parts. I call this the exercise of dominion.

The reason why. Is because that's what we're seeing here. When God brings the animals to Adam. And says name them. He's exercising the dominion that God gave him. When he was created. What was the command God gave to Adam?

He was to have rule over his world. And he was to subdue it. And have dominion over it. One of the ways in the ancient world. That dominion was demonstrated. Was by giving names. The giving of a name.

Was a way of demonstrating authority. We still do that in our own families. You gave your kids their names right? They didn't come out and say. Hey I want to be called Mark. No you had to tell them. You're going to be called Mark.

And that's an exercise of authority with your children. It's the first exercise of authority with your child. You named them. If you think about when Nebuchadnezzar. Had Daniel and Hananiah. Azariah and Mishael.

Brought to him. You remember who those were? People usually don't remember who those are. Because we know them by the names they were given. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. That's not their real names.

That's the names that Nebuchadnezzar's leaders gave to them. To show we have authority over you. We are exercising dominion over you. You're no longer going to be Daniel. You're going to be Belteshazzar.

You're no longer going to be Hananiah. You're going to be Shadrach. And on. And he would give the names. To demonstrate authority. This is God bringing the animals to Adam. And saying. Exercise authority.

Name them. So Adam names them. But it's also an educational moment. It's not just an exercise of authority. But it's an exercise in education. Because as Adam names the animals. And he goes. You're the zebras.

We're going to put the zebras over here. You're the elephants. We're going to put the elephants over here. You're the long necks. We're going to put you over here. What are they called? Giraffes. We're going to call you giraffes.

We're going to put you over here. As Adam is going through these animals. He begins to whittle them down. And realize. That there's not one like him. You know he looks at the giraffes. And he says. Well those are 20 feet tall.

Not a fit companion. He sees the elephant. Those are about two tons heavy. Those are not a fit companion. And even when he gets to the apes. And yes I believe there were apes in the garden. And even when he got to the apes.

He said. You know what? They kind of look like us. You know they got the fingers. You know they got eyes and nose and mouth. Sort of like us. But they ain't just like us. And the text says. There was not found a companion suitable for him.

So not only was this an exercise of dominion. This was an exercise of education. You're learning. Not only are you the authority over these animals. But you're not like these animals. One thing that Adam would have quickly surmised.

By this investigation. Is there was no other animal that was in the image of God. He was the only one. He was the only creature that was in the image of God. They had minds. They had bodies. They had certain forms of personality and individuality.

But they were not spiritual beings. They were not made to commune with God. And neither could they truly commune with Adam. I read this great commentary on this. Arnold Toynbee said this. He made a comparison between Adam and the animals.

He said it was like a dog. Every one of us here probably at some point have had a pet. And whether it was a dog or a cat. Or whatever kind of pet. If it's a snake. Leave. No I'm just kidding. Snakes are not pets.

That's a joke. But they're not pets. They're horrible. So whatever your pet was. For you to have a fellowship with that pet. You had to go down to that pet's level. Whether it was a dog. Dogs can't communicate with you on your level.

You have to communicate with him on his level. You have to condescend to have a relationship with a dog. Or with a cat. Or with a hamster. Or anything. Any type of animal. Even if it were a primate that's very intelligent.

You can't talk to them about Shakespeare. You can't go over the works of Tolstoy with a rabbit. Because there's a difference there. And the thing that the commentator was pointing out. Was that Adam. In this parade of animals.

Realized. That if he was going to have a companion. That companion was going to have to be created like him. If he was truly going to have someone. Who was able to share what he had with God. As an image bearer of God.

There was going to have to be another image bearer. And by the way. This is why we know that the evolutionary theory falls flat. One evolutionist wrote that if every person could join hands with their ancestors.

Eventually somebody would be holding hands with an ape. But that's not true. Apes are not the primitive ancestors of man. They are a different quality of creature than man. Animals are not fit to be man's ancestors.

Much less his companion. And Henry Morris in his commentary on Genesis 2 said this. He said it is abundantly clear and certain. That had. That Adam had not. Had he not. Excuse me. Let me start again. It is abundantly clear and certain.

That had Adam not recently evolved. Adam has not recently evolved. I can't read apparently. Adam didn't recently evolve from these animals. Because if he recently evolved from these animals. He could have found a companion.

If he was genuinely like them. He could have found one like them to be with. But what does it say. It says when he saw the animals. He saw he wasn't like them. He saw himself as distinct from them. He saw himself as unique from them.

He was the only image bearer of God. And to be truly complete with another. He had to have another image bearer of God. And the point that we see in verses 19 and 20. Is the radical discontinuity between man and beast.

There is a radical discontinuity between man and beast. Man is not like them. He is not like them. And he certainly did not come from them. If he is to have a helper. That helper will not come from them.

It will have to come from God. And this is where I want to draw to a close. Because what we are going to see next week. Is God does give him a helper. And boy what a helper. What an amazing creature is woman.

What an amazingly wonderful blessing. That Adam was given. And it reminds me of three important truths. And I want to close with these three important truths. Number one. God knows what we need. Number two.

God provides what we need. And ultimately. When Adam was looking at those animals. Seeing if any of them were fit. For him. That in many ways. Is a picture. Of how men throughout history. Have tried to find something other than Christ.

To meet their needs. Whether it is another religion. Whether it is financial success. Or whether it is anything else. Man will always look for something else. To satisfy his need. But the only one. The only one who truly satisfies what we desperately need.

Is Jesus Christ. And God provided him. We can't fill our own needs. We can't satisfy our greatest needs. We can't do it. God has to do it for us. And in the same way God provided to Adam a bride. God provides us a husband.