Genesis 2:17-24: A helper for Adam

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What kind of woman was Eve? She was just as smart as Adam. God says through Paul that Adam was the one who sinned, but it was Eve who was deceived. She was created to be Adam’s opposite. She was created intelligent and hard-working. 

Adam and Eve made a terrible mistake. Was Eve’s mistake greater than Adam’s? No, Adam’s mistake was greater than hers. For those who have more knowledge, when they sin, they will be “beaten with many stripes.” When someone with less knowledge sins, they are “beaten with few stripes.” (Luke 12:47–48)

Adam’s knowledge of creation expanded over time. When he saw where he was placed, he knew he was in a special place. When he saw all the animals, he realized how interesting his job would be. 

No other created being looks like God, except mankind. Adam’s legacy is not intelligence and knowledge but sin and death. That was not God’s original plan for them.

There’s a lot of information in the first two chapters of Genesis. We will continue our conversation about the two trees that God placed in the “midst” of the Garden of Eden. There was a Tree of Life and a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad. 

Suppose Adam and Eve had never eaten from the Tree of Knowledge. Would they have died? It’s a very profound question, and the answer can’t be simple. Most of us presume that since the penalty of the Tree of Knowledge was death, that implies that Adam and Eve were immortal already. This not necessarily true if you read their entire story in context. 

After Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge, one of the penalties was an eviction from the Garden of Eden. They were also forbidden access to the Tree of Life:

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” — therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.  So He drove the man out; and at the beast of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. (Gen. 3:22–24)

Since God created man and woman in His image, what did He have in mind for them? Work. He specifically created man and woman in His image so they could work and create as He works and creates. 

There are two types of ground (אֲדָמָה adama in Hebrew, Strong’s lexicon No. H127), one living and one dead. Adam was alive but the ground under his feet, from which Adam was made, was dead. That is why God had to bring forth trees with their fruits and seeds to nourish him. 

Why did God create Eve? God tells us that Adam was alone and that is why He create a woman for him. What does it mean that Adam was alone? The Hebrew word that is translated as “alone” is בַּד bad (H905), which means separate, apart. 

 This woman was to be a helper, an עֵזֶר ’ezer (H5828), someone opposite him, to protect, surround, aid him. 

God planted the seed of the realization of his loneliness into Adam by giving him another job: name all the animals of the Garden. As Adam observed the animals, he noticed they were in pairs. He probably noticed their sense of community. These animals were brought to him by God. Adam did not have to seek them out and find them. 

 Once Adam realized his loneliness, God put a deep, unnatural sleep on Adam and took one of his ribs (צֶלַע tsela, H6763) to create the woman for Adam. This is a curved bone, it is a bone that protects the most important parts of the body, the heart and lungs. 

When he saw Eve for the first time, he saw someone who is a counterbalance for him, someone who is like him, who can communicate and create, just like him. 

Adam said:

“This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” (Gen. 2:23)

There’s an old saying that matches this text: “A son is a son until he takes a wife. A daughter is a daughter the rest of her life.”

God had something in mind for Adam, something greater than we can imagine — hope and faith for something he could not see and comprehend. Some people presume that Adam didn’t have to learn anything but that’s not true. Although God did give him lots of intelligence, he did not give him infinite knowledge.

Speaker: Richard Agee. Summary: Tammy.