Part 2: Male & Female

Welcome back. We are doing a doctrine of man, really looking at a theology of gender for the glory of God. We're asking two questions. What does it mean to be a human being so that we can try to distinguish exactly what's distinct about male and female? We were just in Genesis 1 in the previous video. where we saw man was created on the sixth day, the end emphasis. God set him aside uniquely saying, let us make man in our own image. Male and female he created them in his own image. And then he gave him a job to exercise dominion. So there's a heightened way in which humans stand out among all the other creatures. And now we're going to kind of double click on day six and see how the generations of man began. If you're to read Genesis 2, 4, you see that beginning, these are the generations. You'll see this pattern throughout the book of Genesis because it's telling you this is a history of man. And after the hymn of praise that lifts our hearts up, we now see the history. And there's two or three key texts we really want to focus on. The first is Genesis 2-7, and that reads, So as we're asking what's unique about Male, what we see here is he's created first. What we see here is that he's formed from the earth like the other mammals, but now this time, God breathes his life into him. There's an intimate, personal way in which God is giving him life. Then we see Genesis 2, 15 to 17, the Lord God took man and put him in the garden. He's already created all the world. He's already created all the other beings. He's already created this garden. He's already prepared a garden palace for his vice-regent. Adam really does function like a king, a priest. God tells him to do two things in the garden, work it and keep it. If we were to fast forward to Numbers 3 or Numbers 8, we would actually see those same words for a priest. In many ways, I believe it has been argued that this garden is very much like a tabernacle, a temple. It's where God and man meet. Those commands, work and keep, are the same commands the Levitical priests would receive in their own tabernacle and temple. Man is meant to be a representative of God still, as his image bearer, and we actually see it even more highlighted with those commands, work and keep my garden. And then God tells Adam, specifically, this is important that it's for man, he is told to work and keep. That's hinting at some kind of distinction maybe. And then we see he's the one who is told what not to do. Don't eat the tree of this, the fruit of this one tree. And that's gonna be important for the next series when we go into Genesis three. So we have man, the male, he's created first, he's put in the garden, he's given the command to work and keep, he's given the one restriction of all the garden, and then God does something pretty amazing. Because if we were to think of the God who has been declaring over and over again, and God said, and God said, and it was good, and it was good, all of a sudden something would make the record scratch. What's going on? God said, it is not good. If you can just imagine all the heavenly hosts and the angels who've been watching God speak things into existence and providing this order of creation and it being good and good and good, and then all of a sudden, as things are winding down at the end, all of a sudden God says, it's not good. God is really highlighting, it isn't yet good. We need something. There's an emphatic way in which God is showing something else important has to happen. It's not good that man, the male, should be alone. Then we see the very first promise God gives to his creation. He promises man, I will make you a helper fit. A necessary companion is the way one person declared this promise. Fitness, we usually think of physical fitness with exercise. You want to be fit. Well, fit means it works. Fit means there's a proper connection in a way they work together. Helper means man needs help. So God makes the promise, I will make him a helper fit for him. So out of the ground, God formed all the other beasts and then he had them parade across man and well, Not a helper was found fit. What's going on here? God knew none of these other creatures were gonna be helpers fit. I believe God is delaying his promise. Before there's sin in the world, God is delaying his promise to teach Adam, to trust him, and to teach him how good this gift is going to be. Well, after God has Adam do all this work of naming, man does what is still good because we don't have a fall. It's good to nap. We see the goodness there. Man is put under a deep sleep, and every time this kind of sleep is actually used, something special happens. It's the same sleep that Abraham is put into as God walks between the carcasses to make the promises in Genesis 15. Every time this kind of sleep happens, something good is about to happen. So God puts Adam to sleep. After this long day, then he does surgery. God takes the rib of man, something from man himself, and he makes the woman. And then he brings her to man. Now, as we think about this, we just had a wedding a couple days ago, and I think there's something illustrative here in the way we do weddings. because a wedding usually starts with a groom standing, say, here. And that's gonna be the most awkward, like, three minutes of your life, just standing there when everybody else wants to see somebody else. And then we decided to make it more awkward by having a lot of attractive, done-up, you know, with lots of makeup and hair done, girls walk by you. And the whole point is, well, it's not that one. It's not that one. That's kind of like all the other creatures. Not that one. The whole point of doing that parade of the helpers not fit was to build up the climactic anxiety that it's not good yet. And then at our own weddings, the significant moment is when the music changes, the last bridesmaid walks down, and everybody stands up and looks in the back. It's the bride. And who's with her? the father who brings her to the bridegroom. God has designed this first wedding, this first marriage, to show the climactic, wonderful ending of how important woman is, intentionally delaying the promise, intentionally showing him how hard it will be for him to find a helper fit, so that when he brings her to him as a gift man realizes what a precious good thing he's received. I believe that's highlighted in verse 23. This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. What we see here is the first recorded words of man, and they're praising God for woman. If we go back to some interpretive tools we introduced in Genesis 1 last video, we actually see them apply here. There's end-emphasis. And even more so, God is actually ratcheting up some climactic pre-fall anxiety for Adam in that the end-emphasis is clearly woman needs to be brought so that it is good. So the end-emphasis is showing woman to be the high point of creation. Secondly, we see poetry. Hebrew poetry with parallelism. This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. He's praising God for a woman. And notice what he's praising specifically here. She's like me. Unlike those other creatures who were not fit, she is like me. If we're to really look at Genesis 2, the end emphasis and the heightened language really show still that the main point is that the woman is to be honored as being like man. They're both made in the image. They fit together. I do think we see some distinctions. Yeah, Adam is told to work and keep. He's created first. Woman's created from man. She's created second. She's a helper. But those are some distinctions that are hinted at here that we might see played out later. But the main emphasis of the whole story is how creation is not good until woman is brought. How it's a she's promised to Adam and how Adam praises God for her. If you're just thinking about kind of a basic outline, there's a problem is stated. It's not good. A promise is given. I will make you a helper fit. There's a pause. No one is found. And then there's praise at last. God has provided his image bearers who are going to multiply image bearers in his creation. One last verse we need to look at is verse 24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." This is one of the most quoted passages in the Bible, and that makes sense because it's one of the earliest passages in the Bible, but it also goes to its importance. Now there's a few things that are kind of odd about this passage. One, Adam and Eve don't have father or mother. So this isn't as historical as the rest of this. It's actually giving a lesson. I believe it's actually solidifying that this pattern should go on as normative. One flesh, the union that is unique for male and female, husband and wife. There's also something here that the man leaves his father and mother. And here we might see a picture of the gospel, and really where I want to go with this is Ephesians 5, because Paul specifically quotes this passage. In chapter 5, after giving exhortations to wives and husbands, he declares, verse 30, because we are members of his body, therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. He then gives a little bit of an exposition on that verse from Genesis 2.24. This mystery is profound. Okay, when I read Genesis 2.24, the only mystery is why is it the man who leaves? But Paul's saying there's something in Genesis 2.24 that is beyond what we would naturally see, because he says the mystery's profound, because that verse in Genesis 2 is referring to Christ in his church. Here we see that already, just as Christ is going to be the image that we could not be, we already see that God has designed that Christ is going to be the perfect bridegroom and the church his beloved bride. And Spurgeon says that the reason the man shall leave his father and mother is because Christ leaves his heavenly abode to come down to be like us, yet without sin. so that he can purchase us with his own blood, so that he can love us as his own bride. He leaves what is natural to him to cleave to us so that he can make us beautiful. Now, one reflection as we think about male-female and what it means to be a human, I do believe Genesis 2.24 introduces the concept of headship, If Christ is the head of the church, which is universally true, and Genesis 2.24 is clearly teaching Christ as the bridegroom and the wife as the church, headship exists here before the fall. Headship of the husband, which is a man taking responsibility for the well-being of another. We already see God has design and order. That one is still hinted at and not as clear as we might see it as we've interpreted from Ephesians 5. But again, there's hints of distinction while the end emphasis is that she's like me and therefore a fit helper. So again, let's conclude with our chart. What does it look like for us to be made in the image of God? We're similar as human beings, that we're image bearers, we exercise dominion, we multiply. The differences are a little bit more clear, the distinctions in Genesis 2. Adam was created first, Eve second. Adam created from the earth, breathed life into by God, and then Eve is taken out of Adam. So there's some distinctions in the way they're created or the sequence of their creation. But I believe here headship being introduced from Genesis 2.24 with Ephesians 5 informing it. We see that there's a role that man is going to have in leading and caring for his bride. Well, the sad thing is we see the first recorded words of man praising God for a woman. We'll turn to the next chapter in our next video and see that what he will do next is blame God for giving him a woman.