10.4.9– Civilization Begins

1 Corinthians 15:33
Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals." (ESV)

That's not just a cliché, or the name of a rock band. It's a Biblical truth. Yet, compare it to the beginning of the story of mankind:

Genesis 2:15-25
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” So out of the ground the LORD God 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 flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man 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 out of Man." Therefore a man shall leave his father and his 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. (ESV)

God didn't want man to be alone. Isn't it strange how God designed us to be social creatures, yet it's often our social connections that cause us the most trouble?

Let's take some time to look at what God created—how things were supposed to be—and compare that with how they've become. How'd we get from it being a bad thing for man to be alone to it being a bad thing (sometimes) for people to get together?

A Matter of Time

Look at the events of the passage we just read. Does this have to happen on “day 6”? Wouldn't the fact that Adam was created on day 6 encompass all who would come from him later (including Eve)? How well do we understand all the time lines here? (For instance, in chapter 3 when Adam and Eve sin, is that later the same day or years later? Who knows? How can we know? [And does it matter?!?!])

Growing up and hearing the story of Genesis, I had this picture in my mind that Adam is created at dawn, names the animals before lunch, gets a wife custom made for him during his nap, then they sin and are kicked out of the garden by supper time. God gives us no timetable here, though. Many days may have passed here and it might be years before Adam and Eve sin. There's just no way to know.

But let's take a look at the progression of events and see what we can learn from them.

The Parade of Animals

How long did it take Adam to name the animals? Did he name all the different kinds of horses, or did he just see and name the equine family based on one representative? This may well have been a process that took days. Remember, neither Adam or God had any reason to hurry through this process.

But why have Adam name the animals at all? Wouldn't it have been easier for God to say, “This is a cow. There's a rhinoceros. There's a big ugly ... “

Maybe part of God's purpose for having Adam see the animals first was to create in him a longing for someone like himself. If God had presented Eve first, maybe Adam wouldn't have appreciated her uniqueness and the way she was uniquely fitted for him. Also, the animals were ... animals. Adam—whether he realized it or not—longed for someone who—like himself and God—had personality (i.e. thoughts, feelings, etc.).

Sometimes, we don't recognize our own needs until we're really faced with the need.

Babs Streisand was recently quoted as saying she was tired of singing the song, “People”. Many of us can identify with her on that because we're tired of hearing her sing it. Still, the lyrics, are right:

People Need People

Whoever wrote her song for her (Julie Styne and Bob Merrill, I had a friend look it up), may have just been looking for a good lyric or maybe they realized the necessity for human interaction and put it to music. They weren't the first to think of this concept, though.

“Man is by nature a political animal.” -- Aristotle

In other words, we all realize we need other people. Some of us like to have some alone time but we usually want limits on that alone time. We may want our time with other people to be strictly on our terms, but we do eventually want to be with others. It's why it makes the news when some guy is found living in the woods by himself, who hasn't been out in public in years. We know, instinctively, that such behavior is out of the norm. It's why there aren't similar stories about authorities finding some lady who lives in a town, enjoying time with friends and, often, going right in amongst them. That's normal. It's how we were made!

What happened?

Look at something big that happened here for a little clue:

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 flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

Death didn't come about until after sin, but what about pain? Why would God have put Adam to sleep for the operation? Either: to spare Adam from the pain; or man is just not able to see God at work in this way.

Why is this important? Any of it? God (or Moses) isn't like a novelist, telling us every detail all the time. Sometimes he tells us more details than we think we need and sometimes he tells us less than we want. What's the deal?

The fact that God had it written down for us is not enough for most of us. We hate to admit that, but it's true. “WHY did God think it was important for me to know this?”

Because God's a better story-teller than I at first think. Like a good mystery writer, he gives us details here that aren't explained until much later. Several thousand years later, in fact.

Foreshadowing

God put Adam into a sleep and withdrew the rib to make Eve. As Jesus went into the “great sleep” of death, a spear was thrust into his side and out came blood and water. Mankind was made possible by the first “operation”. We are saved by the second: cleansed by the blood and washed in the water. As Eve was the mother of all who live; the church is the mother of all who live spiritually.

One other thought: As I read about God assigning specific roles to the man and the woman, I can't help but wonder if our modern rebellion against the idea is less about fear of being sexist and mostly about the idea that God planned each of us for a much higher purpose than we have yet achieved and we rebel because we are guilty about how low we have settled. It's easier to accuse God of sexism than to rise to our full potential.

What do I DO with this?

A friend of mine who is a youth minister in Kansas was lamenting this week that it was hard to get kids to make God their priority when they're watching their parents not even make church a priority. What about you? Church is a part of the whole picture, but is God—who created and loves you—your priority or is he just one item on your buffet?

Change today. Want to reach your full potential? Then start this moment by turning that potential over to God.

Questions or comments? martha917@yahoo.com