A "Unique" Problem...

For several weeks as a church, we have been asking the question “Where did human life begin? How did human life begin? Where did the universe come from?” We talked about the reality that human beings throughout history have sought answers to these questions. And human beings have come up with a wide range of potential answers to these questions.

We then asked the following question: how do we know which answer is the right answer? And is there more than one answer? Does the answer that science gives regarding where life begins compete and contradict the answer that religion gives to this question? In other words, do you have to turn your brain off when you read the Bible? Do you have to compartmentalize your religious views from science into two separate ways to look at life? Or does faith and science complement one another and provide a cohesive answer when it comes to this question?

So to find the answers to these questions, we have been looking at the opening chapters of the very first letter that is recorded for us in the Bible, called the book of Genesis. Two weeks ago, we looked at the very first chapter of the book of Genesis and discovered that before there was a beginning, there was God. Before there was space and time, there was God. Before anything existed, nothing existed except God.

We discovered that the timeless answer to the timeless question "where did we come from?" is that in the beginning, God created everything that existed out of nothing....and it was all very good!! We discovered that we are not a product of chance. We are not the result of evolutionary process of random mutation and natural selection. And we are not here on earth on a cosmic journey to get in touch with the spark of the Divine within us. We are not here on earth on a journey to become God.

 

We discovered that there is a God, and you are not Him. There is a Creator and you are not Him. Instead we are the result of God’s creative activity. We discovered that God spoke the universe into existence and that Jesus was the hands of that creation. We discovered that the Bible does not contradict or compete with science. Instead, the Biblical account of God’s initial creative activity in the universe fits within that science. We ended our time recognizing that the Bible was not written by God as a scientific textbook to explain every detail of God’s creative process. Instead the Bible was written as God’s revelation to humanity of Him being the Creator and sustainer of the universe.

Last week, Matt Robards unpacked for us the reality that God created humanity to have a unique role when it came to their relationship with God and their relationship with the rest of creation. In Genesis 1:26-2:17, we discovered that in the beginning God created humanity to reveal and represent Him as they live in relationship with Him and one another... and it was all very good!

We discovered that just as God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit live in relationship with one another, we were created for relationships. We were created for a relationship with God vertically and for relationships with one another horizontally. We discovered that humanity was divinely designed to be God’s representative on earth. We discovered that God created humanity for work and gave humanity amazing freedom and responsibility. And it is in the midst of that freedom and responsibility that humanity was created to live life in such a way that they revealed God as they lived in relationship with Him and represented Him here on the earth.

Now this week, I would like for us to pick up where we left off last week. And as we jump back into the opening chapters of God’s story, we will see something new introduced into the story. And it is this new element into the story and God’s response to this new element that will reveal to us another truth when it comes to who God is and how we were created to live. So let’s jump back into this story together, beginning in Genesis 2:18:

Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."

As we enter back into the story, we see Moses record for us the reality that for the first time, there was something that was not good. Up to this point in God’s story, after God’s creative activity, God would look at what He had created and say that it was good. In Genesis 1:31, we read that God saw that all that He had made and behold it was very good. Now however, God sees something that is not good. And what is not good, God explains is for the man to be alone.

As we have discovered a few weeks ago, part of being created in God’s image; part of bearing the thumbprint of God in our lives is that we are relational beings. We were created for relationships. We were created for a relationship with God vertically and we were created for relationships with others horizontally.

However, while Adam was connected with God vertically, he did not connect with any of the other creation horizontally. Adam was unique as an image bearer of God. And as God looked at Adam and his uniqueness, God immediately saw that was not good. Adam did not complain about a lack of connection. Instead God sees the lack of connection and takes the initiative.

Yet while Adam did not complain, that is why the most painful emotion is one of loneliness. Loneliness is so painful because when we are lonely, we are living outside how God designed us to live. Moses tells us that God responded to the situation by stating that He would make a helper suitable for Adam.

Now the phrase “helper suitable”, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to make corresponding to. In other words, God was not going to create something inferior to Adam to be his servant. And God was not going to create something that was superior to Adam that he would have to serve. Instead God was going to create something that was equal to Adam that would compliment Adam and that Adam could connect and correspond to. We see what happens next in verse 19:

 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.

Here we see that God gave Adam the responsibility to name all of the animals. You see, Adam was not some Neanderthal with his knuckles dragging on the ground. The very first human on the planet had the capacity to name all the animals in the Garden of Eden. God did not name all the animals. Instead, Gods gave Adam the freedom and the responsibility to name all the animals. “Adam, what do you want to call that animal? Let’s call that animal an aardvark. Alright, an aardvark it is”.

You see, Adam was creative, because God designed humanity to be creative. Humanity was created with amazing creativity and capabilities. However, as Adam looked at all of the animals that he had named, there was no animal that corresponded to him and that would compliment him as an equal. There was nothing else in creation that could connect and relate to the creativity and capability that Adam was given as an image bearer of God.

Tomorrow, we will see how God responded to this reality…