Adam’s First Crisis
To listen to the audio file for today, click here: ADAM-Tuesday-Week1
Genesis 2:15-25
The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” 19 So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man* to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. 20 He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.
21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs* and closed up the opening. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.
23 “At last!” the man exclaimed.
“This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’ ”
24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.
25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.
Something to Think About
God wanted Adam to work. He had jobs for him to do. And Adam’s first job is a big one … naming all the animals. Back then, giving someone a name was a task taken very seriously. A person’s name told you a lot about the kind of person he or she was. So this was no walk in the park, and it probably took a long time.
He probably studied each animal trying to understand its uniqueness so that he could give it an appropriate name. And as he looked at animal after animal, eventually he noticed that these animals were very different from him. They could not relate to him the ways that he wanted to be related to. They could not interact with him or have a meaningful conversation with him. So there in the midst of all the animals of the world, Adam began to feel very lonely.
It almost seems like God gave him this task because He wanted Adam to realize that he was lonely, that he had a problem. Once he’d realized his problem, then God provided the solution. He created Eve out of Adam’s side. He took away Adam’s loneliness and gave him a true companion, someone just like him to share life with.
Questions to Think About
Have you ever been in a crowd of people, but still felt all alone?
Why do you think God created us with a need for meaningful relationships?
Why do you think God wanted Adam to realize he was alone before He created Eve? Why didn’t God just make Eve right away?
