On day six of creation, things got interesting. After a whirlwind week of crafting light, land, and leaping lizards, God decided to go big. Forget the funky fish and the fabulous flamingos – this time, He was making something in His own image. Buckle up because Genesis 1:26-27 is about to drop the mic on creation.
Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
“Let Us make man” was not expressed by God in the creation of anything else except man. God revealed a relationship within the Godhead, which man needed to adequately reflect the image of God.
The beginning part of Chapter 2 talks about the beauty and sufficiency of Eden, the commission given to Adam to dress and keep the garden (v16), and the instruction not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (v17).
Please note, it’s still day 6.
Gen 2:18-22
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” 19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal 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. 20 The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
V19-20
God could have easily named those animals, but He didn’t. He caused them to parade before Adam as Adam displayed his uncorrupted wisdom in assigning purpose to those creatures. While doing his job of naming, he begins to recognize these animals had companions. The end of verse 20 gives it away, “but for Adam, there was not found a helper suitable for him”.
Imagine a world bathed in the glow of creation, teeming with life yet somehow incomplete for Adam. Then, enter verse 22: “ and brought her to the man.” God, the ultimate architect, doesn’t shove Adam into wedded bliss. Instead, He presents a masterpiece fashioned to complement Adam’s very being. It’s a cosmic nudge, a divine introduction, but the choice remains.
This isn’t a preordained happily-ever-after. Adam, in all his newfound existence, has never encountered anything like her. Here, the brilliance of the passage unfolds. He doesn’t need external validation. The very essence of her being resonates within him, filling the void he had. It’s a fundamental recognition, a soul-deep understanding that transcends mere biology.
Overflowing with this profound connection, Adam utters the first love song (verse 23):
“At last, this is bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called ‘woman,’
Because she was taken out of man.”
This isn’t just a poetic turn of phrase. It’s Adam identifying his partner, acknowledging the completeness she brings. It’s the antithesis of confusion – an absolute recognition of her essence and place in his life. Finally, he bestows upon her a name, “Woman,” not as a possession but as a celebration of her very being.
The remaining verses in Chapter 2 move from the creation of man and woman to the creation of marriage. All these wrap up into Genesis 1:27, and then in verse 28, the blessing from God comes.
28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Finally, as Gen 1:31 proclaims, “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
GOD CAN SEND YOU YOUR PERSON, BUT YOU STILL GOTTA SAY YES.
