"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.” Genesis 2:21-23
Some
Christians believe that this story must be read in a literal word for word way
that depicts exactly what happened and how it happened.
Others believe the writer intended it to be read as a God given, but not
literalistic, story that tells us what we need to know about God and about
ourselves.
Both
groups of Christians believe Genesis to be the inspired Word of God and it’s
really cool when each group respects the other group, is curious about how the
others came to their conclusions and seek to learn from them.
So,
is this passage a God given ‘story’ to communicate an important truth or did
God literally take one of Adam’s ribs out of his body and form a woman out of
that rib or is it both?
John
Walton, professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, writes the following
“When
we read about Adam being put into a “deep sleep” and Eve being “made,”
we automatically think Adam is being put under for surgery. But an ancient
audience wouldn’t have thought like that. The Hebrew word for “deep sleep”
is used throughout the Old Testament to refer to a visionary experience.
That’s the way an Israelite reader would have [read Genesis 2]. So I believe
this deep sleep for Adam was visionary, not a surgical operation. In other
words, he sees something about Eve”.
However
we read today’s passage, it is a way of communicating to us what God was doing
when He created “human” (adam which is singular) in 1:27
and then described this singular human as plural, male and female.
A
man is created in the image of God. A
woman is created in the image of God. Yet
neither fully so. They need each
other. In marriage the two get
put back together as a “one flesh” union, each providing the other the
characteristics of the image of God that the other lacks.
In marriage the two become one, equal and complementary partners in
completing task one (1:28a) of the blessing/vocation/calling of multiplying and
filling the earth with a flourishing, vital and vibrant society of God’s
children who know they are loved by God and in return love Him back and love
each other.
Do
you approach your marriage, your husband or wife, as your
first and primary calling? Do
you believe that God made that calling a priority over calling #2 which is work?
How have you kept these two callings in their proper order?
Is there anything you need to change to get your priorities right?
Personally I do not think that it is ever
too late to do so.
For
more:
follow on Twitter @jefflampl
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