Walking With Christ

Genesis 2:7
then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.(ESV)

Genesis 2:21-22
(21)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. (22)And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.(ESV)

These three verses show the creation of Adam and Eve by God. God created Adam and Eve, but He did not create them in the exact same way. The obvious difference is that God used a rib from Adam. What most people do at this point is to imagine God creating another vessel from the dirt like He did for Adam and then Him breathing life into that vessel. This creates a cute connection between the two otherwise unique and unrelated vessels. The bible never actually says how God created Eve. The text does not explicitly say that God used one method or another.

The effect that this interpretation has on the later story of the fall is quite dramatic. Assuming that God created a completely separate earthen vessel for Eve drastically reduces the connection between Adam and Eve. The details of the creation of Eve might be a bit sparse, but with some critical thinking and careful reading, I think it’s possible to not only be relatively sure of exactly how Eve was created, but also see why that is actually so important to the future of all mankind.

Genesis 2:23-24
(23)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.” (24)Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.(ESV)

This could be considered entirely supposition, but I think that what follows aligns with several other themes the flow throughout the bible.

When God created Eve, He used just the rib from Adam. He didn’t create a new earthen vessel. He didn’t breath the breathe of life into that new vessel as He did with Adam. No, like the feeding of the five thousand and the miracle of multiplication, God took a little and made quite a lot. The breath of life was already flowing through and sustaining the rib while it was a part of Adam. When God took the rib, He took with it the part of that essence that would become Eve. Adam felt this emptiness where that rib was and the loss of that essence when Eve wasn’t around. She literally completed him as a being. The two were quite literally one flesh.

Move forward to Eve eating the forbidden fruit and the fall. Adam knew what would happen if they ate the fruit. He knew that Eve had made a mistake. Yet, he also ate the fruit. A lot of people question why Adam didn’t just run to God and tell Him what Eve had done. They understood the concept of death. God had said that eating the forbidden fruit would cause death. He also knew that if Eve died that she would take a part of him with her. I believe that Adam chose to eat the fruit also because it was better to die with her than to live without her. The emptiness he would feel without her in his life would have been unbearable. He would have experienced death without dying himself. He would have done anything to avoid eternity without her.

Now, overlay this concept on top of many other biblical stories and principles. Take marriage, for example, it adds literal depth to the part where two become one flesh. Adam threw away immortality in the garden walking with God daily just so he could be a complete being. He laid down his immortal life for Eve. It might be overly dramatic to say so, but Romeo and Juliet don’t hold a candle to these two.

My challenge today, gentlemen: be the guy who is willing to throw everything away for the woman that God gives you, and ladies: be a woman worth dying for. If you can keep your spouse as your number two priority with God alone as your first priority then you won’t go wrong.