In examining
the Creation account the reader’s expectation would be on the perfection of the
result. After all, this is God who is at work, who is creating, who is
rendering from a position of Love in order for His handiwork to come about.
Omnipotent, omniscient.
On seven
separate occasions God pronounced His handiwork to be good. What had been
brought into existence was satisfactory to the God who created. Is there any
suggestion here that the world was now locked into a cycle of perfection? After
all, God’s “good” must be without conceivable blemish.
There can be
no doubt that because of God’s essential nature there can be no other position than
Good from which to account for the creation. How can we, who are so far removed
from the historical events of the creation, and who are living in that
creation, who are finite and therefore incapable of seeing anything close to
resembling the complete picture make any fist at judging what God has done? We
should be nothing more than on our faces glad that God decided to create this
world in the first place. Without it we would have no life, no love, and would
not have any opportunity to experience God’s awesome Grace. All of which are
aspects I have touched on in previous posts.
God is the
final arbiter on His own handiwork, for, as I have said above, no other is in a
position to pass judgment on what was made. (What authority is there beyond
Him?) And yet, in Genesis 2:18 comes a declaration of incompleteness.
“It is not
good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
In Chapter 1
verse 27 directly following the appearance of the wild animals, the livestock,
and all the creatures that move along the ground, mankind, male and female are
created. God announces that their task is to rule over all that God had made
and breathed life into! They are blessed in that which God has tasked. Oh, then
how wonderful and glorious is that single action of the Lord in Genesis 2:15
when “The Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to work it
and take care of it.” To tend it and keep it. To look after all that had been
given to him by God, his creator, to fulfil the blessing that God had
pronounced, toward that purpose He had declared.
Yet, God
Himself states that “it is not good for man to be alone.” (Gen 2:18) Why was it not good that man was alone? The
answer is simple, he, Adam, could not enjoy God’s blessing without a partner. “Be
fruitful and increase…” required another element in order to fulfil! Male
needed female. But, there is more at work here. God Himself is a Trinity, a
community, father, son and spirit. Adam, alone, could not fully represent the
image of God in which he was created simply because he could not form community
on his own. He was outside the bounds of relationship! That Goodness found in
God, rather than being lacking in the creation of man is missing only its level
of completeness.
In our
current state of sinful emptiness He offers us completion through Jesus Christ,
for in Him we have been made complete. (Col 2:10) And even though we may no
longer have that direct contact with the Lord as Adam once did in Eden, we can
still enjoy His presence through Jesus Christ whom we have received because of
the Cross, and through the gift of the Holy Spirit who is sent to us so that
having received Him we can walk in Him. (Col 2:6)
Amen.