Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Making of Woman ~~ Gen 2:18-23*

/Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church on October 7, 2007/

www.goldcountrybaptist.org

This morning we’re going to look at a subject you don’t often hear sermons about – biblical femininity and masculinity – in particular, God’s original design for feminine humanity made in His image.

The title of this message could also be “biblical womanhood.”

This should be of special interest to all of you ladies, young ladies, girls, mature women, mothers, married or unmarried gals – we’re going to look at what the Bible says about how God made you.  2 weeks ago we learned about the making of man, today we’re going to look at the making of woman, which in Genesis 2 has more verses and attention devoted to it, and many profound and practical lessons for us today.

God has a specific and special role and place for both the male and female gender and the guidelines He has laid down in His word are for the good of both.

God has designed for marriage and the church to function a certain way, and anytime any of us seek to do things differently and to find satisfaction or fulfillment outside of the unchanging standard from our loving God, there are serious consequences.

We also miss out on the true joy God intends for us by the way He designed us.

When man or woman distort or depart from the biblical teaching and role for masculinity or femininity, we suffer great confusion and chaos and conflict of the sexes.

I could spend many minutes illustrating the gender crisis in our culture as manifested in many ways:

- in wrong thinking by men on these matters

- in radical feminism

- in rising divorce rates

- in relational difficulties

- in our rights-oriented society (rather than others-oriented or service-oriented)

- in relativistic teaching (no objective absolute truth)

- in rationalizing our sin as to why our scenario is ok even though it is not God’s pattern of one man and woman being one in every aspect of their life.

I could give you news clippings that show perversions in our culture or media or entertainment, and how these distortions and deceptions about manhood and womanhood play out in marriages, in society, and affect church life and leadership in a devastating way.

But I don’t think I need to spend that much time convincing you there’s a problem - I want to focus our time on the /solution /in Scripture.

We all know what the world has to say about these things, we all know what so-called experts have to say – what we want to is what GOD has to say, by looking at the pattern laid down in this immutable, indisputable, inerrant, infallible, inspired and infinitely sufficient Word of our Living God:

/Genesis 2:18-23 (NASB95) \\ 18 //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 //Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast 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 cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast 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 //The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

\\ 23 //The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” \\ \\ /

God exerted and exhibited great care and /design /in creating woman.

In verse 22, we read that God “fashioned” – literally God “built” a woman, He carefully “constructed” her according to the blueprint, the architect’s design.

God’s most beautiful creature was crafted by her Creator according to God’s wise purpose and glory.

THE DIVINE DESIGN IN THE CREATION OF WOMANHOOD:

*/FIRSTLY,/*

*1.

God made woman EQUAL WITH MAN*

 

At the end of Genesis 2:18, God says He will make man a “helper suitable” (NAS, NIV)

 

The marginal note in my Bible for the word translated “suitable” says it can also mean “corresponding to him.”

The ESV also has this alternate note and translates as “helper fit for him”

 

Other translations have:

-         “help meet for him” (KJV) – old English for “suitable or proper … made to fit” – marg.

note “Heb.

“as before him”

-         “comparable to him” (NKJV)

-         “who corresponds to him” (NET, TWOT, KD, HALOT)

-         “who is just right for him” (NLT)

-         “fit for him” (RSV)

-         “partner” (CEV, NAB) or “as his partner” (NRSV)

-         “as his counterpart” (YLT)

-         “companion” (GNT, Message)

-         “who is like him” (HCSB)

 

It ‘literally means “according to the opposite of him.”

Translations such as “suitable [for]” (NASB, NIV), “matching,” “corresponding to” all capture the idea.

(Translations that render the phrase simply “partner” [cf.

NEB, NRSV], while not totally inaccurate, do not reflect the nuance of correspondence and~/or suitability.)

The man’s form and nature are matched by the woman’s as she reflects him and complements him.

Together they correspond.’[1]

One lexicon has “equal and adequate to himself” (BDB 617.2).

My Hebrew professor translated this verse “a helper who is his equal.”

God creates another being equal to Adam in essence and personhood.

Twice this passage emphasizes this about woman, using the same phrase in v. 20.

And God doesn’t just say this, He /shows /it to Adam by parading a long line of animals for him to name, but there is none found on his level, or as his equal, no animal is corresponding to him, comparable to him, or an exact counterpart, companion, or complement to him.

There is no implied inferiority in woman by this phrase, in fact, verse 18 instead emphasizes the insufficiency of /man/ – “it is not good for /man/ to be alone.”

God speaks of man’s need and inadequacy or incompleteness alone and both male and female are necessary in God’s program.

/<Read Genesis 1:27-31>/

/ /

Before this passage we had read 9x in chapter 1 that after God created something “He saw what He had made, and it was good.”

Now all of a sudden, our attention is drawn to something that is not good – it’s not good for man to be alone.

This is not complete, this is not God’s ideal, it is not God’s norm for man to be alone.

Once male and female are created, God gives them the creation mandate and responsibility to reproduce and replenish and be rulers or regents - stewards of this world.

It is after this first couple are both created, that God pronounces the benediction “very good” (v.

31).

Adam himself recognizes at last that there is an equal, there is one created for him and from him and like him, unlike the other animals.

In verse 23 he describes her as at last the only one who is “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”

 

The text goes beyond the physical when in verse 24 it speaks about how husband and wife become “one” – this is the fundamental biblical truth of marriage that we’ll look more at next week.

The oneness God ordains for marriage is not just sexual intimacy, it includes emotional intimacy and oneness that God does not want us to give any other member of the opposite sex.

Our deepest feelings and emotions and heart and soul are not to be shared outside of God’s ordained pattern – it’s possible to have an emotional affair by telephone or even by Internet that violates this principle.

Man and wife are to be one only with each other on those levels; they are not only equal, they are to be united.

Spiritually speaking, we are equal in and before Christ in value and are united inseparably as a family:

* *

Galatians 3:28 (NASB95) \\ 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

\\ \\

In 1 Peter 3:7, husbands are commanded to show their wives “honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life”

 

But that same verse that shows this spiritual equality and sharing in the grace of life and heirs together, the verse also affirms that man and woman are not identical.

I’m thankful for that.

God makes women marvelously and mysteriously unique.

Peter says men must be sensitive to their wives and live with them in an understanding way as toward “a weaker vessel.”

The word vessel in the Bible often refers to the physical body, and although wives may be stronger spiritually or in other ways, they are usually /physically weaker/ than their husbands.

Wives must be treated as a valuable and costly vase, a precious treasured vessel, a fragile valuable possession that must be handled with care, treating the wife like “fine china.”

Wives are to be honored by their husbands and not treated like just one of the guys.

God made us different.

God did not make us the same emotionally, physiologically or psychologically, and that’s ok – in fact, it’s good because God designed it that way that we would complement each other.

Women have different needs, and if men are not sensitive to and meeting these needs and seeking to understand her, this verse says our prayers will be hindered.

This is convicting, men, and we need to be convicted, and confess to our wives our shortcomings and strive by the grace of God to fulfill this calling as men.

*2.

God made woman DIFFERENT THAN MAN*

* *

In verse 18, the word translated “suitable” emphasizes equality and has a lot of nuances, but one definition you won’t find is “identical.”

The word before it - “helper” – also emphasizes that man and woman are different in their roles and responsibilities.

God created us /equal, yet different.

/This is so critical and important and is missed by so much of our world, and even much of the Christian world that we need to really take time to emphasize this.

God created us EQUAL:

- as persons

- in worth

- in value

- in God’s image

- spiritually in Christ

 

But God also made us DIFFERENT:

- in roles