Completeness: Genesis 2:18-21
Relationship brings completeness. This is the point of God’s Word. We are fallen human beings. Our fallen nature breaks our relationship with God and we are incomplete. God’s Word takes us on a journey for how He provides a way back to Him through the death of Jesus on the cross.
God directs Adam to name the animals. This act is an attempt to find Adam a helper. But God is omnipotent. He knows all. He knows Adam won’t find a helper. Why would God have the animals parade before Adam if He knows that none will work out?
Looking at the beginning of this section, for the first time God declares something as not good. All that God made was good, therefore God’s confession does not imply that something He made is not good. What is not good is the status of Adam being alone. This is not acknowledgement of a mistake. Rather, God acknowledges the work is not yet complete.
God knows this, but Adam does not. Adam was given work to do, was given a place to dwell, and was given food to eat and water to drink. The obvious needs for Adam were met; it was time for Adam to discover a deeper need.
Human beings are not created to dwell in isolation. The more introverted people in the world – like me – need fewer friends and in much smaller gatherings. The more extroverted people in the world need more friends and in larger doses. But all people need other people. We need someone to talk to, to bounce ideas off of, to tell us when we’re wrong, to encourage us when we struggle, and sometimes to just help the time go by. We need each other.
Adam needed to learn this lesson. The horses and oxen may have made tending to the garden easier, but they could not meet this need. A dog or cat or pet bird might provide companionship, but they could not meet this need. Nothing can meet this need except another person.
God takes Adam and crafts Eve out of Adam’s side. I love the description of the placement of the wound. God does not make Eve out of Adam’s head so she could rule over him. Neither does God make Eve out of Adam’s foot so he could rule over her. God makes Eve out of Adam’s side so they could be partners and work side-by-side. Eve is to be Adam’s partner. When God created Eve to be with Adam, there is no indication of a greater or less than. Adam and Eve and equals.
This matches the rest of the story perfectly. God made creation and then made Adam to complete it in a mutually beneficial arrangement. God makes Adam and the makes Eve to complete him in a mutually beneficial arrangement. Thus we arrive at the greatest lesson the creation story can give: relationship brings completeness.
