Former Pastor John Piper recently tackled an intriguing question on his podcast: “Why did God need part of Adam to make Eve when he made Adam from the dust?”
The question, predicated on the text found in Genesis 2:20-22 (NIV), surrounds the narrative involving God’s creation of the first human beings.
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“But for Adam, no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh,” read verses 21-22. The latter verse continues, “Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.”
One of Piper’s followers pondered why God would choose surgery over simply making Eve from dust just as He had Adam. The questioner wondered if there is any particular meaning behind this decision to create Eve in such a unique way.
Piper began his explanation by noting God brought all animals to Adam and allowed him to name them before Eve’s appearance on the scene.
But after all of them were named, the Bible notes “no suitable helper was found” for Adam.
The preacher and theologian rhetorically wondered why God had embarked on this process of attempting to find a suitable helper in animals, especially knowing this wouldn’t work and that a woman would inevitably be created. Piper walked through it all to bring some clarity from his theological perspective.
“First, Adam is said to be alone, and that’s not good, so the text is designed to tell us how God makes his creation finally good — namely, with Adam not being alone,” he proclaimed. “But the next thing that happens is odd — namely, making all the animals (or pointing out that God had made all the animals) and bringing them to the man.”
Despite appearing odd on the surface, Piper believes God paraded the animals because, despite knowing He wouldn’t find a helper for Adam among them, the Lord wanted to make it clear Adam was different from the animals — and his “helper” and partner would be as well.
The decision to create Eve in this way makes her part of Adam, thus tying the two together in a unique way different from the methods through which God made the animals.
Eve, as Piper wrote, is the “exact suitable counterpart” of Adam.
“I think that is true not only anatomically for the sake of sexual relations, but far deeper than that in profound personal, psychological ways. They are each other’s perfect, God-designed complement,” Piper wrote. “Together they are good. Now it’s good — creation is good — that man and woman are now both created in the image of God, of the same human nature, ‘bone of my bones,’ ‘flesh of my flesh,’ and he could have said a lot more, I think.”
Piper also tackles how marriage solidifies this connection between males and females. Read his full explanation here.
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