Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/67

Rh man must he needs beǃ Perfect solitude would turn a paradise into a desert, and a palace into a dungeon. Those therefore are foolish who are selfish, and would be placed alone in the earth. (2.) It is not for the increase and continuance of his kind; God could have made a world of men, at first, to replenish the earth, as he replenished heaven with a world of angels: but the place would have been too straight for the designed number of men to live together at once; therefore God saw it fit to make up that number by a succession of generations, which, as God had formed man, must be from two, and those male and female; one will be ever one.

2. How God graciously resolved to provide society for him. The result of this reasoning concerning him, was, this kind resolution, I will make a help meet for him; a help like him, (so some read it,) one of the same nature, and the same rank of beings; a help near him, (so others,) one to cohabit with him, and to be always at hand; a help before him, (so others,) one that he should look upon with pleasure and delight. Note hence, (1.) That in our best state in this world, we have need of one another's help; for we are members one of another, and the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee, 1 Cor. 12. 21. We must therefore be glad to receive help from others, and give help to others, as there is occasion. (2.) That it is God only who perfectly knows our wants, and is perfectly able to supply them all, Phil. 4. 19. In him alone our help is, and from him are all our helpers. (3.) That a suitable wife is a help meet, and is from the Lord. The relation is then likely to be comfortable, when meetness directs and determines the choice, and mutual helpfulness is the constant care and endeavour, 1 Cor. 7. 33, 34. (4.) That family society, if that is agreeable, is a redress sufficient for the grievance of solitude. He that has a good God, a good heart, and a good wife, to converse with, and yet complains he wants conversation, would not have been easy and content in paradise; for Adam himself had no more: yet even before Eve was created, we do not find that he complained of being alone, knowing that he was not alone, for the Father was with him. Those that are most satisfied in God and his favour, are in the best way, and in the best frame, to receive the good things of this life, and shall be sure of them, as far as Infinite Wisdom sees good.

II. An instance of the creatures' subjection to man, and his dominion over them, v. 19, 20. Every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, God brought to Adam; either by the ministry of angels, or by a special instinct, directing them to come to man as their master, teaching the ox betimes to know his owner. Thus God gave man livery and seisin of the fair estate he had granted him, and put him in possession of his dominion over the creatures. God brought them to him, that he might name them, and so might give, 1. A proof of his knowledge, as a creature endued with the faculties both of reason and speech, and so, taught more than the beasts of the earth, and made wiser than the fowls of heaven, Job. 35. 11. And 2. A proof of his power. It is an act of authority to impose names, (Dan. 1. 7.) and of subjection to receive them. The inferior creatures did now, as it were, do homage to their prince at his inauguration, and swear fealty and allegiance to him. If Adam had continued faithful to his God, we may suppose the creatures themselves would so well have known and remembered the names Adam now gave them, as to have come at his call, at any time, and answered to their names. God gave names to the day and night, to the firmament, to the earth, and sea; and he calleth the stars by their names, to show that he is the supreme Lord of these; but he gave Adam leave to name the beasts and fowls, as their subordinate lord; for, having made him in his own image, he thus puts some of his honour upon him.

III. An instance of the creatures' insufficiency to be a happiness for man: but among them all, for Adam there was not found a help meet for him. Some make these to be the words of Adam himself; observing all the creatures come to him by couples to be named, he thus intimates his desire to his Maker. "Lord, these have all helps meet for them; but what shall I do? Never, never a one, for me." It is rather God's judgment upon the review. He brought them all together, to see if there were ever a suitable match for Adam in any of the numerous families of the inferior creatures; but there was none. Observe here, 1. The dignity and excellency of the human nature; on earth there was not its like, nor its peer to be found among all visible creatures; they were all looked over, but it could not be matched among them all. 2. The vanity of this world and the things of it; put them all together, and they will not make an help meet for man. They will not suit the nature of the soul, nor supply its needs, nor satisfy its just desires, nor run parallel with its never-failing duration. God creates a new thing to be an help meet for man—not so much the woman, as the Seed of the woman.

21. And the God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. 22. And the rib which the God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23. And Adam 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. 24. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 25. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Here we have,

I. The making of the woman, to be an help meet for Adam. This was done upon the sixth day, as was also the placing of Adam in Paradise, though it is here mentioned after an account of the seventh day's rest; but what was said in general, (ch. 1. 27.) that God made man male and female, is more distinctly related here. Observe,

1. That Adam was first formed, then Eve, (1 Tim. 2. 13.) and she was made of the man, and for the man, (1 Cor. 11. 8, 9.) all which are urged there as reasons for the humility, modesty, silence, and submissiveness, of that sex in general, and particularly the subjection and reverence which wives owe to their own husbands. Yet man being made last of the creatures, as the best and most excellent of all, Eve's being made after Adam, and out of him, puts an honour upon that sex, as the glory of the man, 1 Cor. 11. 7. If man is the head, she is the crown; a crown to her husband, the crown of the visible creation. The man was dust refined, but the woman was dust double-refined, one remove further from the earth.

2. That Adam slept while his wife was making, that no room might be left to imagine that he had herein directed the spirit of the Lord, or been his counsellor, Isa. 40. 13. He had been made sensible of his want of a help meet; but God having undertaken to provide him one, he does not afflict himself with