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But we’re in Genesis chapter two and what we’re studying together and we are going to talk about the importance of people, which is very fitting considering we just talked about moving 2 to 3 services to better accommodate our churches. We continue to grow the Book of Genesis we started in last week. We looked at at Genesis chapter one, and now we’re getting into Genesis chapter two. And we have these wonderful little Bibles that are just the book of Genesis that you can pick up if you didn’t grab one on your way. On when you leave to work through the Book of Genesis and Journal with us as we go throughout this this book. It’s an incredible book. And I told you last week that really when I first became a Christian and I and I began in the book of Genesis, it was kind of ruined for me because at least the circle I was in with Christians, they get to the first three chapters of Genesis, and all they want to talk about is science, or at least the circle I was in. They just want to talk about science. And I’m not saying science is important for those that are in the field of science. I think you the older I get in life, the more I’m going to lean on you. And you’re you’re experiencing in the science world, right? The science is important. And and it does have a place. But but the book of Genesis, there’s certainly discussions you can have over science.
But the book of Genesis is not a science book. In fact, when you consider the context of when Genesis was written, Genesis was written by a fugitive who was who was told to go back to the place. He ran away as a fugitive to set slaves free, to set the the Hebrew people free. And so this was written to a generation of people that have had been raised in slavery and had been in slavery for generations. And God is is writing a story to them to help them understand who they are in light of who he is and the purpose for their existence, their worth, their value and meaning. You can imagine if you’ve been treated as a slave, that kind of toll that would take on you physically, spiritually, emotionally. And God now is setting these people free and bringing them to a place of promise. And He’s shaping the their divine design in who he is. That is that is the book of Genesis. And so when you study this book, the chapter one, it’s warp speed. Actually, the first 12 chapters of Genesis are on warp speed to get to the the point of the story where you start with Abraham, who was really the beginning of the Hebrew people. So so you just sort of you sort of get this 10,000 foot view and you pan in like a microscope down to the the point of God’s creation.
And what we discovered in day six of God’s creation, the pinnacle of His creation is human beings, that God made human beings in his image. In fact, in Genesis chapter one, verse 27, this is where God starts to communicate. He wants to make man in his image, in the image of God. He created him male and female, that God makes us in his image. So it pans in very specifically to the point of his creation. And we said last week that you can’t understand who you are until you begin to understand who God is because the purpose of your existence isn’t found within you. It’s found beyond you, outside of you and God. Since God has created you, He’s the one that defines the reason for your existence and you find your worth value and meaning in him, your intrinsic worth in in who God is in light of who God is, who you are. Genesis was written to a group of people that were treated as a commodity. Their worth was only seen in based on what they could do. But God communicates something different in Scripture. Your worth is not based on what you do. Your worth is based on who you are. Being made in the image of God. You have intrinsic worth. And so today we’re going to look at it really a biblical worldview of anthropology or if you like modern culture, you can just describe it as this is us.
But what does God really say about us in in Scripture and the identity that we carry in him? And it’s important for us. You know, ten years ago, looking at this chapter, I knew it was important. But where we’ve gone from ten years ago to today, it’s drastically increasing its importance. When I when I read this section of the Bible, I’m like, Man, I’m going to read through this and people are going to think I’m being political without even wanting to be political. I mean, when you start off in in Genesis 127, when God gets to day six of creation and says, let us make man in our image, he talks about two binary genders which all of a sudden makes me controversial without even wanting to be controversial. I’m just reading the Bible, you know, like what is and trying to help people understand who they are. And and the tendency when we read something like that in Scripture is to respond 1 or 2 ways. And this political heated environment that that our culture has become is, is one, you want to approach it with truth and no love like beat people over the head, have no compassion. And, you know, I think it’s important to understand your identity and the way that God has created you intentionally, purposefully, creatively, meaningfully having worth. I. But but it’s also important to understand where people are coming from in our culture.
There there are certain things that have happened to people in our society that it has given them a warped view of their identity and they really need a biblical understanding to help them shape that. When you think about even the Hebrew people having been treated as slaves and who knows what all that entails, what kind of trafficking they may have gone through. But to be to be subjugated to that kind of experience, being knowing that you’re made in the image of God, or at least us saying that you’re made in the image of God and knowing they’ve been just treated as a tool that can warp your mind, especially if it’s happened to you by someone of the opposite gender and how you might perceive yourself and the way you might think about the opposite gender. Or maybe not. Maybe not something something physically has happened to you, but or emotionally has happened to you. But. But what if you’ve just been indoctrinated in a society or or even a religious group that’s taught you and hammered within you something, something about you that the Lord never intended? And so I think it’s important to be truthful. But but also to understand where people are coming from and not just railroad over them or what on the other end. The other the other side of that coin is people can respond with what they think is love and know truth.
Right. Well, you just be whoever you think you are, which which if who they think they are, has nothing rooted in and their true identity in God. That’s terrible advice. That’s awful advice. It can be destructive to who they are as a human being, their body and their soul. I mean, what do you do with someone that if they’ve had bad things to them and and you divorce yourself from God completely, like you just happened to evolve? Are you are you literally just the sum of your parts? Is your worth really only based on what you can do? Because you know where that road leads. If you just assume your worth is based on how you feel or what you do, what do you do on days where you feel bad? Or what do you do when someone can always do it better, stronger, faster, quicker? Or what do they do it and they just look better. Does that mean you’re worth less than them? What happens if what what what they’ve endured in life isn’t because of what they’ve done, but what someone else has done to them. How do they find meaning in that? Are they simply just to be defined by their circumstances, or is there something more? I would argue that and I should argue this as a pastor, but the biblical worldview is the is the healthiest place we could be, that we can come to people like Genesis two.
Genesis one. We already talked about the creation of of human beings, but in Genesis two, God stopping. And he’s getting a little more detailed in this because I think the Lord knows what His people have gone through. And sometimes you just need reminded over and over of the significance of of who you are in light of who God is, because of the things that you’ve gone through in life. I can already tell I’m not going to get through all of chapter two today. But but this is where God slows down. And he’s he’s saying to these Hebrew slaves and even to us. In a culture where people can say all kinds of things about you and try to get you to identify who you are through all sorts of different processes and different different types of identities that you can connect yourself to. There’s one place that God intends for you to find your identity, and it is more meaningful than anything this world has to offer. And that is who you are in light of of who he is. Everyone in this room. Everyone in this room is created by by the Lord for his purposes, which means all of us are called to to surrender ourselves to him in order to find the meaning of of who we are. And that deals with every aspect of you as a human being, including your sexuality. All of you, all of us are called to surrender to God.
All of us are called to surrender our sexuality to to God in some way. I don’t care who or what you’re attracted to because God created you for his purpose. In fact, in First Corinthians Chapter six, it says this about in the first century, it’s acknowledging people are finding their identity in all kinds of different things. It says, Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexual immoral nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God. So he’s saying to us, look at money, sex, power, fame. People have always tried to find their identity in that. But to God’s people, they discover that the Lord has a different place than just the things of this earth has to offer, for which we find our worth, our value, our meaning. And here it is in verse 11, and such were some of you. This is where you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God. And then you discovered the real value of who you are as a human being. You know, and being honest with the struggle of our humanity and trying to find identity in the world.
And then and then here in this verse saying, but but then we remove from that and we made our life about something else because we knew we were more than the sum of our parts. We knew that life was for a purpose beyond us, that the answer was not looking within us, but outside of us. And we began to recognize that it’s only by the grace of God that we found this, that when we talk to anyone else in the world, it’s not this attitude of of shame upon them. But, but, but, but helping them see the truth of who they are in light of who Christ is. We’re not here to throw stones. We’re here to say we. We were a part of that. And God set us free. In a different identity altogether. And so in Genesis chapter two, verses 1 to 3, you you see that on the seventh day and all of God’s creation, God rests that it’s not going to be on the screen. We already talked about this last week. God rested and ruled and He invites us to rest in him and to rule with him. And then verse four and six, he starts off the same way in this section of Scripture, really, Chapter two, start in verse four. But he starts off in this section of Scripture the same way he started in Genesis one. Genesis one God in the first two verses out of chaos creates order.
And in Genesis chapter two, verse four and six, if you read it, I’m not going to dive into it because I’m going to run out of time. But out of chaos, God brings order and he starts to deal with our our existence as human beings. And in verse seven, then he starts to talk about in point number one in your notes, the value of you. Really the value of us, the value of humanity. And he describes it this way. Verse seven. Then the Lord God formed the man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in the in Eden, in the east. And there he put the man whom he had formed out of the ground, the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We’ll talk about verse nine when we get to chapter three. Verse eight will come to a little bit later. But I want to focus on on verse seven for for just a moment. He’s describing now this beautiful design of us as human beings. And the first thing he says to us is that God forms. God gets his hand in the dirt, which for us may not look very shocking, but but in the culture in which this is written, people of of wealth in certain positions in society, this this is not something they subjugated themselves to.
They paid their people to do this for them. They weren’t the people that put their hands in the dirt. But here in this passage, you see, God’s not afraid of work. In fact, work is a is a God given, beautiful opportunity to express as an outflow of who you are, made in the image of God. Now, I know it’s under the curse of sin today, which we’ll talk about in chapter three. But but God created work in the beginning as a beautiful expression and artistic expression of an outflow of who you are being made in the image of God. And so God’s not afraid in this passage. To get His hands dirty, he puts his hands in his dirt and really he gets he gets intimate with our creation. God forms us from dirt, which shows the significance of God’s relationship to us by being willing. If you go back to the beginning of Genesis, chapter one, you see, as God created, He speaks, it comes into existence, He speaks, it comes into existence until he makes creatures. Then he makes it personal. And then when he makes us, he even makes it more personal. We’ll look at it in just a moment. But while God, he forms us from from the dirt, it also recognizes that the type of dirt God chooses to do this from is dust, which again, for most may not look very shocking.
But let me just ask you, when’s the last time you made something from dust? If you’re going to make something out of dirt, the type of dirt you want is not dust. If you walk through your kitchen and someone had swept up dust and you all of a sudden you see him on the ground playing with that, you’re going to think one of two things. Either they lost something or they’re nuts. That’s the two options that you get when someone’s playing in dust. But but for for God to to talk about dust here rather than molding something from clay to talk about dust. He’s not just talking about the importance of who we are, but he’s also talking about the frailty of who we are. Honestly how he is the one responsible for holding all this together. And so from from the dust, there is a Hebrew word for clay, but he intentionally chooses not to use the word clay here. And I think it’s for the purpose of reminding us of our frailty that while you’re made in the image of God, you’re not exactly like God. And so there’s something distinct between creator and creature. And this is important because I think some people would have you believe that there is the possibility that one day being made in the image of God that you will become like God, even that you will become God.
And can I just tell you the the impossibility of that is is highlighted in this verse. You are not God and you cannot be God. And the reason for that is that you are dependent, finite creature. You have an existence from which you came. God is an eternal, omnipotent, omniscient being. He has no place from which he came. Because. Because all things came through him. He is the uncaused cause. In order for something to come into existence, you need time, space and matter. You need a time from which to exist. You need a place from. From which to exist in. And you need a substance from which to exist, from before, before any of those things came into existence. The only uncaused cause that transcends all those outside of them all is God. The reason you’re able to answer the question where did you come from is because you have a birth date and a town that you were born in. Right? You have a beginning with God. It is an impossibility because there was no time, space or matter before God. He simply is. You can never be that, though. You can connect to God as your creator. And He and he points this out to us in the next verse when he says or excuse me, the second half of this verse, and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of God.
And the beautiful picture in the Hebrew is actually this place of intimacy, where God is face to face with his creature, with humanity, and he breathes his spirit into us, which is saying to us being made in the image of God, This is the reason you’re able to connect to your creator. This is why when you walk through the woods, you don’t necessarily see a deer praying and a squirrel building a church building for worship. You have built within you this desire to be known by your Creator and your Creator in creating US desires to make himself known. This is your spiritual side. God is saying in this passage, this is the uniqueness to you as a creature more than any other thing that God has created. He has made you both body and soul. No other creature is is made this way, both body and and spirit and within you. And so when you think about who you are as a human being and the idea of divorcing yourself from from the idea of a of a creator, that simply you may have just evolved and you’re sort of the sum of your parts and what happens to you physically is what people address to deny your the spiritual component of your life is to deny something drastically important in your healing and understanding for you as a human being.
To just address the physical without addressing the spiritual is to to miss an entire component of who you are and your divine design before the Lord. The things that happen to you physically don’t just impact you in a physical world, it affects your soul. And it’s important to see the significance of this verse and how it relates to how you move and walk and live in this world and respond to to the things that happen around you. Your worth he’s showing us is not based on what you do. But it’s who you are. Made in the image of God. And one of the beautiful things I love to remind us of as a church, one of the one of the greatest ways we can worship the Lord. As seen in how we treat one another. Because every human being is sacred, made in the image of God, breathed His spirit into them. Man becomes a living being. You want to honor God, honor people and help people understand their value and being made in in God’s image. We are created with with value. And not only that, we’re created with purpose. Right? He says in verse 15. I know I skipped past 11 to 14. We might come back to that a little later, but not not today. But in verse 15, he goes on, The Lord, God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it.
Let me just say, and maybe in a summary of verse 11 to 14, what you’re seeing is the Garden of Eden and out of the Garden of Eden is this these beautiful flowing rivers and everything flows out of the Garden of Eden. Everything starts in this beautiful place. God created the Garden of Eden. Eden didn’t cover the world. It was in one location. These beautiful rivers flow out of that, and it was man’s responsibility to take the beauty of the Garden of Eden that God had placed him in, where God’s presence was, which we talked about last week, is really a temple. It was an Old Testament picture of the temple, God’s presence of ruling and reigning was there just like the Old Testament Temple. That’s if you wanted to go worship God. You knew his presence were there. You knew God ruled there, you knew God reigned there. And so it was with the Garden of Eden. And out of this life flowed. And it was the responsibility of humanity then to repeat the beauty of this garden wherever they went. And I would say for us today, in a similar way, wherever you go, it should be a blessing to the people around you. Your relationship should be better off having your presence there than without you because of what God has done in you and flowing through you. And so He’s saying to to humanity in this verse, We are to work it and to keep it to understand as we we go through this world that what God has done in us, He wants it to work through us to demonstrate His glory to the benefit of others.
And so he uses these words, work it and keep it, which are really priestly words from the Old Testament to to maintain what’s there, but also expand it, continue to seek the opportunity to to share the goodness of God in this world. It’s why we talked about three services at the beginning of this God. We want to be used for your glory. We could be selfish. We could live life and just let it end with us. But that’s not what you called us to. We want to be the expression of of your goodness in the life around us to to help with the flourishing of of who we are as a human being because we found our identity in you. Now, when we talk about working and keeping it man made in the image of God to rule and to reign, the idea of biblical ruling and reigning is different than the world. At the world is about climbing the corporate ladder so you can tell everyone below you how they can serve you. It’s about looking down upon the people and getting what you want because you finally achieved the position. But but God’s kingdom is is bottom up. Meaning as you walk with Jesus, you’re equipped more in the Lord to use your hands to serve others, to help them become what God has called them to be.
You get beneath people to to bless them in the Lord. And he says in verse 16 and 17, you get that warning for the trees, which we’ll talk about in chapter three. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, You will, you may surely eat of any tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You shall not eat. For in that day you will surely die. We’ll talk about what that tree represents in the days ahead. But. But I want to highlight this, that what God is saying is when we align our lives with him, there is blessing. And when we don’t, there is cursing, there is life. And when we follow after him and then there is destruction. When we when we don’t and our responsibility in this world and recognizing that is to live for a purpose out of all the things you can make your life about, out of all the things you could find your identity in. You want to live for his glory and purpose in this world. I’m going to make my life about this and I’m going to do something about it. And I think that sort of message in our culture today is highly important because what we we find in our culture that’s more prominent, I think, in recent years than in past is that everyone wants to blame and everyone wants to be a victim.
And I’m not saying bad things don’t happen to people. They definitely do. And it takes time to recover from those things. And you need encouraged by brothers and sisters in Christ to walk with you through that, as the Bible says, to bear one another’s burdens. But it’s not until people are willing to take responsibility that real change happens. And so we look at a passage like this. This is exactly what he’s saying is like there’s there’s warning of the destruction it can bring, but there’s blessing in the Lord. And God has made you to not only keep it knowing there could be things that could destroy, but you want to maintain it here. You want to hold the line, but also you want to move forward. It’s not just about sitting in a circle and singing Kumbaya, but it’s about moving forward in conquering what God wants you to do. I love fellowship and camaraderie and Christ, but also to look towards the hill. The goal, the place where God is calling us in Him. And so in verse 15, it’s reminding us of of that beauty that we have in Christ. And then he really in verse 18, he starts to switch for us as he’s talked about the beauty of humanity. I really love that the Lord does this.
In verse 18, He then starts to talk about the value of women. The value of women. And, you know, we don’t have to go far into history to say we can go really through any time of history and talk about in culture the struggle it is for women to find value. Women more than any other, I would say, have the tendency to be treated like a tool. Rather than a person with intrinsic worth made by their creator between the two genders, that is. And God in this passage knows the reason why he created not just humanity, but also women. And he and he highlights this for these Hebrew slaves. But it’s not just a lesson for them. It’s a lesson for us as they now move out as these slaves and they’re about to build an entire society. What does that look like? And God wants to start with the foundation of let’s talk about who you are based on who I am and what what women represent in this. And he goes on in verse 18 and he says, Then the Lord God said, It is not good. That man should be alone. And all the men said, Amen. It is not good. That man should be alone. Every day. And I will make him a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and.
And brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature that was its name. And the man gave names to all the livestock and the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But from Adam, there was not not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with the flesh. And then it goes on verse 22. It’s not up here, but he creates one woman from that rib. When you look at the value of of women in this passage of Scripture, what God says in this verse is the first verse here. Verse 18, He will make for Adam a helper fit for him. Now, I know from just from just an English perspective, not understanding the Hebrew text, a lady may read that and be like, Oh, a helper, hon. Is that all I am to you is just a little helper. You think I’m just here to do what you can just. You can really blow that up and. And lack of understanding what God’s communicating here. And I want you to know with this word helper. It’s not saying servant, you know, in this position of lower than or anything like that. That’s not what this passage is saying at all. In fact, this word helper is it’s a military term.
It’s not a degrading term. And I would say one of the best ways to recognize that is seeing how Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, in the New Testament, in John chapter 14, when Jesus is teaching about the Holy Spirit, he says to his disciples, I’m leaving. And they’re scared. They’re worried like, what’s going to happen to us? He says, Don’t worry, I’m not going to leave you alone, but I’m going to send we’re going to send the Holy Spirit. And the way he describes it is in verse six, he says, and I will ask the father of John 14, He says, I will ask the father and he will give to you another helper to be with you forever. This word, another helper is really conjuring up thoughts for us of the idea of the Trinity when it comes to the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What we know is that God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Spirit, they are equal to one another, right? Jesus is 100% God. The Father is 100% God. The Holy Spirit is 100% God. Yet there are also unique to each other. They’re distinct from one another, meaning they have different roles, different purposes, functions in which they exist or fulfill. For us. God, the Father sent the son who died on the cross. And the Spirit empowers the people of God to accomplish the will of God.
So while they’re equal to one another, they also have distinct roles in how they fulfill what they call call us to in Scripture, fulfill for us what they call us to in Scripture. And I would say the same thing is true for for us in the Old Testament. In Genesis chapter two, we’re looking at together where it says, For Adam, he will make a helper fit or suitable for him. It’s a similar picture to the Holy Spirit and and Jesus, when Jesus uses this word another helper, the way this actually translates is, is another helper of the same substance or the same kind as him, meaning just as Jesus is God in the flesh. So the Spirit will possess the Spirit is God in the not in the flesh, but God in His presence to us. And so it’s saying this is not a downgrade. And I would say for for men and women, it’s it’s the same understanding that when he talks in terms of a helper in this passage, he’s talking about, one, the equality of women to men, but also the uniqueness of how God has created you in this world and not to underappreciate or undervalue that, that there is beauty in your design that’s unique to that of manhood. And the way that you see that is this word fit or suitable in some translations. And the way that this loosely translates is really a compatible opposite.
So the idea of a compatible opposite, which means they are able to minister in strength in your weaknesses guys, that God has gifted them in certain ways to to be a blessing to life as we’re called, to take care and to move forward, that God has gifted them in a particular way in order to serve in community, in unity and to underappreciate that is to underappreciate the divine design that God has given to them. And so this is what God is saying in this passage, is he wants to create for Adam, one who complements where he is weak so that together they are strong. I remember when Stacy and I were dating, I lived in Utah. I was a single guy in Utah, had all the wisdom of a college graduate, you know, And I got my first apartment right off of 1500 right up here. And I’m sitting in my apartment and I remember just talking to her on the phone because we had a long distance relationship. And I’m like telling her, you know, I got an apartment and it’s a house, but it doesn’t feel like a home. Right? It doesn’t. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m like looking around me and trying to use all my, my, my intelligence. And I’m just like, I can’t can’t figure this out. How do you do this? Right? And she she shows up. It’s so stupid of me. She shows up and she walks into our apartment, my apartment.
At the time, we’re we didn’t live there after we got married, but my apartment at the time and she spends two seconds looking around and she’s like, let’s get in the car. We got to go. And she takes me to Walmart. She doesn’t even tell me what we’re doing. I think we might, I don’t know, maybe Walmart. I can’t remember the store, but I think it was Walmart. Go into Walmart and she buys get this blew my mind curtains throw pillows a bed skirt. I don’t even know if I knew what a bed skirt was at the time. If I did, I don’t know that I would have never thought of this. But and she comes back and I’m like 100 bucks and all of a sudden she puts all this stuff up and I’m like, Holy cow, It’s incredible. You’re capable of. I could I’ve probably been here for a year and that would have never dawned on me. And, you know, I’m a slow learner, but now I know, I know better. Okay? I’ve been domesticated in that sense. But. But just seeing the. Just the creativity, I know that’s not the only value that that ladies have in this world, but. But I just saw it on display and it blew me away. But sustainable fit means we’re not here to be consumers, but to be blessers. And just as the lady has created this way, so is the man.
And we’re here to complement, serve one another, to help us become in that strength who God has called us to be together. When you look in Genesis chapter two and three, you actually see this played out. Like if you want to if you want to look at some of the uniqueness, the way that men and women were created, you see it without them explicitly telling us in this in these chapters. But in in chapter two, verse eight and in verse 15, you’ll notice, guys, if you read chapter verse eight and verse 15, I’m not going to throw it on the screen. But when God created man, he created man through you on the earth. And then he went and made the garden. And then he’s like, Okay, I need you to come look at this. He picks you up and he puts you in the garden. Men were made outside of the garden. Women When he makes woman It told us in this verse that what he did is he called it as man’s in the garden. He calls you to fall into a deep sleep. He takes the rib out of you. And then from that, he fashions woman, right? He creates woman in the garden. And there’s an entire book written on this by John Eldredge called Wild at Heart. And what it demonstrates is that there is there is this written within ladies, this desire and I’m speaking in generalities here for for nurturing, for safety and written within men is this idea of of of conquering, you know, you’re made outside of the garden and that’s why you use smell and you grow weird hair like it just that’s you out there and and then the ladies the the way that they’ve been crafted by the Lord there’s there’s some uniqueness to that.
And even how God brought us into the garden. And then when you look in Genesis chapter three at the Curse, when when Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis three and the curse is given to the serpent and then it’s delivered to the the man and the woman, do you know when God talks about the the curse, He even talks about the curse in accordance to gender. When he looks at the man he says, by the thorn of the earth and the sweat of your brow, you’re going to be tilling this land, dude. I don’t think he said, dude, but you get it. And then when he looks at the woman, he talks about her relationship to her husband and childbearing. He talks to her in terms of her social network and he talks to him in terms of conquering and what he’s building. It’s just interesting. I was even listening this week and it had nothing to do with anything related to the Bible. But they were talking they were studying men and women demographically as we vote.
And they said, you know, something interesting about women, nothing referenced to scripture. These weren’t even Christians. They said women tend to give up freedom in their voting for the purpose of of having more safety. Well. Well, that’s interesting. And biblical, right? I mean, it’s like when you see the way that we’re we’re wired and designed, it’s like there’s something unique within women that that appreciate the comfort of safety. Or you might find guys doing more stupid stuff like jumping off tall things that they probably should. Not that women, women and men can both do those things. But but you see in this divine design how God has crafted us uniquely and to appreciate that in fact, this word rib, this word rib, we tend to think of when I’ve heard people sometimes in folklore talk about this rib represents, you know, as men were made, that since since the beginning of creation, guys actually have less ribs than women. You know, that is not true. Okay. Guys don’t have less ribs than women. But but in this passage, it’s mentioned anatomically that God takes this rib. But but any other time, this Hebrew word for rib is used in the Old Testament. It’s used to refer to direction or architecture. That’s interesting, isn’t it? Rather than just anatomically that which we tend to view it here in this passage as which I think it is intended that way to a degree.
But any other time it’s used, it’s used and it’s used directionally or it’s used architecturally. And what it’s saying to us is while women were taken from men anatomically, it’s also recognizing that they’re made from the same thing. So when you think about men, women or men, as you think about women, think of partner or equal. And so you come to this passage and I’m going to stop there. I want to get into the next section, but I’m going to hold it off for next week. When you come to this passage, God is saying you want to build a healthy civilization. Hebrews slaves that have gone through a lot. You want to you want to just understand the value of who you are and build a healthy structure around that. It starts with the the the identity of of God and how God has made you for a purpose, finding your worth in him. You’re not the sum of your parts. You’re so much more. This is the beauty of creation. It’s miraculous. Creation is miraculous that God would desire to make himself known. And in making himself known, give us the opportunity to connect with him. And in connecting with him, have the privilege of reflecting his glory in this world. And it’s all built of off of what God has done in us. As God works that miracle through us. And in thinking about the miracle of creation, it reminded me and this is where I’ll close with the The Miracle on Ice.
If you ever if you know anything about the Miracle on Ice, it was the hockey Olympics. The Olympics taking place in 1980 and and the hockey game some some call this this particular hockey game the Miracle on Ice as the greatest sporting event to take place in all of the history of sporting events. This is when the United States was was coming against Russia and Russia had won five out of the last six Olympics. They had won four straight gold medals in hockey. Their professional hockey players And the United States just brings these collegiate athletes to play against these professional hockey players. And the United States Olympic team. During this particular year in 1980, they were the youngest team in all of the Olympics. And then when they step on that, that court a miracle happens there in a medal game playing against Russia. And here’s the final five seconds for you of of what happens in this event. Five seconds left in the game. I can only show 10s of this, by the way, and then I get legally in trouble. But. But the miracle on ice. This final five seconds. The crowd is counting down that shout. Do you believe in In Miracles? And all of a sudden the time ticks out and America wins 4 to 3 and everybody’s celebrating. If you watch the Disney movie on this, the coaches name is Herb Brooks.
And I know everything in this movie is 100% accurate. Okay. But but the the Disney movie Herb Herb, where the coach, Herb Brooks, is coaching this team, there comes this pinnacle moment where this coach has these college athletes and he takes them out on the ice and they’re practicing before the Olympics begins. And and he asks the players, who do you play for? And these players start to skate and they’ll they’ll name the college that they’re playing collegiate hockey for. And then the coach will say, okay, run a lap. And he runs a lap and and then he’ll bring them back to the line and and he’ll ask them again, Who do you play for? And then they’ll name whatever college that they’re playing for at the time. And he said, okay, run a lap. And they keep running and running and running in this lap and all of a sudden these players get to this place where they’re so worn out that they’re they are falling over, they’re throwing up. I mean, it’s disgusting. Even the rest of the coaches are begging her, Brooks, to stop stop doing what you’re doing. You’re going to kill one of these kids. You don’t need to be having them running, running these laps. This is more than enough. And the coach has them line up again and he’s like, I am not stopping. And he has them line up again.
And as he lines up again, one of the players, it finally dawns on him and without the coach even asking, the player stands up and says his name and he says, I play for the United States of America. And then in that moment, everyone began to realize, we’ve been out here working all of this because our identity has been messed up. We are on a team for the United States of America, and in the movie, that was the turning point for where these players went from these individuals just running on the court, trying to impress everyone with their their college athletic skills and what school they play for to all of a sudden now they’re this unified group working together because they understand who they are in light of the position they hold for the United States. And the Miracle on ice took place. And guys, can I tell you, for us, it’s the same thing. You’re not going to play on a hockey team, I don’t think. But but I mean, before the Lord, you can find your identity in all kinds of different things, but you were truly created to only find your identity in one place, and that is who you are being made in the image of God. And it’s only in that place you find your true worth, your value and your meaning. But when you live that out, God does a miraculous work not just in you, but through you and those around you are blessed because of it.