Naked Farmers

03Jan15
Genesis 2:4-25
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.  And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.  This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.  When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens--and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground--the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.  Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.  And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.  In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters.  The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.  (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.)  The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.  The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur.  And the fourth river is the Euphrates.  The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."  The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for him."  Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air.  He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.  So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.  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 closed up the place with flesh.  Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.  The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man."  For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.  The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

I have always pictured the scene with no shrub or plant of the field as buried in very deep prehistory, but if I keep from assumption, it may be as simple as saying there were no farms without men to build them.  

Far more interesting is the scene in which the Lord God himself made a man from the dust (ground, clay, whatever) of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being.  The breath of life is mentioned as being in animals in Gen1:30, so I presume that it is the same process of a living being that the man has.  Again, it is clear that man is the result of a deliberate and special action on the part of the creator God.

God assigns responsibilities to the man right away. He first gives him instructions on what he may do and not do, and then the man gets his first job.  He is to name the animals.  Man is set at the head of creation to define it, and he will answer directly to God himself.

The man finds by reviewing the animals that he is different.  So different that he is going to get a specially created helper.  God takes no ribs from any of the creatures to make a mate, but he performs a seemingly unnecessary operation to provide the man with a partner.  In taking something from the man to make a helper, it makes a strong statement about the bond that will exist between the man and woman.  Nothing is more personal or intimate than a body part.  The implication is punctuated by the statement that this event is related to why a man moves away from father and mother to partner with his wife, even to be united in such a mysterious way as to fit the description of becoming one flesh.

God says it is not good for man to be alone.  Why would the man be alone with God right there?  Is this because God wasn't going to always be there, or is it because it would go better for the man to have a partner who was like himself?  Of course, the man needed a partner for having children, but that is not what is written here.  Getting back to the intimacy of becoming one flesh, it seems that the need for interaction is designed into the man.  Not only that, but the format for man's first relationship is declared to be one with an unbreakable nature.  To become one flesh is to become inseparable.  


Regarding the nakedness, I like the bumper sticker I once saw which said "God's original plan was to hang out with naked men and women in an awesome garden".  Funny, but I can't get past the assumption that if farming was already in the plan, then surely some blue jeans were going to come up at some point.