The full act of creation under God’s hand is detailed in Genesis 1. The work of creation is again given us in chapter 2, but much more succinctly. The narrative then confines itself to Eden, or to the Garden of Eden, because it was the scene of the great action about to be tried. All here is under the hand of the Lord God in a character of covenant relationship to man and the creation. The garden is particularly shown to us; it is described as the place of every desirable production and as the source of those fruitful rivers which were to go over the whole earth. Adam himself is put there “to dress it and to keep it.”
Adam’s Place in the Garden
Now all these provisions were for man’s happiness. He had all desirable things; he saw in his habitation a spring of blessing to the earth, and he himself was made the main one in that garden from which he derived his enjoyments. He was made to give as well as to receive, and all these were but different features of a happy condition to a well-ordered mind such as Adam’s. All this was surely so, but with advantages of so high an order, he needed to be reminded that he was only a creature still and that the divine planter of the garden alone was supreme. Accordingly the voice of a Sovereign was heard in the garden; a commandment went forth, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat” (Gen. 2:1717But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:17)). But this voice was not a discord. It was all unison in the ear of an upright creature, for, act in what way or sphere He may, God must be, and will be, God — filling the chief place, and not giving His glory to another. A creature of a right choice must therefore rejoice in any witness of God’s supremacy as in its own blessing. All this is harmonious and consistent happiness, for in the command there is nothing beyond what is necessary. There is no laying upon Adam any other burden. One command is needed, and only one is given. And this is therefore only another item in the great account of his happiness. There the Lord God, to fill out the scene of this happiness, celebrates for Adam a coronation day and a day of espousals, but here I must linger for a moment or two. The order of the passage is this (Gen. 2:18-2218And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. 21And the Lord 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; 22And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. (Genesis 2:18‑22)):
1. The Lord God first took counsel with Himself about Adam’s espousals.
2. He then introduced him to his dominions and sovereignty.
3. At last He celebrated his espousals and presented Eve to him.
Coronation and Marriage
This is the order of his coronation and of his marriage, and it is an order which has its meaning. I believe the richest purpose of joy is the first in counsel, but the latest in manifestation; so it is in the substance. The church was in the election and predestination of God before the world began, but other ages and dispensations took their course before that mystery “hid in God” was made known (see Eph. 3).
There is something of peculiar beauty and meaning in the order of this passage. It is not the mere progress of a narrative of independent facts; it is the design of a great Master who knew the end from the beginning. But not only so. It is not only the design of a perfect mind, but the well-known way of love also. The Lord God’s first thought was about Adam’s best blessing. The helpmeet at his side was to be more to him than the subject creatures under him. The day of his espousals was to be dearer to him than the day of his coronation. Accordingly the Lord crowned him; that was done at once, and put out of hand. But that which was to be chief in his enjoyments was the fondest image in the mind of his Lord. His Lord pondered it. He made it familiar to His thoughts — spoke of it to Himself, because it was to be the dearest to Adam. This was the way of love. We understand it to be so. We like to think of the materials of a loved one’s happiness; we turn it over in our thoughts, and thus is the Lord God represented here as engaged for Adam. The manner of forming the plan or taking the counsel was thus beautiful, and the plan itself was wonderful. It took the highest aim: “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.”
Joy for Jesus
Jesus the Son of God has found this to be so. His joy is provided for in the very way in which the Lord God here provided for Adam’s joy. As we read, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son” (Matt. 22:22The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, (Matthew 22:2)). How excellent a purpose therefore was this! It was making nothing less than the divine enjoyments the standard and the measure; it was saying to the creature, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” And not only in the plan, but in the execution of the plan, the divine original is copied. Adam slept a deep sleep, and out of his riven side a rib was taken, of which the helpmeet was made — as the Lord’s helpmeet came forth from His toil, His sorrow, and His death — and He felt and valued all this.
Adam saw of the travail of his soul, as it were, and was satisfied. “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh,” said his satisfied heart, surveying the fruit of his weariness and of his mystic death, and this again is divine joy. There is Another, we know, who will thus see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. It is the rest of the laboring man that is sweet. It is the bread eaten through sweat of brow that is pleasant. Adam had not helped in the forming of any beast of the field. They had not been quickened through any sleep of his. But Eve was taken from his riven side. She had been the fruit of his death-like slumber, and he therefore prized her. “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen. 2:2323And 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. (Genesis 2:23)). Not only as his helpmeet, his companion, but because he had been so necessary to her did he prize her; she was out of his side as well as for his side. The execution of the plan bound his heart to her as well as the result.
And this was divine joy; this is the joy of Jesus. The joy in His church is His chief joy; she is both for His side and out of His side. Angels are not of the travail of His soul. But that which His toil and sorrow have won for Him and which is prepared for the fellowship of His thoughts and His affections — this will be the dearest. Every redeemed thing in heaven and in earth will surely be to Him the rest of the laboring man and the bread that is eaten through sweat of brow, but it is the church which is destined for His side, like Eve, as well as taken out of it.
J. G. Bellett (adapted)