Today's Verse: Genesis 2:7-8, 18-23

OK, everyone, another longer passage, but I promise a brief commentary. Gretchen over at Jewels In My Crown...Someday inspired me to post this, which I'll explain later. Here we go!

"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.

"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 of the 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 craeture, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all 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 sleping, 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.' "

Phew! OK. I hope I can convince you to keep reading, because this is one of THE MOST EXCITING PASSAGES of the Bible to me. I literally thrill every time I get to explain it. In my opinion, if one truly understands this passage, there is no reason to not want to believe in God, but that's just my opinion.

I know many people really hear God speaking to them in the New Testament, and I definitely believe all of the Bible to be important. It has been, however, in the last year that my perspective has changed. I see many Christians using the New Testament and the Ten Commandments as the restrictions and boundaries for their lives, and it really saddens me. Rather than seeing the New Testament as an extension of what can be learned from the Old Testament, it becomes the fundamental, final word for their lives, and ultimately the Gospel becomes another form of law. The Christian, and Lutheran, in me cringes and rebels instinctively when I hear this! The Gospel is not to be used in this way!! But that's a different argument for a different day... Gretchen pointed out that she tends to read more of the NT than the OT, and that many parts of the OT can be, well, "dry" to put it lightly. While I have to agree when we get to the loooong parts after the Ten Commandments about rules and regulations, etc., I think there's more to the OT than meets the eye.

I wish people could view the NT in light of the second creation story. OMG!!! Yes, I did just say that there are two creation narratives in the Bible. (There are also two flood narratives, FYI...) The first creation story is the older of the two, but today we're looking at the "younger" story.

The first creation story focuses on God, Elohim, and establishing that He is inherently good and all that He creates is inherently good and not evil. Man, NOT A GUY NAMED ADAM, is created after heaven, earth, sea, and creatures. Elohim is a Hebrew word meaning, "God," in a basic understanding. It implies majesty and divinity, just to keep it simple here for our purposes. The Hebrew word, 'adam, simply means mankind, and has a common root with the Hebrew word for earth, ground, land, and country. Interesting, huh?!?

OK, this is cool, but not my point. (If I said this was going to be brief, I guess I lied -- I just love looking at creation stories!) Taking what we know about the first creation story, I want to look at how the second one is different and why that matters so much to me. The name of God used in the second story is YHWHY, what we Christians call Yahweh. In Hebrew this word is perfectly symmetrical (in English it would be a palindrome) and contains no vowels (because Hebrew doesn't include them). Why is God called by two very distinct, different names? Here is the ENTIRE point of this post: RELATIONSHIP. As explained in my Key Word Study Bible, "The covenant name of God most prominently known in connection with His relationship with the nation of Israel." Because this name is so holy to our Jewish brothers and sisters, they will not pronounce it, but rather substitute the name Adonai here.

Relationship! That, my friends, is the key to the entire Bible. You have just learned the secret to why we have been created, why Jesus came in fulfillment of Scriptures, why we will be called home to meet our maker. Relationship! As in, He wants one with us!! Yes, even us.

In this version of the story, man is the first thing created. Adonai then goes on this mission of knowing Adam's heart, knowing that He created us for companionship, and bringing about all these other amazing creations in an effort to find that companionship for man. He allows Adam to give names to everything. I picture Adonai, like a parent at Christmas, giddy as His children get to find that last, hidden, unwrapped gift hiding behind the Christmas tree, the one real gift that they really wanted at Christmas but thinking Santa passed them by, only to stumble upon THE ultimate gift! This gift giving started at creation, continued through Jesus' sacrifice, and continues on even today and on down the road.

And the relationship doesn't stop there. Now that you can see this, go back and read Exodus. Read I and II Samuel. Read Daniel. Read as the children of Israel bitch and moan about being taken care of in the desert, after being rescued from generations of slavery and poverty. Read as God wipes everything off the face of the earth, save the faithful family of Noah. Read as we humans deserve, time and time again, to descend into the pit, but God is not willing that any of us should die, but have eternal life. He doesn't have to give us all these chances, but He does. WOW!!!

Relationships. That's it in a nutshell.