Blessed Deprivation in Eden

True, there are times when God denies us good things as a consequence of our failures. Being cast from the Garden of Eden is a preeminent example. But not every unfulfilled longing signals God’s displeasure. Quite the opposite! Sometimes God withholds the good He intends for us, for a season, in order to prepare us to receive His gifts. This deprivation is not a penalty but a blessing, a gift God bestows on those in whom He delights. It is designed to help us see what life is like without God’s good gifts, so that when those gifts are delivered, our praise soars.

This form of blessed deprivation can be clearly seen in the Garden of Eden. Shall we take a stroll? Genesis 2 provides an expanded account in narrative form of the events that were summarized in Genesis 1:26-28. In Genesis 2, God functions as a father. He brings Adam into existence, assigns him a place in life, gives him vital guidance and counsel, and then provides him with a suitable wife. The genealogy of Jesus found in Luke affirms God’s fatherly role when it references Adam:  . . . Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God (Luke 3:38). I find the process that God employs to provide a wife for his son singularly instructive.

God could have taken a very different path. He could have created the man and woman simultaneously or formed the woman from Adam’s rib mere moments after Adam’s creation. Instead, man was created first. Although everything God had created to this point was good, it was decidedly not good that Adam was alone. Then God arranged for the man to embark upon a search for a solution to his “alone” problem.

Please try to put yourself in Adam’s shoes. (Yea, yea, he wasn’t wearing shoes, much less anything else.) Adam had never laid eyes on a woman; she hadn’t been invented yet. So he is searching for something he has never seen. Maybe it was an “I’ll know it when I see it” kind of search. Was God chuckling to himself in anticipation of the moment when He would give Adam that for which his son’s heart ached? All Adam knew was that this exhaustive parade of animals had gone nowhere. Adam would have been justified in thinking, “There is nothing I can see to solve my ‘alone’ problem.”

Adam’s heart was now prepared to receive God’s gift. God tells Adam to take a nap, then creates woman, and finally wakes up Adam for the big reveal. When God presents Adam with his bride, Adam is beside himself (I couldn’t resist!) and exclaims: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 2:23, ESV). Did you catch the terms translated “at last” by many English translations? (The Hebrew is ha pa-am.) Adam takes a deep breath and says, “Finally!” Adam is relieved and overjoyed. His bride is perfect and more than worth the wait.

By God’s delay to solve man’s “alone” problem, Adam’s heart was prepared to greet God’s gift with greater joy. Does God know how to give perfect gifts when the time is just right, or what?

Comments

[Douglas Tiffany]

Nice post, Jim! Things can go horribly wrong when we try to help God with his own plan (think of Abraham and Ishmael). Patience is certainly the key. Love the reference to Adam being beside himself.

Trivia question: What was the name of the female in the Garden of Eden? (hint: she wasn't named until after the fall of man).

[Lilly]

Would be interested in knowing how you define Adam's "alone" problem. Is it in some way related to Adam's mission from God? I hear many teach that God created Eve to solve Adam's loneliness. Was Adam's "alone" problem that he was lonely, or was it something else?

[Jim]

Thanks, Doug. Okay, I'll bite on your trivia question. She was called Ishah when Adam first met her and named haw-wah (Eve) in Genesis 3:20. But it sounds like you have a punch line coming?

[Jim]

Lilly,
Great question! You are correct in discerning some controversy over what constitutes Adam's "alone" problem. I think this deserves a full post or two. For now, I can say with reasonable confidence that Adam's chief problem was not loneliness!
Jim

[Douglas Tiffany]

Well, I have no doubt you have resources I can only dream of, but from what I can tell, Genesis 3:20 is after the fall of man when they have been exiled from Eden. Prior to that, all the translations I have seen simply call her "The Woman".

Makes for a great conversation starter.

[Jim]

Doug,
You are correct. "Ishah" is Hebrew for woman. "Ish" is one of the words for man. So, in Genesis 2:23, Adam says, "She shall be called ishah (woman) because she was taken out of ish (man). It is not until Genesis 3:20 that she is named "haw-wah" which is the Hebrew term translated as "Eve" in English.

[Grace]

wonderful words encouraging our patience in God's good timing, thanks Jim!