Isn’t that interesting?
Genesis 3:24 (NIV)
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 from it you will certainly die.”
Genesis 2:16-17 (NIV)
Perhaps the man wondered, “what is death?” And shortly after, God causes him to fall into a slumber. A sleep so unnatural that the man must have wondered, “what’s happening? Is this death?”
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 then closed up the place with flesh.
Genesis 2:21 (NIV)
And after death, there is a new life. Eve’s name means… life.
But maybe Adam isn’t us. Perhaps he represents God in the story, and it’s a story of God making something specifically for Himself.
We are the suitable helper.
It feels like an echo of Genesis 1 when God created humanity. Perhaps Genesis 2 tells us how He felt about us in the words of Adam when he sees the woman.
So the woman is made just like the man to be suitable for him as well. Equal.
Love your neighbor. That’s what solves the “not good” problem.
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.”
Genesis 2:23 (NIV)
In Genesis 2, when God splits the woman from the man, the man marvels: “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she is Isha (woman; literally ‘of man’), taken out of Ish (man).”
I think this must have echoed God’s heart in Genesis 1, making us from His image: “Spirit of my Spirit; Life of my Life; this is ha’Adam (the human), made in My Image.”
Adam says “She’s just like me!”
God says “They’re just like me!”
It sounds like adoration to me.