“Then the man said” (Genesis 2:23)
The first thing created man got excited over was not a football, baseball, or basketball game. Nor was it a piece of pumpkin pie. It wasn’t even tools from Lowes. No, the first thing man got excited over was a woman. Think about that, ladies. Adam looked at all the vegetation God created in Paradise, gave a faint smile, and sort of shrugged his shoulders. He then looked over the rivers God had placed in the garden, again he smiled and walked away. Then God created all the animals and marched them before Adam so he could name them. Adam looked each creature over, gave them a name, then nonchalantly said, “next”. But when God became the Master Surgeon. When he put the man into a “deep sleep”, did a little procedure on him, and created a woman – well, that was a different story for Adam. For when Adam laid eyes on that woman for the first time, he got excited. He got very excited! He joyfully exclaimed, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’. It was the first time in scripture that records man speaking. The man instantly recognized a creature without four legs, floppy ears, and a tail. No, this creation was different. This creation was like him! So, he gave her the name woman.
In the Hebrew man is called an ish. In the Hebrew woman is called an ishshah because she came from man. And very significantly, she came from his side. Close to his heart. Not from his head so she could rule over him. Nor from his foot so he could trample on her. Imagine if you will, the most perfect couple living in the most perfect environment. That was until the perfect couple invited Satan to lunch. Then everything changed. Not only for the lives of the perfect first couple, but for our lives as well.
But a curious incident happened ages later. Long after Adam and Even sinned. Long after Eden vanished. Another man (ish) was dying. And God caused a “deep sleep” to fall on him also. This sleep was the sleep of death. And from his side that had been pierced with a spear something also came out – “a sudden flow of blood and water,” John 19:34 tells us. And from the side of this man, God created a new ishshah. This ishshah is called “the bride of Christ” or church, because she too was taken out of a man. The man Savior, Jesus Christ. She is His bride, one unmistakably like himself, for she is bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, united with him in a perfect relationship. And one day we the bride will be with Christ in the perfection God created us to be in for eternity.
Darlene