FAMILY ISSUES!

Friday, January 3, 2020

FAMILY ISSUES!

Gen 2:18 - 24

18 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

21 And 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;

22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23 And 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.

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Try to imagine a life without a “counterpart” anywhere. Vegetation abounded in Adam’s world and animals of all kinds, but for Adam there was not one person or thing that “fit.”

The word “meet” in verse 18 is the Hebrew word ‘ezer which literally means “aid or help.” In fact the English modifier “help” is not in the original.  Adam Clarke, in his commentary says this: “If the word be rendered scrupulously literally, it signifies one like, or as himself, standing opposite to or before him. And this implies that the woman was to be a perfect resemblance of the man possessing neither inferiority nor superiority but being in all things like and equal to himself.

No association or relationship emits stronger emotions than family. Perhaps none are more important! In the original, the word “good” includes such things as “loving, merry, pleasant, pleasure, prosperity, sweet, and well-favored.” This speaks specifically and eloquently of the wife but the extended family is the natural result.

Adam himself comments on the blessing of a counterpart by saying “she is my own flesh.” Nothing is as important as she! He continues by commenting on the family unit, as yet unformed, as secondary to this relationship. “For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother.”

How are things in your family? Is your spouse primary? Is there harmony in your home? God designed that everything that can be described by the word “good” should belong to the family.

Dear Lord, thank you for my dear wife and my family. I would otherwise be very much alone. AMEN