Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #18 of Genesis, chapter 2 and we are continuing to look at Genesis 2:18-20:

And JEHOVAH God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground JEHOVAH God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

I will stop reading there. We have been looking at these things and, of course, we know this is true history. This is God’s record of the creation of the world and the creation of man and the creatures. God allowed Adam to give the creatures their names and whatever names Adam gave them that was their names, but there is a spiritual picture underlying this gathering of the creatures. God would have moved the creatures to go to Adam and Adam would have said, “This is a cow. This is a dog. This is an alligator.” Of course, he would have used the language that God had given him to speak as he named the creatures. Spiritually, there is a deeper truth that is going on here. After all the creatures have been brought to Adam it says, “But for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.” It was as though God looked everywhere and searched the whole earth and all its living creatures and of all these living creatures there was not found a help meet for Adam. It is really saying that God found no suitable help for him.

In our last study we looked at the word “help” and we saw that it often identified with God’s salvation. When God is our strength and our shield, He is our help, as it says in Isaiah 49:8:

Thus saith JEHOVAH, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee…

God’s help for man is salvation. It is the help man desperately needs and God was, as it were, looking for help suitable for the man. While Adam can be a type and figure of Christ, we know that everyone that Christ has saved is a part of Christ, spiritually, because those that God saves are of His body. So Adam is looking for a wife, a spiritual bride, but God is looking through Adam to His elect people that will desperately need salvation and there is no help found for them of all of earth’s creatures, including people. The animals are used by God to typify people in the Bible. In Isaiah 63, we can see the spiritual picture that is in view when all the animals are brought to Adam, but none of the creatures are suitable for him. It says in Isaiah 63:5:

And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.

God’s “own arm” is Christ the Saviour. He looked for help and there was none to help and, therefore, His own arm brought salvation or brought the help that was suitable.

Another way of looking at this is that God commanded there to be animal sacrifices for the sins of His people. They were to offer up sacrifices and they were animals of various kinds. There were turtle doves, rams, sheep and oxen and these were sacrificed. Some within the nation of Israel that were commanded to offer sacrifices fell into the snare of thinking that the offering up of the sacrifice was sufficient to make them right with God. They thought God would overlook their sins as long as the high priest went into the Holy of holies to sprinkle the blood of the sacrificial animals. However, God tells us about the insufficiency of animal sacrifices in Hebrews 10:1-6:

For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.

God very clearly states that it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats (animals) to take away sin, even though the animals themselves are not sinful, but they were not created in the image of God and they are not men. It is not possible, therefore, that a sacrificed animal could take away the sins of a man. That can also be in view as God brings all the animals to Adam. If Adam were to sacrifice a goat, lamb, cow, sheep, dove or any other animal, there would be no suitable sacrifice for him because it is not possible for the death of an animal to take away sin.

In other words, after all these animals come to Adam, God finally states, “But for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.” There is not found salvation for him in animal sacrifices or in any of man’s devices – his religions, his superstitions or some other form of spirituality. There is no salvation out in the world anywhere and there never would be salvation in anything else except in what the Bible tell us, as it says in Acts 4:12:

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Adam was giving names to the animals. He was giving this name and that name, but there is no salvation in any other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, except in the name of Jesus. It is only the Lord Jesus Christ that could save His people from their sins. Therefore, in our verse it says there was none to help Adam or God’s elect; there was none to help man out of his fallen, sinful condition that God knew full well would shortly occur and the terrible consequences that would follow the fall. There would be the ugly results of sin and death that would come upon the world and impact every human being that was “in” Adam when he fell. Therefore, God took it upon Himself to provide the help.

It says in Hosea 13:9:

O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.

God is speaking to Israel and we can understand this to also be speaking to the Israel of God, the elect, and we have destroyed ourselves because we were sinners like everyone else. We brought death upon ourselves and we were children of wrath even as others, but God says, “But in me is thine help.” It is interesting that God says that our help in “in” Him. It is in His Person and in His being where our help is found. Then what do we find in our next verse in Genesis, chapter 2? We will see that Adam’s help is “in” him because God takes the rib that was inside him and made the woman. It says in Genesis 2:21-22:

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

We are going to take this passage a piece at a time, beginning with the first part of Genesis 2:21:

And JEHOVAH God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam…

We see that the word “caused” is not in the original Hebrew. The word “fall” has to do with being “made to fall,” so if God made a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, God caused it, so that is accurate. It was God’s doing and the word “cause” shows us that it was God’s purpose and His doing.

The word translated as “deep sleep” is Strong’s #8639 and it is found in a few places. To begin with, I want to go the New Testament and there it is not the same word, but it is the same two English words. In Acts, chapter 20 we have the account of a young man that was listening to the Apostle Paul preach very late into the night until midnight. It was on the Sunday Sabbath and the fact that Paul preached until midnight does show us that the entire Sunday is the Lord's Day and a day in which we should be seeking spiritual things. It says in Acts 20:8-9:

And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.

Then the young man rose up and lived, so God had given Paul the miraculous power to do this. This young man was dead and God joins the idea that he fell into a “deep sleep” with “death.” His deep sleep turned into death, even though he was brought back to physical life. So this is helpful for us in regard to the idea of a “deep sleep” and “death” and this is what God has in view, but we need to look a little bit closer. In the Old Testament it says in Isaiah 29:10-12:

For JEHOVAH hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

Again, it said in verse 10-11: “For JEHOVAH hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed.” Here, God is telling us about spiritual death. In spiritual death, man’s eyes are closed to the Word of God, the Bible. When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, they experienced spiritual death in their soul existence. They lost their lives, spiritually, and the Word of God becomes closed to them. They are blind to it when they fall into spiritual death.

Also, when God brought judgment upon the churches He struck them with spiritual blindness. That is why the Book of Isaiah and the New Testament picks up the language: “God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear.” It describes spiritual death concerning those in the churches of the world at the end of the church age. When God judged the churches and His Spirit came out of their midst at the beginning of the Great Tribulation, it was as if a deep sleep had fallen upon the congregations. It was as if their eyes were closed when they read the Bible or their ears were closed when they heard the Bible. To have your eyes closed and to be in a “deep sleep” is spiritual death. Then when the final judgment of God comes the “deep sleep” will become total annihilation and the unsaved will not know anything because their eyes are closed forever.

In 1Samuel, chapter 26 there is an interesting historical account where David has been running from King Saul. Saul was pursuing him and the word “pursue” is the same word as “persecute,” so Saul was persecuting David by pursuing him with evil intent – he wanted to kill David. It is translated both as “pursue” and as “persecute” in the Old Testament. It says in 1Samuel 26:7-16:

So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster: but Abner and the people lay round about him. Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time. And David said to Abishai, Destroy him not: for who can stretch forth his hand against the LORD'S anointed, and be guiltless? David said furthermore, As JEHOVAH liveth, JEHOVAH shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle, and perish. JEHOVAH forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the JEHOVAH'S anointed: but, I pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at his bolster, and the cruse of water, and let us go. So David took the spear and the cruse of water from Saul's bolster; and they gat them away, and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither awaked: for they were all asleep; because a deep sleep from JEHOVAH was fallen upon them. Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of an hill afar off; a great space being between them: And David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, Answerest thou not, Abner? Then Abner answered and said, Who art thou that criest to the king? And David said to Abner, Art not thou a valiant man? and who is like to thee in Israel? wherefore then hast thou not kept thy lord the king? for there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord. This thing is not good that thou hast done. As JEHOVAH liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master, the JEHOVAH'S anointed. And now see where the king's spear is, and the cruse of water that was at his bolster.

Here, God is giving us a glimpse into history when David and Abishai sneaked into the camp of Saul. They could have killed him and, yet, they did not. They left the camp and they went to the top of a far hill and they cried out to Abner and Saul to let them know what they had done. We find our word “deep sleep” here: “because a deep sleep from JEHOVAH was fallen upon them.” In this deep sleep, they were “as good as dead,” because God gave them up to what Saul perceived as his enemies and David and Abishai could have killed him easily. Spiritually, Saul is a type of the corporate church that God would bring into a deep sleep, making them spiritually blind. This would have to be the spiritual picture – it is God’s judgment on the churches and congregations. He closed their eyes to truth which separated them from Christ and David is a type of Christ. So, notice that it says in verse 13: “Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of an hill afar off; a great space being between them.” What does that remind us of in the New Testament? It reminds us of the rich man in hell in Luke, chapter 16 when there was a separation made between him and the beggar Lazarus. Lazarus was in Abraham’s bosom (heaven) afar off and we are told that there is a “great gulf fixed” between the two.

We will have to pick this up, Lord willing, when we get back together in our study in the Book of Genesis.