Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #20 of Genesis, chapter 2 and we are continuing to look at Genesis 2:21-23:

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. 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.

I will stop reading there. In our last study, we were looking at verse 21. We have already seen that God caused a “deep sleep” to fall upon Adam and he slept. We saw that the Bible relates “sleep” with “death.” God caused Adam to experience death and, again, that is the deeper spiritual meaning because Adam is a figure of Christ, the one that was to come. This can only be describing God’s wrath falling upon Jesus, who is also eternal God, from the foundation of the world. That was when He died to bear the sins of His people and He arose from the dead, justified by the resurrection to be the Son of God.

So, here, God illustrates that at the very beginning of creation He is painting a picture that reveals the Gospel and what took place before the creation of the world and before Adam was formed and before man had sinned. Yet, God already finished the works and His glorious plan of salvation had already had its foundation laid and God is now showing us the Gospel right from the start (of creation).

We see this with the “deep sleep” that fell upon Adam and which pictured “death.” We would expect to also see the Gospel in the rest of the verse, as it says in Genesis 2:21:

… and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

We know that God will use the rib to make the woman and the woman will be Adam’s wife. To carry the spiritual picture further, we know that the woman formed from Adam’s side pictures all the elect that would become the bride of Christ. How did you or I or any child of God become part of that spiritual bride of Christ? It was through the death of Christ and through His atoning work in making the payment for sin that the Law demanded and the Law demanded death: “The wages of sin is death.” There is a very definite parallel picture between this historic record of the formation of the woman by causing the deep sleep to come upon Adam and the formation of the spiritual bride of Christ by Jesus experiencing death.

Let us look at this second part of the verse, in Genesis 2:21:

…and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

Last time we saw that the translation of the word as “instead” was correct. The King James translators translated this word, Strong’s #8478, as “instead.” As I mentioned before, the Jay Green’s Interlinear Bible translated it as “underneath.” There is some reason that they did that, but they lost the spiritual picture in doing so and that is why we know the King James translation is more correct because it provides the correct wording for the spiritual picture God established in this verse.

This word “instead” is used in Numbers 3:12:

And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel: therefore the Levites shall be mine;

God chose the Levites and He will take them “instead” of all the firstborn of Israel. They will be His servants in the temple later on. In this same chapter it says in Numbers 3:45:

Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel…

It says Numbers 8:16:

For they are wholly given unto me from among the children of Israel; instead of such as open every womb, even instead of the firstborn of all the children of Israel, have I taken them unto me.

I will just give one other example where we can see it used in a place other than in the Book of Numbers. It says in Esther 2:14:

In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name.

This is speaking of Esther and then it says in Esther 2:17:

And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.

Vashti had been queen, but she refused to come at the king’s command, so he put her away and made Esther queen “instead of” Vashti. We saw that God chose the Levites “instead of” the firstborn and this is exactly the way the word is used in our verse in Genesis 2:21:

…and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof…

So our verse should really say, “and closed up the flesh instead of.” Even though the translators maintained accuracy to the original word, they certainly realized it did not seem to make much sense. It was awkward at best in the English language. Of course, modern translations have made correction to smooth it out and to make it sound better or to make it more reasonable, but in so doing they lost the spiritual meaning.

We have the word “instead,” so for now let us just recognize that it is correct. We can see from the other places we looked at that it has to do with making a substitution or a replacement and that is how it is being used here.

So let us go to another word that we do not understand well and that is the word translated as “closed up.” The Hebrew word is Strong’s #5462. I think I mentioned in our last Bible study that it is the same word that is translated as “shut in” from Genesis 7, verse 16. Speaking of the door of the ark, the Bible says, “and JEHOVAH shut him in.” It carries the idea that something has been sealed or shut up, but it also has another aspect to it in 1Samuel 23:7:

And it was told Saul that David was come to Keilah. And Saul said, God hath delivered him into mine hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that hath gates and bars.

The word translated as “shut in” is the same Hebrew word as “closed up” in our verse. In this verse in 1Samuel, the historical situation is that David had entered into a town named Keilah and there is no way of escape. Saul had been pursuing David to kill him and Saul realized David’s predicament and he said, “He is shut in.”

There are many other verses where this word is used and I would suggest that everyone check it out to see how God uses this word.

This word is also used in the sense of “delivering up” and it is used this way in the same chapter, in 1Samuel 23:9-11:

And David knew that Saul secretly practised mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring hither the ephod. Then said David, O JEHOVAH God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand?

This is the same word that was translated as “shut in” and “closed up.” David is asking God if the men of Keilah will deliver him up into his hand or shut him up into Saul’s hand. Then it goes on to say in 1Samuel 23:11-12:

…will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? O JEHOVAH God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant. And JEHOVAH said, He will come down. Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the LORD said, They will deliver thee up.

Again, it is the same Hebrew word is used. In order to be delivered up, you have to become a prisoner and if you are a prisoner you are shut in or closed up. You cannot escape or get away and this is the picture that is in view in 1Samuel. That means that this word “closed up” can be understood that way in our verse, which is important to the spiritual meaning.

Let us look at just one more verse where the word translated as “closed up” is used. It is in Job 16:11:

God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.

Job is speaking here and the Book of Job is an historical parable where Job is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ under the wrath of God. He says, “God hath delivered me to the ungodly.” The word “delivered to” is the same Hebrew word that was translated as “closed up” in our verse, so we can see how being “delivered up” or “delivered to” relates to the Lord Jesus. We read several times in the Gospel accounts that Jesus was “delivered up.” It says in Matthew 27:2:

And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.

Then it says in Matthew 27:18:

For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

It also says in Matthew 27:26:

Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

It carries the same idea as when it says in 1Samuel that the men of Keilah would deliver up David. Christ was delivered up to be crucified and that is what the verse in Job pointed to when it said that Job had been delivered over to the ungodly by God and it was God that caused the deep sleep to fall upon Adam. It was God who took one of his ribs and “closed up” or “delivered up” the flesh instead thereof.

We have one more word we need to look at in this verse and that is the word “flesh.” It is not surprising that when we look up the word “flesh” we find that it can refer to the Lord Jesus Christ. Referring to Christ, it says in John 1:14:

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…

Jesus was “made flesh” and dwelt among us.

It says in 1Timothy 3:16:

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh…

Again, this is a reference to Christ, who is God Almighty, but was manifest in the flesh.

It says in John 6:51:

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Then it says in John 6:53-56:

Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

Again, and again, God uses the word “flesh” in relationship to the Lord Jesus. It gives us the reason why in Romans 8:3:

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

This is the reason for the emphasis. God being manifest in the flesh and the Word being made flesh and the necessity to eat of the flesh of Christ because He became sin for us, and that is the figure God is using in our verse in Genesis, chapter 2. The “flesh” refers to the Lord Jesus Christ and He being made in the likeness of flesh.

Now we have looked up all the key words. God took one of his ribs and delivered up the flesh thereof. When we put it all together, we see that the rib identifies with the elect. God delivered up the flesh (Jesus) instead of the woman or instead of that rib which represents God’s elect. Jesus, typified by the word “flesh,” was delivered up on their behalf. It was a substitutionary death, as He would die in their place.

Now we can see how carefully God crafted this verse and every word fits together and leads us to the Gospel picture and God’s program of salvation and the glorious atoning work of Christ on behalf of His people from the foundation of the world.