Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #21 of Genesis, chapter 2 and we are continuing to look at Genesis 2:21-24:

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

I will stop reading there. In our last study, we were looking at the last part of verse 21: “and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.” With that rib God made the woman. We saw that the word “closed up” could be translated as “delivered up” and the word “flesh” was referring to the Lord Jesus. He was manifest in the flesh and came in the likeness of sinful flesh. The word “instead” is a word that points to a substitution, so the spiritual meaning was clear and it actually revealed a beautiful picture. God took one of His ribs which would become the woman, God’s elect, and He delivered up the flesh (Christ) in place of His elect.

Then it goes on to say in Genesis 2:22:

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

JEHOVAH God took the rib from man. Historically, the man was Adam and God literally took one of his ribs and God literally created a woman out of the rib. We know that is the true historical account. That is what actually happened, but this is the Bible where God paints spiritual pictures and speaks in parables. Here, we have an historical parable where Adam is the figure of Him that was to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam experienced “death,” which is what the deep sleep pictured, and Christ died for the sins of His people from the point of the world’s foundation. He was delivered up by God and He died instead of those elect, the woman. We have a clear Gospel picture.

Now it says that the rib (the elect) was taken from man (Christ) and God made the woman out of the rib. We have an interesting word used here and it is the Hebrew word translated as “made.” It is not the same word for “made” used in chapters 1 and 2 up to this point. God has used the Hebrew word for “made” several times in describing the creation, but this word is not that same word. Actually, this word is not translated as “made” anywhere else in the Old Testament. It is Strong’s #1129. In Jake Green’s Interlinear Bible there is a notation that it is Strong’s #1127 and that is incorrect. The correct number for this word is Strong’s #1129. It is a word that is used perhaps 200 times in the Old Testament and it is almost always translated as “build” or “built” or “building.” It is the word that is used to describe the building of the house of God in 1Kings 6:1:

And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of JEHOVAH.

The word “build” is our word, Strong’s #1129. Then it says in 1Kings 6:2:

And the house which king Solomon built for JEHOVAH…

The word “built” is also our word. This word is used again, and again, to describe the building of the temple, the house of God. Then it says in 1Kings 6:5:

And against the wall of the house he built chambers round about…

It also says in 1Kings 6:7:

And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither…

Also, it says in 1Kings 6:9:

So he built the house, and finished it…

In the parallel account in 2Chronicles and in many other places in the Old Testament, the word is translated as “build.”

In the Book of Nehemiah the same word is used in relationship to the wall that Nehemiah built. It says in Nehemiah 4:6:

So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.

In the building of the house of God and in the building of the wall, there is a spiritual picture of the building of God’s elect. The construction of the house and the construction of the wall round about Jerusalem typified God building His eternal church which consists of everyone He had saved.

It says in Psalm 102:16:

When JEHOVAH shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.

Zion is a synonym for (spiritual) Jerusalem.

It says in Psalm 127:1:

Except JEHOVAH build the house, they labour in vain that build it…

It says in Psalm 69:35:

For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.

In this verse we can see how God links the two ideas together of saving “Zion,” which is spiritual Jerusalem, with building the city, which is also spiritual Jerusalem. Remember, in the New Testament there are a couple of verses where God says something very plainly (rather than in parabolic language) about what the house represents. It says in Hebrews 3:6:

But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we…

We are the house of Christ. Solomon built the house of God or the house of Christ. The historical building up of the temple was a parable pointing to the building up of the house of Christ, the elect.

It says in 1Peter 2:4-5:

To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

We are built up a spiritual house. Keep in mind when we see the word “built up,” when God took the rib from Adam he “made” or “built” the woman. He built a woman out of the rib taken from Adam and she would become Adam’s wife and we are “built up a spiritual house,” the house of God.

It says in 1Corinthians 3:9:

For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

The people of God are God’s building, as the woman was God’s building. He built her, but the necessary thing that had to happen in order to build her was to cause a “deep sleep” to come upon Adam and to take one of his ribs and “deliver up” the flesh “instead thereof.” God built the woman because of the taking of the rib of the man.

It says in 2Corinthians 5:1:

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved…

By the way, the word “dissolved” can be translated as “thrown down,” as it is translated in Matthew 24:2: “There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” The house would be a reference on a deeper level to the corporate church.

Again, it says in 2Corinthians 5:1:

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

This is the construction project of God. Remember it said in Hebrews 11:10:

For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

We are the building of God, as there was the building of the woman, the bride of Christ. It is the building up of all the elect of God.

It says in Ephesians 2:20-22:

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Here, God is explaining that we are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And who is that foundation? It is none other than the Lord Jesus.

Once again, since God built the woman from the rib of the man and the foundation of the building of the woman is the death of Christ. In order to build the woman, Adam had to experience that “deep sleep” first and, again, it is being illustrated through these true historical events that took place in the very beginning of the creation. The steps of God’s salvation program always begins first with the death of Christ. Always the foundation must come first. Remember what God said concerning the building of the house, in Matthew 7:24:

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

The wise man is Christ. He is the one that does the sayings of God. He built his house upon a rock and the rock is the foundation of the house. The rock is Christ and the house is built upon the rock and upon that foundation.

The enormous problem that people have when they erroneously insist that Christ paid for sins in 33AD is all those saints in the Old Testament. We just saw many verses that would include them in the spiritual house. Were they not built up until Jesus came? Or, were they built like a fool’s house upon the sand that had no foundation? Sadly, that is the case these people present when they insist that God began to build the house of elect with the likes of Abel and Noah and Abraham and all the saints of old, but without a foundation and without the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. It does not make any sense whatsoever because Jesus is the foundation.

Notice what Jesus said in Matthew 16:18:

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The rock was not Peter. It is always Christ. He is the only foundation: “Upon this rock I will build my church.” What is very interesting about this is that God relates the church to whom? When we read the Book of Ephesians, God speaks of a great mystery in Ephesians, chapter 5 and after describing the relationship between a husband and wife, He says the mystery is concerning Christ and His church. Notice how God speaks of Christ and His church in Ephesians 5:23-25:

For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

Then look at Ephesians 5:30-32:

For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

We cannot help but notice the similarity in the language. In Ephesians 5 God is pulling language from the historical record in Genesis 2:23-24:

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

It is exactly what God is speaking of in Ephesians, chapter 5 as He encourages those in marriage relationships. He is encouraging the husbands and wives; wives submit to your husbands and husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. You can go back to Genesis to the time when God built the woman and you will see how He took the rib out of the man and He formed the woman and the statement was made: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman.” That is how the bride of Adam was formed when God made them at the beginning. The two shall be one flesh. It was the first marriage. They were joined together and they were no more twain, but one flesh. They have come together in unison and God viewed them as “one” because the woman came out of the body of the man. God is using that historical account to point to the physical marriage that we still have today, even though Satan has been insistently attacking the marriage relationship. Now at the time of the end he has been allowed to gain some success and the marriage relationship is in shambles because of divorce. The spiritual picture has been shattered by men marrying men and women marrying women and it has ruined the image God established in creating the woman from the man and making them one flesh. The original marriage union gloriously pictured God’s magnificent salvation plan. That is what Satan really is trying to ruin because he wants to destroy every vestige and reflection of it. The attack has been furious against the marriage relationship and, yet, the marriage relationship pictures Christ and His spiritual bride, the woman: “I will build my church.” The church is cast in the role of the bride, the woman. Christ is saying, “I will build my wife and the gates of hell will not prevail against her.” It is not the corporate church, but the eternal church built up of everyone God has saved. The Lord Jesus Christ did build His bride, as it says in Revelation 19:7:

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

Actually, we can look at the history of mankind since the beginning as the building up of the woman, the bride of Christ. This is what God had been busy doing because it was not good that the man be alone. God would make a help suitable for him and He brought forth the woman through the help of God’s salvation. It says in Revelation 21:2:

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

It is the city that God built and He is the builder and maker of it. He began it from its foundation and He built it up until it became the complete city of God. Notice what it said in the last part of this verse concerning the New Jerusalem. She was “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” God built the city. God built the bride. It describes the same thing and it pictures the identical truth.

So, when we see in Genesis 2, verse 22, where it says, “And the rib, which JEHOVAH God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man,” that encapsulates the whole Gospel program of God that would take place over the thousands of years to come until the woman was completed and Judgment Day came, but only after the church (the woman) had been built.