Loneliness
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper [p]suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18 NASB
Not good – God’s words, lōʾ ṭôb, are an amazing assessment of the human condition. According to the first chapter of Genesis, everything was good. In fact, more than good. Very good. Blessed. Exactly as intended. But less than 17 verses later, after a short diversion about rivers, the garden, and work, God announces that something isn’t right. Now, suddenly, it’s “not good.” What happened?
First we need to recognize that the transition from Genesis 1 to Genesis 2 is not chronological. It’s topical. The first chapter of Genesis establishes sovereignty and order. It’s not about a timeline of events as much as it is about the boundaries and conditions of divine creation. So, at the end of this first story, all the order God puts in place, including the creation of His chosen agents (human beings) is exactly as intended. Everything is in its proper place and blessed.
The second chapter focuses on one aspect of this blessed order, that is, humanity. It’s as if the first chapter provides the 30,000 foot view and the second chapter drops down to ground level. At ground level, God brings humanity into the picture by tying the first man to his origin (the earth) and his destiny (the agent of the breath of God). The story continues, noting that the purpose of God’s agent requires relationship. At the ground level, Man cannot be what God intended without an ontologically equal but relationally separate partner. Therefore, order needs adjustment. God creates woman, the perfect partner needed for the summary judgment. “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” The story of the second chapter is an insertion into the summary of the first chapter. No contradiction, no conflict. Two different perspectives of the same process. Soloveitchik addresses the issue like this:
. . . according to the Biblical story, God is not concerned with the loneliness of Adam the first. Neither was Adam aware of the pronouncement . . . ‘It is not good for man to be lonely.’ Moreover, the connotation of these words in the context of the world view of Adam the first, even if they had been addressed to him, would have been related not to loneliness, an existential in-depth experience, but to aloneness, a practical surface experience.[1]
Genesis 1 deals with the high-level question of sovereignty and design. Genesis 2 deals with the practical advancement of the Genesis 1 themes. “The story is told from two different perspectives, first as cosmology (the origins of matter), then as anthropology (the birth of humanity).”[2]
Topical Index: order, sovereignty, creation, agent, relationship, man, woman, Genesis 2:18
