Acting Like God

The man 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.” Genesis 2:23 NASB

This is now – No matter how many times we read these fundamental verses about the first human relationship, we never quite finish mining their depths. Perhaps that’s the true beauty of God’s word to us. It just goes deeper and deeper. The more we learn, the more we realize there is so much more to learn. So let’s go back to this very familiar passage and notice something about the less-obvious words. We’ll start with these, zo’t happa’am, translated in the NASB as “This is now.”

The first Hebrew word, zo’t, is a regular demonstrative pronoun in the feminine form. In other words, it is a “pointing word” that designates a particular person, in this case, the woman now standing before the man. No other person is in mind. Whatever is said next is about this, and only this, person.

The second word, happa’am, immediately casts us into the world of Hebrew idioms. The word is derived from the verb pa’am (to thrust, to impel), and it literally means “foot” or “step.” But most of the time is doesn’t communicate the idea of “foot” at all. It means some temporal occurrence like “at last” or “this once” or “this time” or “many times.” For Westerners the connection between “foot” and “time” is a big stretch. But we must remember that our version of time, artificial mathematically based celestial designations placed on top of an organic world, were not part of the worldview of the ancients. For them, time is much more a function of ordinary, observable events, like taking a step down the road. In a world without “time zones,” mechanical clocks, GMT or any of the other routine temporal measures we employ daily, life is very different. Time is experienced, not calculated. Time is experienced as change, and perhaps the most obvious experience of change is the movement of my feet. The Greek philosophers said that no man steps into the same river twice. Conclusions they drew from this observation led toward some devastating implications, but the observation is valid. Things change. Things move. That’s how we notice the passage of temporal flow. Now, as Adam sees the woman, he exclaims, “Oh, my. Things have changed. What wasn’t here before is now here.”

In addition to his temporal declaration, something else is happening. Adam is declaring his validation of the woman. She is noteworthy. She is unique. She has meaning. She is just as valuable as he is. Adam himself recognizes her worthiness. She is like him. In the prior texts, God is the one who gives validation to the creation. “And He saw that it was good,” is God’s assessment of creation’s worthiness. Now Adam steps into the picture. In the original design, the man announces that the woman is good. He asserts what has been a divine prerogative. This person before him is of enormous value. If fact, she is of such enormous value that he alters his designation as “adam” to “ish.” Now he exists in relation to her.

If anyone suggests that some sort of hierarchy of value is presented in the first account of the original relationship, they apparently do not understand the implications of zo’t happa’am. The man himself provides a declaration of equal evaluation. Of course, as the story progresses, the man attempts to withdraw this evaluation and replace it with a hierarchy of control. But that comes about because the man falls, refuses to accept his culpability and blames another for his plight. When she first comes on the scene, he sees her as God intended—wonderful by design, equally valued, impossible to be without. If we are going to recapture what God intended, we as men probably need to turn to our wives as exclaim, “zo’t happa’am. Thank God you’re here. I have been missing you all my life!”

Topical Index: zo’t happa’am, this is now, woman, value, Genesis 2:23

TRAVEL NOTE:  Last night we enjoyed a wonderful session with Rabbi David Fohrman.  It was recorded and will be available for everyone when I have time to edit.  It was a blessing.  I am just so sorry you were not all there to meet this gentle and brilliant man.