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…
Let Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts. Psalm 119:173 NASB Help – What a wonderful verb! ʿāzar, “to help, to support.” Could you ask anything more of the Sovereign of the Universe than “help me”? Unspecified help. Whatever-is-needed help. Not even limited to my own perspective. This is help from…
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper [a]suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18 NASB Alone – We all die alone. From birth to death we struggle to find connection. Sometimes we succeed. Sometimes we don’t. But the drive is there, only to be extinguished at the…
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper [a]suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18 NASB Helper suitable – My work never gets too far from this original story of human desire. Over and over I return to these seminal verses, trying my best to tease out the…
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18 NASB Alone – Since the publication of Guardian Angel, my work on this chapter in Genesis has been either jubilantly welcomed or vehemently rejected. Those who welcome the exegesis are typically people…
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18 NASB To be alone – When I wrote Guardian Angel a decade ago, I wanted to correct the false claim that Paul was misogynistic. I wanted to demonstrate that the common Christian…
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12 NASB Face to face – “You don’t know me.” Have you heard that expression? Maybe you were the one saying…
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18 NASB A helper suitable– We have investigated a lot about the Hebrew phrase ‘ezer kenegdo. We discovered that these words spoken by God about the creation of the woman are filled with royal language,…
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12 NASB Face to face – “You don’t know me.” Have you heard that expression? Maybe you were the one saying…
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18 NASB Not good – God looked at His own work and decided it wasn’t good enough. Don’t you find that a bit surprising? Doesn’t God create perfectly? But here we have evidence…
