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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
G E N E S I S
CHAP. II.
This chapter is an appendix to the history of the creation, more
particularly explaining and enlarging upon that part of the history
which relates immediately to man, the favourite of this
lower world. We have in it,
I. The institution and sanctification
of the sabbath, which was made for man, to further his holiness
and comfort
(ver. 1-3).
II. A more particular account of man’s
creation, as the centre and summary of the whole work
(ver. 1-7).
III. A description of the garden of Eden, and the placing of man
in it under the obligations of a law and covenant
(ver. 8-17).
IV. The creation of the woman, her marriage to the man, and
the institution of the ordinance of marriage
(ver. 18, &c.).
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1 Thus the heavens and the earth
were finished, and all the host of
them.
2 And on the seventh day
God ended his work which he had
made; and he rested on the seventh
day from all his work which he had
made.
3 And God blessed the
seventh day, and sanctified it: because
that in it he had rested from all
his work which God created and made.
We have here,
I. The settlement of the
kingdom of nature, in God’s resting from the
work of creation,
Here observe,
1. The creatures made both in heaven and
earth are the hosts or armies of them, which
denotes them to be numerous, but marshalled,
disciplined, and under command.
How great is the sum of them! And yet
every one knows and keeps his place. God
uses them as his hosts for the defence of his
people and the destruction of his enemies;
for he is the Lord of hosts, of all these hosts,
2. The heavens and the earth
are finished pieces, and so are all the creatures
in them. So perfect is God’s work that
nothing can be added to it nor taken from it,
God that began to build showed
himself well able to finish.
3. After the end
of the first six days God ceased from all
works of creation. He has so ended his work
as that though, in his providence, he worketh
hitherto
(John v. 17),
preserving and governing
all the creatures, and particularly forming
the spirit of man within him, yet he does not
make any new species of creatures. In miracles,
he has controlled and overruled nature,
but never changed its settled course, nor repealed
nor added to any of its establishments.
4. The eternal God, though infinitely happy
in the enjoyment of himself, yet took a satisfaction
in the work of his own hands. He
did not rest, as one weary, but as one well-pleased
with the instances of his own goodness
and the manifestations of his own glory.
II. The commencement of the kingdom of
grace, in the sanctification of the sabbath
day,
v. 3.
He rested on that day, and took
a complacency in his creatures, and then
sanctified it, and appointed us, on that day,
to rest and take a complacency in the Creator;
and his rest is, in the fourth commandment,
made a reason for ours, after six days’ labour.
Observe,
1. The solemn observance of one
day in seven, as a day of holy rest and holy
work, to God’s honour, is the indispensable
duty of all those to whom God has revealed
his holy sabbaths.
2. The way of sabbath-sanctification
is the good old way,
Sabbaths are as ancient as the world; and I
see no reason to doubt that the sabbath,
being now instituted in innocency, was religiously
observed by the people of God
throughout the patriarchal age.
3. The
sabbath of the Lord is truly honourable, and
we have reason to honour it–honour it for
the sake of its antiquity, its great Author,
the sanctification of the first sabbath by the
holy God himself, and by our first parents in
innocency, in obedience to him.
4. The
sabbath day is a blessed day, for God blessed
it, and that which he blesses is blessed
indeed. God has put an honour upon it, has
appointed us, on that day, to bless him, and
has promised, on that day, to meet us and
bless us.
5. The sabbath day is a holy day,
for God has sanctified it. He has separated
and distinguished it from the rest of the
days of the week, and he has consecrated it
and set it apart to himself and his own service
and honour. Though it is commonly
taken for granted that the Christian sabbath
we observe, reckoning from the creation, is
not the seventh but the first day of the week,
yet being a seventh day, and we in it, celebrating
the rest of God the Son, and the
finishing of the work of our redemption, we
may and ought to act faith upon this original
institution of the sabbath day, and to commemorate
the work of creation, to the honour
of the great Creator, who is therefore worthy
to receive, on that day, blessing, and honour,
and praise, from all religious assemblies.
| The Creation. | B. C. 4004. |
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4 These are the generations of the
heavens and of the earth when they
were created, in the day that the
LORD God made the earth and the
heavens,
5 And every plant of the
field before it was in the earth, and
every herb of the field before it grew:
for the LORD God had not caused it to
rain upon the earth, and there was not
a man to till the ground.
6 But there
went up a mist from the earth, and watered
the whole face of the ground.
7 And the LORD God formed man
of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life;
and man became a living soul.
In these verses,
I. Here is a name given
to the Creator which we have not yet met
with, and that is Jehovah–the LORD, in
capital letters, which are constantly used in
our English translation to intimate that in
the original it is Jehovah. All along, in the
first chapter, he was called Elohim–a God
of power; but now Jehovah Elohim–a God
of power and perfection, a finishing God. As
we find him known by his name Jehovah
when he appeared to perform what he had
promised
(Exod. vi. 3),
so now we have him
known by that name, when he had perfected
what he had begun. Jehovah is that great
and incommunicable name of God which
denotes his having his being of himself, and
his giving being to all things; fitly therefore
is he called by that name now that heaven
and earth are finished.
II. Further notice taken of the production
of plants and herbs, because they were made
and appointed to be food for man,
Here observe,
1. The earth did not bring
forth its fruits of itself, by any innate virtue
of its own but purely by the almighty power
of God, which formed every plant and every
herb before it grew in the earth. Thus
grace in the soul, that plant of renown, grows
not of itself in nature’s soil, but is the work
of God’s own hands.
2. Rain also is the
gift of God; it came not till the Lord God
caused it to rain. If rain be wanted, it is
God that withholds it; if rain come plentifully
in its season, it is God that sends it; if
it come in a distinguishing way, it is God
that causeth it to rain upon one city and not
upon another,
Amos iv. 7.
3. Though God,
ordinarily, works by means, yet he is not tied
to them, but when he pleases he can do his
own work without them. As the plants were
produced before the sun was made, so they
were before there was either rain to water
the earth or man to till it. Therefore though
we must not tempt God in the neglect of
means, yet we must trust God in the want
of means.
4. Some way or other God will
take care to water the plants that are of his
own planting. Though as yet there was no
rain, God made a mist equivalent to a shower,
and with it watered the whole face of the
ground. Thus he chose to fulfil his purpose
by the weakest means, that the excellency of the
power might be of God. Divine grace descends
like a mist, or silent dew, and waters
the church without noise,
III. A more particular account of the
creation of man,
v. 7.
Man is a little world,
consisting of heaven and earth, soul and body.
Now here we have an account of the origin
of both and the putting of both together:
let us seriously consider it, and say, to our
Creator’s praise, We are fearfully and wonderfully
made,
Ps. cxxxix. 14.
Elihu, in the
patriarchal age, refers to this history when
he says
I also am formed out
of the clay, and
(v. 4),
The breath of the Almighty
hath given me life, and
(ch. xxxii. 8),
There is a spirit in man. Observe then,
1. The mean origin, and yet the curious
structure, of the body of man.
(1.) The matter
was despicable. He was made of the dust of
the ground, a very unlikely thing to make a
man of; but the same infinite power that
made the world of nothing made man, its
master-piece, of next to nothing. He was
made of the dust, the small dust, such as is
upon the surface of the earth. Probably,
not dry dust, but dust moistened with the
mist that went up,
v. 6.
He was not made
of gold-dust, powder of pearl, or diamond
dust, but common dust, dust of the ground.
Hence he is said to be of the earth, choikos—dusty,
1 Cor. xv. 47.
And we also are of the
earth, for we are his offspring, and of the
same mould. So near an affinity is there
between the earth and our earthly parents
that our mother’s womb, out of which we
were born, is called the earth
and the earth, in which we must be buried,
is called our mother’s womb,
Job i. 21.
Our foundation is in the earth,
Our fabric is earthly, and the fashioning of it like
that of an earthen vessel,
Our food
is out of the earth,
Our familiarity is with the earth,
Our fathers are in the earth, and our own
final tendency is to it; and what have we
then to be proud of?
(2.) Yet the Maker
was great, and the make fine. The Lord
God, the great fountain of being and power,
formed man. Of the other creatures it is
said that they were created and made; but of
man that he was formed, which denotes a
gradual process in the work with great
accuracy and exactness. To express the
creation of this new thing, he takes a new
word, a word (some think) borrowed from
the potter’s forming his vessel upon the
wheel; for we are the clay, and God the
potter,
The body of man is
curiously wrought,
Materiam superabat opus–The workmanship exceeded
the materials. Let us present our
bodies to God as living sacrifices
(Rom. xii. 1),
as living temples
and then
these vile bodies shall shortly be new-formed
like Christ’s glorious body,
2. The high origin and the admirable serviceableness
of the soul of man.
(1.) It
takes its rise from the breath of heaven, and
is produced by it. It was not made of the
earth, as the body was; it is a pity then that
it should cleave to the earth, and mind earthly
things. It came immediately from God; he
gave it to be put into the body
(Eccl. xii. 7),
as afterwards he gave the tables of stone of
his own writing to be put into the ark, and
the urim of his own framing to be put into
the breast-plate. Hence God is not only the
former but the Father of spirits. Let the soul
which God has breathed into us breathe after
him; and let it be for him, since it is from
him. Into his hands let us commit our
spirits, for from his hands we had them.
(2.) It takes its lodging in a house of clay, and is
the life and support of it. It is by it that
man is a living soul, that is, a living man;
for the soul is the man. The body would
be a worthless, useless, loathsome carcase,
if the soul did not animate it. To God that
gave us these souls we must shortly give an
account of them, how we have employed
them, used them, proportioned them, and
disposed of them; and if then it be found
that we have lost them, though it were
to gain the world, we shall be undone for
ever. Since the extraction of the soul is so
noble, and its nature and faculties are so
excellent, let us not be of those fools that
despise their own souls, by preferring their
bodies before them,
When our Lord Jesus anointed the blind man’s
eyes with clay perhaps he intimated that it
was he who at first formed man out of the
clay; and when he breathed on his disciples,
saying, Receive you the Holy Ghost, he intimated
that it was he who at first breathed
into man’s nostrils the breath of life. He
that made the soul is alone able to new-make
it.
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8 And the LORD God planted a
garden eastward in Eden; and there
he put the man whom he had formed.
9 And out of the ground made the
LORD God to grow every tree
that is pleasant to the sight, and good for
food; the tree of life also in the
midst of the garden, and the tree of
knowledge of good and evil.
10 And
a river went out of Eden to water the
garden; and from thence it was
parted, and became into four heads.
11 The name of the first is Pison:
that is it which compasseth the whole
land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12 And the gold of that land is good;
there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13 And the name of the second river
is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth
the whole land of Ethiopia.
14 And the name of the third river is
Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward
the east of Assyria. And the
fourth river is Euphrates.
15 And the LORD God took the man, and put
him into the garden of Eden to dress
it and to keep it.
Man consisting of body and soul, a body
made out of the earth and a rational immortal
soul the breath of heaven, we have, in
these verses, the provision that was made
for the happiness of both; he that made him
took care to make him happy, if he could
but have kept himself so and known when
he was well off. That part of man by which
he is allied to the world of sense was made
happy; for he was put in the paradise of
God: that part by which he is allied to the
world of spirits was well provided for; for
he was taken into covenant with God. Lord,
what is man that he should be thus dignified–man
that is a worm! Here we have,
I. A description of the garden of
Eden, which was intended for the mansion and
demesne of this great lord, the palace of this
prince. The inspired penman, in this history,
writing for the Jews first, and calculating
his narratives for the infant state of
the church, describes things by their outward
sensible appearances, and leaves us,
by further discoveries of the divine light, to
be led into the understanding of the mysteries
couched under them. Spiritual things
were strong meat, which they could not yet
bear; but he writes to them as unto carnal,
Therefore he does not so much
insist upon the happiness of Adam’s mind as
upon that of his outward state. The Mosaic
history, as well as the Mosaic law, has
rather the patterns of heavenly things than
the heavenly things themselves,
Observe,
1. The place appointed for Adam’s residence
was a garden; not an ivory house nor
a palace overlaid with gold, but a garden,
furnished and adorned by nature, not by art.
What little reason have men to be proud of
stately and magnificent buildings, when it
was the happiness of man in innocency that
he needed none! As clothes came in with
sin, so did houses. The heaven was the roof
of Adam’s house, and never was any roof so
curiously ceiled and painted. The earth was
his floor, and never was any floor so richly
inlaid. The shadow of the trees was his
retirement; under them were his
dining-rooms, his lodging-rooms, and never were any
rooms so finely hung as these: Solomon’s,
in all their glory, were not arrayed like them.
The better we can accommodate ourselves to
plain things, and the less we indulge ourselves
with those artificial delights which
have been invented to gratify men’s pride and
luxury, the nearer we approach to a state of
innocency. Nature is content with a little
and that which is most natural, grace with
less, but lust with nothing.
2. The contrivance and furniture of this
garden were the immediate work of God’s
wisdom and power. The Lord God planted
this garden, that is, he had planted it–upon
the third day, when the fruits of the earth
were made. We may well suppose to have
been the most accomplished place for pleasure
and delight that ever the sun saw, when the
all-sufficient God himself designed it to be
the present happiness of his beloved creature,
man, in innocency, and a type and a figure
of the happiness of the chosen remnant in
glory. No delights can be agreeable nor satisfying
to a soul but those that God himself
has provided and appointed for it; no true
paradise, but of God’s planting. The light
of our own fires, and the sparks of our own
kindling, will soon leave us in the dark,
The whole earth was now a paradise
compared with what it is since the fall and
since the flood; the finest gardens in the
world are a wilderness compared with what
the whole face of the ground was before it
was cursed for man’s sake: yet that was not
enough; God planted a garden for Adam.
God’s chosen ones shall have distinguishing
favours shown them.
3. The situation of this garden was extremely
sweet. It was in Eden, which signifies
delight and pleasure. The place is here
particularly pointed out by such marks and
bounds as were sufficient, I suppose, when
Moses wrote, to specify the place to those
who knew that country; but now, it seems,
the curious cannot satisfy themselves concerning
it. Let it be our care to make sure
a place in the heavenly paradise, and then
we need not perplex ourselves with a search
after the place of the earthly paradise. It is
certain that, wherever it was, it had all desirable
conveniences, and (which never any
house nor garden on earth was) without any
inconvenience. Beautiful for situation, the
joy and the glory of the whole earth, was this
garden: doubtless it was earth in its highest
perfection.
4. The trees with which this garden was
planted.
(1.) It had all the best and choicest
trees in common with the rest of the ground.
It was beautiful and adorned with every tree
that, for its height or breadth, its make or
colour, its leaf or flower, was pleasant to the
sight and charmed the eye; it was replenished
and enriched with every tree that yielded
fruit grateful to the taste and useful to the
body, and so good for food. God, as a tender
Father, consulted not only Adam’s profit,
but his pleasure; for there is a pleasure
consistent with innocency, nay, there is a true
and transcendent pleasure in innocency.
God delights in the prosperity of his servants,
and would have them easy; it is owing to
themselves if they be uneasy. When Providence
puts us into an Eden of plenty and
pleasure, we ought to serve him with joyfulness
and gladness of heart, in the abundance
of the good things he gives us. But,
(2.) It
had two extraordinary trees peculiar to itself;
on earth there were not their like.
[1.] There was the tree of life in the midst of the
garden, which was not so much a memorandum
to him of the fountain and author of his
life, nor perhaps any natural means to preserve
or prolong life; but it was chiefly intended
to be a sign and seal to Adam, assuring
him of the continuance of life and
happiness, even to immortality and everlasting
bliss, through the grace and favour of
his Maker, upon condition of his perseverance
in this state of innocency and obedience.
Of this he might eat and live. Christ
is now to us the tree of life
and the bread of life,
John vi. 48, 53.
[2.] There was the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, so called, not because it had
any virtue in it to beget or increase useful
knowledge (surely then it would not have
been forbidden), but, First, Because there
was an express positive revelation of the
will of God concerning this tree, so that by
it he might know moral good and evil. What
is good? It is good not to eat of this tree.
What is evil? It is evil to eat of this tree.
The distinction between all other moral good
and evil was written in the heart of man by
nature; but this, which resulted from a positive
law, was written upon this tree. Secondly,
Because, in the event, it proved to
give Adam an experimental knowledge of
good by the loss of it and of evil by the
sense of it. As the covenant of grace has in
it, not only Believe and be saved, but also,
Believe not and be damned
(Mark xvi. 16),
so the covenant of innocency had in it, not only
“Do this and live,” which was sealed and
confirmed by the tree of life, but, “Fail and
die,” which Adam was assured of by this
other tree: “Touch it at your peril;” so that,
in these two trees, God set before him good and
evil, the blessing and the curse,
Deut. xxx. 19.
These two trees were as two sacraments.
5. The rivers with which this garden was
watered,
These four rivers (or
one river branched into four streams) contributed
much both to the pleasantness and
the fruitfulness of this garden. The land of
Sodom is said to be well watered every where,
as the garden of the Lord,
ch. xiii. 10.
Observe, That which God plants he will take
care to keep watered. The trees of righteousness
are set by the rivers,
In the
heavenly paradise there is a river infinitely
surpassing these; for it is a river of the
water of life, not coming out of Eden, as this,
but proceeding out of the throne of God and
of the Lamb
(Rev. xxii. 1),
a river that makes
glad the city of our God,
Ps. xlvi. 4.
Hiddekel and Euphrates are rivers of Babylon, which
we read of elsewhere. By these the captive
Jews sat down and wept, when they remembered
Sion
but methinks
they had much more reason to weep (and so
have we) at the remembrance of Eden.
Adam’s paradise was their prison; such
wretched work has sin made. Of the land
of Havilah it is said
(v. 12),
The gold of that
land is good, and there is bdellium and the
onyx-stone: surely this is mentioned that the
wealth of which the land of Havilah boasted
might be as foil to that which was the glory
of the land of Eden. Havilah had gold, and
spices, and precious stones; but Eden had
that which was infinitely better, the tree of
life, and communion with God. So we may
say of the Africans and Indians: “They have
the gold, but we have the gospel. The gold
of their land is good, but the riches of ours
are infinitely better.”
II. The placing of man in this paradise of
delight,
where observe,
1. How God put him in possession of it:
The Lord God took the man, and put him into
the garden of Eden; so
Note here,
(1.) Man was made out of paradise; for, after
God had formed him, he put him into the
garden: he was made of common clay, not
of paradise-dust. He lived out of Eden before
he lived in it, that he might see that all
the comforts of his paradise-state were owing
to God’s free grace. He could not plead a
tenant-right to the garden, for he was not
born upon the premises, nor had any thing
but what he received; all boasting was hereby
for ever excluded.
(2.) The same God that
was the author of his being was the author
of his bliss; the same hand that made him a
living soul planted the tree of life for him,
and settled him by it. He that made us is
alone able to make us happy; he that is the
former of our bodies and the Father of our
spirits, he, and none but he, can effectually
provide for the felicity of both.
(3.) It adds
much to the comfort of any condition if we
have plainly seen God going before us and
putting us into it. If we have not forced
providence, but followed it, and taken the
hints of direction it has given us, we may
hope to find a paradise where otherwise we
could not have expected it. See
2. How God appointed him business and
employment. He put him there, not like
Leviathan into the waters, to play therein,
but to dress the garden and to keep it. Paradise
itself was not a place of exemption
from work. Note, here,
(1.) We were none
of us sent into the world to be idle. He that
made us these souls and bodies has given us
something to work with; and he that gave us
this earth for our habitation has made us
something to work on. If a high extraction,
or a great estate, or a large dominion, or
perfect innocency, or a genius for pure contemplation,
or a small family, could have
given a man a writ of ease, Adam would not
have been set to work; but he that gave us
being has given us business, to serve him and
our generation, and to work out our salvation:
if we do not mind our business, we are
unworthy of our being and maintenance.
(2.) Secular employments will vary well consist
with a state of innocency and a life of
communion with God. The sons and heirs
of heaven, while they are here in this world,
have something to do about this earth, which
must have its share of their time and thoughts;
and, if they do it with an eye to God, they
are as truly serving him in it as when they
are upon their knees.
(3.) The husbandman’s
calling is an ancient and honourable
calling; it was needful even in paradise.
The garden of Eden, though it needed not
to be weeded (for thorns and thistles were
not yet a nuisance), yet must be dressed and
kept. Nature, even in its primitive state,
left room for the improvements of art and
industry. It was a calling fit for a state of
innocency, making provision for life, not for
lust, and giving man an opportunity of admiring
the Creator and acknowledging his
providence: while his hands were about his
trees, his heart might be with his God.
(4.) There is a true pleasure in the business which
God calls us to, and employs us in. Adam’s
work was so far from being an allay that it
was an addition to the pleasures of paradise;
he could not have been happy if he had
been idle: it is still a law, He that will not
work has no right to eat,
2 Thess. iii. 10; Prov. xxvii. 23.
III. The command which God gave to
man in innocency, and the covenant he then
took him into. Hitherto we have seen God
as man’s powerful Creator and his bountiful
Benefactor; now he appears as his Ruler and
Lawgiver. God put him into the garden of
Eden, not to live there as he might list, but
to be under government. As we are not
allowed to be idle in this world, and to do
nothing, so we are not allowed to be wilful,
and do what we please. When God had
given man a dominion over the creatures, he
would let him know that still he himself was
under the government of his Creator.
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16 And the LORD God commanded
the man, saying, Of every tree of the
garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of
it: for in the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die.
Observe here,
I. God’s authority over man,
as a creature that had reason and freedom of
will. The Lord God commanded the man,
who stood now as a public person, the father
and representative of all mankind, to receive
law, as he had lately received a nature, for
himself and all his. God commanded all the
creatures, according to their capacity; the
settled course of nature is a law,
The brute-creatures have their
respective instincts; but man was made capable
of performing reasonable service, and
therefore received, not only the command of
a Creator, but the command of a Prince and
Master. Though Adam was a very great
man, a very good man, and a very happy
man, yet the Lord God commanded him;
and the command was no disparagement to
his greatness, no reproach to his goodness,
nor any diminution at all to his happiness.
Let us acknowledge God’s right to rule us,
and our own obligations to be ruled by him;
and never allow any will of our own in contradiction
to, or competition with, the holy
will of God.
II. The particular act of this authority, in
prescribing to him what he should do, and
upon what terms he should stand with his
Creator. Here is,
1. A confirmation of his present happiness
to him, in that grant, Of every tree in
the garden thou mayest freely eat. This was
not only an allowance of liberty to him, in
taking the delicious fruits of paradise, as a
recompence for his care and pains in dressing
and keeping it
but it
was, withal, an assurance of life to him, immortal
life, upon his obedience. For the
tree of life being put in the midst of the garden
(v. 9),
as the heart and soul of it, doubtless
God had an eye to that especially in this
grant; and therefore when, upon his revolt,
this grant is recalled, no notice is taken of
any tree of the garden as prohibited to him,
except the tree of life
(ch. iii. 22),
of which it
is there said he might have eaten and lived
for ever, that is, never died, nor ever lost his
happiness. “Continue holy as thou art, in
conformity to thy Creator’s will, and thou
shalt continue happy as thou art in the enjoyment
of thy Creator’s favour, either in this
paradise or in a better.” Thus, upon condition
of perfect personal and perpetual obedience,
Adam was sure of paradise to himself
and his heirs for ever.
2. A trial of his obedience, upon pain of
the forfeiture of all his happiness: “But of
the other tree which stood very near the tree
of life (for they are both said to be in the
midst of the garden), and which was called
the tree of knowledge, in the day thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die;” as if he had
said, “Know, Adam, that thou art now
upon thy good behaviour, thou art put into
paradise upon trial; be observant, be obedient,
and thou art made for ever; otherwise
thou wilt be as miserable as now thou art
happy.” Here,
(1.) Adam is threatened with death in case
of disobedience: Dying thou shalt die, denoting
a sure and dreadful sentence, as, in
the former part of this covenant, eating thou
shalt eat, denotes a free and full grant. Observe
[1.] Even Adam, in innocency, was
awed with a threatening; fear is one of the
handles of the soul, by which it is taken hold
of and held. If he then needed this hedge,
much more do we now.
[2.] The penalty
threatened is death: Thou shalt die, that is,
“Thou shalt be debarred from the tree of
life, and all the good that is signified by it,
all the happiness thou hast, either in possession
or prospect; and thou shalt become
liable to death, and all the miseries that preface
it and attend it.”
[3.] This was
threatened as the immediate consequence of
sin: In the day thou eatest, thou shalt die,
that is, “Thou shalt become mortal and
capable of dying; the grant of immortality
shall be recalled, and that defence shall depart
from thee. Thou shalt become obnoxious
to death, like a condemned malefactor
that is dead in the law” (only, because Adam
was to be the root of mankind, he was reprieved);
“nay, the harbingers and forerunners
of death shall immediately seize thee,
and thy life, thenceforward, shall be a dying
life: and this, surely; it is a settled rule, the
soul that sinneth, it shall die.“
(2.) Adam is tried with a positive law, not
to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
Now it was very proper to make trial of his
obedience by such a command as this,
[1.] Because the reason of it is fetched purely
from the will of the Law-maker. Adam had
in his nature an aversion to that which was
evil in itself, and therefore he is tried in a
thing which was evil only because it was
forbidden; and, being in a small thing, it
was the more fit to prove his obedience by.
[2.] Because the restraint of it is laid upon
the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
which, in the corrupt nature of man, are the
two great fountains of sin. This prohibition
checked both his appetite towards sensitive
delights and his ambitions of curious knowledge,
that his body might be ruled by his
soul and his soul by his God.
Thus easy, thus happy, was man in a state
of innocency, having all that heart could
wish to make him so. How good was God
to him! How many favours did he load
him with! How easy were the laws he gave
him! How kind the covenant he made with
him! Yet man, being in honour, understood
not his own interest, but soon became
as the beasts that perish.
| Adam’s Dominion. | B. C. 4004. |
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18 And the LORD God said, It is
not good that the man should be
alone; I will make him an help meet
for him.
19 And out of the ground
the LORD God formed every beast of
the field, and every fowl of the air;
and brought them unto Adam to see
what he would call them: and whatsoever
Adam called every living creature,
that was the name thereof.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle,
and to the fowl of the air, and to
every beast of the field; but for Adam
there was not found an help meet for
him.
Here we have,
I. An instance of the
Creator’s care of man and his fatherly concern
for his comfort,
Though God
had let him know that he was a subject, by
giving him a command,
(v. 16, 17),
yet here
he lets him know also, for his encouragement
in his obedience, that he was a friend,
and a favourite, and one whose satisfaction
he was tender of. Observe,
1. How God graciously pitied his solitude:
It is not good that man, this man,
should be alone. Though there was an upper
world of angels and a lower world of brutes,
and he between them, yet there being none
of the same nature and rank of beings with
himself, none that he could converse familiarly
with, he might be truly said to be
alone. Now he that made him knew both
him and what was good for him, better than
he did himself, and he said, “It is not good
that he should continue thus alone.”
(1.) It
is not for his comfort; for man is a sociable
creature. It is a pleasure to him to exchange
knowledge and affection with those of his
own kind, to inform and to be informed, to
love and to be beloved. What God here
says of the first man Solomon says of all
men
&c.), that two are better than
one, and woe to him that is alone. If there
were but one man in the world, what a melancholy
man must he needs be! Perfect
solitude would turn a paradise into a desert,
and a palace into a dungeon. Those therefore
are foolish who are selfish and would be
place alone in the earth.
(2.) It is not for
the increase and continuance of his kind.
God could have made a world of men at first,
to replenish the earth, as he replenished
heaven with a world of angels: but the place
would have been too strait for the designed
number of men to live together at once;
therefore God saw fit to make up that number
by a succession of generations, which, as
God had formed man, must be from two,
and those male and female; one will be
ever one.
2. How God graciously resolved to provide
society for him. The result of this reasoning
concerning him was this kind resolution,
I will make a help-meet for him; a help like
him (so some read it), one of the same nature
and the same rank of beings; a help near him
(so others), one to cohabit with him, and to
be always at hand; a help before him (so
others), one that he should look upon with
pleasure and delight. Note hence,
(1.) In
our best state in this world we have need of
one another’s help; for we are members one
of another, and the eye cannot say to the hand,
I have no need of thee,
1 Cor. xii. 21.
We must therefore be glad to receive help from
others, and give help to others, as there is
occasion.
(2.) It is God only who perfectly
knows our wants, and is perfectly able to
supply them all,
In him alone
our help is, and from him are all our helpers.
(3.) A suitable wife is a help-meet, and is
from the Lord. The relation is then likely
to be comfortable when meetness directs and
determines the choice, and mutual helpfulness
is the constant care and endeavour,
(4.) Family-society, if it is agreeable,
is a redress sufficient for the grievance
of solitude. He that has a good God, a good
heart, and a good wife, to converse with, and
yet complains he wants conversation, would
not have been easy and content in paradise;
for Adam himself had no more: yet, even
before Eve was created, we do not find that
he complained of being alone, knowing that
he was not alone, for the Father was with him.
Those that are most satisfied in God and his
favour are in the best way, and in the best
frame, to receive the good things of this life,
and shall be sure of them, as far as Infinite
Wisdom sees good.
II. An instance of the creatures’ subjection
to man, and his dominion over them
(v. 19, 20):
Every beast of the field and every fowl of the
air God brought to Adam, either by the ministry
of angels, or by a special instinct,
directing them to come to man as their master,
teaching the ox betimes to know his
owner. Thus God gave man livery and seisin
of the fair estate he had granted him, and
put him in possession of his dominion over
the creatures. God brought them to him,
that he might name them, and so might give,
1. A proof of his knowledge, as a creature
endued with the faculties both of reason and
speech, and so taught more than the beasts of
the earth and made wiser than the fowls of
heaven,
Job xxxv. 11.
And,
2. A proof of
his power. It is an act of authority to impose
names
(Dan. i. 7),
and of subjection to
receive them. The inferior creatures did now,
as it were, do homage to their prince at his
inauguration, and swear fealty and allegiance
to him. If Adam had continued faithful to
his God, we may suppose the creatures themselves
would so well have known and remembered
the names Adam now gave them
as to have come at his call, at any time, and
answered to their names. God gave names
to the day and night, to the firmament, to
the earth, and to the sea; and he calleth the
stars by their names, to show that he is the
supreme Lord of these. But he gave Adam
leave to name the beasts and fowls, as their
subordinate lord; for, having made him in
his own image, he thus put some of his honour
upon him.
III. An instance of the creatures’ insufficiency
to be a happiness for man: But (among
them all) for Adam there was not found a help
meet for him. Some make these to be the
words of Adam himself; observing all the
creatures come to him by couples to be named,
he thus intimates his desire to his Maker:–“Lord,
these have all helps meet for them;
but what shall I do? Here is never a one
for me.” It is rather God’s judgment upon
the review. He brought them all together,
to see if there were ever a suitable match for
Adam in any of the numerous families of the
inferior creatures; but there was none. Observe
here,
1. The dignity and excellency of
the human nature. On earth there was not
its like, nor its peer to be found among all
visible creatures; they were all looked over,
but it could not be matched among them all.
2. The vanity of this world and the things of
it; put them all together, and they will not
make a help-meet for man. They will not
suit the nature of his soul, nor supply its
needs, nor satisfy its just desires, nor run
parallel with its never-failing duration. God
creates a new thing to be a help-meet for
man–not so much the woman as the seed
of the woman.
| The Formation of Eve; Marriage Instituted. | B. C. 4004. |
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21 And the LORD 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;
22 And the rib, which the LORD
God had taken from man, made he
a woman, and brought her unto the
man.
23 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.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother, and shall
cleave unto his wife: and they shall
be one flesh.
25 And they were
both naked, the man and his wife,
and were not ashamed.
Here we have,
I. The making of the woman,
to be a help-meet for Adam. This was
done upon the sixth day, as was also the
placing of Adam in paradise, though it is
here mentioned after an account of the seventh
day’s rest; but what was said in general
(ch. i. 27),
that God made man male and female,
is more distinctly related here. Observe,
1. That Adam was first formed, then
Eve
and she was made of the
man, and for the man
all which are urged there as reasons for the humility,
modesty, silence, and submissiveness,
of that sex in general, and particularly the
subjection and reverence which wives owe to
their own husbands. Yet man being made
last of the creatures, as the best and most
excellent of all, Eve’s being made after Adam,
and out of him, puts an honour upon that
sex, as the glory of the man,
If man is the head, she is the crown, a crown to
her husband, the crown of the visible creation.
The man was dust refined, but the woman
was dust double-refined, one remove further
from the earth.
2. That Adam slept while
his wife was in making, that no room might
be left to imagine that he had herein directed
the Spirit of the Lord, or been his counsellor,
Isa. xl. 13.
He had been made sensible of
his want of a meet help; but, God having
undertaken to provide him one, he does not
afflict himself with any care about it, but lies
down and sleeps sweetly, as one that had cast
all his care on God, with a cheerful resignation
of himself and all his affairs to his
Maker’s will and wisdom. Jehovah-jireh,
let the Lord provide when and whom he
pleases. If we graciously rest in God, God
will graciously work for us and work all for
good.
3. That God caused a sleep to fall on
Adam, and made it a deep sleep, that so the
opening of his side might be no grievance to
him; while he knows no sin, God will take
care he shall feel no pain. When God, by
his providence, does that to his people which
is grievous to flesh and blood, he not only
consults their happiness in the issue, but by
his grace he can so quiet and compose their
spirits as to make them easy under the
sharpest operations.
4. That the woman
was made of a rib out of the side of Adam;
not made out of his head to rule over him,
nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by
him, but out of his side to be equal with him,
under his arm to be protected, and near his
heart to be beloved. Adam lost a rib, and
without any diminution to his strength or
comeliness (for, doubtless, the flesh was closed
without a scar); but in lieu thereof he had a
help meet for him, which abundantly made
up his loss: what God takes away from his
people he will, one way or other, restore with
advantage. In this (as in many other things)
Adam was a figure of him that was to come;
for out of the side of Christ, the second
Adam, his spouse the church was formed,
when he slept the sleep, the deep sleep, of
death upon the cross, in order to which his
side was opened, and there came out blood
and water, blood to purchase his church and
water to purify it to himself. See
II. The marriage of the woman to Adam.
Marriage is honourable, but this surely was
the most honourable marriage that ever was,
in which God himself had all along an immediate
hand. Marriages (they say) are
made in heaven: we are sure this was, for
the man, the woman, the match, were all
God’s own work; he, by his power, made
them both, and now, by his ordinance, made
them one. This was a marriage made in
perfect innocency, and so was never any
marriage since,
1. God, as her Father,
brought the woman to the man, as his
second self, and a help-meet for him. When
he had made her, he did not leave her to
her own disposal; no, she was his child, and
she must not marry without his consent.
Those are likely to settle to their comfort
who by faith and prayer, and a humble dependence
upon providence, put themselves
under a divine conduct. That wife that is
of God’s making by special grace, and of
God’s bringing by special providence, is
likely to prove a help-meet for a man.
2. From God, as his Father, Adam received her
(v. 23):
“This is now bone of my bone. Now
I have what I wanted, and which all the
creatures could not furnish me with, a help
meet for me.” God’s gifts to us are to be
received with a humble thankful acknowledgment
of his wisdom in suiting them to
us, and his favour in bestowing them on us.
Probably it was revealed to Adam in a vision,
when he was asleep, that this lovely creature,
now presented to him, was a piece of himself,
and was to be his companion and the
wife of his covenant. Hence some have
fetched an argument to prove that glorified
saints in the heavenly paradise shall know
one another. Further, in token of his acceptance
of her, he gave her a name, not
peculiar to her, but common to her sex:
She shall be called woman, Isha, a she-man,
differing from man in sex only, not in nature–made
of man, and joined to man.
III. The institution of the ordinance of
marriage, and the settling of the law of it,
The sabbath and marriage were two
ordinances instituted in innocency, the
former for the preservation of the church,
the latter for the preservation of the world of
mankind. It appears (by
that it was God himself who said here, “A
man must leave all his relations, to cleave
to his wife;” but whether he spoke it by
Moses, the penman, or by Adam (who spoke,
v. 23),
is uncertain. It should seem, they
are the words of Adam, in God’s name,
laying down this law to all his posterity.
1. See here how great the virtue of a divine ordinance
is; the bonds of it are stronger even
than those of nature. To whom can we be
more firmly bound than the fathers that
begat us and the mothers that bore us? Yet
the son must quit them, to be joined to his
wife, and the daughter forget them, to cleave
to her husband,
2. See how
necessary it is that children should take their
parents’ consent along with them in their
marriage, and how unjust those are to their
parents, as well as undutiful, who marry
without it; for they rob them of their right
to them, and interest in them, and alienate
it to another, fraudulently and unnaturally.
3. See what need there is both of prudence
and prayer in the choice of this relation,
which is so near and so lasting. That had
need be well done which is to be done for
life.
4. See how firm the bond of marriage
is, not to be divided and weakened by
having many wives
nor to be
broken or cut off by divorce, for any cause
but fornication, or voluntary desertion.
5. See how dear the affection ought to be between
husband and wife, such as there is to
our own bodies,
These two are
one flesh; let them then be one soul.
IV. An evidence of the purity and innocency
of that state wherein our first parents
were created,
They were both naked.
They needed no clothes for defense against
cold nor heat, for neither could be injurious
to them. They needed none for ornament.
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like
one of these. Nay, they needed none for
decency; they were naked, and had no
reason to be ashamed. They knew not what
shame was, so the Chaldee reads it. Blushing
is now the colour of virtue, but it was not
then the colour of innocency. Those that
had no sin in their conscience might well
have no shame in their faces, though they
had no clothes to their backs.
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