OPEN: At Sunday School, they were teaching about how God created the world. And little Johnny was intrigued when he heard that Eve had been created out of one of Adam's ribs. Later in the week, Johnny complained to his mother that he was experiencing pain, and his mom asked: "Well, Johnny, where is the pain at?" He replied, "I have a pain in my side…. I think I'm gonna to have a wife."
Genesis 2 tells us HOW God created Adam and Eve. Adam was created from the dust of the earth, and God breathed into him the breath of life. THEN God created Eve from one of the ribs in Adam’s side.
ILLUS: Sometime back, Scott (our Family Minister) says a person argued that the Bible was false because men had the same number of ribs as women did. And so… if God removed a rib from Adam’s side, men should be missing a rib.
Now he was right. The vast majority of MEN & WOMEN… are born with 24 ribs. But there are exceptions to this rule. There are times when people have too many ribs or too few. According to one source: One out of 20 people are born with an extra rib (about 5% of the population). So, it does happen.
Now, the man’s facts WERE right… as a rule, men have the same number of ribs as women - but his reasoning was faulty. The Bible never says that ALL men lack a rib… ONLY Adam lost a rib.
So, why did God do it this way? Why make Eve from one of Adam’s ribs? Why not just make her from the dust of the earth like He did Adam? Well, I can think of a few reasons:
For example: I believe God did this so that Adam would realize that this woman was a SPECIAL creation. There was nothing on earth that like her… anywhere.
Just before God performed this surgery on Adam… God said "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. Genesis 2:18-19
Why would God have Adam do that? Why have Adam NAME all the animals? Couldn’t God have had one of the angels do that? Did God REALLY need Adam’s help in naming animals? No… I don’t think so!
Notice - Adam being asked to name the animals - came right AFTER God said it was not good for the man to be alone. And it was then that God asked Adam to name the animals. And RIGHT AFTER Adam names the animals – that’s when God removes the rib and forms Eve.
Now, I think God had Adam go through this long process of looking at/ and naming every creature God had created to drive home a point: And the point was this: “ADAM there’s nothing on earth … like what I’m going to create next” This woman (Eve) is going to be the crowning achievement of God’s creation.
Now, this sermon series is entitled “The Healthy Family”, and today’s sermon is focused on “The Heathy Husband.” Today we’re looking at Adam (the first man – perfectly created by God) to see what a healthy husband should be like
And the first thing about a healthy husband is that he should recognize that there’s nothing like the woman he’s married. Ephesians 5:25-29 says it this way: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.”
A healthy husband should treat his wife as the most important thing God did for him. And Adam recognized that… and that’s why he said “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23). Adam was saying: “There’s nothing on earth like this woman!!!! (my wife)
But why not just form Eve out of the dust of the ground. Why take one of Adam’s ribs? Well (I believe) it was because God wanted Adam to be invested in Eve. This was Adam’s rib… it had belonged to him! Now Eve is PART OF ADAM. They were literally ONE flesh.
And that’s exactly what Genesis says: The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’, for she was taken out of man." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become ONE FLESH. Genesis 2:23-24
So, a healthy husband should regard his wife as precious to him. SHE IS PART OF HIM. In fact, she is most important person in his life (except God)
ILLUS: BUT… how do you do that? How does a healthy husband show his wife she’s important to him? Part of him? Well, someone put together 10 commandments for husbands
“1. Thou shalt not take thy wife for granted, but will honour and respect her; 2. Thy highest allegiance, except God, shall be to thy wife, not thy relatives or friends; 3. Thou shalt frequently tell thy wife how precious and valuable she is to thee; 4. Thou shalt hold onto thy wife’s love by the same actions and words that thou used to win her; 5. Thou shalt buy her little gifts every week or so; 6. Remember to do all the little things for thy wife when thou saidst thou would; 7. Keep thine eyes on thy own wife, not on thy neighbors; 8. Thou shalt make every effort to see things from thy wife’s point of view; 9. Thou shalt not fail to kiss thy wife every morning; 10. Thou shalt not be stingy with thy wife when it comes to money.”
Now, you can feel free to make up and add your own commandments to this list, but the whole point of these 10 commandments is to suggest ways that you can let your wife know that she is important to you. Ways to let her know - you think about her, and that you love her.
So 1st, a healthy husband should view his wife as “one of his bones/ flesh of his flesh. There’s nothing on the earth that is quite like her. And 2nd – he must find ways to show her that she is precious to him.
THIRD… he should do everything he can to protect her.
Matthew Henry was a famous Bible Scholar and he wrote: “The woman was made from a rib from the side of Adam; not made from his head to rule over him, nor from his feet to be trampled upon by him… but from under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”
Matthew Henry said: Eve was created “from under his arm to be PROTECTED.” And that’s the primary function of men for their wives… protect their wives. 1 Peter 3:7 says “Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”
Weaker vessel? Jeff, do you mean to say that women are weaker than men? Actually, I didn’t… God did!
There’s a lot of people who regard that statement (weaker vessel) as being patronizing and paternalistic. They will say that if you believe a woman is weaker in any way you are relegating women a status of “2nd class citizens.”
Many in our world would be appalled!!! (They’ll say) “NO!!! Women are the equal of any man!”
But that’s just not true… and I can prove it. Do you recognize this MAN? He calls himself “Lia Thomas.” And Lia (a man pretending to be a woman) has won numerous swimming competitions against REAL women athletes. And he has had some of the fastest swim times on the woman’s college circuit.
Now, did I say that… HE’S A GUY! And being a guy was the only way he was able to win these contests against women. Someone noted that in competition against 500 men, he’d place somewhere in the middle of the pack. He wouldn’t win, place OR show - he wouldn’t be good enough.
The fact that LIA could even compete in women’s sports was because of our culture’s commitment to the concept that men and women are EQUAL. But they’re NOT!!!! Men and women are NOT EQUAL. They’re different. That doesn’t mean that men are BETTER, it just means the sexes aren’t EQUAL. They’re Different!!!!
ILLUS: Dr. Jordan Peterson – is a Behavioral Psychologist (he deals with people’s personalities). He says over the past 30 years, psychologists have studied the differences between the sexes. With about 75% accuracy they see there ARE differences.
One of the primary differences has to do with the fact that men are generally more interested in things than in people, that’s why most engineers are men (even in egalitarian societies like Norway). By contrast, women are generally more interested in people and relationships–that’s why (even in egalitarian societies) most nurses are women. That’s the profession they seem to prefer.
This shows itself in even smaller ways. For example, if you ask a man how old his child… he’ll pull up a calendar in his mind and start thinking about what YEAR that child was born. If you were to ask the age of my son Jonathan, I’d pull up a mental picture of the year (1994) and I’d do the math. But if you ask a woman how old her child was… she’d often tell about something that happened with her mother/ sister… it often seems that everything to be relational for women.
As another example - if a woman shares with her husband a problem they’re having… what’s he want to do? He wants to fix the problem. He’ll make all kinds of suggestions as to what the wife could do. Why? Because he’s focused on the THING that has to be done. But that’s not what she really wanted. When most women share a problem with their husband, they don’t want him to fix it… they want him to LISTEN to them. They want that relationship experience.
So there are fundamental differences between men and women. BUT one of the most prominent of those differences is the fact that – as a rule - women are weaker than men. And because women are weaker… they tend to be more vulnerable; more prone to being abused and attacked; more likely to be taken advantage of and sexually assaulted.
That’s why a husband should always protect their wives.
That’s also why the church should always protect their women. The Bible is very explicit about “taking care of the widows”… they’re weaker and more vulnerable.
Now that said, I want to address that’s always bothered me. There is a false teaching out there that has been embraced by atheists. They use this false concept to attack our God. That false teaching maintains that the Bible treats women like 2nd class citizens. It’s a prominent argument used by a lot of atheists (Richard Dawkins) to portray our God as uncaring and unloving of women.
Even some well-meaning Christians will echo that falsehood (that the Bible treats women like 2nd class citizens) without recognizing the ramifications of that statement.
I’ve heard this falsehood mentioned a lot of times when folks discuss Old Testament Laws because those Laws tend to treat women differently than men. And there are people (because of those differences) who see those laws as unfair to women. They believe those laws make women less valuable.
Now, (for the Christian) there’s a problem with that kind of thinking. Think about this – these Old Testament Laws - Who gave those laws to Israel? God did! So, if you maintain that the Bible devalues women, then you HAVE TO accept the idea that God doesn’t think much of women either. You have to believe that God must think women don’t have much value or worth.
And that runs counter to everything we know about God. God created both man AND WOMAN in His image. Women are God’s special creation. So, there’s something fundamentally wrong with the statement that “The Bible treats women as 2nd class citizens” because our God doesn’t THINK like that.
Think about this! If God tells MEN to protect their wives, and tells the church to protect its women… wouldn’t God also tell Israel to protect their women? Have you considered that the Old Testament laws regarding women were addressing God’s view of how women ought to be PROTECTED by society. Protected… NOT devalued! And if you start looking through the Old Testament Law with that lens/perspective it starts to make sense.
Because women are a more VULNERABLE group of people, God’s law (in part) was designed to protect them. Protecting women is an underlying teaching throughout the Bible. That’s why healthy husbands should protect their wives. And that’s why the church should always protect its women. Now, society’s not always going to do that (as evidenced by their treatment of Lia Thomas), but God’s people… and Godly husbands should.
Now lastly, God formed EVE from Adam’s rib so that husbands would see that their wives were a special creation of God. They belong to God.
Someone joked that: When God finished the creation of Adam, He stepped back, scratched His head and said, “I can do better than that.”
That’s a joke, but the truth of the matter is, after He created Adam, God knew that man was incomplete. He said “It’s not good for the man to be alone” Eve completed Adam. She was created BY GOD to be what Adam was not. She had qualities that Adam NEEDED in his life. She was not created to be Adam’s slave or servant. God took a rib from Adam’s side to show that Eve should walk beside him, and be his partner in life
God created Eve. Woman was God’s creation. They belong to Him. And that’s why God warns husbands with these words: “Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” I Peter 3:7
Did you catch that? God is warning the husband – If you mistreat your wife I won’t listen to your prayers. Your prayers will be hindered. God was saying: I created your wife… don’t go messing with my creation.
CLOSE: Interestingly enough, even the world notices when men take care of their wives. It’s a powerful witness to a culture that tries to erase differences between men and women.
ILLUS: Donald Nash (who’d been Professor at Kentucky Christian College - KCC) was once visiting the home of a family that he was talking to about joining the church. Getting out of the car, he went around to open the door for his wife and they went into the house. Over 30 years later, the once teenaged son of the family, brought HIS son to Kentucky Christian College to enroll him to be a preacher. Why did he bring his son to KCC? Because he had seen Nash open that door for his wife and was convinced that this was a man he could trust. Nash had shown he was a “nice man” (or a healthy husband) by how he treated his wife. And that stood out to that young man.
ILLUS: Fred Smith (former CEO of FedEx) talked of sitting at a donut shop and seeing a young farm couple sitting at the table next to his. The man was wearing overalls and she a gingham dress. After finishing their doughnuts, the man got up to pay the bill, and Smith said he noticed she didn’t get up to follow him. But THEN the husband came back and stood in front of her. She put her arms around his neck, and he lifted her up, revealing that she was wearing a full body brace. He lifted her out of her chair and backed out the front door to the pick up truck, with her hanging from his neck. As he gently put her into the truck, everyone in the shop watched. No one said anything until a waitress remarked, almost reverently, “He took his vows seriously.”
Even the world notices when a man loves his wife like that.
INVITATION
