Can you imagine pairing a human with an elephant, or a horse, or an ant? They're just not suitable helpers for a human; they can't supply the support needed!In this passage in Genesis God has noticed that Adam is alone and that this is not good - there is a lack of completeness and something needs to be done. Adam needs a helper. The word helper is used in a few other places which will help us to understand that Adam's need is not for someone to do the washing up but to strengthen him and support him:
- Psalm 121:2 - "My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." - the help God provides in a crisis
- 2 Kings 14:26 - "The Lord has seen how bitterly everyone in Israel, whether slave or free, was suffering, there was no-one to help them." - the help given by an ally in war
In his hunt for a helper Adam names all the animals; this helps us to see how Adam is ruling over them whilst being under the rule of God.
A while back I promised you the Narnian account of the creation of the animals. As we consider the naming of the animals I thought it was a suitable time to do so...
Can you imagine a stretch of grassy land bubbling like water in a pot? For that is really the best description of what was happening. In all directions it was swelling into humps. They were of very different sizes, some no bigger than mole-hills, some as big as wheel-barrows, two the size of cottages. And the humps moved and swelled till they burst, and the crumbled earth poured out of them, and from each hump there came out an animal. The moles came out just as you might see a mole come out in England The dogs came out, barking the moment their heads were free, and struggling as you've seen them do when they are getting through a narrow hole in a hedge. The stags were the queerest to watch, for of course the antlers came up a long time before the rest of them, so at first Digory thought they were trees. The frogs, who all came up near the river, went straight into it with a plop-plop and a loud croaking. The panthers, leopards and things of that sort, sat down at once to wash the loose earth off their hind quarters and then stood up against the trees to sharpen their front claws. Showers of birds came out of the trees. Butterflies fluttered. Bees got to work on the flowers as if they didn't have a second to lose. But the greatest moment of all was when the biggest hump broke like a small earthquake and out came the sloping back , the large wise head, and the four baggy-trousered legs of an elephant. And now you could hardly hear the song of the Lion; there was so much cawing, cooing, crowing, braying, neighing, barking, lowing, bleating, and trumpeting.
