The Badness of Aloneness

The Badness of Aloneness

(Genesis 2:18-25)

Yearly Theme:  “Goodness is… Great”

Series Title:  “Breaking Bad:  The Consequences of Sin”

February 11^th, 2024

Something to think about:

Loneliness has become all too commonplace in a world with billions of people.  But this hasn’t always been the case.  There was a time when humans and GOD dwelt in perfect community together, unencumbered by insecurities, formalities, or insincerity.  All was well and all was good.  But how did this original perfect community come about, and how do we return to the type of community GOD originally created us for?  Let’s take a look at the creation account in Genesis 2 to find out…

Genesis 2:18-25 (NLT),

¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” ¹⁹ So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man^* to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. ²⁰ He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.

²¹ So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs^* and closed up the opening. ²² Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.

²³ “At last!” the man exclaimed.

“This one is bone from my bone,

and flesh from my flesh!

She will be called ‘woman,’

because she was taken from ‘man.’ ”

²⁴ This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.

²⁵ Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.

Here’s the point…

Key Point:  “A lack of community is not good.”

What was GOD’s solution to man’s aloneness?  Let’s break it down:

• The problem:   .

Genesis 2:18 (NLT),  Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”

• A solution:   .

Genesis 2:19-20 (NLT),  ¹⁹ So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky.  He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one.  ²⁰ He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals.  But still there was no helper just right for him.

• The solution:   .

Genesis 2:21-24 (NLT),  ²¹ So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep.  While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening.  ²² Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.

²³ “At last!” the man exclaimed.

“This one is bone from my bone,

and flesh from my flesh!

She will be called ‘woman,’

because she was taken from ‘man.’ ”

²⁴ This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.

Something to take home:

Armand M. Nicholi, M.D., professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, explains that,

“Sigmund Freud died at the age of 83, a bitter and disillusioned man.  Tragically, this Viennese physician, one of the most influential thinkers of our time, had little compassion for the common person.

“Freud wrote in 1918, ‘I have found little that is good about human beings on the whole.  In my experience, most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or to none at all’ (Veritas Reconsidered, p. 36).

“Freud died friendless.  It is well-known that he had broken with each of his followers.  The end was bitter.”[1]

This is a sad testimony of the reality of many people’s lives.  To die lost and alone is such a tragic epithet of the human condition.  How do we get back to a sense of community the way GOD intended, and change the course of this horrible narrative?  GOD provided a way.  As a matter of fact, GOD provided the Way, the Truth, and the Life:  Jesus.  The Apostle Paul explains how community is reestablished in Ephesians as he writes,

Ephesians 4:2-6 (NLT),  ²  Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.  ³  Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.  ⁴  For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.  ⁵  There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶  and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.

^* 2:19 Or Adam, and so throughout the chapter.

^* 2:21 Or took a part of the man’s side.

[1] “Discoveries,” Summer, 1991, Vol. 2, No. 3, p. 1.