The Lord has told Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve is not there yet. Adam is still alone. In these circumstances, the Lord says, It is not good that the man should be alone.
This does not mean that something was wrong in God’s creation. The Lord is in the process of completing his creation. There is still something missing. The creation is not yet as the Lord had planned it. Something still has to happen on the sixth day before the Lord can say of his entire work of creation that he oversees, it was very good
(Genesis 1:31).
The man needs a helper who will suit him. Here the word helper
has, in no way, the connotation of inferiority. The Lord even uses the word helper
to describe himself. He does so when he calls himself the Helper (or help
) of his people. Examples are Exodus 18:4; Deuteronomy 33:7, Deuteronomy 33:26, Deuteronomy 33:29; Psalm 33:20; Psalm 124:8; Psalm 146:5. The point is that Adam is given someone with whom he can perform his task as the image of God together.
18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”