Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper comparable to him.“
Genesis 2:20

Adam was able to see into the nature of the living creatures, observing their behaviour, witnessing their roles and purposes on the Earth, and name them for who they were. This took wisdom and great intelligence. As he named them, so they were named for eternity – which again makes me wonder how many of the names survived and whether we are calling them by their ‘proper’ names or if we’ll have a whole new schooling ahead of us once we’re face to face with the Lord.

This process was not so that God could see if any of the living creatures would qualify as a helper comparable in role to Adam. This was so that Adam could see that nothing without the likeness and image of God could possibly suit as helper and compatible/equal mate. Seeing each of the living creatures, male and female, perfectly suited to each other, would have drilled home the truth that they (Adam) had no separate and perfect mate.

The sage Steinsaltz teaches ‘The man called names for every animal, and for the birds of the heavens and for the beasts of the field; but after all the animals passed before him to receive their names, it became apparent that for Adam, he did not find a helper to be alongside him; there was no other human being. In a world without nomenclature, each entity was completely unique and uncategorized. The ability to categorize similar creatures into groups and species and apply names to them is contingent on the cognitive abilities of association. Before he began to use these faculties, it is possible that Adam was unaware that he was alone. He lived in a world without classification and considered himself to be just another one of a myriad of creatures. Once Adam began to categorize the types of vegetation and male and female animals, he became acutely aware of his aloneness, as he realized that none of the individual creatures he encountered was suitable for him.’