Daily Lesson for January 10, 2022

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 2 verses 18 through 23:

18 Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’ 19So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man* there was not found a helper as his partner. 21So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23Then the man said,

‘This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

this one shall be called Woman,*

for out of Man* this one was taken.’

I am interested in how you read this story.

Adam took it upon himself to name all the animals of the field and birds of the air. And when Eve was created, he took it upon himself to name her too. He named her "Woman" because she came from "Man".

But wasn't there something deeply problematic from the very beginning about defining a woman by the relation of the man in her life? Might not she have had the right to name herself?

Or, maybe she was just fine with it, and that's how it was with them. They were of an older generation, after all.

Anyhow, it's something to think on this morning. And at the very heart of the question is the fact that right at the very beginning -- "in the beginning" -- there is the matter of consent.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.