Seeing Jesus in Naming the Animals
When it comes to Adam naming the creatures God created to live in His creation, scientific study comes to the fore. Adam didn’t say to the parrot, “I shall name you Polly!” Or to the cow, “I’ll call you Daisy!” Or “Dobbin!” to the horse or “Fido!” to the dog! or Flipper! to the dolphin. No! He named the creatures according to their essence. He catalogued them each according to their kind. Why? Because that’s the way God made them. “Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind’; and it was so” (Gen. 1:24). Says John Frame,
God’s word interprets His creation. After he creates the light, we read that “God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night” (Gen. 1:5). Similarly in verses 8 and 10. Calling or naming in the ancient Near East was not merely labelling. These names were not arbitrary designators, or chosen merely for aesthetic reasons as we often choose names for our children. These names said something about the thing that was named. In giving names to his creatures, and later asking Adam to name the animals (2:19-20), God established a linguistic system in which the true nature of everything could be expressed. As he has by his plan preinterpreted all things, so in creation he applies that interpretation to the world and makes that interpretation authoritative for all creatures. That interpretation includes evaluation. God looks on his creations and declares them good (1:4, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31).[1]
Before
we look at “It is not good that man should be alone”, let us
mention in passing that fallen man has reinterpreted creation and the creatures
therein. “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and
served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen”
(Rom. 1:25). Therefore, it is best and far safer and more accurate to let God
interpret His own creation including His own written Word. Thus, Sola
Scriptura.
Now, we have already stated that the method that we are using to see Jesus in Genesis is a form of Biblical Theology. It is a method of using the Word incarnated to interpret the Word inscripturated. It is to let Scripture interpret Scripture. We have mentioned the words Sola Scriptura. Sola Scriptura means by Scripture alone. It came out of the Reformation. It asserts that the infallible Bible is the final authority when it comes to faith and Christian practice. Now, as we’ll see once we get into the thick of Adam naming the animals, Sola Scriptura also includes utilising church tradition, creeds, and historical theological insights when it comes to understanding Scripture.
Solo
Scriptura also goes by the name Nuda Scriptura, and, as
the name suggests, it means Bare Scripture. Like a cuckoo’s egg laid in an inattentive
and therefore an unsuspecting bird’s nest, Nuda Scriptura or Solo
Scriptura insists that the only rule of faith is Scripture alone while
rejecting all the Church’s historical creeds, confessions, and church
authority. It’s kind of an “every man for himself!” way of interpreting
Scripture. Thus, according to this approach, any Mr Magoo-like view of
Scripture is as good as any other.
No
doubt, these “nudists” will either ignore or pretend not to see the following
quote from the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 1, Of the Holy
Scripture, and what it says under sections 9 and 10,
9. The infallible
rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself: and therefore,
when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which
is not manifold, but one), it must be searched and known by other places that
speak more clearly.
10. The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.
By naming all the animals the LORD God
brought to him, he was going to see how alone he was. “But for Adam there was
not found a helper comparable to him.” Budgies are good company and chimps
would be a good help around the house and dogs may be man’s best friend, but
nothing compares. Only a woman will do. The LORD God was going to make a
comparable helper for Adam to help him bring God glory by accurately interpreting
God’s revelation of Himself in creation. We’ll see up ahead when we get to it, that
eating the forbidden fruit is related to Adam wanting to interpret creation his
own way and not God’s way. He wanted to determine for himself what was good and
what was evil apart from God’s preinterpretation. In other words, Adam sought autonomy
from God.
You’ll
remember that Adam already has the means of interpreting God’s revelation
wherever it is found in creation. For he already has God’s Word in his mind and
written on his heart. The character of God, as revealed in His Ten
Commandments, has already been written on his heart. This is a major aspect of
being created in God’s image and likeness. Therefore, Adam is able to utilise
the hermeneutic of the Word interpreting the Word, of which Sola Scriptura is
the post-Fall equivalent.
Let’s
not forget that before he lost it for himself and for all mankind, Adam had
true knowledge. Yes, like Jesus, the second Adam, before the Fall, the first Adam
was without sin, sin that seeped into and tainted every aspect of our being
when Adam sinned in the garden rebellion. Therefore, he would glorify God
simply by looking at His handiwork. He was invited by the LORD God (i.e., the
preincarnate Jesus) to look at the creatures He had created.
We
see revelation of their Creator even in simple sayings such as swift as a hawk,
strong as an ox, graceful as a gazelle, gentle as a dove, wise as an owl or a
serpent etc.
So,
where do we see Jesus in the naming of the animals? Well, He called Herod “that
fox” (Luke 13:32), and the Pharisees and religious people a “brood of vipers”,
snakes etc., but this is not what we mean.
The
Word “called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night” (Gen. 1:5), “called
the firmament Heaven” (1:8), “the dry land Earth, and the gathering
together of the waters He called Seas” (1:10), “He brings out the starry host
one by one and calls forth each of them by name” (Isa. 40:26). And just as the
first Adam named his wife Eve, so the last Adam named His bride, Sheep. “Know
that the LORD, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not
we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture” (Psa.
100:3). “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John
10:27). He calls us by name. Therefore, like Adam naming the creatures, He is
naming us.
When
Adam named the animals, he was looking below the surface. He knew what was in
them just as Jesus “knew what was in man” (John 2:25). Adam was learning how to
tell the difference between clean and unclean animals, just as Noah new the
difference when the LORD God sent them to him on the ark. “You shall take with
you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of
animals that are unclean, a male and his female” (Gen 7:2).
Why
would Adam need to know the difference between clean and unclean animals?
Because the clean animals were going to represent the Word who was going to
become flesh and become a life-giving sacrifice. “Then Noah built an altar to
the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered
burnt offerings on the altar” (Gen. 8:20). So, Adam naming the animals had to
do with Jesus laying down His life as a substitute to pay for our sins against
Him.
Peter
knew the difference too, “Peter … saw heaven opened and an object like a great
sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. In
it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping
things, and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and
eat.’ But Peter said, ‘Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or
unclean.’ And a voice spoke to him again the second time, ‘What God has cleansed
you must not call common’ This was done three times. And the object was taken
up into heaven again” (Acts 10:11-16).
Image from Web
Don’t
miss the LORD God’s Gospel message in the first animal sacrifice, “Also for
Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21).
And let’s not forget that when Adam named the creatures, he knew that none of
them were comparable to him. He knew that there need to be a perfect substitute,
a human substitute, a human representative, a covenant representative, to
represent him before God’s tribunal.
Therefore,
naming the animals was connected to the threat of death for eating the
forbidden fruit. It was related to the penalty. Adam, “You are of more value
than many sparrows” (Matt. 10:31). “With what shall I come before the LORD, and
bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with
calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, ten
thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Micah 6:6-7). Yes, Adam,
it is going to cost you the fruit of your body for the sin of your soul. “Now
Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as
was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli … the son
of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God”
(Luke 3:23, 38).
Are
you, like me, getting the impression that by Adam naming the animals he was
naming his own worth, including the worth of mankind that would descend from
him? “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his
own soul?” (Mark 8:36). By naming the animals Adam was not only learning about
them and their Creator, he was learning about the serious consequences of
disobeying the LORD God, for breaking His covenant. He was learning the meaning
of death. “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not
eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”
(Gen. 2:17b).
The
LORD God changed people’s names, such as naming Abram Abraham, Jacob Israel, Cephas
Peter, Saul Paul and all the rest. Harking back to His covering Adam and Eve with
skin from a proto-sheep, He named Himself “The Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world” (John 1:29b). This is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world” (Rev. 13:8b).
Yes,
when Adam named the animals, including the proto-sheep, we think of the verse, “He
was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as
a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He
opened not His mouth” (Isa. 53:7). However, with the penalty for eating the
forbidden fruit in mind, while applying it to Jesus, we think of Jeremiah
saying, “But I was like a docile lamb brought to the slaughter; and I
did not know that they had devised schemes against me, saying, ‘Let us
destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the
living, that his name may be remembered no more’” (Jer. 11:19).
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What
about the Word who became flesh naming people, cataloguing them each according
to their kind? “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast – all
whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was
slain from the creation of the world” (Rev. 13:8).
So,
we see Jesus the Lamb of God in Adam naming the animals. And we see that Adam could
tell the difference between the clean and the unclean, just as Jesus knew who
were His sheep, the ones He knew by name. “But you do not believe, because you
are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them,
and they follow Me” (John 10:27).
And
notice that Jesus, like Adam pre-Fall, can tell the difference between sheep
and goats. “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels
with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be
gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right
hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right
hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world’” (Matt. 25:31-34).
[1] John M. Frame, Systematic Theology – An Introduction to
Christian Belief, (P&R, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 2013), 188.
