What Does It Mean That God Has Provided An Azor For Us?

This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth.

When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth.

For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil.

Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land.

He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person.

Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made.

The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground, trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit.

In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The Lord God placed the man in the garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.

But the Lord God warned him, You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.

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.

So the Lord God forms 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.

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.

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.

Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.

This is the word of the Lord.

Welcome to Christ Community Church.

We greet you in the name of our Savior.

But I'm going to go on and do it anyway.

Today we're going to talk about something that's you're going to have to put your thinking caps on.

This isn't easy.

It's not simple.

It's not what my grandson and I would call this is not for knucklers, knuckleheads.

It's not for knucklers.

It's for people that are thoughtful, that are willing to approach the scriptures the way the scriptures were designed to be read and studied.

And that is slowly, incrementally to relate one part with another part, to wrestle, to approach it and then leave it and reapproach it.

And so we're going to do that today, at least hopefully begin that process with y'all.

I want to ask you a question.

My wife's been teaching school for over 40 years, and you teach hard stuff.

I suppose that's relative.

Teaching.

That's the truth.

In your 40 years of teaching, would you say the biggest challenge for your students is a I know we're not supposed to say the D word or the L word.

So I won't say dumb and lazy.

I won't say that because I know that's not, that's not those, those are no longer words you're supposed to use.

Sort of like Eskimo.

You're not supposed to say Eskimo anymore.

But anyway, so we'll we won't use those words.

Um but so would you say that the the bigger challenge in your conveying deep, challenging, rich, relatively difficult information, text, truth to your students, is the bigger challenge a lack of intelligence?

Is that a better word than the D word?

Or a lack of effort, just an whatever the whatever the L word, how you say uh lack of motivation and willingness to just work hard to get it.

Well, which of those in your experience is a bigger problem?

Well, I'm gonna add a third, but um it's over on the side of effort, certainly not ability, um, but distraction.

Okay, I would say is probably the biggest uh thief of um intake of knowledge.

Okay, distraction.

So distraction and then there therefore lack of effort because well not lack of effort, but less effort towards the text at hand because there's so much else.

Less focused effort.

Absolutely.

Okay, all right.

My point in bringing that up is that what we're gonna talk about today, you're not gonna miss this because you're dumb.

That is not why you're gonna miss this.

You're gonna miss this because you're gonna leave here today with an unwillingness to take this and embrace it and work on it and make it your own.

And uh you will rob yourself of one of the biggest, by God's design, one of the biggest sources of life if you do that.

So I appeal to you not to do that.

Okay, my hero in the Bible, uh obviously other than the Lord Jesus, is King David.

And he is the Jesus of the Old Testament.

He by design, uh that's why people would say Jesus, son of David.

They they would they they recognize that connection, and Jesus recognized that connection.

So you want to understand and see Jesus in the Old Testament, study the life of David.

Very significant to me that one of the things that made David David.

There's nobody in the New Testament like Jesus.

And I would suggest there's nobody in the Old Testament like David.

And one of the things that made David David was that he valued and was committed to his ally relationships in a passionate way.

If he saw you as someone where there was reciprocity of commitment, sacrifice, devotion, love, if he if he viewed you as an ally, you were a blessed person.

Because he was committed to you, both individually.

You see that in David's relationship with Jonathan and Saul's family.

That famous, Saul was a knuckler, but Jonathan and his family, that was an ally family for David, and David was committed to them till the day he died.

You saw it in David when he became king in his relationship with other countries.

If a country was a source of blessing to his country, David was committed to them, win, lose, or draw.

Even when they were knucklers, he was committed to them.

Tragically, we live in a world today where we don't value our allies.

We don't do it individually, we don't do it in the workplace, we don't do it as a country.

I love my country.

But we do a I'll just say poor.

There's a better phrase, but I'll I'll leave the second word out.

We do a poor job of how we relate to our allies as a nation.

It's sorry.

And and they they don't do any better.

I'm not saying they're they're better than we are, but we we just live in a world where allies are not valued, they're not protected, they're not uh cultivated and built on and strengthened, and we speak of our allies horribly, we treat our allies horribly.

We view them as disposable rather than indispensable.

And because we've lost that, we have lost one of God's primary.

I'm talking about in the there's if you got the top ten, this is number two.

That top five, let's say the top five.

One of God's primary means of helping us experience not existence, but abundant life is through our ally relationships.

It they our allies help us, and we help them experience, create and experience life at its best.

That's what I want to talk to you all about.

That's what we're gonna talk to you about.

Thank you, Esther, for reading that portion of Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

And I want to summarize that real quickly, because that's what we're gonna build on today.

Um, what you find in Genesis, really Genesis 1 and 2, but we're focusing on Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

God creates the world in six days.

Very significant that after he creates what he creates each day, he ends that day as he gets ready to retire for the day, as however God did that, um, he would end the day by saying, I created this and it was good.

Next day, I created this and it was good.

Next day I created this and it was good.

And he did that for a week.

And then we we get sort of a summary of that, you see that in chapter one, and then in chapter two, you see a summary of that, and on the last day of creation, God creates this human, this representative of humanity.

And if you read this passage carefully, if you ponder this passage carefully, what you see is God give the he calls this person Adam.

And he invites him, or you could say gives him, this role, this responsibility of subduing and ruling over all of creation.

God says, I want you to be fruitful and I want you to multiply.

I want you to subdue all of creation and I want you to rule over it.

And that at that moment, what that included was everything in the garden.

And that was just the beginning, but that was the beginning, and that included all the plants and all the animals.

And Adam began to try to fulfill this role of subduing and ruling, being fruitful and multiplying.

But very quickly he realized this isn't working well.

I'm unable to do this on my own.

And so God suggests to him what they would do.

Go throughout the garden, look at all the plants, look at all the animals, start naming them.

What that meant was look at them, study them, get to know them, build a relationship with them.

And maybe one of those will be somebody that can help you fulfill your role, fulfill your calling.

And so he did that.

And at the end of that process, what Adam realized was this there's no one, there's nothing and no one in the garden that is suitable person, I'm supposed to be, to help me accomplish the task that I have been given.

And that's, yes, when it says it's not, then, then for the very first time, the words were declared, it's not good.

It was good, it was good, it was good.

But then all of a sudden the declaration went out, something's not good.

And what it was, it's not good for man to be alone.

Now, yes, the idea of camaraderie and intimacy uh was a part of that, but it's so that phrase means so much more.

What it really was focused on was what it did you what had led up to that declaration, and that is, Adam, you can't accomplish your purpose.

You can't subdue and rule over alone.

You can't, you definitely can't be fruitful and multiply alone.

You cannot accomplish your job.

And so in verse 20 of Genesis 2, this statement is made: out of all the plants and animals, no Azure was found to be suitable for Adam.

It's a very interesting word, Azor.

It's the word in your Bible, probably it either, if you got an old timey Bible, it says help meet.

If you got a newer version, it says help or helper.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

That's a valid translation.

Helper, helper.

But really, the word azer, when you look at all the times it's used throughout the Bible and in the literature of that, other literature of Bible times, what the word consistently used to convey was an indispensable ally.

Someone you needed, and someone who needs you to accomplish the task, the roles of life, the things that matter most to you.

One who is indispensable in helping you accomplish life's greatest needs, challenges, and goals.

The word really technically would be defined as a delivering ally, whether it was two countries, two families, two cities, or two people, two people or groups who understood I need you, and you need me to accomplish the things in life that matter most.

I will never experience life at its best without your help, and you feel the same way about me.

Two people who would be jointly committed to subduing and ruling, to fighting not each other, but other enemies.

And that's what God says that he gave to Adam.

He gave, yes, he gave Adam a help or a helper, but really what God gave him was a delivering ally, someone who would jointly subdue and rule over creation together, and they would together jointly be fruitful and multiply.

Where I'm going with this, or where we're I'm wanting us to go with this today, and I want you to jump in here, it's very significant.

This is the only time in the Old Testament where the word azer is used to describe anybody but Yahweh.

And what I'm addressing, what I'm fighting, what I'm trying to defeat, is this idea that Eve was somehow given to Adam as his helper, his assistant, his Robin.

You know, if you have Batman and Robin, you got Batman, and then you got little helper Robin.

That is not at all what this is saying.

The word Azer is consistently and almost exclusively used to describe God.

God was, and yes, God is our helper.

God is our help, but God is nobody's robin.

God is nobody's assistant.

Do you see the difference there?

I'm not saying that the word help is a bad translation.

It's not.

As long as you understand that in Psalm 10, when the psalmist says, Yahweh, you see the trouble and grief of the afflicted and the fatherless, and you promise to be their Azor.

Psalm 46, Yahweh, you are our refuge and our strength, an ever-present Azor in our times of trouble.

In Psalm 121, it says, My Azor is Yahweh who made the heavens and the earth.

And I could go on and on and on.

Deuteronomy 33, there's no one like you, Yahweh.

Yahweh of Israel, who rides across the heavens to be our Azor.

Psalm 27, don't hide from me, for you have been my Azor.

Don't reject me now, for you are my Savior.

One more, Psalm 40.

Yahweh, please remember me, for you are my Azor, my deliverer, and my God.

I just want us to be sure that when we read this passage about the creation of Adam and Eve, that we view it through the lens that Moses, who wrote this, would have viewed it.

And he did not see Eve as some kind of a sidekick, assistant, or a robin, but rather as an equal partner with Adam.

Another thing that's very unique about this passage is when it says in most of our translations, including mine, that God took a rib from Adam's side and created Eve.

There's no Hebrew word for rib.

The word is side.

God reached and took, not even reached into Adam's side, he took Adam's side.

And the real image there, I believe, is that he literally cut this human, this one that represents all of humanity, and he rips him in half, and he leaves one side.

To become the male, and he takes the other side to create the female.

Another thing is very unique.

There's so many wonderful things going on here, and they all point to Eve's value, her significance, their ideas and words that give honor and respect to this person that completes.

God took one and made two, and then he immediately took the two and he made one.

Another thing that's very uh to me, very unique here is that the word Azer, it is the exact same Hebrew word as the word city.

It's the exact same word.

God formed, well, let me before I even get to that, I'm gonna let you help me with that in just a second.

But let me give you one more thought here.

The Bible says in Genesis chapter 2, actually in Genesis chapter 1, God took the dust of the ground and he formed Adam.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention Genesis 1 · chapter mention

But when you get to chapter 2, God took the side, the half of Adam, and he built Eve.

He didn't form Eve.

He built Eve.

Now, any self-respecting, intelligent, educated Hebrew person who was reading Genesis chapter 1 and 2 back then, that'd have gone, what?

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Just like um Tiffany, are you there?

Yeah, there you are.

If I said you, you built a little boy, you'd go, yeah, you that's not wrong, but that's not the way we would say it.

Right?

You wouldn't say that a mom built a little kid, right?

That's not the way, uh, that's not the way he would say.

And if I said it that way, if you're a sharp student of literature, you'd go, wonder why the author used an odd word to describe something that he could have easily used a better word for.

And what the Bible says here is it says, Adam was formed from the dirt of the earth or the dust of the earth or the ground, but Eve was built.

And the word built is never used one time in the book of Genesis, except here, to ever describe anything other than the building of cities and the building of altars?

We're gonna learn in just a second.

Cain built a city, Nimrod built a city, um on and on and on, all these dudes.

They built cities and then they built altars.

Any idea on why would Moses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, choose the word build to describe what he did in the creation of Eve, if it's never used that way, except as it relates to the building of cities and altars.

Any any thought?

Just a guess.

Okay that it it's in the Hebrew text and in the Hebrew ear ear perhaps, that it's wordplay.

It's uh Yes.

It's like to draw our attention to it.

Yes, poets do it all the time.

Poets will use a change a noun into a verb or a verb into a noun in order to draw our attention to it.

Yeah.

Like the um I wish I could remember one right now, but the the the wise man for words.

Well, in English, that's not exactly the structure, but it's like, oh, that's interesting.

I want to, it draws my attention to it.

And I'm supposed to pause and and as Robin said so wonderfully, ponder.

I'm pondering this.

So when we, and I'm gonna come back and let you talk a little bit more about that when I get to this next idea.

I just want us to see that when God, through Moses, describes the creation of one person in this relationship, he uses a very specific word, and that is, he formed, like a child would sprinkle a little water on a dust pile and make some mud, very significant.

Anyway, I'm gonna I don't have enough time to get into Jesus doing that in the gospels, but we'll talk about that another day.

But he formed some mud or he made some mud and he formed the man.

But that when he did when the decision was made to create this other person out of Adam's side, he built this person and he uses the word that is only and always used to describe the building of a city and the building of an altar.

As if to suggest Adam?

Adam would have understood this.

Adam would have gone, oh, this is unique, oh, this is different, oh, this is special.

Could Eve be the place that I'm supposed to run to when I need protection, when I need rest, when I need community, when I need this, I run to a city when I'm being chased or attacked, or I feel absolutely fair and right, I run to this person, and the implication is absolutely fair and right and true, she should run to me.

You also build altars.

Could this person be a place of connection between me and God as I relate to this person?

It has undeniable, immeasurable impact upon my relationship with God.

I need you, if I'm gonna have the relationship with God that God wants me to have, I need you, you're indispensable in helping me create that relationship with God.

And vice versa.

That makes sense?

Thoughts?

My only thought is that um that relationship between Adam and Eve from the Genesis uh doesn't have to, as you started with David, doesn't have to be man and wife.

It's ideally that way, but thank you.

But it can be Jonathan and David, yes, friend and friend.

Yes.

Um thank you.

You know what I mean?

That's clearly the context of the passage is focused on husband and wife, right?

But absolutely, Paul understood the need for Azores and his life in the men that he surrounded himself with.

The Lord Jesus needed Azores, and he surrounded himself with 12 men, and not just 12 men.

Then you had these other people like Lazarus and Mary and Martha and Mary Magdalene and other people that he look the idea, thank you, bless you, is that do I say I'm your Azore?

And I'm very thankful you are, more than I will ever be able to express.

That's why there's eternity.

Um for us to see that we need these relationships, and these relationship people need us.

And are we willing to own this need to commit our lives to creating and maintaining and developing and protecting these Azar relationships?

Do we see that?

And my challenge to you is you do see it.

You're not dumb.

You're not, as my grandson and I say to each other, that person over there is a blithering idiot.

You're not a blithering idiot, you're not an imbecile.

You understand this, I understand this, but do I own this?

One last idea.

Woo! So much good stuff here that we could spend a hundred years.

Very next chapter.

Well, no, sorry.

Genesis 1, Genesis 2, Genesis 3, the fall, we got all that.

The result of the fall is that Adam and Eve are driven from the garden.

They have to leave the garden.

Now, I personally believe they wanted to leave the garden.

You don't see them begging God to let them stay.

Oh, please let us know.

We're sorry, we'll never eat another apple.

Forgive us.

And you don't see anybody.

No.

They don't want to live where somebody else is in charge.

That's why they ate the fruit in the first place.

I want to be my boss.

Eden.

They leave the garden.

But they move just into Eden.

They leave the garden, which is in Eden, and they move ending right outside the wall or whatever it was.

They're just right outside the garden, and they begin to live.

And they have two sons, Cain and Abel.

These two boys grow up.

And Cain begins to notice that Abel, his brother, is experiencing blessings and favor and intimacy with Yahweh that he's not.

Very significant that you don't, just like Adam and Eve, not asking God, can we stay?

What can we do to stay?

What we're willing to do anything you tell us.

There's no questions, there's no request.

They just leave.

Same with Cain.

You don't see Cain going, Yahweh, why does my brother have favor that I don't have?

Why does he experiencing blessings that I have?

What's wrong?

Help me understand and learn and change.

Oh no, no, no.

What Yahweh does, what Cain does is this.

He fixes the problem his own way.

And he kills his brother.

We don't have time to get into all the details of that amazing story, but ultimately God gives Cain some grace by not killing him in response for killing his brother.

But there are consequences.

And so Cain has to leave Eden and go out into the wilderness.

Leave his family, leave his community, and he has to go out into the wilderness.

And he realizes very quickly this is not going to end well.

He's terrified.

And he says, God, the first strangers that meet me, they're going to know what's going on and they're going to kill me.

And God, the Bible says this God gave Cain a sign.

It's very intentionally vague.

What kind of sign?

We don't know.

Was it some kind of a G-man badge or a card that he would whip out?

We don't know.

We don't know.

But God gave Cain something that when he showed it to people, they would immediately know, leave him alone.

Don't bother him.

Don't harm him.

Because if you do, it's not going to go in, it's not going to end well for you.

What you're doing to Cain is probably going to happen to you.

But it's so significant, guys.

And this is, I want to, we'll end on this.

The very next thing that happens in Genesis 4 is Cain experiences the favor of God.

I will not let anybody kill you.

I'm going to give you something to protect you from harm so that you can experience a better life.

And the very next thing that happens is the Bible says, Cain went and built a city.

Not, thank you, God, I will incorporate this and embrace this and utilize this.

I'm trusting the effectiveness and the usefulness and the powerfulness of what you've provided to protect me, to provide for me, to help me experience an abundant life.

Rather than saying thank you and utilizing it, Cain goes and builds a city.

He goes, and the only difference in the word Azar and the word city is just a little um.

It's like a a critical mark.

A little mark.

And that's a there, that's a word play.

The writer, Moses, he intended, he could have used other words, but he used the exact same word other than a little mark over one of the words.

He uses the same word.

And the point being, I believe, the point that I'm suggesting to us is God provides things to help us experience life.

Abundant life.

So that we're not going through life living by trial and error.

We're not going through life trying to run races limping.

We're not going, we don't have to travel.

Not just second class, but down in the hole of the boat.

We can live in a, I'm not saying a problem-free life.

That is not God's plan.

I'm not saying we're never going to get sick.

I'm not saying we're never going to have financial challenges.

I'm not saying we're not going to have uh kind, you know, problems and that's that's foolishness to even suggest or think that.

That's not God's plan.

But I am telling you, and yes, this is true for all of us, regardless of our relational circle.

But let's take it at face value.

How many husbands are given an Azore by God to be a source of protection and provision, a place where you can go for rest and light and restoration and clarity.

Somebody that will stand with you and you will fight for her, and she will fight with for you, and you you create a life that is better than you could have ever created alone.

But I'm gonna do it on my own.

I I know better.

Yes, I want to have a family.

I'd like to have a couple 2.3 kids.

You know, we need something to do during the holidays, we've got to have to throw some holiday meals, and so they'd be good for you to participate with me and doing the gotta go on going on vacation alone is not really great.

So I need somebody to go on vacation together with, you know, and you cook and I'll do the yard, and we'll we'll create this pitiful excuse for an unhealthy, dysfunctional B-team team, and we go through life limping.

We go through life making the same mistakes, battling the same fears, tripping over the same logs, stepping in the same mud holes, and we wonder why?

Why?

Why do I struggle so badly at parenting?

Why do I struggle so much with finances?

Why do I struggle so much relating to people better?

Why don't I flourish?

And that is a those are big questions with big answers way beyond my pay grade.

And I'm not trying to make big, hard things easy and simple.

That's not what I'm doing.

But I am saying this.

God created a relationship for our good, so that we, it's not good to be alone.

And by focusing on this relationship, developing this relationship, valuing this relationship, me viewing you with the respect and the honor that you deserve because I need you and you viewing me with respect and honor because you need me.

And we're honest and open and transparent with each other.

That's the they were naked and not ashamed part of the whole deal.

And we're we we we tell each other the truth, we tell each other our needs, we we're transparent with each other, and we see each other not as a hindrance to living life.

If you just would get yourself together, life would be better.

Versus, you're not the problem, you're the solution, you're the answer, you are the means through which I can experience the abundant life that God created for me.

It's all about me.

God wants me to have an abundant life, and part of that is me recognizing how badly I need what she brings to the table and her recognizing the same thing.

Do I see my Azore as a city that I need?

Do I see her as an altar that I need?

Am I willing to devote the time required?

We're not born knowing how this is supposed to work.

There are no, well, there's sort of some instructions, but at the end of the day, what it takes is time, dedicated time set aside for me and you to learn how to create this ally relationship that's needed to experience life.

It takes hard work, it takes time, it takes saying no to everything else so that we can say yes to this.

And am I willing to devote time to that?

There's not a person in this room that doesn't understand what I'm saying, what we're saying.

That's not the problem.

It's not your dumbness, not my dumbness.

I understand this too well.

Am I going to embrace this provision of God to help me experience life that is full and rich and abundant?

That's the challenge.

That's the question, that's the problem.

Anything you want to add, friend?

One last quick thing.

It's gonna have to be a sermon on its own.

Okay.

Later.

That's what Christ gave us in the church.

An Azore, a city, a place to go.

And the irony is the same as Cain and God.

It's the same.

When he got in trouble, he ran away rather than to or toward.

And the one I did that.

Maybe it's because he was afraid, maybe he was embarrassed.

I have no idea.

But it's so ironic after such a beautiful picture that we know that when we are in trouble or we need something that we run away from the very thing that will that's our Azore.

Many things, but but I'm thinking in particular of the church.

And I'm thinking in particular of this church.

Which God has raised up.

There are plenty of others, I'm sure, that are just the same, and there are plenty of others that that aren't.

But not this one.

This one is a a shelter, a place where you can come and say, I don't know what to do next.

And I'm looking at a bunch of faces, my own, his, that have done exactly the same thing.

You're accepted.

That's what an Azore is.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Why don't you just bow your heads for just a moment?

Let God speak to you.

I think He is speaking.

What is God saying to you about your relationships?

Do you have an Azer?

Azer is plural.

If you don't, are you courageous enough to ask the question, why?

If you do, how are you relating to those people?

Or to that person?

Are there things that we need to change?

Bridges we need to rebuild or build.

God's not God doesn't want us to leave here guilty.

He wants us to leave here excited about the future.

He chose a meal.

Could pick anything he wanted to, but he chose a meal.

And so we're gonna do what he asked us to do.

We've gathered together as he asked us to.

And so we're gonna take bread and wine, that which is the source of nutrition, sustenance, and that which is the source of joy.

And both are provided, the nutrition and the joy are both provided the same way.

Through crushing.

The crushing of wheat creates bread, and the crushing of grapes creates wine.

There's a lot of crushing involved in creating real azor relationships.

A lot of dying to self.

A lot of owning mistakes.

A lot of asking forgiveness.

A lot of going back and forth to each other and saying, hey, I was wrong.

I need you.

I love you.

Let's try again.

That is crushing.

That's what it's that's what's needed to create bread and wine.

So I invite you to come and to celebrate the life of the one who said, I want to be your Azar.

And I'm willing to be crushed to the max on a cross.

So that I can be in an Azar relationship with you.

Let's celebrate his life and let's decide how we can emulate that life in our relationships as well.

You come.