The Arrangement

As It Was in the Beginning

A father had two sons. One was named Adam and the other was Adam the Second.

The father looked upon his son, Adam, and the world in which he lived and thought to himself, “What a beautiful place. Everything is good, except for one thing: My son is alone. He has no one like himself in all the creation. I will remedy this. First, I will make him aware of how different he is — that he is separate from everything else — and then I will surprise him.”

So, the father corralled the animals and had them strut before Adam. “Son, you decide what each will be called. Go ahead, give them names that mean something to you.”

And Adam did. This was his first job, and it was fun. But as more animals passed by, an uneasy feeling came over Adam. To this emotion he couldn’t put a name, he could only describe it as an emptiness.

His father smiled. “Son, you have worked hard. I want you to rest, and then I have something else for you.”

So, Adam went to sleep, a sleep like none he had had before. When he awoke, he felt groggy and different in some way. Before he could think much about it, his father called.

“Adam, come! I said when you awoke I would have something for you. Come, and see.”

Adam hadn’t seen his father this excited before. He found him, and Adam’s grogginess snapped into instant alertness. There before him was something — someone — like he had not seen before. Certainly not among all the animals.

Adam’s response delighted his father. “Son, this is your bride. That difference you felt when you awoke? I took one of your ribs while you slept and formed her. Let that hollow where the rib was always remind you of the emptiness you felt when you were alone. She is your help mate, to be by your side always. Now, what will you call her?”

The name came instantly. “Woman,” Adam said. “She is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She will be known as Woman because she was taken out of Man.”

The father was proud. “That is a good name. So shall she be known.”

He motioned the two closer to himself and to each other. “Now, both of you, stand before me. This is how this is going to work. Together, you are Man, but you are also individuals — male and female. Adam, you are to be joined to your wife. Cleaving to her, you shall become one flesh. As there was one in the beginning, so shall there be one in the end. Now go, and multiply. Fill the earth.”

Not long after this news came to the father that made him weep, a cry so loud it went from one end of heaven to the other. Adam the Second raced to his father. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Oh son,” he said, “I am grieved in my heart, but I also have great anticipation. I cry from sorrow and joy.”

Adam the Second looked puzzled. “I don’t understand.”

“Son, you are always with me. Everything I have is yours. But it’s just us.” A current of love as deep as the sea swept through his eyes. “Son, you shall have a bride!”

His son looked startled, then puzzled again. “A bride for me? How can this be?”

The father’s face darkened. “This is the other reason I cried out. Adam, my son, has died. Both he and his wife. I warned them. I gave them my word it would be so, but they listened to the tempter and trusted his word above mine. They have passed from my house into his, and they are dead to me.”

Gripped by his father’s anguish, Adam the Second asked, “What can be done? Adam is lost.” He reflected for a moment. “And what does this have to do with a bride for me?”

“Son, I am determined not to lose Adam. I will redeem him. Though he is dead, yet shall he live. He has lost his way, but we shall find him. He was enticed into the tempter’s house, but we shall break the deception. We shall bind the strong man.”

The father watched his son for his response. Awareness began to creep into his expression, like the morning light at dawn. “But that means going after him, father.”

“That’s right.”

“Who will go?”

“Will you?”

“But Adam is dead and has become unclean.”

The father replied, “I will make him clean, so that you may approach.”

“But if he is dead, how can he hear? How will he know I have come?”

“He has ears; I will speak. I said in the beginning so often, “Let there be…” and I will speak again, “He that has ears, “Let him hear!”

“But Satan is strong. He swept angels with him, and now Adam.”

“And you are stronger. You are my son. We created Adam, you and I. Will you become flesh and blood to do what Adam cannot do for himself? Becoming flesh, will you become his brother? Adam needs redemption, and redemption requires a redeemer, a close relative, the closest someone can be. By sending you, I send one who will be closer than a brother—I send his creator. My son, only this way can we restore Adam. Do this, and in the redeemed you shall have your bride.”

Without hesitation, Adam the Second answered.

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Here I am — it is written about me in the scroll — I have come to do your will, O God.” — Hebrews 10:5-7

And the rest is history.