PHYSICAL INTIMACY

Before the “fall” of man, there was no awareness of any nakedness through their natural eyes because in the beginning Adam and Eve were created by God in a perfect order of 1) spirit 2) soul 3) body.  Adam and Eve saw, in this innocent state primarily in the spirit and not in the flesh.  But after the fall, because of their sin of disobedience to God, they for the first time saw their nakedness, began to cover themselves and attempted to hide from God.

From that time on in man’s experience, the emphasis was upon the natural/flesh and thus began man’s distortion of physical intimacy evidenced in the sins of the flesh.  Thus, what began as perfect intimacy with God: “walking with Him in the cool of the day”; and husband/wife physical/spiritual intimacy: “knowing” each another both in the pleasure of the sexual experience for procreation, but just as importantly for spiritual intimacy as well. 

Because of the “fall”, this relationship was distorted into a myriad of sexual perversions that only the fallen nature in the wickedness of man’s imagination could conceive, i.e. adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, pedophilia, incest, bestiality, cannibalism, eating body parts (not just for food but rather for the desire to have another person inside oneself and/or be inside another person in a distorted form of intimacy).

This searching for intimacy was the beginning of the futile attempt by man in his fallen state of the natural/flesh to seek spiritual/pure intimacy with God and one another that had been lost in the Garden of Eden experience.

As we search the Scripture to discover the loss of man’s innocence and the regaining/restoration of God’s original creative purpose of His supernatural intended order of 1) spirit 2) soul 3) body rather than the fallen experience of 1) body 2) soul 3)spirit. 

The miraculous new birth transformation and restoration was made possible by the atoning work of Jesus on the cross that enabled mankind to “know” God personally; as husbands and wives (opposite of the perverted works of the flesh) “know” the purity of the desire to be inside one another through the intimacy of sexual intercourse; and to know others (not in the perverted works of the flesh) in the spirit realm through the power of the Holy Spirit.

OLD TESTAMENT:

yada  to know, knowing, to know in sexual relations

Genesis 3:7 “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”

Genesis 4:1 “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.”

Genesis 4:17 “And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.”

Genesis 4:25 “And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: for God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.”

Genesis 4:26 “And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.”

Genesis 5:4 “And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:”

Genesis 5:18 “And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch:”

Genesis 5:21 “And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: and Enoch walked with God: and he was not for God took him.”

Genesis 5:25-27 “And Methuselah lived an hundred and eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: and Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters:  And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.”

Genesis 5:28-31 “And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: and he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.  And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.”

Genesis 5:32 “And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”

Genesis 6:5 “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil only continually.”

Genesis 19:5 “And they (men of the city) called unto Lot, and saith unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night?  Bring them out unto us, that we may know them.”

Judges 19:22, 25 “Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.  But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go.”

I Samuel 1:19 “And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the Lord, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hanna his wife; and the Lord remembered her.  Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord.”

NEW TESTAMENT:

ginosko  know, knowing, as in union/intercourse between a man and a woman in marriage.

IN THE FLESH/NATURAL –

Matthew 1:24-25 “Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the

angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.”

Luke 1:30-34 “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God.  And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.   He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.  Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing that I know not a man?”

CONCLUSION

What God had originally intended in sexual relations of “knowing” another person to be good, pure and holy, man in his fallen state and sinful nature perverted and destroyed through the works of the flesh, such works can only be overcome by the miraculous redemptive power of Jesus blood through sacrificial death, triumphant resurrection, and the supernatural power of walking in the Spirit in order to not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

See Other Studies on the website: “Nakedness”, “Works/Sins of the Flesh”, “Lust”, “Spirit, Soul and Body”, “Know, Knowing”, “Knowing Jesus”, “Marriage and Family Relations”, “Spiritual Intimacy”, and for an additional 23 studies also see the School of Tyrannus curriculum under the Topic “Knowing Marriage and Family Relations,” etc.