How did Adam get a bride? God had him enter into a deep sleep. This deep sleep enabled God to pull a bride from Adam's side. Then after Adam emerged from his deep sleep, Adam was able to know her as God intended.
We could say Jesus went into a “deep sleep.” Deep sleep is a picture of death. Have you noticed how many times Jesus uses sleep to symbolize death? He says Lazarus has fallen asleep in John 11. In Luke 8, He says of the dead 12 year old girl, she is sleeping. He links sleeping with death, so it’s certainly not a stretch to connect “deep sleep” with death. In Hebrew, the word for “deep sleep” is one word: tardemah.
After Adam’s tardemah in Genesis 2, the next place tardemah is found is when God makes a blood covenant with Abram in Genesis 15. “When the sun was setting, Abram fell into a tardemah.” It says on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram.
The word doesn’t appear again in the Bible until we come to a passage in 1 Samuel 26. “...David remained in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness [to kill him], David sent out spies and learned that Saul had indeed come. Then David rose and went to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay. . .Saul was lying within the encampment, while the army was encamped around him. . .So David and Abishai went to the army by night. And there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and the army lay around him. Then Abishai said to David, “God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.” But David said, . . .“God forbid. . .But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go.” So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head, and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a tardemah from the Lord had fallen upon them.”
Connecting these three instances, we uncover a beautiful picture. In the Genesis 2 passage, we see that God uses a tardemah through which to create a bride for Adam. In the second instance, God uses a tardemah through which to establish a blood covenant. And in the third instance, God uses a tardemah through which to disarm David’s enemy.
Jesus is the fulfillment of all Scripture. Through Jesus’ tardemah, all three are accomplished: a bride is brought forth, a covenant is sealed, and the enemy is disarmed. “...Through His death He renders powerless him who holds the power of death––that is, the devil––” (Hebrews 2:14 NAS). Truly, the enemy has been disarmed!
