Two Are Better Than One (Pt 2)

Genesis 2:18-25
2009.02.22
one28 Sunday worship

Last week we began studying the detailed account of God’s creating woman for man on day six. Humans are made in God’s image, and because the Triune God is a relational God, it is not good for man to be alone. God Himself observes [1. The Problem] in Genesis 2:18 and lays out His plan to fill man’s void.

Verse 18 announces that something is not good for the first time in the story, in particular, Adam was isolated (he was “alone”) and he was incomplete (he needed a “helper”). God declares His plan to fix both problems by making “a helper fit for man.”

A helper is not an inferior, since God is called Israel’s helper numerous times in the Old Testament. The helper is not merely a servant either, since Adam could have trained a dog to bring him the morning paper, so to speak. The helper God had in mind would be a contributor and a companion, someone Adam could enjoy and share with and relate to.

The companionship element is further emphasized in that the helper would be fit for the man, “suitable” for him (NASB, NIV), “comparable” to him (NKJV), even a “helpmate” (DRBY) (and remember, not a “helpmeet” as some have misread the KJV’s “help, meet for him”. God’s plan for the helper would be someone like Adam, but not exactly the same, someone that would complete him, like the lyrics to his melody.

In order to teach man about his need, God does not build and bring the helper to Adam immediately, increasing the suspense and giving each reader a sense of Adam’s aloneness. In verses 19-20 we see [2. The Setup], as Adam not only begins to fulfill his responsibility as overseer of creation, but also awakens to his solitary condition.

The LORD did not form a new batch of animals to bring before Adam in verse 19, and probably “out of the ground the LORD God had formed” conveys a clearer compatibility with the general creation record in Genesis 1. Not every type of animal was brought before Adam either, noticeably absent were the creeping things (no ant farms) and swarming sea creatures (no Free Willy).

Adam could have named a few thousand kinds of animals in four or five hours, demonstrating complex language skills on day one. But at the end of this exercise, his sense of loneliness had grown significantly, as no helper fit for him was yet found.

The great Physician performs [3. The Surgery] in verses 21-22. Without consulting the man at all, God moves to provide the helper and make everything good. He put man to sleep, took from his side, built a woman, and presented the first bride.

Now we pick up where we left off last week.

4. The Celebration v.23

The first recorded words of man erupt in a poetical outburst; he is not a little excited.

Then the man said,
This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”
(verse 23)

Adam learned the lesson that no one like him was around, and starts his celebration song with This at last, as he finally found what he was looking for. He demonstrates understanding of what had happened to him. The text doesn’t say if God told Adam what He was about to do before the surgery, but somehow Adam understood that Eve came from him.

He says, This…is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Two things are likely implicated in this description. First, it implicates closeness. She was made of the same stuff. She was part of him, literally. Second, it implicates commitment or loyalty. We talk about “blood” relationships, and often in the OT, this phrase expresses a vow or a covenant between two persons. For example, “all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, ‘Behold, we are your bone and flesh,’” (2 Samuel 5:1) which was not a statement of relationship but a pledge of loyalty (Hamilton, 180). As such, Genesis 2:23 is probably the first wedding vow ever made. The relationship between the man and the woman was a close and committed communion.

It is also possible that bone signifies strength and flesh signifies sensitivity. Both male and female share in both.

Then Adam said, she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. There is a deliberate play on words in Adam’s naming, at least as Moses writes it in Hebrew. She is Woman, Isha, because she was taken out of Man, Ish. The closeness and similarity, even in the names, is accentuated.

In this flood of delight, Adam makes no reference to childbearing, or sex, or her work. He celebrates her for her, as a companion, as someone to live with and share with.

5. The (Parenthetical) Principle v.24

Unlike almost every other verse in the story so far (other than Genesis 1:1 and 2:4 which are major divisions), verse 24 does not begin with the Hebrew conjunction “and” (variously translated as “but” or “so” or “then”). It is a grammatically identified interruption from the story’s narrator, Moses.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (verse 24)

Verse 24 is not a continuation of Adam’s celebration. Instead, it draws truth from the account and intentionally defines all subsequent marriages after the pattern of the first couple.

Therefore makes clear that a conclusion is being driven by the preceding account. A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. Adam and Eve cannot be in view, since neither one of them had a father or a mother, nor would they have had full understanding of those roles, at least not yet. A man is any and every man who is getting married. God has established the pattern for marriage.

A man shall leave his father and his mother means that he establishes his own headship and takes on his own responsibility. It doesn’t mean that he must necessarily move far away from his parents or that he no longer respects them or seeks their counsel. It does mean that his loyalties are re-prioritized; the ties to his wife now take precedence over ties to his parents.

The man is to hold fast to his wife. There should be passion and permanence, a never-ending commitment to one another.

And the man has primary responsibility. The principle Moses draws is of male initiative and leadership. The man leaves and cleaves in a way the woman doesn’t. Yes, the woman certainly is committed to a new head, transferred from following her father to following her husband, but the active leadership role falls to the man.

And they shall become one flesh, meaning the two become one, the male and female are now inseparable, committed in covenant, unified in a monogamous, permanent relationship.

“Male and female” He created them in His image (Genesis 1:27), meaning that image-bearing is done in marriage, with one man and one woman in a mutual, loyal, committed, enjoyed relationship with each other. God made us this way to reflect Himself. We cannot mess with gender roles or the definition of marriage without messing with God’s image.

6. The Scene v.25

Verse 25 is an important transition for the events in chapter 3.

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (verse 25)

Eve was maybe the only woman in history who didn’t obsess over a wedding dress. She was presented and committed, along with the man without his clothes. They were both naked and were not ashamed. There was nothing hindering the first couple, including awkwardness or guilty consciences. There was nothing that needed to be covered up at this point. The first couple delighted in each other.

According to chapter 1, God gave Adam and Eve a mandate to fill the earth and subdue it, presented them with food options, the pronounced everything “very good.”

Conclusion

Many of our beliefs about men, women, and marriage are framed by this paragraph.

1. Marriage is heterosexual, male and female, so no homosexuality.

2. Marriage is monogamous, one man with one woman, so no polygamy.

3. Marriage is honorable, (1 Corinthians 6:16; Hebrews 13:4), so no sexual immorality in fornication or adultery.

4. Marriage is permanent, so no divorce. (Matthew 19:3-9)

   “As long as we both shall live.” (cf. Romans 7)

5. Marriage is theomorphic. (Ephesians 5:25-33)

   Theomorphic Marriage: As with God making man (and his body) in a way to reveal something about God, so God originated and ordained marriage to show something about Himself (and the Church, Ephesiahs 5:28, 32)

Positions of leadership within the home, and within the church are also defined by God’s creation of man and woman (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:7-9; 1 Timothy 2:11-15). Man came before the woman, she is from man. And women compliment men; she was made for man, not visa versa.

Man was made for relationship, to serve and love and feel and share and appreciate others. God made us to share passion and friendship and fun, and the first and foundational earthly relationship is between a man and a woman in the covenant of marriage.

Problems in marriage are not a result of differences between male and female, or from personality differences. Conflict, in marriage and in life, are a result of sin, which we’ll begin to study next week in Genesis 3.

Now, it has happened by our fault, and by the corruption of nature, that this happiness of marriage has, in a great measure, perished, or, at least, is mixed and infected with many inconveniences. Hence arises strifes, troubles, sorrows, dissensions, and a boundless sea of evils; and hence it follows, that men are often disturbed by their wives, and suffer through them many discouragements. Still, marriage was not capable of being so far vitiated by the depravity of men, that the blessing which God has once sanctioned by his word should be utterly abolished and extinguished. (Calvin, Genesis, 130).