This week we are addressing the question “What
is marriage?” Is marriage simply a legal contract between two parties? Is
marriage simply about a sexual relationship between two people? Is marriage
simply about a personal relationship between two people who are in love? Or is
the nature of marriage something more than these definitions of marriage?
To answer this question, I would like for us
to look at a section of the very first letter that
is recorded for us in the Bible called the book of Genesis. And it is in this
section of this letter that we are going to be given a front row seat to the
very first marriage. And as we take this front row seat to the very first
marriage, we will discover the answer to the question “What is marriage?”
However, before we take that front row seat,
we first need to gain some background information what it comes to the context
of the first marriage. We gain that information beginning in Genesis 1:26-27:
Then God
said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let
them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the
cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the
earth." 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of
God He created him; male and female He created them.
Here
we see the Triune God’s design and desire for the creation of humanity: “Let Us
make man in Our image, according to Our likeness”. To be created in the image
of God means that every human being bears the thumbprint of God. We were
created in God’s relational image. We were created for relationships. Just as
God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit live in relationship with one
another, we were created for relationships. We were created for a relationship
with God vertically and for relationships with one another horizontally.
That
is why the most devastating feeling is that of loneliness, because when we are
lonely we are living outside of God’s design for our lives. But not only were
we divinely designed for relationships. Here we also see that we were divinely
designed to rule over the earth as God’s representative. When God uses the
phrase “let them rule” this phrase literally means to have rule or dominion.
God created humanity and placed humanity on earth as His representative on
earth.
You
see, we have been divinely designed to live in relationship with God and one
another and have been given responsibility over the earth as His representative
here on earth. In addition, in Genesis 1:27 we see
revealed for us the reality that in God’s design, men and women have equal
value and worth as being created in God’s relational image. However, there is a
distinctiveness between men and women: male and female He created them”.
Then, in Genesis chapter 2 we read that God
formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life. God then gave Adam a job to tend the garden and name the
animals and just one command to follow; don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. We discovered that God created humanity for work and gave
humanity amazing freedom and responsibility. And it is in the midst of that
freedom and responsibility that humanity was created to live life in such a way
that they revealed God as they lived in relationship with Him and represented
Him here on the earth. And it is in this context that I would like us to jump
into the next section of the book of Genesis, beginning in Genesis 2:18:
Then the LORD God said,
"It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable
for him."
As we jump into this event from history, we see Moses
record for us the reality that for the first time, there was something that was
not good. Up to this point in God’s story, after God’s creative activity, God
would look at what He had created and say that it was good. In Genesis 1:31, we
read that God saw that all that He had made and behold it was very good. Now
however, God sees something that is not good. And what is not good, God
explains is for the man to be alone.
You see, while we were created for a relationship with
God vertically and we were created for relationships with others horizontally;
and while Adam was connected with God vertically, he did not connect with any
of the other creation horizontally. Adam was unique as an image bearer of God.
And as God looked at Adam and his uniqueness, God immediately saw that was not
good. Adam did not complain about a lack of connection. Instead, God saw the
lack of connection and took the initiative.
Moses tells us that God responded to the situation by
stating that He would make a helper suitable for Adam. Now the phrase “helper
suitable”, in the language that this letter was originally written in,
literally means to make corresponding to. In other words, God was not going to
create something inferior to Adam to be his servant. And God was not going to
create something that was superior to Adam that he would have to serve. Instead
God was going to create something that was equal to Adam that would complement
Adam and that Adam could connect and correspond to. We see what happens next in
verse 19-20:
Out of the ground the LORD God formed every
beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would
call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.
The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every
beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
Here we see that God gave
Adam the responsibility to name all of the animals. You see, Adam was not some
Neanderthal with his knuckles dragging on the ground. The very first human on
the planet had the capacity to name all the animals in the Garden of Eden. God
did not name all the animals. Instead, God gave Adam the freedom and the
responsibility to name all the animals. “Adam, what do you want to call that
animal? Let’s call that animal an aardvark. Alright, an aardvark it is”.
You see, Adam was
creative, because God designed humanity to be creative. Humanity was created
with amazing creativity and capabilities. However, as Adam looked at all of the
animals that he had named, there was no animal that corresponded to him and
that would complement him as an equal. There was nothing else in creation that
could connect and relate to the creativity and capability that Adam was given
as an image bearer of God. We see how God responded to this reality in verse 21-22:
So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall
upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the
flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had
taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
God responded to the uniqueness of Adam and
the lack of an equal that would complement Adam and that could connect and
correspond to him by creating women. Moses explained that God caused Adam to
fall to sleep and took one of his ribs and formed Eve, the first woman.
Now these verses do not contradict what we
looked at in Genesis 1:26-27. Instead these verses compliment Genesis 1:26-27.
Genesis 1 explains that God created Adam and Eve to reveal and represent Him as
they lived in relationship with Him. But Genesis 1 does not tell us how or when
He created them. Genesis 2 compliments Genesis 1 by giving us the details on
the how Adam and Eve were created.
While Adam was created from the dust of the
earth as a potter molds clay, Eve was built from Adam. Thus, Eve was the first
being to be created from another living being. Now, on a separate note, ladies
this is why we men do not understand you; we don’t understand you because we
were asleep when it happened. And as Adam woke up; and as God brought Eve into
Adam’s presence, we see Adam’s response revealed for us in Genesis 2:23. And it
is here that we are given a front row seat to the very first marriage.
Friday we will take that front row seat
together…
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