Divine Design: Companionship and the Institution of Marriage

The theme of chapter 2 of Genesis is not the general creation of the world. The theme and the focus of Genesis 2 is the creation of woman and the divine institution of marriage. We see that chapter 1 ends with these words, "And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good." [00:03:23]

All through the six days of creation after God makes the light, after He makes the darkness, after He divides the seas and the firmament, and after He makes the plants and the flowers and the animals, after every dimension of creation, God looks at what He makes and He says, "That's good." Benediction upon benediction, but in Genesis 2:18, we have the first occurrence in sacred Scripture of malediction, malediction, which the Old Testament uses in terms of the word "curse," where God makes a "bad saying." [00:06:21]

God looks at the man. He's surrounded by this gorgeous paradise. He has dominion over the whole planet. He mirrors and reflects the holiness of God, yet something is wrong, something is missing. There is something yet that is not complete. There is something that is not good. And God pronounces His malediction on this situation saying, "It is not good for man to be alone." Loneliness is not good. Isolation, a loss of fellowship, a lack of communion within the species itself is not good. [00:07:23]

So, God said, "I will make him a helpmate similar," or suitable, "for him." A helpmate suitable, a companion that is fitting and appropriate for the man. He's not saying, "I am going to make a slave. I'm not going to make a non-person, but I am going to make a companion, a helpmate, not just a helper but a helpmate suitable for him." [00:10:22]

We see throughout biblical history that the process of naming is a symbol of the manifestation of authority. God's authority over us is seen in His naming us. We see God when He encounters people in biblical history. He encounters Jacob and when He wrestles with Jacob, and Jacob finally submits, God changes Jacob's life, and when He changes his life, He changes his name and He calls him Israel. [00:12:44]

Now, that's the symbolic sense, but there's something else going on here with the naming of the animals that we don't want to miss. Here, dear friends, is the birth of science. We say that one of the tasks of natural science is to harness the power and the forces of the natural world, to make nature work for us rather than against us. We improve our skills of farming and agriculture. [00:14:55]

There is a companion that is made with just enough difference and just enough similarity to be perfectly suitable to end the malediction of loneliness. So here we see woman created not as an inferior being, but as one who is especially made by God. [00:24:48]

And we read what follows is the biblical institution and establishment of marriage. "For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." Woman is made for man, and man is made for the woman. There is a fitting symmetry of suitability between male and female. [00:25:23]

The two shall become one flesh, not that they will become one identity, not that their maleness will be submerged into the marriage or that their femaleness will be lost. They will still be male. They will still be female. They will still be Adam, they will still be Eve, but somehow in a mysterious way that God has ordained in the holy state of marriage they will be one flesh. [00:26:25]

In the marriage ceremonies, we say that marriage was ordained of God, instituted of God, sanctified by Christ, regulated by the commandments of God. And in those traditional vows, we have the man's responsibility to cherish his wife. Nobody beats what he cherishes. Nobody exploits what he cherishes. Nobody oppresses what he cherishes. No one denigrates or demeans what he cherishes. [00:27:15]

Now, at the very end of this, almost like a dangling participle or a concluding unscientific postscript, verse 25 is attached to Genesis 2. And it doesn't seem to fit. It seems to just hang there with no rhyme or reason for its being there, but let's look at it because in a later lecture we're going to expand on this theme as the Old Testament does. But we're going to introduce it now and leave it for your contemplation. "And the man and his wife were both naked and unashamed." [00:28:08]

In the first marriage, there was total exposure, total vulnerability, no hiding, no clothes, no covering, and no shame. That's the idyllic setting for marriage. But what happens to that peace and that freedom from shame is the tragedy of the human race. [00:28:50]