Last week we began studying the detailed account of God’s creating woman for man on the sixth day. 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 observed The Problem in Genesis 2:18 and laid out His plan to fill man’s void.

In verse 18 God announced that something was 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 declared His plan to fix both problems by making “a helper fit for man.”

A helper is not necessarily an inferior, especially since God is called Israel’s helper numerous times in the Old Testament. The helper is not merely a servant either. 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.

In order to teach man about his need, God did not build and bring the helper to Adam immediately, but rather increased the suspense and gives each reader a sense of Adam’s aloneness. In verses 19-20 we see 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 (e.g., no cluster of spiders) and swarming sea creatures (e.g., no dolphin pods).

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

The great Physician performs The Surgery in verses 21-22. Without consulting the man at all, God moved to make a match for man in marriage and her addition made 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 (verse 23)

The first recorded words of man erupt in a poem; 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, or “this is now” (NAS) or “this time.” He finally found what he was looking for, not because a long time had passed but because many animals had passed without a fit helper. 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 said, 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, loyalty. Today we talk about “blood” relationships and, often in the OT, this same phrase expressed 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 like a wedding vow, the first of its kind.

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

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, as well as Adam’s authority to give her a name.

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

5. The (Parenthetical) Pattern (verse 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” (sometimes rendered as “but” or “so” or “then” depending on the English translation). The first word here (al-ken = “on this account” or “for this reason”) is a grammatically identified interruption (a parenthesis) 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)

Again, 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 wouldn’t have said this since neither he or Eve had a father or a mother, nor would they have had full understanding of those roles, not yet. A man is any and every man who is getting married.

A man shall leave his father and his mother means that he establishes his own headship and takes on new 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. His forsaking “is to be understood in a relative sense, not an absolute sense” (Wenham, 71). 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 devotion and durability, 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, and gives up the known security of following her father in order to follow 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 marriage one way and not another to reflect Himself. We cannot mess with genders, gender roles, or the pattern of marriage without messing with God’s image.

6. The Scene (verse 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 to the man and along with the man without clothes. They were both naked and were not ashamed. There was nothing hindering the intimacy of first couple, including nervousness or vulnerability or guilty consciences. There was nothing that needed to be covered up at this point. The first couple delighted in each other without obstacles.

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

Conclusion

Our beliefs about men, women, and marriage are shaped by this paragraph. In the New Testament both Jesus and the apostles teach doctrine based on Genesis 2:18-25. We have explicit comments in our “What We Believe in Brief” doctrinal statement about male and female and marriage because we believe these issues are under attack in our day. So here are seven statements on the pattern of marriage seen in Genesis 2.

First, marriage is God-ordained for humans. It was not created by humans; marriage is not a social construct. Marriage is also not God, and prioritizing marriage and family over Him is out of place. Likewise, rejecting marriage is not necessarily more honoring to God (see 1 Timothy 4:3-5).

Second, marriage is heterosexual, male and female. Homosexuality distorts the pattern. The mandate to be fruitful and multiply takes this doctrine as a given, and that’s because it is given by God.

Third, marriage is monogamous, one man with one woman. Polygamy distorts the pattern, as does the less common polyandry. The pattern in verse 24 uses too many singulars, “a man,” “his” (x3), “wife,” “one flesh.”

Fourth, marriage is permanent, a man “cleaves” to his wife. Divorce distorts the pattern (Matthew 19:3-9). It’s why our vows say, “As long as we both shall live” (see Romans 7), though God has permitted it in certain cases (unlike homosexuality for which there is never a permitted exception).

Fifth, marriage is honorable, (1 Corinthians 6:16; Hebrews 13:4). Sexual immorality in fornication or adultery distorts the pattern.

Sixth, marriage is theomorphic. God made man (on earth, with body, in relationship) in a way to reveal something about God. The relationship between a male and female in ordained marriage shows something about Himself (and the Church, Ephesians 5:28, 32). Selfish isolation/individualism distorts the pattern.

For those with ears to hear, our reflection of God’s form includes giving to get; Adam gave a rib and got a woman, the Second Adam gave His life and got a Bride. We are always making a statement about the Author of marriage, whether that is true or false, good or bad. God glorifies us in marriage and glorifies Himself through our marriages. This is the glory that sinful men hate.

Seventh, marriage is political. The English word “political” comes from the Greek word polis meaning “city.” So politics are the principles that people living together agree to live by; what is allowable, what is prohibited, what are the penalties for doing what is prohibited, etc. Any group of people will have criterion for what constitutes marriage, what the consequences will be (or won’t be) for breaking the covenant of marriage, what benefits and protection (or lack) belong to a married couple, and so forth.

In Genesis 2:24, if even the bond between a man and his parents is superseded by his marriage commitment, then certainly the bond between a man and the state should not be greater. The ancient dragon is seeking marriages to devour because he knows it’s a big deal because this is “the bond which God has preferred to all others” (Calvin). The doctrine in Genesis 2 frames our beliefs about what relationships are crucial for people who live together. The order of society is here, regardless of what the current law of the land claims. Marriage claims are moral claims are political claims.

Positions of leadership within the home, and within the church are also defined by God’s creation of man and woman (see 1 Corinthians 11:7-9; 1 Timothy 2:11-15). Man came before the woman, she is from man. And women complement 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.

Many husbands and wives have a throbbing wound under a loose shirt, not visible and not going away. But 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).