Saturday, December 21, 2024

Genesis 2:18-25 - God’s Complementarian Design of Mankind

Genesis 2:18-25

18 And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

23 And Adam said:

“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.


God made the man Adam and all the animals for him, yet something was missing as the first man began to realize and what God His Creator already knew and planned for.  God was not blindsided by this desire of Adam; He had put that desire in the man for a true and equal complementary companion and mate.  The Lord simply expressed His will in this statement for our account to understand the account of the creation of a complete man and woman designed to be united in the commitment and mutual support of one another in marriage between a man a woman as husband and wife.  That is God’s sole design and it is declared good by Him.  All other supposed unions suggested by fallen mankind after the temptation and deception which left all their children in broken relationships and ones never designed nor sanctioned by God according to His word are disobedience and even abominable (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13, Romans 1:26-27) when the design is broken completely.  God had made the animals as companions, but none of them satisfied the spiritual and deeply emotional need of Adam.  The man named all the animals created to give him some company, but had a greater fulfillment of the need to not be alone for His capstone creation.  No other companion was suitable for or comparable to be alongside Adam.  God then completed His design by putting the man to sleep and taking part of him who was created from the dust of the ground made by God and whose breath had given him life in God’s image, He took from him and created a suitable companion, the woman to be his wife.  The very words to describe man and woman, אִישׁ (ish) and אִשָּׁה (ishah), show us how the woman was part of man of his bone, his essence, his very substance made out of his own fleshy body and not separately out of the dust of the earth like Adam.  This shows the order of creation and the roles of man and wife as well as their relationship of interdependence (1 Corinthians 11:8-9, 12) and equality in bearing God’s image.  The union of a man with a woman in marriage as Adam and Eve in the beginning is to be continued in we who are their descendants.  We are to be united as one flesh and one in value of equal worth with different roles as designed in the order of creation and later amplified by the Fall of mankind in disobedience and rejection of God’s word (Genesis 3:16, 1 2 Corinthians 11:3, Timothy 2:12-13) and will which some still fight against this order and design today to satisfy their own desires over God’s perfectly designed creation.  In the beginning before the desire for such pleasures were taken out of context by the imperfect knowledge of good and evil plucked from the forbidden tree in defiance to God’s command, man and woman were naked and unafraid of their natural appearance and would have filled the earth in being fruitful to multiply in innocence.  Sin marred that and until we are in God’s presence again as in Eden, we shall be tempted by our revealed nakedness of body and soul.  Man’s attempts to force the issue in our way only magnify the results.  Therefore we are not to uncover another’s nakedness except in marriage as designed with its accompanying commitment as a man and woman are joined as one in body and soul.  This is God’s complementarian on and only design of man and woman, husband and wife, in His good design. 

No comments:

Post a Comment