The Creation of Marriage

Please open your Bibles to Genesis 2.

What is our primary function in all of life?

Mark 12:30- And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

Romans 12:1- I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

1 Corinthians 10:31- So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Colossians 3:17- And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Perhaps to sum up- All of life is meant to express our love for God and our worship of God. We have been created to make much of God and to adore Him.

There is no greater calling in life. Nothing will bring us more joy. Nothing will bring greater satisfaction or purpose. This is the purpose in our creation, and we live most within our purpose when we are fulfilling this calling. In all of life, every aspect.

It is through this lens that we must consider our relationships in our families.

A Theology of the Family.

Everything that we do, including in our marriages and parenting, is meant to center on the person and character, the worship and the love of our God.

Read Genesis 2:18-25- Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 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.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Pray.

1. Because God created marriage, God defines marriage.

God creates man.

God declares that it is not good.

Brought all of the animals before Adam, and there was none that was fit to be a helper for Adam.

So God creates woman. And He gives, or brings, her to man.

Author of Genesis then ties all of what has happened together with the concept of becoming one flesh- marriage.

God is the Creator and Designer of it all.

We ought to be looking to Him.

There is a danger in defining marriage according out our own hearts and minds.

We begin defining things according to what makes sense to our own minds and hearts.

Thus, we can take something like marriage and give it our own boundaries, define it according to our whims, and even give it a new purpose.

Purposes can revolve around anything from building up one’s self-esteem, to getting married for the purpose of physical intimacy, to getting married to be able to have children.

All of these are benefits of marriage, but are not the God-given purpose of marriage, which we will come to shortly.

Youth group- physical nature of dating relationships.

Where did your ideas come from?

God has created so God has rightly defined.

2. Marriage is given as a gift and a blessing.

It is not good that man should be alone.

Notice the poetry of v. 23. The creation of woman and bringing of the woman to the man.

Finally bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.

Don’t miss this. Prior to woman’s creation, there was nothing like Adam, and God had made sure that Adam was aware of this.

Woman is given to man in the garden as a gift. God was caring for man in His creation of woman.

Why is this so important?

I think that so many have become convinced that their marriage is a burden.

When you are with your closest friends, how do you speak of your marriage?

How do we convince ourselves of the goodness of a gift?

Consider the good of what you have.

Consider the agony of being without it.

Open your eyes to what could be.

3. Marriage unites two into one.

At the end of our text- they shall become one flesh.

Discussed this concept at length in Mark 10.

Suffice it to say there is a joining together in marriage. Two become one.

Interesting to me that in marriage, we so often struggle to hold on to our individuality.

Two become one in many ways- physical intimacy, living together, parenting together- but have we given ourselves over completely to the idea of becoming one flesh with one another?

We will become one, but we will keep separate bank accounts.

I’ll have my money, she will have hers.

We will become one, but I am going to prioritize my own friend group.

Make sure he has plenty of guy time and that I have plenty of girl time.

Opportunity to get away from the spouse.

We are meant to bring our lives together into one.

Our finances will certainly change, our friend groups, our hobbies, will certainly change.

In marriage, are we struggling and fighting for our individuality, or are we struggling and fighting for our unity?

4. The woman was created as a partner.

The problem with the word- helper.

Not a problem with the translation, but instead a problem with our understanding.

For many, we think of a helper as an assistant.

Someone is doing important work and needs help to accomplish the task.

I need an extra hand.

For many men, this is what their wife is to them.

Not just talking about domineering men- even every day loving husbands.

We get worked into our heads that our work is important and that our wives have been provided to occasionally a helping hand in finishing our necessary and important work.

We take priority in our own minds.

If this is not the case, how should we better understand this?

John Walton offers a different translation- partner or counterpart.

The noun form of the Hebrew word is almost exclusively used of God.

Psalm 33:20- Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.

Psalm 121:1-2- I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

Deuteronomy 33:7- And this he said of Judah: “Hear, O LORD, the voice of Judah, and bring him in to his people. With your hands contend for him, and be a help against his adversaries.”

The way that the woman is being described in Genesis 2 is the same way that God is described throughout the rest of the OT.

This is more than a helping hand. God is described as an equipper of sorts. God makes men and women capable of what they are called to do and be.

In the same way, woman completes the man for his necessary task.

Shown most clearly in the command to be fruitful and multiply. The woman is a key ingredient.

Changes the way in which we look at marriage- men and women are creates as partners in fulfilling their task.

Brings us back to where we started- what is our task? Love the Lord. Everything as worship.

Who do we marry? What is of primary importance? Beauty? Strength? Intelligence? No- love for the Lord. Partnership in ministry.

How do we move forward, then?

For what are you responsible?

What has God called you to be in your marriage?

Married to a believer? How are you partnering with your spouse in such a way that not only your faith and love and worship is built up, but hers is as well?

Married to a non-believer? How are you introducing the Gospel into his life? How are you showing the love of Jesus to your spouse?

Temptation is to put all of the focus on your spouse- Here is everything she is doing wrong. Here is every way that he has failed me.

You are responsible for you. Is your existence in your marriage worshipful, or is it somehow outside the realm of worship for you?

God created marriage to be a blessing and a gift. It was given to humanity for the purpose of God’s highest praise, worship and love. What needs to change in your marriage today in order to meet such an end?