Verse 24 is very important. This is Moses' commentary on what had just happened. He is giving us a conclusion because these two, a man and a woman, are alike but different. They are both mankind. They are both human, but they are of the two different sexes.
What that tells us in verse 25 is that in that environment, in the Garden of Eden, that arrangement was great. Before sin had come in that was the model. That was the way it should be. One man and one woman joining together to be one.
What we have seen here in these two passages is that God's distinction between the sexes is binary. There are two. One of each sex is necessary for procreation. You cannot have two men or two women. There has to be just one man and one woman. That is how it works. The two sides of humanity are to come together as couples, as one in marriage. Not just for reproduction. That is only the most basic reason for the one flesh of the two, but also to accomplish higher, more spiritual goals. And they go from having a conducive family environment to preparing for eternal life. When a man and a woman come together as one flesh and they create the best environment, they can use that environment then for spiritual growth.
Now, in his Companion Bible, E. W. Bullinger has an appendix (it is number 10), on the significance of numbers in Scripture. I believe he later had a whole book that he explained all the numbers in Scripture. But I got this one from the Companion Bible itself. He concludes that the number two signifies difference. We have already seen that. There were two sides of humanity, a male side and a female side, and if you cannot see the difference, you are as blind as a bat because there is very much difference between men and women. They are very much the same in many ways too but the differences are enough to be very distinctive.
So two means different, difference. But if two become one, which chapter 2, verse 24 encourages, then they are no longer binary but unitary. They are one, the two have become one, and in that unity that is created because they have come together, in that unity they can foster progress towards a goal. Let us just think of this in in general terms. Let us say you have a bunch of people and you have a goal, you want to build a house. What you want to do is get all the people on the same page, you want them to be reading from the same blueprint so that when it is time to construct the house, it all goes according to plan.
But if you have one wanting to do a one bedroom apartment and another one wanting to do a three bedroom ranch and another one wanting to have an uptown loft and another one wanting a castle or you know, just to name all these things, there is no unity there. You are not going to get the house built.
So God has made it very simple. One man, one woman, one goal, ultimately the Kingdom of God. Put these two together, give them the same blueprints, encourage the unity between them, unity of mind, and you are far more likely to reach the goal under that than having no union or a divided union, some sort of separation or divorce.
Right here in Genesis 2, already (we could even take it back to Genesis 1, but it does not come out quite as clearly there), but definitely by the end of chapter 2, we have a vital principle in Scripture brought to the fore. And actually it began before that. It is not in Genesis necessarily that we find this out, but we find it out later in the book of John. In the real beginning that is there in the first chapter because this two becoming one started with the One who is called the Father and the other who is now called the Son. They are two entities, two people, two Beings, but They are one in mind and They have a great purpose that They are trying to work out. And because of their unity, even though They are two different Beings, Their unity is so close that They are now well on Their way towards bringing that purpose to pass because of the two of Them.
People picture Adam as a primitive man; but here he named every beast in the world. There is not a scientist anywhere in the world that could do that today.
We have all read that many times. In all of this, consider that the bride of Jesus Christ is to be a true help meet to Him, just as the wives that God has given to us are to be helpmeets to us. This is what the bride of Christ has to look forward to - to be a helpmeet to her husband-to-be.
In all this, consider that this is an extremely important aspect of marriage, with a far-reaching purpose that God had in mind. I hope this helps all of us to take our marriages more seriously and to consider the roles that we have. They do picture the future event of the church marrying Jesus Christ. That is what your marriage pictures. That is why God put it here.
God knew that it was not good for man to be alone. And we can see from the plan of God that God does not wish to be alone. Nor does His Son wish to be alone. You are part of the plan of God. He has a great future planned for you as the bride of Jesus Christ, with much to do. As we heard about in the sermonette this morning, it is just going to be wonderful.
Adam needed a mate, one with whom he might take sweet counsel. Here is one of the things you will do with Jesus Christ as your husband. God further tells us that He would make a helpmeet for Adam, not only one who would be able to respond to his feelings, but also take an intelligent and appropriate part in his active pursuits. In all that Jesus Christ does, the bride will help Him in it.
Among the animals there was not a helpmeet found for Adam. None of the animals could be equal, a companion - a sharer of man's thoughts, his observations, his purposes, his enterprises. So God would have to make someone very special for Adam, just as God has to make somebody very special for His Son, Jesus Christ - and that is you.
God could have formed the woman out of the dust of the ground, as He did Adam. But the Creator's design was to give Adam a helpmeet that would be intimately close with him in every way and who would be, in every sense, a real part of him. When Adam first saw Eve, (I could never picture Adam saying what he did. I always thought the response would be, Wow! but) Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. A more proper translation might be: This turn, or this one who passes in front of me, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Adam recognized that.
We have to understand that the creation of a helpmeet for a man is indeed one of the most wonderful gifts God could give men. And we must understand that the bride that Jesus Christ is going to marry is going to be a wonderful gift for Him as well.
Do not pass by these statements as applying only to Adam and Eve. They pertain to you and me too, as God establishes the models through which His purpose will be accomplished for all of mankind.
Adam was able to discern that there could not be any real relationship with an animal. There was a difference there that could not be bridged, a gulf that could not be leaped over. He could never be one with something like that. He had to be one with something that is in the same image as himself.
I understand that the English word woman means, man with a womb. Of course, we understand that both man and woman are in the image of God, and that the characteristics in a woman came from God, just as the characteristics in a man came from God. God is the perfect blend of both man and woman. And you see, we are to become one with Him.
There is much, men, that you can learn from your wives. And there is much, women, that you can learn from your husbands. We are to become one, which does not mean just the joining of our bodies in sexual intercourse, but it means to become one so that one becomes almost like the other, and the one is softened by the softness of the other; and the other is hardened by the hardness of the other. The one has a certain kind of leadership qualities, while the other has other kinds of leadership qualities. They are somewhat similar, but they are beautifully different as well.
The family was God's invention. It was His idea. He created it and He created it because this was going to be the environment in which most of mankind's social relationships were going to occur.
Here, we have just gotten to the institution of greatest importance on earth!
God created the family long before He created the church. It is the foundational unit of life on earth. Of course, God got the idea from Himself, because He is a family, and the church is a family grown much greater than just a man and a woman, but it is God's family.
So, the basic building block of society starts with the institution of marriage which God created and promoted as the means through which mankind would experience the majority of his social relationship experiences.
There is so much to be learned - simple things and yet profound in their action and reaction as far as the way life has been on this earth.
Why have we in the church raised it so much higher? Why is it at twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-five, especially when God has said they are accountable since they have been able to understand it? Do not molly-coddle your children. That is what I am saying parents. When they are accountable, they are accountable. They have made their bed, they should sleep in it. This may sound hard, it may sound radical, but what you are doing is trying to shield them from God in many respects. I think most people think that they are trying to shield them from the world. There is a bit that a parent can do to do that, but there comes a point in time when, as it says in Genesis 2:24, that a man should leave his father and his mother. In that case it talks about getting a wife and creating his own family. The principle holds true.
There is a time when a child must break away from his parents. Just practically, you may need what is called tough love on your children. When they reach that age of accountability and they are not abiding by your house rules, give them the first month's rent and show them the door. They are accountable. It is time for them to face the real world. You do not need sin in your house, and if they are sinning and you know it, and they are continuing in it, show them the door. You have to be indomitable when it comes to right and wrong. Do not give in. You have to set the standard, or hold up the standard that God has set. Be tough. If they ask for your help, give it to them. But after they have broken away and started their own household, do not meddle in their lives. They are a new family, a new house, and they are accountable for their actions.
In Genesis 2, we see the first and smallest community created. It is the family.
There is the first and the smallest community of human beings: a family. In chapter 4, we see that family begin to expand. Sons, in this case, are mentioned as being born into it. Notice the phrase born into the family. That is how they become part of the community: They are born into it.
We see, through chapter 5, a continued expansion of the human family - as more are born into that family. Until today - carrying up through the Flood, beyond the Flood through Noah and his sons and their wives, and then on to Genesis 10, where we have the table of nations - we see men and women scattered all over the earth in the forms of villages, towns, townships, cities, counties, states, providences, nations, and, today, unions of nations.
The same One who had formed man out of the dust of the earth and then made a perfect helpmate for him who was just like him, the first man Adam, became the second Adam through whom all will be saved.
I propose to you that in Eve we see the first promise from God of the bride of Christ, who will be just like Him. But unlike Eve or ancient Israel, this bride will always be trusted to do the right thing because Christ will have very carefully worked with her to be just like Him.
We have been called to tabernacle with Christ, as Richard has been talking about, to be spiritually as intimate with Him as Adam claimed to be with Eve, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. We are to be part of Jesus Christ, His bride.
