Pre-Fall Man: Wonderfully Helped

Well, good morning. Yeah, great to see all of you here today. Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2 for our time of, of study and God's word, this morning.

we are doing a study through the book of Genesis and as we continue in our study, through this book, we come to Genesis chapter 2, verse 18, and my goal today is to try to cover, verses 18 through, 25. And if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be Pre Fall man, wonderfully helped. Wonderfully helped. We studied verses 4 through 9 of this chapter and we entitled that Pre-Fall Man lavishly supplied.

And then last Sunday, we looked at verses 10 through 17. And got a glimpse of pre-fall man lovingly directed by God. And today, we get our last glimpse of man prior to the fall and we see him in our verses today being wonderfully helped in ways that we'll unpack as we go along this morning. This is a wonderful passage.

I'm so excited about it. Let me, let me start with this. back in the early 90s. probably around 1994, I went through a spell where I turned off the, television in our home.

And we went about 15 months without turning it on one time or watching anything on television. I had sensed in the lead up to that. That I've been watching too much television and the Super Bowl had just completed and I decided I'm going to turn it off now. And we went 15 months without watching any television and in the weeks that followed turning off the TV I experienced something of a spiritual and relational awakening towards certain pleasures and responsibilities that had been around me all along, but I didn't notice them because the TV was on.

So basically, I began to notice what the TV had been robbing me of and even robbing my family of. So during that time, I did some writing and I, one of the things I did is I wrote a poem. That is actually based on the passage that we're going to be studying. this morning, and I imagine the story going a little differently than what we find.

In our passage for today. You want to hear it? OK. it's called a creation story, and it goes like this.

It is not good, said God, for the man alone to be. So I will make for him a big screen color TV. So God caused the man to sleep and removed his brain's left side. And fashioned it to be a television tall and wide.

Then God formed the NFL. Major League Baseball 2, then the NBA and PGA for him to view. Then God took the television and brought it to the man who sat right down to watch it with remote control in hand. So Adam soon grew fat.

And his garden overgrew. And when God created Eve, Adam never knew. And when God would come to visit on the Sabbath day, Adam was too occupied watching athletes play. And so among the garden's vegetables, Adam took his place.

He became a couch potato and lived without a trace. So there you go. We will be putting these lyrics to music. And singing them in a morning service soon.

No, I am so grateful that this morning, I get to preach a better story than that. And I want us to begin our study of this passage this morning by just reading this accounting of God, observing man in his loneliness. And seeking to wonderfully help him. Let me begin in verse 18 and I'll read this to you.

Then the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him. And out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.

The man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and every beast of the field, and, but for Adam, there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept. Then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man, and he brought her to the man.

And the man 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. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked.

And we're not ashamed. This is the word of God and may God help us to understand His word this morning. I have a Bible trivia question for you. what was the very last thing that God created?

During the six days of creation. I'll give you a hint It wasn't Eve. It was something that God created after his creation of Eve, and the answer is the institution of marriage. Marriage was the last thing that God created.

In the creation narrative. In fact, it is when we come to the events of our passage today that we can now look back and see what God has been up to all along, all throughout the creation week, God has simply been creating and decorating a wedding venue. For the occasion that we find described in our passage today. And ladies, it took God only 6 days to get ready for this wedding.

Which is maybe the greatest miracle of all. Imagine God looking at his calendar. There is nothing, and he looks at his calendar and he sees in 6 days, I've got a wedding to officiate. and God sets about to creating the heavens and the earth and the sun and the moon and the stars and all of animal creation, and then he makes the groom and he makes the bride, and then brings them together and he does all of that in 6 amazing days.

In certain liturgies for the marriage ceremony in some denominations, this statement is made that quote, marriage was born in the loving heart of God for the blessing and the benefit of mankind, and we observe the birth of marriage. Today in our passage. The way we're gonna break down our study of this passage is we're gonna observe 6 developments in God's provision of a helper suitable for Adam, 6 developments in God's creation. of the institution of marriage.

Development number 1, we began to see in verse 18, and that is that God makes a decision and he voices that. God determines to make a helper for Adam. God decides, he determines to make a helper for Adam. Verse 18, then the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make him a helper suitable for him. This is actually the first time, as many of, in the creation account that God specifically states that something is not good. Every other time that God looks upon what he has made, he sees that it is good, and we see that refrain a number of times in the creation account, but now God is speaking and he sees something and he says it is not good. This should startle us and capture our attention.

What is it that is not good? Look at what he says, it is not good for the man. To be alone. It is not good for the man to be alone.

If we're reading this for the first time and we did not know how events were supposed to play out, we would be surprised probably at this diagnosis of aloneness as God looks upon the man. There's much to love about Adam's circumstances, as one writer. says Adam was in Eden with every bountiful provision his heart could desire, including a whole zoo of pets that adored him as their ruler. On top of that, Adam had the triune God.

To walk in fellowship with from day to day, and yet God looks at Adam in this circumstance and he comes to the conclusion that man is alone and God says it's not good for man to exist only in this state as it stands right now. Apparently, there is a need in the heart of man. That God did not intend to fulfill by Himself, and that no amount of animals or pets can satisfy. Notice also that it is God who comes.

To this conclusion about Adam, as one writer says, man is not consulted for his thoughts on the matter. At no point does the man offer to God any grievance about his current circumstances. This is not Adam saying, God, I'm lonely. here, this is God looking upon Adam and seeing something that initially even Adam did not see about himself.

God observes that man is alone and he then says, I will make a helper suitable for him. And God is about to make a woman who will be a helper. To Adam. Now, the fact that the woman is described here as someone who is to be the helper to Adam should not be taken as derogatory to womankind in any way, shape or form, and yet there are some people who insist on reading the passage this way.

one feminist scholar that I was reading recently says that this passage is teaching clearly that women are inferior to men. And that they are to live lives of servitude. That's the most cynical spin that you can put on what is being said here in this passage. But my response would be, really?

Is that really how you want to read what's being said here? Let me just give a few responses. First of all, if this passage is derogatory to anyone, it is to the man. God looks at the man and says, he needs help.

Imagine the outrage if the story was God looked at a woman and said, she needs help, I'm gonna make a man for her. That would have been viewed as demeaning. to women by some. So if anyone should be, when you look at the word help and who it's provided for throughout the Old Testament, you find that it's the pathetic and the needy and other passages of the Old Testament who need help.

So if anyone should be offended by this passage, it should not be the feminist. It should be the masculinists who are offended. Also in scripture, the title Helper. is actually a title that is most often given to God.

Who is the helper of Israel and who helps those who are his people. For example, in Psalm 54:4, the Psalmist says, behold, God is my helper, and this is exactly the same Hebrew word that is used here in Genesis chapter 2. So if it's not beneath the dignity of the God of the universe to be considered our helper, then a woman should actually be honored. To be given here a title that God Himself happily bears.

In fact, God wants to make a helper for Adam to reflect this part of his image. That brings help to people. A helper is someone who actually possesses strengths and resources and abilities that some other person lacks, and then they bring those strengths and resources and abilities to bear in bringing help to a person, and this is what the woman is to be toward the man. Also, I would suggest that you look at the literal language of the passage.

The expression, a helper, suitable for him as the new American standard says, literally is a helper according to the opposite of him. Different commentators translate this in different ways and all of these are great. A helper like him or helper agreeing with him, or a helper counterpart, or as one writer says, a helper who would be his matching opposite. This expression is not God saying I will make a helper underneath him.

but a helper corresponding to him. This here, guys, is the language of equality. Now part of the implied purpose in creating Eve is to solve Adam's aloneness problem. Adam is alone at this point, and God is saying this is not good for the man to be alone like this.

This is not good for the man and it's also not befitting. To my agenda for man. I want man to rule over the earth. I want him to cultivate the earth, and I want him to create a social world, having children and so forth.

And if that's going to happen, he's gonna need some help with that. So God decides here to make a helper for man. But what's interesting about this story, this passage, is the fact that God doesn't just say I'm gonna make a helper and then jump right into making the helper. and the reason is because God wants to make a helper for Adam, but Adam apparently doesn't know that he needs one yet.

So God wants to generate within Adam. A felt need for a helper before he then provides that helper for him. As one writer says, to prepare the needy bachelor, God initiated an awareness program. And that's what happens.

That brings us to the second development in this passage, and that is God helps Adam to realize that he needed a helper. God helps Adam to realize that he needed a helper. Verse 19, out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name, and the man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to every beast of the field, but for Adam, there was not found a helper suitable for him.

You see, before God solves Adam's aloneness problem, he first wants Adam to recognize his condition of aloneness and instill within him a desire for that problem to be rectified for a helper who will correspond to him exactly. At first, as we read verse 19, we think this has nothing to do with what God just determined to do for Adam. But guys, God is always doing a million things. Amen.

And here we see that he's at least, doing two things here. Verse 19, God makes animals, and he brings them to Adam. This passage does not need to be understood as God created Adam, and then he creates animals after Adam. The idea here is simply God had formed these animals and now he's bringing them to Adam for him to name them.

Also, when you look at the language here, this may not be that Adam is naming every animal on planet Earth. At this time, we know from the text that this is just, for example, the beast of the field that are referred to rather than the beast of the earth. that is mentioned in chapter one. So it could be that God is simply bringing the animals that were in the garden.

To Adam to name on this occasion, not necessarily every animal on the planet. You'll notice in the list here that the fish of the sea are excluded from this list. But God takes these animals he has created and he brings them. He parades them before Adam and Adam names them.

In verse 20 we're told that Adam named the creatures. In all likelihood, he was doing more than Simply calling an animal Fido or Clifford. as one, writer says, Adam would have devised appropriate names consistent with the nature and the character of the animals that he is observing. He would have developed names that reflected great insight into these animals, and we know that Adam did a great job because in verse 19, the text says that whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.

This means that God never disagreed with Adam and never overruled and said, Are you sure you want to call that animal that? Rethink that. what would be your second choice? God doesn't do that.

God never overrules Adam. Whatever title Adam gives to an animal, God accepted that and God Himself henceforth would call the animal by that name. Adam was given a mandate to rule and, and by naming, that's an exercise of authority. Over what it is that one is naming.

These animals are under Adam's authority, indicated by the fact that he is naming them and whatever name he gives to them is the name that they are left with, and God respects the rule of Adam that he has given to him. Again, God is always doing a million things, and here we see that he's doing at least 2 things. He wants Adam to exercise his dominion and naming the animals, but he is also doing this in order to help Adam. To Recognize his need.

He wants Adam as he goes through all of these animals to, to see that all of these animals seem to have helpers that correspond to themselves. They have mates that correspond to them according to their kind, but Adam is lacking that. And so by the end of verse 20 the text tells us that there was not found a helper suitable for Adam. The fact that there was not found a helper suitable for him indicates that somebody was looking.

Adam was looking. It's likely that as Adam went along, he first of all was not even aware that he needed a helper that corresponded to him, but he begins going through the animals and he notices that they are male and female, that these animals all had mates like themselves, and so Adam's becoming aware of the fact that he does not have. A mate like himself. And as time went on, perhaps Adam began thinking that coming around the corner is going to be that one that corresponds to me, but none arrived.

None arrived. He found animals that could be a real help to him in a variety of ways, but he did not find a creature that was worthy to be his helper and to be deemed his counterpart. As the naming progressed, as one writer says, Adam began to ache for a corresponding other. We know even from Adam's response.

In the coming verses that God did his job well of instilling in Adam, a pent-up desire for what it is that God now wants to provide for him. So look at what God does next. God, having determined to do this and then generated in Adam, a desire for what it is that God wanted to do, God, 3, fashions a helper for Adam from one of his ribs. Says, so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept.

Then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place, and the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man. Now guys, God did not have to do it this way, but he did. He could have made Eve from the soil of the ground, as he did Adam. But he does not do that.

He makes Eve from a part of Adam's body. Eve is the only thing created from an already living being. And look at what God does. He puts Adam into a deep sleep.

this is not the normal word for sleep, it speaks of an unusually deep sleep. Men are by nature very good at this, and we can trace it all the way back to here. this is the same Hebrew root that is used to speak of Jonah sound asleep on the boat in the middle of the storm, when everyone else is freaking out, he's in such a deep slumber that it does not even awaken him. This is the deep sleep that Adam is in right now and look at what God does next, and God took one of his ribs.

Some people question whether this is really referring to, an actual rib of Adam. This Hebrew word is elsewhere in the Old Testament. translated often as side, just speaking of the side of something, but my, my My feeling is that almost certainly what it is that God is removing from Adam at least entails the rib for a couple of reasons. Number one, the text says that God took one of whatever It is.

This would make most sense if there were multiple items that God could have taken and rib really fits the bill there. it's too vague to say that God took one of his sides. that's not helpful, to us. Additionally, whatever it is that God took from Adam, we know that it included bone.

As well as flesh, because Adam, when he sees Eve, says this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. So this word likely is speaking of rib in the traditional sense of the term, but we should understand it to include not just the rib bone, but other types of fleshly tissue attached to that bone. As one writer says, he says, God did not take the bone alone. The creator took together with the bone, the flesh attached to it, and from the flesh he formed the woman's flesh and from the bone.

Her bones. We actually speak this way today when someone invites you over to their house for barbecue ribs. they're not inviting you over for just bones, because technically that's all they're saying, right? but we all know that it's not just the ribs, but it's the meat on those ribs.

So if you just in your mind, imagine, a rib from Adam's sight along with fleshly tissue attached to that, you're, we're probably coming pretty close to the idea of what Moses is seeking to communicate here. So what does God do with this rib? The text literally says, God built into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man. This is the Hebrew word for built, and this is the first time that we see the word built used in the creation account.

God took a bone and he built that bone into a woman. Interestingly, the Greek Septuagint uses the word oiko demeo, oiko demeo to translate the Hebrew word here. and I don't normally go throwing words like this at you. I just want you to know that oiko demeo is a very significant word in the New Testament.

Every time you see the word edify or edification, it's this word. Oika de Mayo. And the very first time this Greek word is used is in the Greek translation of this very passage here in Genesis chapter 2. So literally, guys, God took a rib and he edified that rib into a woman.

This should inform our understanding of the word edify that we see in the New Testament. It doesn't just mean to tweak or to add to something when we speak about a person being edified. The, the idea of edification is radical transformation. Like transforming a rib into a woman.

And so when you read, for example, in Acts 20:32, where Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders, these are mature Christians, and he says, I commend you to God and the word of His grace, which is the gospel, and then by way of describing the gospel, he says, which is able to literally edify you. The gospel has the power to edify you, Paul says, and he uses this very Greek word, oika demeo. The gospel does not just convert, it edifies, it transforms those that it converts, and this edification.

is a wholesale transformation into something altogether different than what something looked like when it started.

I want you guys, I'm just throwing that in just to get the gospel in here, let that excite you. If God can take a rib and edify that rib into a drop dead gorgeous woman, imagine what he can do with you. If you give the gospel, the word of His grace, full sway in your life as a believer from day to day. But back to the story, what is clear here is that Eve was taken from Adam, which demonstrates the absolute unity of the human race.

Every human being ultimately comes from Adam, including Eve. There's also wonderful appropriateness in the fact that God took Eve from Adam's rib, which was in his side. Matthew Henry says this so beautifully, the woman is not made out of his head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled on by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected and near his heart. To be beloved.

Isn't that beautiful? And by the way, Matthew Henry lived during the 1600s. He died in 1714. Keep that in mind, this is not some modern writer trying to read equality back into the text to make it more suitable for modern listeners.

This was a man hundreds of years ago who's looking at the text of the Bible and he's seeing the equality of womankind. To the man as indicated by the fact that she was taken from Adam's rib, and she is equal, she is to be protected, and she is to be near to his heart, to be beloved. This is loud and clear from the passage itself. Now the, the great thing about this story is that God doesn't just create Eve and then leave it to Adam and Eve to find each other.

God isn't just creating a woman here, he's creating a marriage. And so look at the fourth development here. God brings the helper that he created to the man. God brings the helper he created to the man.

So he edifies into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man and the text says, and he brought her to the man. Just imagine this scene here. One commentator says, God Himself is like a father of the bride in leading the woman to the man. Imagine the joy in the heart of God as he is anticipating Adam's reaction to what he's going to see and what a reaction it was.

Adam sees Eve and he is so excited by what he sees that he waxes eloquent with poetry. Guys, these are the first words recorded. of Adam. In fact, these are the first recorded words spoken by any human being in history and it's poetry.

And it's not just poetry, it is a cry of ecstasy. At seeing a woman. Ladies, this should make you feel so special. Nothing else in all of creation gets celebrated immediately like God's creation.

Of a woman does. No other of his creation gets greeted with poetry. Like she does. The very first human words quoted in the Bible are the rapturous cries of a man upon seeing a beautiful woman.

Ladies, you are. An amazing and a dear and a precious gift of God to the human race. And you deserve this type. of adulation and ecstasy that is coming from the heart of Adam as he sees this creation of God.

And all God's women said, Amen. Now look at the text here. We've learned that This is really interesting. we've learned that saying something in Hebrew 3 times is a way of putting emphasis on something.

This happens actually in the Hebrew text of what Adam says in verse 23, even though it's not visible in the English text. Look at what Adam says. he says, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This shall be called woman because this was taken out of man.

Notice the word this, 3 times being uttered by Adam. If Adam ever were to write a book in praise of womankind, it would be entitled This. Adam is amazed. This is great emotion being communicated by Adam.

And when you look at the expression. You might look at this and go, man, this, there's really not a lot to the poetry here. This is now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, but actually, there's a lot of meaning packed into this. Adam, at the very least is giving voice to the fact that Eve has come from him.

He is saying this is bone from my bone and flesh from my flesh. At the very least, we know that Adam is saying this, and he even says it again at the end because she was taken out of man. Adam sees in some ways a mirror image of himself, someone who shares the same genetic makeup as him. And who resembles him in many ways, and yet with some gender differences that Adam really seems to like.

They are basically identical twins but of opposite genders. Adam is saying, this is bone from my bone, flesh from my flesh, but there's more going on than just recognizing Eve's source. My Hebrew professor in seminary believed that there was a superlative idea. Here, for example, in the Old Testament, you have the Song of Songs of Solomon.

What does that mean? Is it a song that came from a song? No, Song of Songs is a superlative idea. It's a way of saying Solomon's best song.

That's what's being conveyed. Of all the songs that Solomon wrote, this was his best song. And so in part, Adam is saying as he looks at Eve, this is my best bone. This is my best flesh.

He's saying, God, you did the ultimate thing with my flesh. And my bones. Never could anything more wonderful be created from my flesh and bones than what you have created and are bringing to me now. She, this woman, this represents the absolute very best thing that could ever come of my flesh and of my bone.

Adam is dazzled and amazed. He's thinking, you got that from my rib? Amazing. Also, notice that Adam uses the word now.

This could be translated now at length or some suggest even by the words at last, which is really striking. Adam is like, at last. Finally, is the idea. this is amazing because Adam has been without a mate for less than a day, and for a part of that day, he didn't even know that he needed a mate.

God had to convince him and show him that he needed one. But then Adam begins to feel his lack, and by the time he's done naming the animals, he is longing for a mate and God then provides him one and Adam says at last, Finally, I have a wife. The ache that he was feeling for a wife must I've been really keen at this point. What Adam does here is just so beautiful.

Adam then names her, just as he named the animals, and he names her woman. In her English translations because she was taken out of man. Literally, the Hebrew is, she shall be called Isha. Because she was taken out of I.

He looks at Eve and says, you are Isha. Because you were taken out of I Now, what's interesting here is that Adam has never in the creation narrative up to this point, been referred to as Ish. It is always 16 times prior whenever you see the man, the man, the man up to This verse, and even at the beginning of the verse, it's always ha Adam. Adam Adam And, but here, Adam is calling himself by something different than what he has been called by up to this point of the narrative.

And so guys, listen very carefully. What we have here is not just Adam naming the woman, but also naming himself. What this means is that in this moment, Adam is not just discovering a female for the first time, he is discovering himself as a male. For the very first time.

What a moment of discovery this must have been for him as one writer says, thus Adam discovers his own manhood and fulfillment only when he faces the woman, the human being who is to be his partner for life. It is now that Adam can know what it's like to even be male. Now that he is standing before. A female.

Up to this point, Adam has been referred to, as I said, as Adam or Adam, which is from the Hebrew word for dirt. Or ground. Adam has been named or referred to in relation to the material from which he came, but here, Adam is naming himself, not based on where he came from, but he's now naming himself, identifying himself in relation to his wife. He's saying, from now on, I am I.

And you are Isha. One pastor says of this moment in Adam's beholding of Eve and what he calls her and himself. He says the sound play between Ish and Isha celebrates their relationship. Adam restates his own name embedded in hers.

Adam. Anticipated the deepest intimacy. It'd be like me looking at Donna, my wife, for the first time and saying, from now on, I am Mr. Vincent and you are Mrs.

Vincent. And we share that name. I give her my last name. There is a relationship here.

Adam's not only sees her and sees a female for the first time, but he now understands what it's like to be male in a way that he never could have apart from Eve. Now, is this just a cool story about the first marriage in history, or does this have something To teach us today. Well, Moses wants us to know that there is something for us here today, thousands of years later, so he turns to us and speaks to us. And that moves us to the 5th development that we see in this passage, and that is in doing what God does with Adam and Eve, God thereby establishes the marriage pattern for all time.

God is establishing a template or a pattern for all time. Moses says, For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. This is not some nice little story about something that happened thousands of years ago with no relevance to us today. This is the pattern for the future of human civilization.

This is actually why Jesus quotes from this very verse, Genesis 2:24 in Matthew 19 and why Paul quotes from it, thousands of years later. After Genesis 2:24 was written, He quotes from it in Ephesians 5. This is supposed to be instructive for us all in every age. If what is said here in Genesis 2:24 fits with our cultural norms, then great.

If it doesn't fit, then our cultural norms are faulty. Marriage is not something that man came up with. God created marriage, it was born in his heart. Marriage is God's idea, not ours.

Therefore, marriage is his intellectual property. And he has the rights to define it. And make the rules that govern it for those who are inside of this thing that he created. And that's what God does here.

God's like, I created this thing called marriage and let me speak to everyone of every age and every culture throughout human history, and let me tell you what this means for you. For this cause or for this reason, because of what I have done here. In this occasion, here's what this means, that a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh. Let's look at these three elements just briefly.

A man, here's what's entailed in marriage. A man leaves or the idea is a man forsakes his father and his mother. Marriage is not simply an entering into a new relationship with a spouse. It entails altering your relationship with your parents.

And the word Moses uses is leave or forsake, which is a strong and unsettling word. When marrying a woman, a man forsakes. His parents. What does that mean?

Interestingly, in Bible times, Jewish culture, even we see this in the Old Testament, was what was called patri local. patri, having the idea of father and then local means local, OK? it means that when a man got married, he did not always leave his father's house. in fact, a man would often continue to live in his father's house or near his father's house, and it was the woman who did more of the leaving.

To become a part of his household. But here in this passage, even the men are told that they have some forsaking to do. Even if a man is still in or near his father's house, there needs to be a psychological leaving and forsaking that takes place. Up until marriage, the man's relationship with his parents is the most important relationship in his life, in the eyes of God.

But when a man gets married, he forsakes his parents as the most important people in his life and he replaces them. With his wife, who is now the most important person in his life. This is harder for us to comprehend in our modern culture, cause family attachments often tend to be less strong than what they used to be back in Bible times. As one writer says, in traditional societies like Israel where honoring parents is the highest human obligation next to honoring God, this remark about forsaking them.

is very striking. Parents, let me just challenge you to help your children with this. We don't want our children's first loyalties to be to us for the entirety of their lives. Amen.

We don't want their first loyalties to be to us after they get married. And some parents have trouble understanding this and they sabotage their children's marriage by getting in between. Husband and wife. We want our children's first loyalties to be to their spouse.

Don't be a clingy parent who makes this hard for your children to do, to leave home and cleave to another or even after they have left home, to make that hard for them to cleave. To their spouse. Does that make sense? My parents have just done a remarkable job with this.

When I left home. to marry Donna, I honestly, this shows how arrogant I was at the time. I was actually worried about my mom and dad, like, are, are they gonna be OK with me not being In the house, with them and, but, but as I interacted with them, they actually seemed excited that that That I was leaving and but I know deep down it was really hard for them, but they pretended that, hey, we're all good with this, we're gonna be good. And the fact that they pretended so well that I've always appreciated that about them, but, but in all seriousness, they made it easy and even since being married, they, they have encouraged that loyalty to be to my wife.

And I think this is healthy. Parents, raise your children and teach them to one day love their spouse more than they love you. In fact, I would say to my kids, when you get married, you will love your mom and I best by loving your spouse first. That I would feel honored as a parent by that.

A man, God is saying, here's the pattern. There is a leaving that happens, there is a forsaking. The parents are, are no longer the most important relationship in the man's life, but now the wife is. There's a second element in marriage defined here, and that is that a man is to be joined to his wife.

The idea is becoming glued to one another, two entities. Becoming attached. To one another. Meaning nothing and no one is to come between them or separate them.

Meaning no mom, no dad, no sin, no anger, no bitterness, nothing. They are to be joined together with nothing in between them and nothing separating them. Some people get married and they're more joined to other things than they are to their spouse. They're more joined to their work.

They're more joined to their hobbies, they're more joined to the TV, they're more joined to the computer. They're more joined and some of you may be saying, preach at Milton, preach at Milton, I like the direction you're going, because I'm so mad at my husband because he's more attached to these things and that's why I pulled away from him. Hm. So you've let something come between you and your husband, hm.

Because some are more joined to their expectations. Their disappointments. Their anger, their bitterness, their grievances, then they are joined to their spouse. When your spouse lets you down and you're like, what, I'm pulling away, what you're saying is I'm more joined to my expectations and to my grievance than I am to my spouse.

I value these things more. Than my spouse. Some are more joined to their lust and to sexual sin than they are to their spouse. The list could go on, but the point is this is not the plan of God.

A man and a woman are to be joined together and let nothing come between them and nothing separate them. Interestingly, the, the words forsaking and cleaving are both covenantal terms here. Israel is often accused of forsaking Jehovah God and breaking covenant with him, and the Israelites were repeatedly told to cleave to God in covenantal relationship with Him. And so leaving and cleaving, this is covenantal language teaching us that marriage is fundamentally Covenantal in its nature.

That brings us to the 3rd element of marriage, which is the two shall become. One flesh. This is physical intimacy, denoting the extent of the union that is to exist between husband and wife, all the way down to the physical part of who they are. They are to become one, spiritually and emotionally and physically.

Nothing is said in this passage at least about bearing children because children don't make a marriage. The focus here is on the husband and the wife in covenantal union with one another, engaging in. Physical intimacy. Physical intimacy.

Guys, God is all for Sexual intimacy, and don't let anyone tell you anything to the contrary. God created it. It's his idea. This wasn't Adam and Eve coming to God saying, we discovered something really amazing.

Can we do this? And God's like, OK, no, this is God's idea and God is the one turning to us here and saying, here's the pattern for all time. God created sexual intimacy and he created the covenantal confines of the marriage relationship to serve as the place where this intimacy can take place. Sexual intimacy is so sacred.

The vulnerability entailed is so deep that God has created only the safest of places where this intimacy can happen. And that is inside of the covenantal union of a man and a woman who have promised their entirety of their lives together. This is safe sex. The only sex that is physically and emotionally and spiritually safe is the kind that occurs inside of the covenantal confines of a loving marriage relationship where two people have pledged their lives to one another.

What is not to love? About that And this was birthed in the heart of God. There's one more description or development here. A pre-fall man, wonderfully helped.

And we're just gonna touch on this, and that is that the man and his wife were naked and unashamed. Says, and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. So there were no tuxes nor wedding dresses to fuss over at this wedding. Adam and Eve are the only ones on the planet at this point, and the husband and wife see no need to wear clothes.

That thought does not even cross their mind. They were in fact naked because they didn't even notice. That they were and they're totally unashamed. Never once did it cross either of their minds that the other might think an unworthy thought about them in their nakedness.

They are as oblivious as a 1 month old baby would be about its own nakedness. They know nothing of evil, they know nothing of shame, they know nothing of cynicism, and there's absolutely nothing between the two of them. At all. This is a relationship at this point in which everything is shared and nothing, not one thing.

is hidden All of this sadly will change when we get into chapter 3. Guys, when we're done with either chapter 3 or 4, at some point, we're gonna try to time this in a particular way this year. We're going to pull away from Genesis and we're gonna do a topical series on the subject of marriage. So we're going to be coming back to these verses and picking some of these things apart and looking at them in greater detail to try to give hope and help to all of us, in our marriages and to give vision for, for that.

but let me just, let me just make a couple points as we wrap things up, this morning. Just to remind you, marriage was born in the heart of God. For the blessing of men and women. And this passage has much to teach our society today about marriage.

We do well to call people back to this standard. In fact, what's so interesting to me is that in Matthew 19, Jesus is looking at what his culture was doing and how they were putting away their wives and remarrying with relative ease. And Jesus, he doesn't just look at that and say, well, I guess they're evolving differently on the subject of marriage. No, he pulls out Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24, and he says, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said for this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

Consequently, they are no longer two but one flesh. But therefore God is joined together, let no man separate. This is Jesus holding up this passage that we're looking at today, holding up this passage as the standard for people of every age to follow. He didn't just leave it up to the culture.

To find its own way on the subject of marriage. He spoke up and he corrected his culture. With the truth of Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24, and may God give us the backbone and the grace to be like Jesus and to do the same thing today. Amen.

We have a whole movement today. That rejects the other gender as necessary for marriage. We have men who discriminate against women, and they reject women and they put aside the female gender altogether and want to marry only someone of their own. Gender They reject the entire female gender and basically say there is not one representative of the female gender on this planet.

That I would want to covenantally unite myself with. And there are women who reject The male gender. In the same way and only want to marry someone of their own gender and they want to call that marriage when marriage is by its very definition, an embrace of the opposite sex. That's what marriage is.

And people not only disobey God, But they cheat themselves out of true flourishing. And even a true maturing in their own understanding of their own genderedness that comes with an embrace of the other gender. They're just setting aside the beauty of what God teaches. And creating something of their own making.

And we have an opportunity to engage our culture on these issues with love and with grace, but also with truth. And we should follow Christ's example by saying, have you not read? Can I show you the beauty of what God actually gives to us in His word? One final thing I want to point out, I've been pondering this and I got a whole lot more thinking to do about this, but it is, it's striking to me that God put Adam into a deep sleep and order.

To fashion for him a bride. It's as if God would have said to Adam, Adam, I'm going to make for you a bride, but you have to let me put you in a deep sleep and you have to let me pierce your side in order to get you a bride. And Adam says, OK. OK.

So Adam lets himself be put into a deep sleep and he let his side be pierced so that from his own flesh could come his bride. Henry Morris says, it seems almost, almost as though Adam died in order that he might obtain a bride. To share his life. And we see in this a foreshadowing of Christ.

We know from Ephesians 5 that marriage was created by God after the, the pattern of Christ's relationship with the church. That's what God was staring at when he created this first marriage. He was looking into the future at that relationship between Christ and the church, which entails us, and he created the human institution of marriage after that pattern of what he sees. And we see here a foreshadowing of what Christ was willing to endure.

In order to obtain. His bride for himself. Warren Wearsby says it this way, Adam was put to sleep and his side open that he might have a wife, but Jesus died on a cross and his blood shed that he might have a bride. The church Everything we've looked at today ultimately points us to the love of Christ and His love relationship with the church.

which contains, those who believe in Jesus. It turns out that our passage this morning is a foreshadowing of a love story, and you just might be in that love story. If you feel God's spirit stirring in your heart, perhaps it is that God is trying to put you on his arm and to walk you to Jesus this morning. And if God is doing that.

Will you let him take you to Jesus? And believe in him and surrender. To his love. He, the one who is the most amazing lover.

Of mankind. Let's pray together. Lord, there's so much in these verses and we're overwhelmed with the scope of them. We're just thankful that we get to come back to these things and unpack them further.

But you You're a good God. You give us good gifts. I thank you for marriage. I thank you for the marriages represented in this church.

I thank you for my own wife. For her love. And I, I am a different man today because of her. Her love and her grace.

And all of us, Lord, in this room are enriched by the institution of marriage, whether we're married or single. We need a church with strong marriages. That put on display the glory of Christ and his relationship with the church. Their husbands and wives, Lord, that are seated here today, and there is much that is between.

Them and their spouse and they're wondering what has gone wrong. And part of the journey is to come back to where we've been today and to see marriage in its perfection and then to go into chapter 3 and begin to understand what has gone wrong. But then to know that there is hope. There is direction.

There is healing. And we thank you for all the help that you do provide us in your word. Help us as a congregation to journey together through these things in the weeks to come. If there is anyone here today, Lord, that you are tugging at their heart and tugging at their arm and you're saying, I wanna bring you, I wanna bring you as a gift to my son.

Jesus, Lord, may they give heed to that and let you, the Father, draw them and bring them to Jesus, and may they bow before Jesus and surrender to His amazing love. And help all of us, Lord. Each day to surrender to the love of this one. Who was willing to be laid low and to have his side pierced so that we could be brought into relationship with him.

Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, receive these funds, and do much. With every penny that is given for the glory of Jesus, in whose name we pray, and all God's people said,