Marriage is between Man and Woman | Genesis 2:20-25
Read Genesis 2:22-25
"Marriage is a bond between a person who never remembers anniversaries and another who never forgets them." –Ogden Nash
"There are a hundred paths through the world that are easier than loving. But who wants easier?"
–Mary Oliver
"Marriage is not just spiritual communion. It is also remembering to take out the trash."
--Dr. Joyce Brothers
The Point: God created man and woman and sanctified them through a holy marriage. Men and Women compliment one another in marriage as they work together to obey and worship God together.
- Men, we are called to lead our families, to lead our church and to lead by example. We lead by serving, obeying and worshiping God.
To understand Adam and Eve’s relationship we must first look at the context of why Eve was created in the first place. God created this world, earth, and planted this beautiful garden in the east—this was the garden of Eden, the first temple for humanity to commune with God.
God gave Adam one commandment:
“Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” –Genesis 2:15-17
“Thus the proper translation of the second part of v.15, and the purpose for which man was fundamentally created, is to worship and to obey God. This obedience in worshiping and obeying God is expressed by keeping His command.”
--The Moody Bible Commentary
God gives one specific command to Adam: “Do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” But God begins this sentence by offering an affirmation of freedom in the garden, “you may freely eat from any tree in the garden.” This ordering of commands teaches us what God is establishing in His relationship with Adam—He gives Adam choice and freedom while commanding him to worship and obey Him. The law of God is given to Adam as a means of instruction for worship and obedience.
“…[T]his statement in v.17 represents the latter (and lesser) part of God’s command, which in fact begins in v. 16. Reflective of God’s character as a loving and generous Father who desires what is ‘good’ for His children, He began His command with a positive statement…[the point God is making here is] that obeying His command should not be difficult. Indeed it should be ‘second’ nature, absolutely consistent with man’s sinless created nature.”
--The Moody Bible Commentary
“You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.”
--1 Peter 3:7 (read 1 Peter 3:1-7 for context)
Scripture calls men to lead their wives by caring for them, protecting them, using their physical strength to care for them. Men are not to lead their wives astray, they are not to treat them as sexual objects, they are not to abuse them, men we are called to safeguard our marriages and to put our families before ourselves as it says clearly in Ephesians 5:22-26.
“A godly husband will seek to understand his wife’s moods, feelings, needs, fears, and hopes. He will listen to her with his heart, demonstrate love, and stimulate joy…Peter was reminding husbands that wives are (usually) physically weaker than their husbands and should be assisted by them when needed…”
--The Moody Bible Commentary
- Marriage is a holy sacrament designed by God for man and woman to be united as one—to serve one another and to serve God.
Definition of Sacrament: a Christian rite (such as Baptism or the Eucharist) that is believed to have been ordained by Christ and that is held to be a means of divine grace or to be a sign or symbol of a spiritual reality
“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. 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. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man…”
--Genesis 2:20-22
God is building relationship with Adam and brings certain animals to Adam so that they can be named by Adam—Adam is working hard with God, yet without toil, because of the sinless world. God had made a way for animals to be together; to multiply and procreate so God gave Adam the gift of a partner.
True and obedient marriage is between a man and woman. God’s word makes it clear that God designed men and women to be united as one—remember He institutes marriage BEFORE there is sin in the world. Eve is made of the same substance as Adam which separates both Adam and Eve from the rest of creation. Both Man and Woman are made in the image of God.
“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
--Genesis 1:27
“’There is a beautiful Jewish tradition saying God made woman, not out of man’s foot to be under him, nor out of his head to be over him, but ‘She was taken from under his arm that he might protect her and from next to his heart that he might love her’”
--Donald Barnhouse
God is instituting His very first form of worship in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve must be obedient by not eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil; they are to partake of every other tree in the garden and Adam is charged with cultivating the garden. God is telling them how He is to be worshiped. Throughout God’s word, He institutes three major sacraments of worship—telling humanity how to worship Him. We call these, ordinances, in the PAOC tradition. The three major sacraments or ordinances are water baptism, communion and marriage.
Marriage is an institution of sanctification for those who commit to it and an institution of worship / obedience to God—commitment in a monogamous marriage between a husband and wife glorifies God. Marriage is designed to be a gift for humanity where two people serve one another, they lift each other up and build a family community together—God has designed us to be together, to be in community.
Adam needed a helper; he was not made to be alone, so God made a female helper for him.
“First, concerning the woman’s role, the word helper (‘עֵזֶר ʻêzer,) according to its usage is not a demeaning term as it is used elsewhere in Scripture of God (Ps. 33:2-; 70:5; 115:9). In Ps 12:1-2, when used of God, it indicates one who gives both material and spiritual assistance. Hence, the woman was to assist the man in accomplishing the task God gave him to worship and obey Him.”
--The Moody Bible Commentary
In God’s eyes men and women are equally valued and are judged according to the same standard of how faithfully they fulfill the roles that they have been given. Men and Women are biologically different, they have different instinctual strengths and weaknesses, yet both harmonize one another in their differences, they compliment one another.
Adam recognizes this when he looks at the woman after God creates Eve:
“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’”
--Genesis 2:23
Jesus Christ blesses the marriage practice and instructs the pharisees on what marriage is. Jesus reiterates that divorce is a LAST RESORT in marriage. The promise covenant of marriage must be taken seriously, it must be held to tightly and both man and woman must serve one another together for the rest of their lives. Jesus does state that divorce does and will exist because of sexual immorality and the hardness of hearts in humanity because of sin.
Matthew 19:3-9
- God’s Community must walk together; Marriage must be protected, safeguarded, the church has a job to build community and to glorify God together.
This sermon is not JUST about Marriage—God is instituting marriage in Genesis 2:22-25 BUT God is also building the very first community of humanity. This community will come through Adam and Eve’s marriage as they are given the commandment of creating children and those children becoming the greater community for God’s glory.
“God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the [al]sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”
--Genesis 1:28
Next week we are going to learn how Satan views God’s family—we are going to learn how God let the serpent into the garden and how Eve, then Adam will have sinned, they will disobey God’s first commandment, to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Satan aims to distort, to destroy, to attack and to kill God’s community. Our own sin nature, Adam and Eve’s first sin, distorted, destroyed and attacked their own marriage. Why did they sin? The snake told Eve that God was a liar, that death would not be the penalty of sin, he convinced Eve that she deserved to know that knowledge in which God only had—it was pride, entitlement that led to the first sin. ALL SIN is born from pride.
This is why God’s law and God’s word tries to protect marriage. There are three aspects to God’s law, ceremonial, moral, and civil. Leviticus reminds God’s people of what is proper marriage and improper marriage,
“You shall not have intercourse with your neighbor’s wife, to be defiled with her. You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am the Lord. You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination. Also, you shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.”
--Leviticus 18:20-23
“For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”
--Romans 1:26-27
“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling. It is better to be humble in spirit with the lowly Than to divide the spoil with the proud. He who gives attention to the word will find good, and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.”
--Proverbs 18-20
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
--Matthew 5:17-19
The Point: God created man and woman and sanctified them through a holy marriage. Men and Women compliment one another in marriage as they work together to obey and worship God together.