Genesis 2: 16-20

As a senior citizen was driving down the freeway, his car phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife's voice urgently warning him, "Herman, I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on Interstate 77. Please be careful!"

"Are you kidding?" exclaimed Herman. "It's not just one car. It's hundreds of them!"

              Your outlook on marriage makes a big difference is foundational to the success and/or failure of your marriage.

              Last week we saw that attitude made a big difference.  This week I want to encourage you as a family to embrace a Biblical outlook on the family.

              We ride against a current in our society of well-meaning people who are rebelling against the Biblical pattern of the home.  They mean well, but the long term results are not positive.  And some of them are so convincing that we feel like Herman, there are hundreds of cars coming at us.  We must be going the wrong way.  We fall into the trap that the majority view is the right one, even if it goes against God.

              This morning I want to explore a Biblical outlook on the family.  To do so, let’s go to Genesis 2:20.

What is this about a suitable helper for Adam?  What did Adam need help with?  What is this all about? 

The reason I ask this question is because Eve becomes this suitable helper.  So to understand this relationship, we have to ask, what is God’s outlook on why man and women were made and brought together?

First, we ask, “What does Adam need help with?”

The answer is, “Adam needed help doing the work God had created him to do.”

“15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Genesis 2:15, NIV.

God had created trees and plants that could grow on their own earlier.  But now that man is created, God makes plants that need special attention.  I don’t know much about gardening, but some species survive because they do, others only survive because someone takes care of them.  It is this second group that Adam is especially tasked with working.

In the Garden of Eden Adam worked and took care of the Garden.  This was God’s calling for him.  This was what Adam did best.  This was the work that wasn’t toil; it was enjoyable.

But it was a work that was too much for Adam to do alone.

“16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” 18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.”

Of all the animals that came to Adam, not one was able to help him.  The elephants stood on the precious plants, the monkeys ate all the bananas.  The snake had no hands and the donkeys were too stubborn.  Adam had a God-given task to do and he could not do it alone.

So God wants Adam to have a suitable helper.  Though animals could help to an extent, they were not suitable to help Adam do all God wanted him to do.

“21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’, for she was taken out of man.” 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” Genesis 2:21-25, NIV.

So Eve becomes the suitable helper for Adam.

What makes Eve suitable? 

First, their similarities.  Both were created by God, both were given authority to rule over the earth,  both were human, both were people of intellect and moral fiber.

Second, their differences.  Adam could not have filled the earth with people if both he and Eve were the same. 

But I believe that there were other differences as well.  They were not the same, but Eve complemented Adam. 

Have you noticed that often opposites attract?  The more you have in common, the greater the chances for a good marriage.  But those differences are like two pieces of a puzzle that make the whole better than the two individual pieces.

In the Garden of Eden, there is no talk about men’s work and women’s work.  Why?  They worked together.  Whatever needed to be done was either done by both, or by the one who was best suited to do the work.

There were no arguments or disagreements.  I am sure that as they talked, they didn’t raise their voice or bring up the past.  But they sat and enjoyed each other’s company at home and at work.

As a matter of fact, they felt like one. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’, for she was taken out of man.” 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

For what reason ? The fact that both the man and the woman recognized that they originally came from the same body. Eve was “bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh.” 

If you were a genealogist, you would trace your roots not back to Adam and Eve, but according to the Bible, back to Adam.  In Adam the human race began.

What was Eve?  A part of his body, an extension of his body.  But a part made by and enhanced by God.  This did not produce resentment, but a sense of oneness.   Marriage reflects that oneness. 

Let’s review.  God made man to do a job.  He created Eve to help Adam do the job God called him to do.  But Eve was created out of Adam.  So they went well beyond soul-mates.  They were bone-mates and flesh-mates as well.  So much so that when God created man, he needed to add the phrase, “Male and female created he them…”  Eve was different from Adam.  And that difference was God-given to help Adam do the work God called him to do.

              Paul addresses this in 1 Corinthians 11.

“7 A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. 8 For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; 9 neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10 For this reason, and because of the angels, the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head. 11 In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. 12 For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.” 1 Corinthians 11:7-12, NIV.

Notice in verse 7 that the woman is the glory of man.  Man is the glory and image of God, woman is the glory of man.  What does this mean?

I believe that it means that the highest creation of Jesus was man: male and female.  But man was created first and in the fact that the woman was created out of man, Paul can rightly say that the glory, the light, the best God made was man.

What is the glory of man?  What is the best that every came out of man?  The woman.  The woman that God created from him. 

Verse 8 Paul say, “For man did not come from woman, but woman from man.”  In light of verse 7, this is a cause for rejoicing.  Eve was the glory of Adam, the best thing that ever happened to him.  After Eve, everything Adam did was downhill from there.

Verse 9 Paul says, “the woman was created for man, not the man for the woman.” 

Doesn’t this open up a thunderstorm in our country.  But isn’t this a fact from Genesis 2? 

It troubles me that many families are divided.  I am not personally against both couples in a marriage having a job or a career.  But what happens when these careers collide?  If two individuals are in the marriage for themselves, the marriage falls.  For each person wants what is best for them, not what is best for God.

God has a work that he wants done.  Man cannot do it alone, so woman was created to complement man and ensure that God’s work gets done.  In that environment, the gifts and abilities of both people are embraced.  I will say this for any man or woman.  When career is more important than family, you are in danger of stepping outside the will of God.

What is God’s view?  Paul goes on to say that here.

“11 In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. 12 For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.”

Paul is not promoting male independence.  Some men have and this has caused real problems.  Some men have thought, “I am the head of my home.  I have to be strong and deal with life.  I cannot burden my wife with my problems.  I need to make all the important decisions.”

Listen to those words.  That is a person who is independent.  God did not give us wives or husbands for independence.  He gave husbands wives because men need help.  We cannot do what God wants us to do on our own.  The woman is a helper that is suitable to us to do what God wants us to do.

But, you say, “My wife slows me down.”   Good.  May be you need slowing down. 

In the Christian home where there is a Christian and where Christ is important, doing his will takes first place.  God said you cannot do it alone.  Respect your wife.  Use her gifts and abilities.  Work with your husband.  For everything that you have and that she has comes from God.