Adam was created first with a little bit of soil and the Lord Himself breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. So far so good with the image-bearer of the Almighty. But the first thing God ever said was not good was that the first man was alone.
If anyone but God had said it, the typical trendy Christian literature response might be to say that Adam had his relationship with the Creator and that should have been enough. But that relationship with the good Lord was not enough as God saw it. Thus God made a helpmeet suitable for Adam.
From then 'til now, I am convinced most of the dysfunction in how we approach marriage has to do with our either not knowing, underestimating, or actively rebelling against what Genesis says here.
Proverbs tells us that the man who finds a wife finds a good thing. And yet how we approach and steward marriage goes a long way in our appreciating this.
In the origin story of how God made man, some might complain that we don't have a lot to go on. But I disagree. Every detail and every nuance in the Genesis account is borne out in the rest of what we read in the Bible from cover to cover.
So when it says God created woman in a certain way at a certain time and for two reasons - because it was not good for the man to be alone and because she was to be a helpmeet suitable for the man - we would be wise to lean in and listen close.
In the context of marriage, a wife is the appropriate antidote to loneliness. God Himself says that loneliness is not good, and the remedy is provided in marriage.
But so also, when Genesis describes the woman as a helpmeet suitable we should ask what Eve was created to help Adam with.
Consequently, we should ask what God had made Adam to be and do. And there also Genesis provides the answer. God made Adam to be His image-bearer for one thing. And God putting Adam in the garden to keep it is another.
Subsequently, God gives instructions to the man and woman, Adam and Eve. "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the Earth and subdue it" - hardly an easy task without a breeding pair.
Even my referring to those two or married couples in general in such terms is sure to cause some to shift uncomfortably in their seats. But there you have it. And if the good Lord made it a core part of marriage, I am not going to leave it unattended as we discuss the topic.
So then it would seem that in order to talk intelligently about marriage, and to think rightly about it, and to steward it well and productively, we have to build on this foundation.
God made man in his image and put him in the garden to work it. God made Adam first, then made Eve. Eve was made because it was not good for man to be alone, and to help Adam in fulfilling the purpose for which God had made him. And a large part of the purpose God made man for was to exercise dominion over the Earth - to fill it and subdue it, to work the ground, to reproduce himself and spread God's representation through all of Creation.
But is that how we think of marriage? Is that how we treat this thing, whether on the front-end or in the thick of it?
I think not. And yet I want us to remedy that rather than being content with it, firmly believing as I do that a blessing comes with the rectification of certain untruths we have come to believe as a matter of course because we are told in so doing we will be liberated.
The reality is entirely other. And the most liberating thing possible is know the truth of God's Word and be set free by it - the context of marriage being no exception, of course.
