Genesis 2 and God’s Creation of marriage Part 2

This is part 2 of a series of post on God’s creation of marriage based upon His Word in Genesis 2.  For part 1 click here.

For this series we will see 6 truths about marriage from Genesis 2 so that Christians who are married would live up to God’s design of marriage today and also for Christians who desire to marry to know what is their future roles in marriage.

Part 1 laid the foundation for the series and here in part two we want to look at the first truth we gleam from Genesis 2.

Truth #1: Woman was created as a suitable helper for man

1. Point: Woman was created by God as a suitable helper for man.
2. Passage:
   1. Remember earlier God said “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18b). We are going to see that “Out of something ‘not good,’ God created something very good.”[1]
   2. Eve as a suitable helper for man is not a point that should be missed and to show that the point is important we see that twice in this passage the phrase “a helper suitable for him” is mentioned in both verse 18 and
      1. “I will make him a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:18b)
      2. “but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:20b)
   3. In the Hebrew “a helper suitable for him” is also nuanced.[2] Thus it further reinforces the point that woman as a suitable helper for man must not be taken for granted.
   4. The truth that Eve as a woman is a suitable helper for Adam the man is seen in the rest of verse 18-20.
      1. The phrase “a helper suitable for him” sandwiches verse 19-20a which talks about Adam naming animals: “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. 20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field,”
      2. It is after naming the animals that in 20b Adam sees none as a suitable helper for him.
      3. Only when Adam sees this truth that no other animals is a suitable helper for him does God create woman so Adam might appreciate this gift of woman.
3. Practice
   1. Men do you appreciated that God created women?
   2. I’m not talking about just for marriage and relationship; do you appreciate the sisters in the fellowship in a brotherly way? By the way have you notice how weird a group of guys could get without the balance of sisters?
   3. Married men: Don’t let the day to day life of routine in marriage make you forget to appreciate the wife God has given you. She is your suitable helper that God decreed!

[1] Ray Ortlund, Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 22.

[2] Ray Ortlund, Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 22.