Genesis 2 and God’s Creation of marriage Part 3

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 part 2 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 three we want to look at the second truth we gleam from Genesis 2.

1. Truth #2: Woman is created as an equal partner with man
   1. Point: Woman is not something less dignified in God’s view.
   2. Passage: “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, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:19-20)
   3. Proof
      1. Eve as helper cannot mean she is inferior. Just because someone is a helper does not automatically mean that person is lower and less in value.
         1. Do not forget that God Himself is our helper (Psalm 54:4)[1]
         2. Yet God is greater than man.
      2. In verse 20 we see that after named all the animals we see no animals would be the right helper for Adam.
         1. Don’t forget the animals are lower than Adam.
         2. Can man use animals in such a way that is helpful to him? Yes. But note there is still not “a helper suitable for him.”
         3. What kind of helper that Adam needs is someone that is different than the animals, which happens to be lower than him. We can make the inference whoever this helper is, is not going to be on par with the animals.
         4. So in verse 20 a helper was specifically created. This is a helper who would be unlike the animals in that she is of a help that is greater than the animals.
      3. She is equal with him in that both man and woman are made in the image of God.
      4. Look at verse 23: “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.”
         1. These are the words of Adam after God created woman.
         2. She corresponds to him:
            1. “bone of my bones”
            2. “flesh of my flesh”
         3. While a man and woman are different and have different roles in marriage that does not mean that a woman is not equal before the sight of God as being made in the image of God just like man is in the image of God.
   4. Practice
      1. Men do you see God created woman as having dignity since she is in the image of God?
      2. Women, do not curse or be bitter that you are a woman; God has created you in His image just as man is created in His image.
      3. We should also be challenged that helping someone does not mean we are less of who we are as a person; sometimes in our sinful pride we think that but it is not biblical.

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