Genesis 2:18–25 (ESV)
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
How should we read this text?
Well, up to this point, we've seen that God has been creating the world and he's formed man from the dust. But now there's a difference to the pattern. You see, God observed that it is not good for the man to be alone. And so this statement stands out to us because until now, everything has been called good.
So this passage shows us that God was completing his masterpiece of creation by creating woman—the perfect counterpart and helper for man.
Now, before the woman is formed, Adam gets this task of naming the creatures. And so we might ask, why is this little detail included? That seems like an odd thing to be included in the story. Well, it highlights that none of the animals could match Adam. Adam was set above all of these creatures. The naming task is more than a chore. It's part of Adam realising and claiming and living up to his unique image-bearing nature of God. So unlike the rest of creation, Adam had authority and dominion over the other animals.
And yet, as “pinnacally” as Adam was, as high as he was over creation, nevertheless there was a gap. There was a gap for him—that no suitable helper was found. And God declares this not good. And so God then fills the gap by doing something rather miraculous. He causes a deep sleep to fall on Adam. He takes one of his ribs and then he uses that rib to create a woman.
God presents her to Adam, and when Adam sees her, he exclaims, “This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” This is a statement of great joy and delight. Adam's voice shows that this woman is a beautiful treasure that he now has.
And this leads us to understand the core idea of this passage, which is that God has designed man and woman to be together. He’s designed this marriage between Adam and Eve as a covenant between this man and woman.
Verse 24 tells us that “for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” That phrase “one flesh” is about more than the physical union they have together. It's about unity at every level. It is deep and relational and emotional and spiritual. And it is designed by God for marriage.
Now finally, this text closes by saying that they were both naked and unashamed. And it really shows us that outside of sin, there is no shame. There is no barrier, no fear, no brokenness between us and other people or between us and God. And that's a beautiful thing which we have lost.
How should this text read us?
Well, I think this text challenges us in a few different ways because it challenges particularly our assumption about our relationships and marriage. It reminds us that human love and companionship are actually part of God's plan. It happens before the fall of sin.
We live in a culture that often treats relationships as kind of an optional add-on or as a mere romance—a nice-to-have—but Scripture here shows us that marriage is deeply part of God's good plan.
Many of us carry wounds about our relationships, whether this is in marital struggles or because of loneliness. Maybe we come from or live in broken homes. And some of us may wonder whether God is even aware of our deep human need for companionship. Maybe we fear to commit to something because we've seen the pain and heartache in either our own lives or the lives of others.
But this passage challenges us again because even though the reality of the brokenness that sin has caused to our relationships, it is nevertheless true that God has designed marriage and relationship for our good. God intended for humans to thrive within the bond of marriage.
But there's another layer here. The text is not just for those people who want to be married. You see, when we see that Adam was alone and God provided the perfect counterpart, we also see that we were made to live in relationship with a broader community—both with God and those around us. We are people who have hearts that want to belong and to connect and to be known by other people. And that's part of what it means to be human.
And so maybe you're feeling a deep desire to be known. Maybe you are feeling loneliness. This passage reminds us that we are to seek out others who would accept us, ultimately finding our place in God's perfect plan.
Now if we are married, then this passage is also a call to really treasure our wife and our husband, to serve one another so that we may protect this unity. A husband is to look at his wife and see the joy and the beauty that is reflected here by what Adam has said. The same thing is true of a wife as she comes to be made perfectly for her husband.
Ultimately, though, this points us to Jesus, who we are created for as part of his people—the bride of Christ who longs for her husband, who has already come but will one day come again.
Prayer
Dear Father, we thank you for creating us for relationships.
Thank you that we see that there is beauty when people are created to be together,
that you saw that it was not good for man to be alone and that you made the perfect helper for him.
Now we confess that sin has broken and damaged our view of marriage and relationship,
and we so often fail to love each other the way you love us.
So we pray that you will forgive us for this selfishness and to point us again
and to help us to recapture the beauty of relationship that you have created.
We ask this humbly through Jesus our Lord.
Amen.