The second half of Genesis 2 talks about man in the Garden of Eden. This is where it all went bad. You remember that God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of God and Evil. One tree that they were prohibited from eating from. Oh what a temptation when we are told not to do something. The enemy continually tells us it is ok. The enemy works us, but more on that in the future chapters. The key was that this is where God says “don’t eat from it…..you’re dead”. Sin always causes that result if it is not dealt with. Sin is separation from God because of the choice we make. It causes us to lose our connection. Only when we deal with the consequence of sin through the blood of Jesus can we restore that relationship.
But the real big news in this chapter is that God continues to create here. Man has been naming the birds and animals…he was doing the work of being in the garden….but he was along. He “didn’t find a suitable companion” so God decided to fix it. That is when the dynamics of the world changed forever – woman entered. I find it interesting that God spoke most everything into exsistence except for man, where He breathed into the nostrils, and now, here comes woman. “As he slept He removed one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh”. Different tactic for this creation. That means one special outcome – here comes woman and the world has never been the same. J But the real key is what God says here. As He describes the way man and woman should be united and come together he says this: “Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become one flesh”. Leave, cleave and become one flesh. Pretty simple set of instruction for us that is now called marriage. But the real focus today is that we are to become one flesh. Sometimes that is interpreted that there should be sex. A normal result of being happily married and important as well. But the reality is that when we get married, we really should meld into one – we no longer are two separate people that just try and get along and live together. God calls us to really become one – to put aside our own individual rights and commit to being one for life. Not exactly how the world is doing the marriage thing today. Not even close. Yet God’s design is for man and woman to unite and become one – not two people tied together by some proverbial knot, but a complete meld of being just one together. Don’t fall prey to the enemy’s lies. Live your marriage God’s way.
