Bible Passage: Genesis 2:18-25
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: October 6, 2024

Bulletin October 6, 2024

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

There is something jolting about the opening words of our text, “It is not good for the man to be alone. (v. 18)  It is jolting because it is the first time we have heard that something wasn’t good.  Up to this point in Genesis, we have only heard the word “good.”.  Six times in Genesis 1 we are told that God saw what he had made and it was good (1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25).  And once we are told things were very good (1:31).  That word “good” is like a drumbeat in the story of creation, beating out a steady cadence.  That is why it is shocking to hear the words of our text.  It stops us in our tracks.  “Not good!”  What is not good?

“Man alone.”  That is what God deems “not good.”  Why was this not good?  It wasn’t that Adam being the only human was morally bad.  It wasn’t wickedness and sin for the man to be alone.  But it was incomplete.  Adam had no one to love.  There was no one to love him.  How would he procreate if he was alone?  Things were incomplete.  In this way they were “not good.”

So the Lord God determined that he was going to fix things.  He was going to make things better.  And he was going to make things better by making someone for Adam.  A wife.  And from that time on, The World is a Better Place…because of Marriage.

I will make a helper who is a suitable partner for him. (v. 18)  That is what the Lord says he is going to do because the man is alone.  To make things better, he is going to make someone who, literally in the Hebrew, is “opposite” to the man, or “a mirror image” of the man.  That’s a very interesting way to think about the difference between male and female.  We are opposites, or the mirror image of one another.  Blake Shelton sang, “You be my soft and sweet, I’ll be your strong and steady.”  Not bad.  I know it’s provocative to say nowadays, but it is a basic part of God’s creation.  Men and women are different!  By design!  God’s design!  The sexes complement and complete each other!

The Lord said he was going to make this corresponding person for Adam.  That’s why what happens next might seem strange.  We are told the Lord brings all the animals to Adam.  As Adam looks them all over, he assigns names to them all.  “You’re a duck.  You’re a baboon.  You’re a hippopotamus.”  And so on.  We are told, Whatever the man called every living creature, that became its name. (v. 19)  Just as an aside, this shows us the incredible intellect of Adam!  Adam was no grunting, knuckle-dragging neanderthal!  He possessed an incredible intellect!  When this exercise was complete, we are told, But for Adam no helper was found who was a suitable partner for him. (v. 20)

God had something very special in mind for Adam.  Life in Adam’s perfect world was about to get even better!  The Lord puts Adam in a deep sleep.  While he slept, the Lord removed a piece of Adam’s side, commonly we say one of Adam’s ribs.  Flesh closes in where the rib was removed.  Then, using Adam’s rib, the Lord makes a human being who is the opposite of a male human being, a human being who is the mirror image of a man.  A female.

Wasn’t that kind of God?  To make things better for alone-Adam, God did not say, “Adam, you need to get a cat.”  To make things better for alone-Adam, God did not take Adam’s rib and make a college buddy.  To make things better for alone-Adam, God makes a woman, a wife.  A creature who quite literally completed the man, because she brings back the piece he’s missing!

And just look at Adam’s reaction!  Someone has described this as the first love poem.  Adam says, Now this one is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh (v. 23).  Remember, Adam had just seen all the flesh and bones of the animals pass by.  None of those flesh and bones were like his.  Now this one [finally!] is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!  And since he was still in a naming mood he says, She will be called woman because she was taken out of man.  And then God’s solemn pronouncement:  For this reason [because God made boys and girls],  a man shall leave his father and mother and will remain united to his wife. (v. 24)  And the world became a better place because of marriage!

What has happened to marriage?  In Eden it was so beautiful and pure.  Adam was so happy to see his wife!  Why are spouses now so grumpy and snarky to one another?  In Eden the naked husband and wife felt no shame.  Where has this innocence gone?  Why do spouses now do shameful things to one another?  The answer, of course, is sin.  Sin is always the answer to the question, “Why are things so messed up?”

And Jesus is always the answer to sin.  The other day I was thinking about this.  We know that Jesus came to live the perfect life in our place.  In the Gospels we see Jesus as the perfect son to his parents and the perfect friend to his disciples.  But it occurred to me.  Because Jesus never married, we never get to see Jesus as the perfect husband.  Or do we?  Paul wrote to the Ephesians that Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her to make her holy…and to present her to himself as a radiant Church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (Ephesians 5:25-27)  There is Christ the Bridegroom, the perfect Husband!  Dying for his bride!  For you.  For me.  To clean us, so that we stand by his side a beautiful bride, in a beautiful dress not in the ugly rags of sin!  That is what marital love looks like!

Dear friends, this is what our marriages need.  The love of Christ.  In 2024, marriage counseling services globally are projected to cost $3.5 billion, and this is anticipated to grow to $6.7 billion by 2031.  What most marriages really need is more of the love of Christ.  Bad husbands need Christ’s forgiveness.  Bad wives need Christ’s forgiveness.  Bad husbands need to stop being bad husbands, for the love of Jesus!  Bad wives need to stop being bad wives, for the love of Jesus!  The world truly is a better place with marriages filled with Jesus’ love.

Amen.