2018.11.26 Hopewell @Home ▫ Genesis 2:18-25

Read Genesis 2:18-25

Questions for Littles: What did God say was not good (v18)? What did He say that He would make for the man? What did God form out of the ground (v19)? Where did He bring them? Why? What did Adam do (v19-20)? What could not be found? What did God do to Adam in v21? What did God do with the rib (v22)? Where did He bring the woman? What did Adam say in v23? Whom must a man leave to be joined to whom (v24)? What do they become? What does v25 say about their clothes? What does it say about their hearts?

From the Scripture for this week’s sermon, we learn that one of the ongoing glories of the marriage covenant is the display of God’s glorious provision of a husband and wife each to the other.

“Wow!” or “At last!” or, as NKJV puts it, “This is now!” … Adam was wowed by the woman. What wowed him so much? Well not only that she was exactly corresponding to him (v18, end of v20), but that she is even a part of him and completely united to him. Look at the song that he sings upon the occasion of meeting his wife, “bone of my bone… flesh of my flesh… she was taken from man.”

Yes, he expresses the authority of his covenant headship by naming her “woman,” but this comes in the context of being floored by him and her being one. This is what the Lord was showing Adam in the entire process. Mission accomplished.

What does that mean for you and me? Answering that question is the mission of v24: “Therefore…”

1. Clean break. A man shall leave his father and mother. In light of the fifth commandment, that’s quite a statement. A marriage is a new beginning, but also a sure end. So wholly do husband and wife each give themselves to the other that prior first priorities are shattered.
2. Clinging commitment. A husband and wife cling to one another. They stick, no matter what. Like the most inextricable case ever of gum in the hair. For Adam, as for our marriages today, there was no going back. This was forever.
3. Communion. Yes, there is union here. As Jesus authoritatively paraphrased it, “the two become one flesh” (cf. Matt 19:5-6). But that phrase is more than math (1+1=1). It’s the fellowship of a shared life, in which each is 100% for the other, and the blurring of the line of where one ends and the other begins.

How are you preparing for marriage? Maintaining your marriage? Being a blessing to others’ marriages? Helping others prepare for marriage?

Suggested Songs: ARP45B “Daughter, Incline Your Ear” or TPH549 “O Gracious Lord”