THE FIRST MARRIAGE
THE MOST HONORABLE MARRIAGE EVER
Verses 2:21-25
The making of woman, to be a help-meet for Adam.
Adam was first formed, then Eve (1 Tim. 2:13), and she was made of the man, and for the man (1 Cor. 11:8, 9), yet man being made last of the creatures, as the best and most excellent of all, Eve’s being made after Adam, and out of him, puts an honor upon that sex, as the glory of the man, 1 Cor. 11:7. If man is the head, she is the crown, a crown to her husband, the crown of the visible creation.
Man was dust refined, but the woman was dust double-refined, one remove further from the earth. Note: That the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. Adam lost a rib, and without any diminution to his strength or comeliness (for, doubtless, the flesh was closed without a scar); but in lieu thereof he had a help meet for him, which abundantly made up his loss: what God takes away from his people he will, one way or other, restore with advantage. In this (as in many other things) Adam was a figure of him that was to come; for out of the side of Christ, the second Adam, his spouse the church was formed, when he slept the sleep, the deep sleep, of death upon the cross, in order to which his side was opened, and there came out blood and water, blood to purchase his church and water to purify it to himself. See Eph. 5:25, 26.
MARRIAGE: The marriage of woman to Adam. Marriage is honorable, but this assuredly was the most honorable marriage that ever was, in which God himself had all along an immediate hand. Marriages (they say) are made in heaven: we are sure this was, for the man, the woman, the match, were all God’s own work; he, by his power, made them both, and now, by his ordinance, made them one. This was a marriage made in perfect innocency, and so was never any marriage since…
· God, as her Father, brought the woman to the man, as his second self, and a help-meet for him. When he had made her, he did not leave her to her own disposal; no, she was his child, and she must not marry without his consent. Those are likely to settle to their comfort who by faith and prayer, and a humble dependence upon providence, put themselves under a divine conduct. That wife that is of God’s making by special grace, and of God’s bringing by special providence, is likely to prove a help-meet for a man.
· From God, as his Father, Adam received her (Gen. 2:23): "This is now bone of my bone. Now I have what I wanted, and which all the creatures could not furnish me with, a help meet for me." In token of his acceptance of her, Adam gave her a name, not peculiar to her, but common to her sex: She shall be called woman, Isha, a she-man, differing from man in sex only, not in nature—made of man, and joined to man.
THE INSTITUTION OF THE ORDINANCE OF MARRIAGE…
…and the settling of the law of it, Gen. 2:24.
The Sabbath and Marriage were two ordinances instituted in innocency, the former for the preservation of the church, the latter for the preservation of the world of mankind. It appears (by Matt. 19:4, 5) that it was God himself who said here, "A man must leave all his relations, to cleave to his wife;" see how necessary it is that children should take their parents’ consent along with them in their marriage, and how unjust those are to their parents, as well as undutiful, who marry without it; firm is the bond of marriage, not to be divided and weakened by having many wives (Mal. 2:15) nor to be broken or cut off by divorce, for any cause but fornication, or voluntary desertion.
· The affection ought to be dear between husband and wife, such as there is to our own bodies, Eph. 5:28. These two are one flesh; let them then be one soul.
In Christ,
Janet Irene Thomas
Playwright/Director/Screen Writer
Producer/Gospel Lyricist/Author
Founder/CEO
Bible Stories Theatre of
Fine & Performing Arts
