Please read Gen 2:18-25 beforehand
A. AN INCOMPLETE CREATION.
Although Paradise was a breathtaking beautiful, enjoyable and interesting place in which to live, in man’s experience it also was a very lonely place for there was no other human being with whom he could associate.
What is more, man was not in complete harmony with the rest of creation in the sense that he did not, like the animals (and even some plants) have a female counterpart.
While he was doing his job of naming the animals (as will be discussed in a following paragraph), he noticed that there were males and females and very often a certain male and female would stick together and then create offspring in their image and they would be very happy, but though he kept on hoping and hoping, never was a living being brought to him that looked like him or to whom he could talk about all that was happening around him.
At times God would sit down and converse with him but mostly he was alone, but how to solve this problem, he did not know.
Creation therefore was incomplete until God had created the female, the woman.
B. GOD COMPLETES HIS CREATION BY CREATING A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN.
God knew all about this need. Even before He had created man, the Lord knew that he would need a woman to be a complete human being, but He postponed the provision of a wife to allow man sufficient time to discover his own need so that he would welcome and appreciate the wife the Lord would provide for him.
The creation of mankind was incomplete until God had also created the woman; note the words of 1:27,
God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
These words indicate that man and woman, together, as a unit, were created in the image of God. One could almost say that man and woman together, were man; the male was one component of man and the female was the other component of man.
To man, the woman was an exceptionally wonderful gift from God because, as mankind was created in the image of God and for interaction with God, she was created according to the image of man in that, just like him, she had a physical body and could share, enjoy and be involved in the physical creation.
But she was more than just another man, she was a unique human being, designed to be different from man in certain areas of her being and these very differences were so designed as to supplement man in the areas that he was incomplete so that together, they would constitute a complete human being resembling their Creator.
In her, his most fundamental needs would be met: spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical. By interacting with her, he would be able to reproduce or multiply himself/themselves and thereby be able to govern creation effectively for both the vegetation and animals were fruitful and were multiplying daily.
Just note how thrilled man was that his wife was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. He was intensely aware of the fact that she was part of him as one’s flesh and bones go together to make up a human being; they are inseparable. Adam saw him and his wife, Eve, as one.
(Is that how I see my wife and wife is that how you see your husband? We are very patient with ourselves and very good to ourselves; is that how we are to one another?)
By creating the woman, God also demonstrated His goodwill to man; He showed that He was fully aware of man’s needs and well able to provide for it in a way never even contem-plated by man himself.
C. A DISFIGURED IMAGE IS STILL AN IMAGE.
Taking everything into consideration, man was created to display the glory of God in the totality of his being. Even in a person who is physically maimed or has become morally wrecked, there is still so much of the glory of God to be seen, that such a person must be treated with respect, if only for the sake of honouring God by honouring His image. (A coin that is badly damaged will still be accepted by the bank because it bears the image of the country’s president.)
The foremost reason why a person should feel good about himself, is not for what he has achieved, but for who he is; he is a picture of God, resembling Him in many aspects of his being.
D. MARRIAGE.
Marriage is the unification of two people of opposite sex, selected by God to match (to fulfil one-another’s needs); like two artistically woven fabrics brought together with the edges interwoven to form a single cloth. Marriage forms part of God’s creation of mankind and whoever breaks it up, damages God’s handcrafted robe; rips the cloth apart and leaves both parties in shreds.
Three other important truths need to be mentioned:
- God did not create another man with whom Adam could chat and “go fishing.” That would be like having two keys and no lock, instead of a key and a lock that supplemented one another and thus have a useful application. (Two locks and no key would be just as useless.) Together Adam and Eve would be able to multiply and fill the earth
- God created only one wife for Adam. He could only become one, with one. Two would have resulted in division, competition and strife and would not have been in the image of God.
- Adam did not design and create his own wife, God did it for him. (How important it is for young people to look up to God to lead them into marrying the person of His choice).
E. MAN IS NAMED
In due course man was called “Adam” (4:25). (The word “Adam” is related to the term “red earth”). Man later on called his wife “Eve” (life, giving life) since she became the mother of all human beings (3:20).
F. MAN, A UNIQUE CREATURE.
Man truly is an amazing creature having incalculable qualities. Just consider that He is able to build space craft capable of visiting remote planets, gathering information and trans-mitting it back to earth.
David says of him, For You made him but little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and honor. (Ps 8:5).
Man is also continually searching the universe for creatures like himself, yet not finding any. That means that our earth is a very special place and that we are very special creatures. Let us therefore live in such away that we may be worthy of that image and may glorify our Creator.
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