Bible Studies for Life Sunday School Lesson for February 10

Bible Studies for Life Sunday School Lesson for February 10

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By Jim Barnette, Ph.D.
Samford University and Brookwood Baptist Church, Mountain Brook

When Marriage Is Questioned
Genesis 2:18–25

The marriage relationship was designed by God. (18–20)

At the end of the days of creation God looked at what He had made and He said, “It is good.” The first feature of creation that God deemed as “not good” was that man was alone. Following God’s example (see Gen. 1:5, 8 and 10) the man chooses a name for each of the creatures. In so doing he exercises his dominion over creation. 

In a different way, however, the naming of the animals begins the portrayal of man as a social being made for fellowship. But the man needs another whom he can love on his own level. The woman will be presented wholly as his partner and counterpart. Nothing is yet said of her as a child bearer. She is valued for herself alone. 

The term often translated “helper” or “helpmate” is notoriously difficult to translate. Some Jewish translations employ other terms like “sustainer” or “rescuer.” Whatever the chosen translation the next term illuminates the role of this person: to stand alongside the man. The New Living Translation explains what this “completing” counterpart means to the man: she is “a helper who is just right for him.”  

Man and woman were created as unique genders. (21–22)

The wellbeing of the man calls for a fresh creative act of God. The emergence of woman is as stunning and unpredicted as the previous surprising emergence of the man. John R. Sampey, legendary professor of Old Testament at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, notes that this woman had the capacity to enter into responsible relations with the man: “She is not made out of his head to rule over him; nor out of his feet to be trampled on by him; but out of his side, to be equal with him … and near his heart to be beloved.” Now these two amazing creatures belong together. 

Marriage is a lifelong relationship between a man and a woman. (23–25)

God Himself, like a father of the bride at a wedding, leads the woman to the man. 

Adams’s joyful “at last” begins the first poetic couplet in the Bible, and his work of naming her “woman” is a triumphant conclusion with a title that echoes his own. She is just the right helper for him. His song affirms his unity with her, not their distinctions. 

The union of the two in marriage is to be an exclusively monogamous one. At times in the Old Testament, polygamy is practiced. However, this passage asserts that monogamy was and is God’s original intention. The man and the woman are to cleave only to each other. Jesus interprets it so in Matthew 19:5 and Mark 10:7. The unexpected note that the two were “naked and unashamed” highlights the reality that at the moment the united couple had nothing of which they needed to be ashamed. 

In spite of the present innocence of the two, their nakedness also foreshadows the darker moment when they would lose that innocence and try to hide their shame. 

Thankfully we worship a loving Creator who offers us the grace that delivers us from our shame. And even though all men and women are distanced from the garden, the last page of Scripture reminds us that one day all men and women who follow Jesus will be delivered to a garden where the curse of sin is no more!