Living in the Image of God M04S13
The creation account of Adam and Eve provides understanding that God creates marriage to combine a man and woman to form a union of seamless complements purposed for a mission of representing him among all creation. He created man first but found him inadequate for the mission. Then, he created woman as a comparable companion and helper from within, to form a union adequate for the mission. He engaged the man in an extensive search for a suitable helper by creating all kinds of animals that the man examined and named but did not find any of them suitable as “helper comparable to him.” Then he created a woman from within the man. The man and woman are complementary, because each has something the other needs but does not have. Also, they have seamless connectivity, because the woman was created from an internal component of the man.
This study discusses the creation account of Adam and Eve to understand basic relationships between a husband and wife and God’s purpose for the relationships. The study is the second in a series to understand the individual responsibility regarding family leadership. The series is based on bible examples of husband-wife interactions and includes a discussion of the Shunammite couple, Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Mary and Joseph. The discussion focuses on aspects of their interactions that illustrate the individual responsibility to honor and support family leadership. The examples show the husband as overall leader and the wife as leader in specific matters and custodian of specific information.
The series started with a discussion of the Shunammite couple, where we learned that the couple was blessed abundantly through their honor and support for family leadership. The wife honored and supported the husband as overall leader of the household. The husband supported the wife as spiritual gateway of the family and leader in specific matters. Their choices in various events were influenced by supporting each other’s leadership and resulted in abundant blessing through a lasting close relationship with Prophet Elisha.
The current study discusses family leadership based on Adam and Eve. We learn that God created man for a mission of representing him among all creation, concluded that man alone was inadequate for the mission, and created woman as a comparable helper from within. The man and woman constitute a union of seamless complements, adequate for the mission of representing God among all creation, with the authority of God. They are complementary, because each has something the other needs but does not have. Also, they have seamless connectivity, because the woman was created from an internal component of the man.
God Declaration of Purpose for People
The bible at Genesis 1:26 declares God’s purpose for creating people: to represent him among all creation, with the authority of God: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth’” [Genesis 1:26].
God created Adam first for the mission but concluded that Adam alone was inadequate. Therefore, he created Eve, as a comparable companion to Adam, a helper from within.
Inadequate Alone: Needs A Suitable Helper
God created man first, a male human being later named Adam. He placed him in the garden of Eden and gave him responsibility to care for the garden and right to eat from the garden. However, he concluded that man alone was inadequate to accomplish his purpose for people. That is, man alone was inadequate for the mission of representing God among all creation. He concluded that the man needs a helper comparable to him: “And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him’” [Genesis 2:18]. This need for a comparable helper for the man became the founding basis for marriage.
Creation of Eve
To address the need for a helper for Adam, God created several animals and had Adam examine them to see if any would be a suitable companion. Adam examined and named the animals but did not find any of them suitable as helper comparable to him [Genesis 2:20]: “So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.”
God used a body part taken from the man to create for him a helper from within. He extracted from the man a rib and modified the rib to create for the man a companion comparable to him [Genesis 2:21–22]: “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.”
Adam accepted the new creation as companion. He named her “woman,” that is, taken out from man. “And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man’” [Genesis 2:23].
Union of Seamless Complements
Thus, Adam and Eve became the first husband and wife. God created the woman as a comparable and complementary companion to the man, to form a union adequate for the mission of representing him among all creation. He created the woman from within the man.
Having been formed from a rib taken from the man, the woman has something the man needs but does not have. Also, God formed the woman to be comparable to the man but not a duplicate. If he wanted a duplicate, he would have just cloned the man. Therefore, the man has something the woman needs but does not have. Thus, the man and woman are complementary, because together they form a unit adequate for a mission and each has something the other needs but does not have. Also, they have seamless connectivity, because the woman was created from an internal component of the man. Their seamless connectivity became manifest in interactions regarding the Abraham-Sarah union as will be discussed in a subsequent study.
Declaration of Marriage
God created Adam and Eve as the first husband and wife, the first union of seamless complements. The bible at Genesis 2:24 declares the relationship: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” [Genesis 2:24].
Summary of What We Learned
The creation account of Adam and Eve provides understanding that God creates marriage to combine a man and woman to form a union of seamless complements purposed for a mission of representing him among all creation. He created man first but found him inadequate for the mission. Then, he created woman as a comparable companion and helper from within, to form a union adequate for the mission. He engaged the man in an extensive search for a suitable helper by creating all kinds of animals that the man examined and named but did not find any of them suitable as “helper comparable to him.” Then he created a woman from within the man.
The man and woman are complementary, because each has something the other needs but does not have. Also, they have seamless connectivity, because the woman was created from an internal component of the man.