Genesis 2:18-25--The Creation of Woman

Genesis 2:18-25
World English Bible
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18 Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature became its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper comparable to him. 21 Yahweh God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Yahweh God made a woman from the rib which he had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.

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God made man and placed him in the garden with all the different kinds of animals and gave him the task of naming all of them (part of his having dominion over everything was to have the authority to name and classify everything).  This only took Adam part of a day because Eve was revealed to him the same day (Day 6 of creation).  The text tells us that God made not just Adam, but every beast of the field and bird of the air (everything that doesn't live in the water) from the dust of the ground.  Then the text says something interesting.

In this exercise, Adam was made to realize that there were male and female of every kind of creature other than himself--he was the only one of his kind.  There was no one compatible with him for him to be able to fulfill the good command to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth and subdue it.  This is the one thing that God looked at and said that it was not good during this week, and God said that He would make a helpmate for Adam--someone similar but different from him who could be complement Adam so that the two of them would be as one.  In this way, they would even better reflect God and His glory, and His relationship with mankind (both men and women) as God will use this picture of marriage and family (which existed and were part of the very good creation before the Fall) to tell us about Himself and His gospel plan for His people.

This is also where we get the idea of Complementarianism and that Adam and Eve were created with different roles in mind.  Adam was created as a laborer and a protector.  He was responsible not only for the physical cultivation of the soil and planting physical seed, but spiritual cultivation of the hearts of the people around him and planting the spiritual seed of God's Word. He was to be a teacher (notice that God gave Adam important instructions without Eve present, because it was Adam's role to teach Eve everything she needed to know and to protect her from physical and spiritual danger).  Eve was so named by Adam because she was recognized as the one who would be the mother of the entire human race.  She would be the one to bear children and be able to nourish them from her breast and nurture them. This is the Order of Creation.

Though there are no longer barriers to entry in the gospel for men and women (the Jews made it harder for women and children to worship God and hear the truth, but Jesus broke down those barriers and encouraged everyone who was in need to come to Him), that does not mean that the order of creation does not still stand and have a good place today in our homes and churches, and the world would do better to recognize it as well.  This is not to say that the only role of a woman is to stay at home and have children and keep house.  We see that God equips men and women with a variety of gifts for the work of the ministry, but God calls men and women (especially within the context of a family and a church) to use those gifts in different ways, and God will never call a man or a woman to use his or her gifts in a way that violates this design, because it is a "very good" design with a gospel purpose.  Perhaps now you see why it is this first institution and design and order of creation that is under attack--men try to give dominion to the animals and try to excuse their sin by claiming it is "animalistic instinct" when they are not animals and have nothing of the kind.  Men try to make animals to be like humans with eternal souls when they are nothing of the sort--there are definitely creatures in heaven and it appears there will be animals in the New Creation, but neither dogs nor cats today go to heaven (or hell).  They are not eternal creatures nor are they made in the image of God--only men and woman are designed to be God's image-bearers.  The world tries to make men and women to be interchangeable and that neither one has need of the other.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The world tries to tell us that we have have fulfillment of our sexual gratification and can be "fruitful and multiply" outside the covenant relationship pf marriage that God designed to be the one and only environment for raising children in the nurture and admonition of the LORD.  So many ways in which identity, created order, marriage and family are under attack, and they all have their roots back here in Genesis.

Let's address one issue here and now that the New Testament clearly covers.  God intentionally made woman from the side of the man (from one of his ribs, probably leaving him with a scar to remind him that he gave part of himself to allow her to exist--a picture of God giving Himself for us, His people, the Bride of Christ to exist) and that this was a picture of how they are equal in worth.  Though Adam was made first and that speaks to something in the order of creation, it is important that she was neither taken from his head to rule over him or from his feet to be a slave to him.  She was taken from his side, close to his heart and under his arm so that he would walk with her by his side, embrace her and love her.  While God has complete and total authority over His Church, He loves them in a similar way--so much so that He was willing to give His life for them.  "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." (Ephesians 5:25, ESV)

Ephesians 5:25-27
World English Bible
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without defect.

Adam sees Eve and enters into a covenant of marriage with her. Adan said it was for this reason that a man would leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife (singular) and that the two (and only two) would become one flesh.  That is, Adam gives us the formula of one mature (adult) male and one mature (adult) female that are bound by the covenant of marriage so that man and woman find a new identity in each other separate from their identities that they used to have with their families before the act of "cleaving" (sexual intimacy) is ever introduced--though Adam knows that is the natural progression of things and is the purpose of marriage.  He knows he is to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth and have dominion over it , and he wants to fulfil this command.  Adam says of Eve, "This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh."  He realizes the two of them are made of the same stuff, but, beyond that, he realizes she came from his body.  When he sees her, he sees himself.  In much the same way, when God sees us (His Bride), He sees Himself (specifically Jesus) because Jesus gave His flesh and blood for us and so we are now the Body of Christ.  The words the Holy Spirit gives Adam here have amazing gospel implications that we wait nearly 4,000 years after this time for the writers of the New Testament to explain to us, but this was God's intention and message from the very beginning.