1. God’s REASON WHY He instituted marriage was to give man two things (18-20):
   1. Companionship – 18: “And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone.” The One who made us knows our needs.
   1. In a family – with one man and one woman working together as God directs – 18: “I will make him an help meet for him.” – vs. 19-20: “but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.”

(Adam’s helpmeet had to be someone like him. – God made man in His “image” to represent Him and in His “likeness” (Genesis 1:26). – “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24), so He gave man a human spirit which makes him conscious there is a God. God is also a Trinity of Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, so God made man in three parts with a human spirit, soul, and body. – A “help meet” is a person who helps in every way: spiritually, emotionally and physically. Only with this type of companion is man not alone.)

• HOW God provided Adam with a “help meet” by (21,22):
  • Putting Adam to sleep: 21: “The LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept.” – This is a picture of how Christ got His bride, the church. Christ did not sleep but He suffered and died on the cross of Calvary. Thus He paid the penalty for our sins, which is death—which God told Adam when He gave him one commandment: 16,17: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
  • Taking a rib from Adam’s side: 21: “He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.” – After Christ suffered man’s hatred and abuse, then for 3 hours in thick darkness Christ suffered God’s wrath against the sins of everyone who will believe on Him. Then He cried “My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken Me?” and gave up His spirit to the Father. He was buried and rose again the third day. Now each person who repents to God that he is a sinner and trusts the Lord Jesus Christ as his/her personal Saviour from sin, is part of Christ’s bride the church.
  • Made the woman from the rib: 22: “And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made He a woman.” –  God made the animals out of the ground and brought them before Adam to name them, 20: “but there was not found a help meet for him” among the animals. – Only a person who came from Adam could be his help meet and companion. – Eve was not made out of Adam’s head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled on by him, but out of his side to be equal to him, under his arm to be protected by him, and near his heart to be loved.
  • “Brought her unto the man”: 22 – God does this today when two, a man and a woman, believers on the Lord Jesus Christ who seek to please the Lord, are yoked together in marriage. God does not bring a believer and an unbeliever together. For we are told in 2 Corinthians 6:14,15: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” – When God brings a man and a woman together they are not only both believers on Christ but they both also seek to please the Lord in their lives, for we are told in 1 Corinthians 7:39: “The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.” Only as we own Christ as Lord by obeying what He tells us to do in His Word, the Bible can we enjoy His blessings. A Christian marriage is made up of three people: the husband, the wife, and the Lord directing them.

Adam’s first recorded words are in 23: “And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman [lady], because she was taken out of Man.” – Adam realized that God had provided for him one like himself, a human being, different from the animals. Someone who God made from Adam, and for Adam, one suited for him, so he no longer is alone. Someone he can share everything with, and serve the Lord together with. God still does this today. – It is very important to talk together before marriage to know that the person can talk about the Lord’s things and know that he/she desires to please the Lord. I married my best friend. It is also essential to communicate with each other after you are married so you can work together—Communication first with the Lord and then with one another.

• God’s INSTRUCTION to Adam of how He wants the family to be formed (24):
  • “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother”:24. This is the first instruction God gives to the couple, and He gives it to the man because he is the “head” of the woman. In 1 Corinthians 10:3 we are told God’s order for the human race: “The head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” The man as “head” means that his job is to lead in the family as Christ directs in His Word. (The woman is also to leave her parents but the man is to take the lead first in leaving his father and mother.) This is the first job God has given to the “head” or leader in the family. – This means, if possible, that neither the man nor the woman live any longer under the same roof with their parents, and are also no longer under the rule of their parents. – When a child leaves home the parent’s job of training them is over. The parents are now in the advisory business, but they are to give advice only when they are asked for their advice. Wise couples will ask advice from both sets of parents at times, but they must make decisions themselves, seeking the Lord’s direction through His Word.
  • “And cleave to his wife”:24. “Cleave” is a permanent word. Jesus said: “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6). Cleave also includes the wife submitting to her husband when he leads “as unto the Lord,” and the husband caring for his wife in every way as we are instructed in Ephesians 5:21-33:

21: “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.”

22: “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.”

25: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

28: “So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29: “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

• “And they shall be one flesh”:24. – God has given the married couple a special way to love each other, whereby God may bless them with children to raise for Him. – Notice the order of the things God instructed Adam and Eve (and also us) for the order is important, if we are going to enjoy the blessings God has for us in marriage:
• God brings the couple together
• They are to leave their parents
• They are to cleave to each other
• Then they become “one flesh.”

(The marriage ceremony is a public announcement of their vows to cleave together “as long as ye both shall live” or until the Lord comes.)

• The RESULT of marriage: 25: “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” – In Hebrews 13:4 we are told: “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” – After Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God whey they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge and good and evil “the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (Genesis 3:7). – They knew that they were fully exposed to God’s eyes and they tried to hide themselves as men and women do today by doing good works. – But God went after them and said “Adam where art thou?” God knew where Adam was, but He wanted Adam to own where he was. – That is the question God is asking each of us right now: Where are you? Are you in your sins or in the Saviour? Are you still seeking to hide from God (which is impossible to do) hiding behind your good works? There is only one way to have your sins removed from God’s eyes, and be saved from hell for heaven: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31).

• Now a few words to married couples:
  • Make it a habit to read your Bible and pray together each day, and let the Lord’s great love that He showed on Calvary, draw your hearts to seek to please Him.
  • Talk about everything together, and ask the Lord for the strength to apply what He says in His Word to your circumstances.
  • If you sin, confess it right away to God and to anyone affected by it for: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).