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The First Marriage, September 2
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be
alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
Genesis 2:18
.
Man was not made to dwell in solitude; he was to be a social being.
Without companionship, the beautiful scenes and delightful employ-
ments of Eden would have failed to yield perfect happiness. Even
communion with angels could not have satisfied his desire for sympathy
and companionship. There was none of the same nature to love, and to
be loved.
God Himself gave Adam a companion. He provided “an help meet
for him”—a helper corresponding to him—one who was fitted to be
his companion, and who could be one with him in love and sympathy.
Eve was created from a rib taken from the side of Adam, signifying that
she was not to control him as the head, nor to be trampled under his
feet as an inferior, but to stand by his side as an equal, to be loved and
protected by him. A part of man, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh,
she was his second self; showing the close union and the affectionate
attachment that should exist in this relation. “For no man ever yet hated
his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it.”
Ephesians 5:29
....
God celebrated the first marriage. Thus the institution has for its
originator the Creator of the universe. “Marriage is honourable” (
He-
brews 13:4
); it was one of the first gifts of God to man, and it is one of
the two institutions that, after the Fall, Adam brought with him beyond
the gates of Paradise. When the divine principles are recognized and
obeyed in this relation, marriage is a blessing; it guards the purity and
happiness of the race, it provides for man’s social needs, it elevates the
physical, the intellectual, and the moral nature.
The family tie is the closest, the most tender and sacred, of any on
earth. It was designed to be a blessing to mankind. And it is a blessing
wherever the marriage covenant is entered into intelligently, in the fear
of God, and with due consideration for its responsibilities.
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