Marriage Builder

Last week we focused on building relationships with other people – learning to love our neighbors as ourselves.  As we looked at those relationships, we reminded ourselves that the love we have for our neighbors has no romantic component to it at all.  The Greeks had a word specifically for romantic love, but that word was never used in the Scriptures.  Our love for our neighbor is always platonic, pure, and holy.

The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." (Genesis 2:18 NIV)

God did, however, build into us the capacity for a romantic relationship.  In fact, this is at the heart of God’s definition for “suitable”.  Before God created the suitable helper, God showed Adam what it would mean.

Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. (Genesis 2:19-20 NIV)

Adam was brought animal after animal.  He was given the job of naming them, which he did.  I wonder how long it took before he figured it out.  “Zebra.” “Giraffe.” “Elephant.” “Duck-billed platypus.”  When in the process did it dawn on him. “None of these are like me.”

So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man." (Genesis 2:21-23 NIV)

This one was not like all the others he had named.  This one was like him.  She was bone of his bone.  She was flesh of his flesh.  She was human just like him.  But she was a little bit different.  That difference made it so that he could be joined with her in a special way.

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24 NIV)

In one creative act, God created both the institution of marriage and the design of sex.  This was all a part of God’s design.  This suitable helper (לו  עזר  כנגדו׃) would be the same, yet opposite.  She would be bone and flesh, yet complimentary in design.  God brought woman to man so that she could help him fulfill God’s first command to them both. 

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." (Genesis 1:28 NIV)

What about you?  Does this match your picture of God, marriage, and sexuality?  Do you know how to build one special relationship in your life around this part of God’s design?  Are you a marriage builder?