Page 52 - Advanced Genesis - Creationism - Student Textbook

What we see in verses 19 and 20 was God’s desire to see how man interacted with animals nothing
more.

In these verses we also see the first marriage as ordained by God. We need to see some characteristics
of it and apply them:

1. They were male and female. This may seem obvious but today we can assume nothing. God’s design
for marriage was one man and one woman joined together to become one forever. When we defend
marriage whether it is against homosexuality, polygamy, adultery, or fornication, we need to defend it
on the terms that God established it and therefore He gets to determine what it is and is not. Just
because man co-ops the term, doesn’t mean that God agrees. God’s word and plan is unchanging from
before the beginning.

2. They were one flesh. God had created man perfectly, yet there was one thing he lacked – a partner.
The picture of the creation of woman is showing that what God did was not create another organism to
unite with man but rather make his partner, his companion, his “completer” out of his own body. In this
way, man is completed. He now is the perfection of his original creation, existing in two beings so he
can have what no one being can have – companionship and fellowship. Now man has council,
partnership, communication, and fellowship. Husband and wife are not two separate beings, (or, as has
been suggested in a popular marriage book, from separate planets) rather a husband and a wife are one
body, separated at physical birth into two bodies then reunited as one flesh existing in two bodies by
the power of God. Also, this is the picture that Jesus and later Paul use to describe the relationship with
Christ and the Church.

3. They were naked. This is not a commentary on clothes but rather on the aspect of the marriage
relationship that shows that a husband and wife should have nothing to hide from each other and from
God. If you find yourself desiring to keep something hidden from your wife (and it is not a gift) then it is
sin. Husbands and wives are to lay themselves bare before each other. We should not have a problem
of physical nakedness when we are with our spouse. Also, we should be able to be emotionally,
mentally, and spiritually “bare” before them as well.

4. They were not ashamed. There is no room for shame in marriage as God designed it. For one to feel
shame there must be one to bring shame. God has ordained that a husband and wife will complement
each other in every way. This includes that when we lay our deepest nature “bare” before our spouse
that we must be able to know that no matter what, there will be no condemnation from them.

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