Ah, yes! The story of beginnings. Where marriage began and how the first married couple messed up. Lovely stuff isn't it? You know it never ceases to amaze me that God created everything, and then said it was not good for man to be alone. He let Adam name all of the beasts and birds, and then determined that none of them were suitable to be Adam's helper. So He creates woman (Adam called her woman and later named her Eve).
It's right there in the story, but it messes with my theology a bit. God created everything, and after some amount of time (based on Genesis 1:24-31 ti was within a day, whatever that means), decided to supplement His creation with another creation. I just wonder if anyone else finds this mind-blowing. The omniscient, omnipotent God, decided what He had created was not complete, and supplemented it. Hmm.
Now there could be all kinds of debates about how God knew what He was going to do and decided to let Adam think that God would go back to His creative juices just for him, but come on. There is so much more to this passage than a theological debate waiting to happen. What about the fact that woman was created for man? She was created to be his "helper." Do you think that this could be a clue to the order of things, when we say submit (live according to the order)?
Before I get hate-mail about how I am a male chauvinist pig, let me also point out a couple of things about men from this passage. It wasn't good for the man to be alone. God's prized creation, created in His own image, and it was not good for him to be alone. Hmm. Further, when Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, it says Adam was right there with her (3:6). Sure, Adam, blame it on the woman when you were right there and didn't say anything to stop her. Sorry, but it is obviously human nature to divert the blame onto someone else, as Eve did the same thing.
So, back to marriage. A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. What happens if you rip flesh apart? It hurts! It is excruciatingly painful! Yet so many people decide they want to get married and become one flesh, only to be ripped apart by whatever comes along to rip them apart. They take pieces of the other person with them, the pain is awful, and in the end, neither person is the same as they used to be, scarred by the destruction of what God intended to be a good thing. And we always blame someone else for that destruction. What if we took responsibility for our own role in our relationships? What if we decided to consider the other person before ourselves no matter how they treat us? But selfishness rules the day, doesn't it?
How are you being selfish in your marriage or other relationships? What would it be like if you put the other person first? What are you willing to do to make that a reality? It is not easy, but it will make a world of difference!
Great post Gary. This particular topic has been on my mind a lot lately. As to your comment on submission and order. If find in our current society that many read Ephesians 5:22 - 23 and get so offended they stop reading. Women should be equal and not subject to a man etc.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I subit that if you read on the responsibility of the husband is much more weighty than submission to a spouse. We are tasked with the task of loving our wives as Christ loved the church. It's easy to read past that verse until you realize that Christ, who was blameless, went through a brutal and agonizing death for the church. In doing so we are to make our wives as clean and without blemish to God. And I truly believe for submission of the wife to the husband to be fulfilling to the wife the husband MUST perform his task as set out in Eph 5: 25 - 30. In doing so I believe the two become greater than the sum of their parts.
-b