27 Jan Marriage is a Representation of the Trinity
Genesis 2:24 – “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
In addition to the making of the man and woman, Genesis 2:4b-25 also inform us of the first marriage between the man Adam and the woman Eve. And since this is the first and only marital and sexual relationship before sin entered the world, it is perfect and therefore the prototypical pattern for us to follow. This is what normal gender, sex, and marriage look like before sin enters the world and makes everything abnormal or contrary to God’s divine design.
First, though all of creation was declared to be good and very good in Genesis 1, the only thing which is declared to be not good is Adam’s state as an unmarried single man. Simply, Adam could not reflect the image of God that he was created in by himself but needed a wife as his equal to represent the Trinitarian nature of God upon the earth. This fact is inferred in the text as the man and woman were declared to be “one” which is the Hebrew word “echad” that is used in Deuteronomy 6:4 to also speak of the one God in three persons. It is also echoed in 1 Corinthians 11:7-9, which states that woman was made for man in a way that man was not made for woman.
Second, Eve was made to be Adam’s helper, which is not a denigration of Eve’s equality, since God is also called our helper (Psalm 10:14, 118:6-7; Hebrews 13:6).
Third, the woman was made from the side of the man where she was made to dwell as his equal, lover, and friend and in lovemaking, the two become one again.
Fourth, it was God who brought the woman to the man and gave her away as her father and officiated their wedding ceremony as their pastor.
Fifth, it was God who created marriage as a union between one man and one woman which negates homosexuality, bisexuality, bestiality, polygamy, and all other sexual sins outside of heterosexual marriage.
Sixth, it was God who established the three-fold process by which a man is to take a wife that is repeated by both Jesus and Paul as leaving home, then getting married, and lastly enjoying sexual intimacy (cf. Matthew 19:5; Mark 10:7-8; Ephesians 5:31).
Seventh, it was God who created sexuality and intended for it to be good, pure, and without shame within the marriage covenant.
Upon seeing his bride, Adam burst into poetic song to Eve. Since these are the only recorded words we have of any human being before sin entered the world some have speculated that perhaps we were made to sing throughout life, like a musical, but because of sin have descended from poetry to prose. In any event, Adam’s response to God’s beautiful handiwork of making his bride was to burst out in poetic praise.
Have you recognized each of these points from reading this story before? Which one is the most interesting and compelling to you?
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