First off, forgive the formatting. I still haven't replaced my laptop, so editing and formatting options are limited to what the website allows my phone to do. Now then.
Every story has a starting place, and the placement of the creation of Adam and Eve, and of their marriage, is no coincidence. I think it is important to approach their story, the creation of male and female, man and wife, within the context of the creation narrative and its underlying themes.
Rather than putting ourselves into this creation account in order to understand its application for ourselves and others, let’s seek to understand the creation account in its own context so that we can properly understand its application for ourselves and others. Does that make sense? It is easy to subconsciously flip those things, resulting in heavy, life-long consequences that we hand down to our children and their children, friends, fellow Christians, and culture. It is easy to wrongly use the building blocks of the gospel to form unbearable, chafing yokes and clanking, restrictive chains.
So, what is this creation story? What is its significance in the frame of the Scriptures? How does it impact the way we understand manhood, womanhood, and biblical marriage? Well, it won’t impact our understanding of any of those things correctly if we don’t understand it, so let’s begin at the beginning. Once again, let me remind you that I am sharing what I have found in the Bible. My logic and reading skills are by no means flawless, so please read the text for yourself, and feel free to share what you find with me.
Thoughts on Biblical Marriage, Part Two: The Backstory
In the Beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (2) The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (4)And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. (5)God called the light Day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Genesis 1:1-5 (ESV)
The opening lines of a story are never coincidental.
In the beginning, the world was without order, without substance, without light. But God was present over the abyss, and He said “Let there be light,” and light spread into the dark depths of the empty world.
Let the reign of light begin. The introduction to creation gives us a picture of darkness being cast away. Light enters the darkness, without which creation would have remained chaotic and indiscernible.
In the opening scene of this enlightened world, we read a threefold pattern that repeats throughout the rest of the creation account. This pattern consists of three acts of God, framed in the narrative of Light’s reign: creation, separation, and classification.
On day one, God says “Let there be light.” Through the power of His word, He creates “light” (vs. 3). Following this act of creation, God separates light from darkness, making an undeniable distinction between the two. He classifies these two distinct realities by naming them “Day” and “Night” (vs 5).
Days two through four follow the same creation process, when God, by the same power of His word, creates, distinguishes, and names. God is in the process of spreading light and order into this dark world.
After bringing His light into the world, establishing Day and Night, separating the heavens from the earth (creating earth’s atmosphere?), and forming the earth and the sea, we are introduced to a new key element in the creation narrative: fruitfulness. With the words “Let the earth sprout…yielding…bearing” (vs. 11), we read what appeared to me to be the first creation mandate. The command to bear fruit. In Verses 11-12, the created world takes on the God given, life-renewing process of propagation, and the first seeds and fruits of the earth are produced. The fruit of life and the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil must’ve now been ripening on their trees, but that is a conversation for another day. Within the growth of seeds “each according to its kind” (vs. 12) is the potential for the next key element of creation: expansion. The creative power to bear fruit is a God-given ability to continue the expansion of creation through all the world and through all generations. Here, in the third day, God embeds all life with the potential of renewal and growth.
The world is now created, and the plants that will provide food for all living creatures are producing.
Now we come to part two. We will see the same processes and patterns used here. The narrator reinstates the reign of light that was initiated in the first verses: “(and God said) Let there be lights in the heavens to separate the day from the night….to give light upon earth…to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness…” (from verses 14-18, emphasis added). God creates the stars, moon, and sun, and to them is given the second creation mandate: the mandate to rule over darkness. It is a task of continuing the first act of creation by illuminating the world, and spreading light and order into the chaos of darkness. These heavenly lights are given the role of maintaining seasons of fruitfulness and expansion, and of keeping dark and light clearly distinguished from one another.
The sun is shining, gravity is established, seas are gathered, land is producing plants, plants are growing seeds, and fruit is ripening on the trees. Now God creates all living creatures: birds that fly, fish that swim, each distinct, each according to its kind. Creation, separation, classification. And then the first creation mandate is given again, but this time to the birds and sea creatures: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill…” (vs. 22). We move on. God creates animals of the earth, each according to their kind.
Now we step back. God’s Light is shining into the darkness, and we watch as the firstfruit of creation is born:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
(27) So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
(28) And God blessed them. And God said to them, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over… every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:26-28
This part of the creation account both expounds on and summarizes the preceding passages. God created man. He separated him from the other creatures in that he made them in His image. The image of God on earth was made distinctly different from the other creatures. Finally, God classified mankind. He formed both male and female. He named them, made them a family. Mankind now possessed within itself the potential for life-bringing fruitfulness and truth-spreading expansion. And from this place the first and second creation mandates are given once again, but this time to Man (vs.28). They are simultaneously the manifestation of the life of the earth and the manifestation of Light on the earth, bearing fruit and reigning over all life.
That was a lot, but we aren’t finished yet. When I say all this about the Lights ruling and Adam and Eve being like God on earth, am I saying that humans have good reason to worship the sun or to deify Man? I’ll just share a passage from Romans to address this:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their [our] unrighteousness suppress the truth. (19)For what can be known about God is plain to them. (20)For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (21)For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (22)Claiming to be wise, they became fools, (23)and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (24)Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, (25)because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
This is a wonderful world, and humans are amazing, but it and we are not deities. If our theology deifies nature or ourselves (or both), or somehow justifies pride and disdaining others, we are dabbling in, or living in, futility and darkness. Basically, we are blindly walking backwards into the abyss from out of which creation was formed.
Let’s retrace our footsteps and see this Jesus revealed in creation.
1: “In the beginning, God created..” (Gen. 1:1)
In the beginning, the Word of life brought light and life. Page one, paragraph one, Jesus in the Scriptures. At first just a Word through which life was made. John 1:1-3 explains:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2)He was in the beginning with God. (3)All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
2. The Reign of Light
"And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. (4) And God saw that the light was good.”(Gen 1:3-4)
"God set [the lights] in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness” (Gen 1:17-18).
The light of creation winds its way through all of the story: “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world…the world was made through Him..." (John 1:10)
Jesus, the Word through whom life was created, is now shown to be that Light through which life is sustained. The Great Light rules over the day and the night. His truth and goodness will not be overcome by chaos and evil.
Jesus, “the Word” of God who became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1,14), the “radiance of the glory” of God (Heb 1:3) in whom is the life that is “the light of men” (John 1:4), “shines in[to] the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome [this light]” (John 1:5).
3. Creation, separation, classification, fruitfulness, expansion…
All of these words are descriptions of Jesus, but it doesn’t stop there. He pours this creation reality into His people. Jesus gives life to His people, and sustains that life. He separates His people from darkness. He places His light in our darkened, broken hearts, and re-names us into His family.
We read this pattern of creation through the entire Old Testament as God creates a people for Himself, separating them from the pagan nations, giving them the law, re-classifying (renaming) doubting Abram and fearful Jacob into the family of promise, blessing them with countless offspring, and expanding them beyond what barren Sarah and Rebekah could have ever dreamed. This fruitfulness extends into the renewed covenant era as the people of God bear fruit and life, expanding to every corner of creation, spreading the hope of Christ throughout the world.
4. Finally, in the image of God He created them.. male and female… being fruitful… expanding…subduing and having dominion over life..
This pattern of life and growth that we’ve been discussing explodes into grand-scale view with the coming of Christ. He is not only the Word and the Light, but is also the Firstborn of all creation, the Man brought forth from the womb of Mary just as Adam was brought forth from the womb of the earth. Jesus, the one who bears the fruit of life and love in His people, just as Eve becomes the mother of all living. He has dominion over all life, and expands the truth and light of Himself through all of His creatures and all of His creation.
In the words of Colossians 1:15-20:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. (16) For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions of rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. (17) And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. (18) And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. (19) For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, (20) and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.
While Adam and Eve were actual people, they were also are a created picture of Christ. A picture of Christ united with His bride. A picture of flourishing, life-producing, light-expanding life. Why is it so important that we grasp the significance of this? Because we, the people of God, are the bride of Christ. We are the Eve.
In the last verses of Genesis 1, and the first verses of Genesis 2, God introduces the world to its first holiday, complete with feasting and rest. Then we get to see a warning, creation taxonomy in detail, a surgeon's table, and the first ever wedding ceremony. Good stuff.
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