Chuck Larsen

I’ve done over a hundred marriage pronouncements in the past 40 years or so. They were always the climax of the ceremony and I enjoyed that part. My role was over and I only had to say “By the authority invested in me as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in accordance with the Laws of Nebraska, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride.” Sometimes it was different but not very much. Genesis 2:24 is the marriage pronouncement of the first Couple. It puts these words in the mouth of Adam and he says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Even though Adam was the one who spoke these words in Genesis, Jesus made it clear that they are from God. So God made the first marriage pronouncement. In Matthew 19:4-6, when he was challenged by the religious leaders concerning divorce, Jesus “He answered, ‘Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?  So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

The attraction of the man for the woman is so strong that nothing will stand in the way of the union. All past ties and loyalties become secondary to the formation of this new one! This one then, becomes the primary loyalty of life. It is then, the most important. And from it will come other men and women who will leave that family group to begin their own. It should therefore be permanent! They shall hold tight, clamp on, to one another. Implied in the idea of “cleave” is permanence.  Maybe a better translation might be “keep on cleaving” or “continue to cleave.”  The bond between them gets stronger, not weaker.  The word cleave appears in Job when describing how his flesh “cleaves” to his bones!  Adam said of Eve, “this is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.”  They cannot be separated without damage being done to both!  The bonding thus is strong.

There is a sense in which the two are no longer two but become one!  They say that couples even begin to look like each other over the years. They become one physically, emotionally and in a sense spiritually. They are no longer separable at all.  That’s true with every marriage, even those that do break up, they are unbreakable!  You can stop living with each other. You can even start living with someone else.  You can never see your spouse again, but you will never get away from them in your memory and in your heart.  They will always be there.  And all the things that have been shared through the years, homes, jobs, children, hard times, will serve as constant reminders that that person is a part of me that will never be ripped away.  I’ll always have to live with that.  The two shall become one flesh – they will become inseparable.

Deffinbaugh comments on the creation of the woman from man in Genesis chapter two and says, “An illustration of biblical ‘wholeness’ can be seen in marriage, specifically in the marriage of Adam and Eve. When God made Adam, he was initially alone. When Adam named the animals, they all passed before him—in pairs! There was Mr. and Mrs. Sheep, Mr. and Mrs. Ox, and so on. Adam began to feel incomplete, and rightly so. God said that Adam’s aloneness was not good, and so he made a mate for him—Eve. When the two were joined together, they became one flesh. Adam became ‘whole’ when he became one with Eve.”^[1] The late “Back to the Bible” preacher, J. Vernon McGee wrote, “Eve was created to be a helpmeet—a help that fit—for Adam. The language is tremendous. She was taken from his side, not molded from the ground as were the animals, but taken from a part of him so that he actually was incomplete until they were together. God fashioned her the loveliest thing in His creation, and He brought her to Adam. She was a helpmeet; she compensated for what he lacked, for he was not complete in himself. She was made for him, and they became one.”^[2] This is exactly what Adam said when God walked Eve down the aisle and presented her to Adam in Genesis 2:23: “Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’”

I’ve heard people say of couples, “they were made for each other.” Exactly! Adam professed his love for his bride with God as his witness. “In a very real sense, then, marriage is not a mere social convenience, or even just a religious ceremony. Rather it is to be seen as a reuniting of the man and the women at the deepest level of their creation, as real as if the bone and flesh were joined together to make one new person again!”^[3]

Jerome, the man who translated the Hebrew and Greek Bible into the Latin Vulgate said that the creation of Eve from the rib of a man, is symbolic of Christ and the church. The word that God used for “fashioning” or “Forming” Eve from Adam’s rib, is the same verb that Jesus used when telling his followers that he would “build, fashion, form” his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Jerome says, “We have heard about the first Adam; let us come now to the second Adam and see how the church is made (fashioned or formed) from his side. The side of the Lord Savior as he hung on the cross is pierced with a lance, and from it there comes forth blood and water.”^[4] From the blood and water that gushed forth from Jesus ribs, we have forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God. Those coming to God through faith in the shed blood of Jesus are joined once and for all to the body of Christ’s bride, the church.

^[1] Bob Deffinbaugh. n.d. Leviticus Commentary.

^[2] McGee, J. Vernon. 1991. Thru the Bible Commentary: The Prophets (Malachi). Electronic ed. Vol. 33. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

^[3] Vibert, Simon. 2005. The Diamond Marriage: Have Ultimate Purpose in Your Marriage. Fearn, UK: Christian Focus Publications.

^[4] Louth, Andrew, and Marco Conti, eds. 2001. Genesis 1–11. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Man did I get all fouled up in my thinking when I was a kid. I listened to way too much radio. I think I was 14 and working as a car hop at Tiner’s Drive Inn at 44^th and Dodge in Omaha. Does anyone remember that place? It was geared toward teenagers, and they always had the radio playing so the couples in the cars could hear it. It was tuned of course to the rock station, KOIL. Gene McDaniels had a major hit with his song, “A hundred pounds of clay.” Here are the bulk of the lyrics of that song. “He took a hundred pounds of clay And then He said “Hey, listen” “I’m gonna fix this-a world today” “Because I know what’s missin’ ” Then He rolled his big sleeves up  And a brand-new world began He created a woman and-a lots of lovin’ for a man Whoa-oh-oh, yes he did With just a hundred pounds of clay He made my life worth livin’ And I will thank Him every day For every kiss you’re givin’ And I’ll thank Him every night For the arms that are holdin’ me tight And He did it all with just a hundred pounds of clay Yes he did, whoa-oh, yes He did…” Well, Gene I have to say “whoa-oh, No He didn’t.”

He might have taken 170 pounds of clay and molded Adam, but that’s not how he made women. Who writes these songs, anyway? After God administered a heavy dose of anesthetic to Adam (He caused him to fall into a deep sleep), God removed a rib and from it he made a woman! Genesis 2:22 says, “And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.” It’s just as miraculous that God made the woman from part of the man than if he had made her from the mud, maybe even more so. Now, “Bible students have long seen symbolic truth in this rib imagery. Woman was taken from under man’s arm to symbolize his protection of her. She was taken from near his heart that he might love and cherish her. She was not made from a head bone to rule over man, nor from his foot to be trampled on and degraded. Like the man, she reflects God’s image. Together they formed the blessed pair needed to replenish and subdue the earth.”^[1]

How great the power of God, the master craftsman, making a likeness of those limbs (of a complete woman) from that tiny part (of a man), creating such wonderful senses, and preparing a creature complete, entire and perfect, capable both of speaking and of providing much comfort to man by a sharing of her being. For it was for the consolation of this man that this woman was created. Hence Paul also said, ‘Man was not created for woman, but woman for man.’  Do you see how everything is made for him? I mean, after the act of creation, after the brute beasts were brought forth, some suited for eating and some capable of assisting with man’s service, (122b) the human being that had been formed stood in need of someone to talk to and able to offer him much comfort by a sharing of her being. So, from man’s rib God creates this rational being, and in his inventive wisdom he makes it complete and perfect, like man in every detail—rational, capable of rendering him what would be of assistance in times of need and the pressing necessities of life.”^[2] God formed, shaped, and fashioned the woman to be the perfect mate for Adam. He will comment on this in Genesis 2:23.

^[1] Youngblood, Ronald F., F. F. Bruce, and R. K. Harrison, Thomas Nelson Publishers, eds. 1995. In Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc.

^[2] John Chrysostom. 1986. Homilies on Genesis 1–17. Edited by Thomas P. Halton. Translated by Robert C. Hill. Vol. 74. The Fathers of the Church. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press.

The creation of Eve from Adam’s rib is well known. Genesis 2:21 says, “So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.” There are a million jokes about this. Here’s one: Adam is sitting in the Garden of Eden, talking to God. He says to God “You’ve given me life, the purpose of naming every animal, and plenty of food to eat. You’ve made me comfortable, kept me well fed, and a sense of purpose. However, I’m feeling quite lonely; is there anything you can do to fix that?” God replies, “I will give you a partner, and she will be called “Eve”. She will stand by you and support you. She will lift you up, enforce your rules, and be at your right hand whenever you ask. She will bear your children and raise them to your liking. She will feed you, clothe you, and take care of you. She will be beautiful, graceful, and warm. She will be kind, caring, thoughtful, and will always be there for you. But, it is going to cost you an arm and a leg.” Adam thinks for a second and says “…. what can I get for a rib?”

MacArthur argues that since man has both the X and Y chromosome you could make a woman from a man but not vice-versa. He writes, “Genetically therefore, it is possible to create a female from a male. It would not be possible to extract a male’s genetic code from a female, how–ever, because the female has no Y chromosome. That is perfectly harmonious with what God did here. Science, when it deals with facts rather than theories, always agrees with the biblical account.”^[1] Well, that is OK, but I much prefer Chrysostom’s comment on this. He preached, “There is great force in these words, (God making Eve from Adam’s rib) surpassing all human reasoning. I mean, it is not possible to comprehend their grandeur in any other way than by viewing everything with the eyes of faith.”^[2] Another interesting comment regarding the manner of God’s creating Eve is, “God created Eve in the way that He did to show that woman has equal status in creation to man and was created to complement and in some ways complete man in the integral union of marriage. Woman was created to be ‘beside’ man, not beneath or above him.”^[3]

Let me just notice one other thing from this verse. It says that God “caused a deep sleep” to come upon Adam before the operation. God is the great anesthesiologist. No pain for Adam and a complete forgetfulness of the procedure itself. “So lest he (God) cause him (Adam) pain in removing it, or the loss of it cause him any distress later, he thus provided for both eventualities by making the removal painless and supplying for the loss without letting him feel anything of what had happened. So, the text says, the Lord God took the rib and fashioned it into a woman. A remarkable expression, defying our reasoning with its extraordinary boldness. After all, everything done by the Lord has this character: forming the human being from dust is no less remarkable than this.”^[4]

^[1] MacArthur, John. 2001. The Battle for the Beginning: The Bible on Creation and the Fall of Adam. Nashville, TN: W Pub. Group.

^[2] John Chrysostom. 1986. Homilies on Genesis 1–17. Edited by Thomas P. Halton. Translated by Robert C. Hill. Vol. 74. The Fathers of the Church. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press.

^[3] Got Questions Ministries. 2002–2013. Got Questions? Bible Questions Answered. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

^[4] John Chrysostom. 1986. Homilies on Genesis 1–17. Edited by Thomas P. Halton. Translated by Robert C. Hill. Vol. 74. The Fathers of the Church. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press.

After creating Adam and placing him in the garden with the rest of his creation, he observed that it was not good for Adam to be alone. It seems that God wanted Adam to feel his “aloneness” and that’s why all the animals that came to him for a name came to him in pairs: male and female. Maybe Roop is right, “God forms animals. Perhaps they will solve the problem of human loneliness. The animals are brought to ’adam for a response. The person names the animals, thereby giving them a place in the world. Although these creatures were made of the earth like the human creature, the animals cannot fulfill humanity’s need for community (vv. 19–20).”^[1] Adam needs something more. He needs another compatible creature, fit for him, that is also created in the image of God. Genesis 2:20 tells us about this problem. It says, “The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a suitable companion fit for him.”

I really like my cat, Bentley! We’ve had a lot of cats but this one is a talker. He makes all kinds of sounds. As a matter of fact, he never shuts up unless he’s sleeping. He follows Kathy around wherever she goes in the house. He wraps himself around her legs and says, “meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow….” You get the idea. Eventually Kathy will have enough and yell at him “will you please be quiet!” He doesn’t listen. Sometimes when I’m in a good mood, I’ll meow back at him, and we’ll have a conversation. I’ll ask him questions, but he can only say “meow.” He is a terrible conversationalist. You see cats can’t talk. My son JD told me about a man who advertised a talking do for sale for 10 bucks. A potential buyer went to see the dog and asked him questions. The dog was articulate and answered and would tell stories about all his travels and adventures around the world. When the buyer was told the owner only wanted 10 bucks for the dog, the buy inquired why so cheap. The owner said, “that dog is a rotten liar! He’s never been out of the backyard.”

God wanted Adam to see that he was incomplete. “He was just a half, and he needed the other half so that together they could be one. That was the thing God had in mind. God created Adam first and allowed him time to realize that he needed someone else.”^[2] He needed someone like himself. “The beasts of the field were created and were divinely presented to Adam that he might recognize them, that he might name them, that they might awaken his intellectual energies, and that their departure might awaken within him the thought of loneliness. But the brutes are not companions for man, they cannot enter into the high enjoyments of his intellectual life, nor can they join him in his devotional moods.”^[3] It wasn’t enough to simply have visits from God, even though this was very important. It wasn’t enough to have pets all around him. He needed more. “In order for true and happy companionship there must be a fair equality of intellectual power, of moral sympathy, and a real community of daily life, existing between the parties. Hence there was a deep necessity, in order to relieve the loneliness of Adam, that another human being should be created to keep him constant company.”^[4]

^[1] Roop, Eugene F. 1987. Genesis. Believers Church Bible Commentary. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.

^[2] McGee, J. Vernon. 1998. Marriage and Divorce. Thomas Nelson.

^[3] Exell, Joseph S., and Thomas H. Leale. 1892. Genesis. The Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary. New York; London; Toronto: Funk & Wagnalls Company.

^[4] Exell, Joseph S., and Thomas H. Leale. 1892. Genesis. The Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary. New York; London; Toronto: Funk & Wagnalls Company.

Jim Croce was one of my favorite singers back in the 70s. He has a song that he sings named “I’ve got a name.” It opens like this, “Like the pine trees linin’ the windin’ road I’ve got a name, I’ve got a name. Like the singin’ bird and the croakin’ toad I’ve got a name, I’ve got a name And I carry it with me like my daddy did…” Well, Jim, I hope you know where that singing bird and croaking toad, got it’s name. Adam named them. Genesis 2:19 tells us, “Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.”

Mark Twain used to tell this story about Adam and Eve. Adam comes home one night, and Eve says, ‘What did you call that big animal out there?” “Oh”, he said, “I called it an elephant”. “Why did you call it an elephant?” Adam answered, “Because it looked like an elephant.” Cornelius Van Til used to tell his students the story about Adam being asked why did you call a “lion” a “lion.” Adam responded, “because it runs through the forests.” Well, why did you call a tiger and tiger? Adam answered, “You can’t call them all lions.” Boice concludes his comments on the naming of the animals by saying, “When we have a definition for anything, when we really have studied its nature to the point where we can say that it is this and not that, we have achieved knowledge.”^[1]

Many of the commentators argue that “naming” something means to exercise dominion over them. Fruchtenbaum is right when he writes, “Adam is given authority over the animal kingdom and told to have dominion over three things: first, the fish of the sea; secondly, the birds of the heavens; and thirdly, every living thing that moves upon the earth. The first exercise of Adam’s special authority over the animal kingdom is when he names the animals in chapter 2.”^[2] But I’m thinking the naming feature is more than that. It’s to have some kind of affinity towards. When my wife grew up in a small country town of Norco, California, they purchased a calf to raise as food. And sure enough the kids in the family named it! They’ll all tell you how hard it was to send Sparky to the butcher a year or so later. I think Westermann has it right. He writes, “The exercise of dominion does not begin with the use or exploitation of the animals for human ends. The meaning is not, as most interpreters think, that the man acquires power over the animals by naming them. (This is quite a different notion; the one who knows the name of a being can by this knowledge dispose of it.) But rather that the man gives the animals their names and thereby puts them into a place in his world.”^[3] Thus, after the fall when God sacrificed the lamb to make coverings “atonement” for the sin of Adam and Eve it was a very traumatic experience. Imagine how the Father who gave his only Son, who had been given the name above every name, as the “atonement” for my sins and your sins as well as the sins of the world. No wonder the sky turned black and Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.”

^[1] Boice, James Montgomery. 1998. Genesis: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

^[2] Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G. 1983. The Messianic Bible Study Collection. Vol. 186. Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries.

^[3] Westermann, Claus. 1994. A Continental Commentary: Genesis 1–11. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.

Not everything in the Garden of Eden was “good.” In Genesis 2:18, God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” This is rather surprising because of what we’ve read in Genesis chapter one. Roop, says, “Because in Genesis 1 we listened to the repeated refrain, And God saw that it was good, the not good of this speech stands out sharply. After providing a garden and granting freedom, still one problem must be solved—loneliness.”^[1] This is not a contradiction at all. In an article in the Review and Expositor, Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford writes, “But read closely: Yhwh Elohim does not find a lack of goodness in anything that has already been created. Rather, the lack of goodness rests in the solitary state of humankind. Humankind needs humankind. We were not created to dwell in isolation, but rather in relationship.” Nancy, then quotes Terrien, “ ‘In Till the Heart Sings, Samuel Terrien writes, The ancient mentality, especially Hebraic, considered aloneness as the negation of authentic living, for true life is not individual but corporate and social.’”^[2]

Although the word “Trinity” does not appear in the Bible, the presence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is unmistakable in the Bible.  The traditional statement expresses to us the idea of only one God, but in three separate persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus speaks of the harmony that existed in all eternity with the Father. Back in Genesis 1:26-27 we see God’s first deliberation between the three. It says, “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.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Havin been created in God’s image requires man to live in community. “The Bible never considers the possibility that people can be whole as isolated individuals; that is possible only in relationship.”^[3]

The need for human companionship is not just for sociological reasons. God made us that way. But even secular psychology acknowledges that it’s “not good” for us to be alone. Berscheid (1985) reported that when people were asked, What is necessary for your happiness? or What makes your life meaningful? most people first mention satisfying close relationships with family, friends, or romantic partners. One 16-nation survey found that separated and divorced people were half as likely as married people to declare themselves very happy. Those who lack strong social bonds experience higher rates of both mental and physical illness. In the United States, mortality rates for all causes of death are consistently higher for divorced, single, and widowed individuals. Although there are many possible explanations for this relationship other than affiliation, efforts to control for other variables have found a persistent, independent, and robust effect of social relations.^[4]

^[1] Roop, Eugene F. 1987. Genesis. Believers Church Bible Commentary. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.

^[2] 2006. Review and Expositor 103, no. 2: 348.

^[3] Ryken, Leland, Jim Wilhoit, Tremper Longman, Colin Duriez, Douglas Penney, and Daniel G. Reid. 2000. In Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, electronic ed., 945. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

^[4] Bolt, M. 1999. “Affiliation, Need for.” In Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology & Counseling, edited by David G. Benner and Peter C. Hill, 2nd ed., 55. Baker Reference Library. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

 God gave Adam and Eve every tree in the Garden to be their food. Kissling writes, “The generosity of the Lord God is shown by the abundance of desirable trees in comparison with the single prohibited tree. It is only in light of that generosity that the prohibition of one tree is given.”^[1] God continues his address to Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:17 and says, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” I find it interesting that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was good, like everything else God created (cf. Gen. 1:11-12, 31). More than this, it was very desirable: “And out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:9). It is no wonder, then, that Eve was attracted to the “forbidden fruit”: “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate” (Gen. 3:6).^[2]

The current movement to defund the police and to go easy on crime from the perspective of the far left in our government is based on the systematic unfairness of our society. The argument is that the poor, the unenfranchised of our country are just expressing their dissatisfaction with their situation. The jails, and the ghettos and the tenements make criminals of people. If the country increases benefits to the poor and is lenient on crime it will solve the sociological injustices. “The attractiveness of the garden was in harmony with all else that God had created and concerning which He had said it was ‘very good.’ The evidence (regarding the impact of environment on criminal activity) points unmistakably to the fact that a poor environment tends to encourage all manner of evil.” But then he observes, “The situation in which the first man was placed could not by any reasoning have been a contributing cause of his failure.”^[3]

I like the way Exell puts it. He says, “Man is not to do as he likes in this world. God places him under moral restrictions, which are for his welfare, but which he has the ability to set aside. There are certain trees in the world, of whose fruit we are not to eat.”^[4] Having these “forbidden” zones in life is the only way man is free. Roop says it very well, “The freedom requires known boundaries. No freedom exists without limits. If we could only do one thing, e.g., eat from all the trees, that would not be freedom. Freedom must include genuine choice, choice that matters. If God had left the tree out of the garden, there would have been no disobedience, but also no freedom to choose. Hence the provision of freedom includes one tree from which the person may not eat, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”^[5]

^[1] Kissling, Paul J. 2004–. Genesis. The College Press NIV Commentary. Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co.

^[2] Deffinbaugh, Robert. n.d. Exodus Commentary.

^[3] Chafer, Lewis Sperry. 1944. “Anthropology.” Bibliotheca Sacra 101: 264.

^[4] Exell, Joseph S., and Thomas H. Leale. 1892. Genesis. The Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary. New York; London; Toronto: Funk & Wagnalls Company.

^[5] Roop, Eugene F. 1987. Genesis. Believers Church Bible Commentary. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.