Understanding the Profundity of Genesis 2: “One Flesh Marriage” 

Understanding the Profundity of Genesis 2: “One Flesh Marriage” 

We learn from Genesis 1:26-27-28 that we humans are created “in the image of God” .. “male and female” .. to have dominion “over all the earth.” What does this mean? “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him.” (1 John 4:16 & John 15:4) Here we begin to understand that God’s “Original Purpose of Creation” (OPOC) is to make love possible in this material world. “God is good” (Psalms 100:5, 106:1, 107:1), and everything He makes is good (Genesis 1:4, 10, 13, 18, 21, 25), but it is only after creating humankind in His image, male and female, that He says it is “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Furthermore, in Genesis 1:22, God gave two blessings to all creatures in sea, on land, and in air – to be fruitful (grow to maturity and the capacity to reproduce) and then to multiply; but to we humans, He gave three blessings in Genesis 1:28 – to be fruitful, to multiply, and to have dominion. And since God is love and we are created in His image, that means a loving, caring dominion, not rapacious, selfish, non-sustainable destruction. 

Curiously, there’s a completely different story of the creation of our first father and our first mother in Genesis 2. In this account, “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” What does this mean? We are not simply creatures of clay or “dirt dumplings,” but there is nothing in our physical bodies that is not in nature. In fact, just as most of our planet Earth is water, so most of our physical body is water. Secondly, there’s a dual creation, as we have both a mortal physical body and an immortal spiritual body – so we need to care for both and nurture both to maturity and the fullness of human possibilities – to be like God in love. 

Logically, scientifically, the story of creation in Genesis 2 (if read very carefully) is absurd, for God creates the first man before the plants and animals! How can we understand this?   It probably means that God had the idea of creating we humans even before He created our entire cosmos, the material universe we live in, some 13-14 billion years ago and created all we perceive through science, mathematics, and astronomy as a home for us, His children, just as we human parents prepare a suitable environment for our own babies. 

But there’s much more to this story, for after creating the man, God says in Genesis 2:18 something of utmost importance for understanding His Original Purpose of Creation and, indeed, the entire 6000 years of Biblical history – “It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper comparable to him.”  So he puts the man into a deep sleep and performs the first surgery, taking out a rib, making a woman, and bringing her to the man. Adam is ecstatic, jumping up and down, dancing with delight, exclaiming, “Now this is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh” in Genesis 2:23; and we males certainly understand what he feels when we reflect on our first experience of love, our first embrace, our first kiss. 

But it is the final two verses of Genesis 2 that require years of thought and experience to fully understand God’s OPOC: “For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they shall become one flesh. * They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”  To begin with, a boy truly becomes a man when he is able to leave his parents, marry, and assume the awesome godlike responsibilities of becoming a loving, understanding, caring husband and father. Consider the profound imagery found in Jeremiah 31:31-32 – “I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah – not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.” 

Secondly, there is a dual action – a “leaving” and a “cleaving,” quite graphic images of the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual acts necessary to transitioning from puberty to the beginnings of mature adulthood.  

Third, there is the profound concept of “one flesh” marriage, a central theme found throughout the Bible and critical to understanding God’s Original Purpose of Creation, His overarching Providence of Re-Creation from the “Alpha” of Genesis 1 & 2 to the “Omega” of Revelation 21 & 22. For there is no sin or evil in the Original Creation, no fear, guilt, or shame; and there is no sin or evil in the New Creation, no fear, no guilt, and no shame.  

Simply put, God’s OPOC is to establish Kingdom of Heaven on Earth beginning with one godly (righteous, holy) man and one godly woman, their children and descendants forever. Adam and Eve failed to accomplish this because of sin. Eve sinned twice, first with the Tempter (the Devil, Satan) and then again with Adam. Adam sinned only once. But this sin only enters our human realm in Genesis 3 and so is not part of God’s Original Creation in Genesis 1& 2. Furthermore, all sin and evil are destroyed in Revelation 20; so there is no sin or evil in the New Creation of Revelation 21 & 22. 

Returning to our theme of the profundity of “one flesh” marriage, the man and woman as husband and wife first become “one flesh” in their sexual union to express their love for one another physically. Love happens first in the “heart” or “spirit” and can then be expressed in words and actions, consummating the “one flesh” marriage; but at a deeper level, the “one flesh” is realized materially in the baby, which is literally half father and half mother. This is why God says in Malachi 2:11 that “marriage is my holy institution” and in 2:16 “I hate divorce.” God is a reasonable God and has reasons for what He does and says. “Let no man deal treacherously with the wife of his youth” (2:14-15) for four reasons: “[1] she is your companion and [2] wife by covenant,” “[3] the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth,” and “[4] I desire godly children.” 

Science, research, and personal experience teach us that man and woman are drawn together by the “chemistry” of love, experiencing perhaps the greatest of physical and emotional joys through the mutuality of intercourse and orgasm, which stimulates brain function and helps us sleep better. But we are humans, not animals, so we have the blessings of freedom and choice, which require commitment to actualize the fullness and lifelong joys of love and family through “one flesh” marriage and many generations.