Genesis 2:22 - Homiletics

The first marriage .

I. THE LONELY MAN .

1. Nobly born . Sprung from the soil, yet descended from above. Fashioned of the dust, yet inspired by a celestial breath. Allied to the beasts, yet the offspring of God.

2. Comfortably placed . His native country a sunny region of delights (Eden, Genesis 2:8 ); his home a beautiful and fertile garden ( Genesis 3:5 ); his supplies of the amplest possible description ( Genesis 1:30 ; Genesis 2:16 ); his occupation light and pleasant ( Genesis 2:15 ); his restrictions slight and trivial ( Genesis 2:17 ); his privileges large ( Genesis 2:16 ).

3. Richly endowed . With immortality ( Genesis 2:17 ), intelligence ( Genesis 2:19 ), social capacities and instincts ( Genesis 2:18 ), the faculty of speech ( Genesis 2:20 ).

4. Highly exalted . As God's offspring, he was invested with world-dominion ( Genesis 1:28 ; Psalms 8:6 ), symbolized in his naming of the creatures ( Genesis 2:20 ). Yet—

5. Essentially alone . Not as entirely bereft of companionship, having on the one hand the society of Jehovah Elohim, and on the other the presence of the animals; but in neither the Creator nor the creatures could he find his other self—his counterpart and complement, his consort and companion. On the one hand Jehovah Elohim was too high, while on the other the creatures were too low, for such partnership as Adam's nature craved. And so Adam dwelt in solitude apart from both. "But for Adam there was not found an help meet for him."

II. THE PROVIDED PARTNER .

1. Divinely fashioned ( Genesis 2:22 ).

"Under his forming hands a creature grew,

Man like, but different sex; so lovely fair,

That what seemed fair in all the world, seemed now

Mean, or in her summed up, in her contained,

And in her looks; ….

Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye,

In every gesture dignity and love"

(Milton, 'Par. Lost,' Bin 8:469).

2. Divinely presented ( Genesis 2:22 ). "The Lord brought her unto the man." "Wherein we have exemplified the three great causes of marriage.

III. THE WEDDED PAIR .

1. Married by God . "God is the best maker of marriages" (Shakespeare). Nay, unless God unites there is no real marriage, but only an unhallowed connection, legitimized by man's laws, it may be, but not sanctioned by God's. As this wedding was of God's arranging, so likewise was it of his celebrating. What celestial benedictions were outbreathed upon the young and innocent pair, as they stood there before their Maker, radiant in beauty, tremulous with joy, full of adoration, we are left to imagine. Happy they whose nuptials are first sanctioned and then celebrated by the living God!

2. United in love . This first marriage was certainly something more than a social or a civil contract; something other than a union of convenience or a diplomatic alliance; something vastly different from a legalized coenobium. It was the realization of what our Laureate pictures as the ideal marriage:—

"Each fulfils

Defect in each, and always thought in thought,

Purpose in purpose, will in will, they grow,

The single, pure, and perfect animal;

The two-cell d heart beating, with one full stroke,

Life"

('Princess,' 7.).

3. Clothed in innocence . Never had bridal pair so beautiful and radiant apparel. The unclothed bodies of our first parents we can imagine were enswathed in ethereal and transfiguring light; in their case the outshining of their holy souls, which, as yet, were the undimmed and unmarred image of their Maker, capable of receiving and reflecting his glory. Alas, never bridal pair has stood in robes so fair! The beauty of holiness, the luster of innocence, the radiance of purity have departed from the souls of men. Never till we stand in the celestial Eden, where they neither marry nor are given in marriage, will garments of such incomparable splendor be ours. Meantime, let us thank God there is a spotless raiment in which our guilty souls may be arrayed, and in which it were well that every bridal pair were decked. Happy they who, when they enter into married life, can say, " I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels."

4. Housed in paradise . United by the hand of God, they began their married life in Eden.

"And there these twain upon the skirts of time

Sat side by side, full summ'd in all their powers,

Dispensing harvest, sowing the to-be.

Self-reverent each, and reverencing each;

Distinct in individualities,

But like each other, ev'n as those who love"

(Tennyson's 'Princess,' 7.).

And so may any wedded pair be housed in Eden who, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, fill their home, however humble, with the light of love.