Today’s post is a bit different than usual. During my Tuesday morning Bible study, my cat looked so comfortable snuggled up on my lap that I spent some extra time meditating on the Word. I’d been in Genesis writing about our Creator, and a thought popped into my head. I want to share this idea with you today and ask for feedback. Please comment! Diving deeper into God’s mysteries shouldn’t be done in a void — I believe God wants us to grow together and “sharpen” each other (and also to call each other out if we notice someone studying something that’s not in line with scripture).

Okay, so we know that God has had a plan in mind since before creation and that plan involves building a family (Eph.1:3-6). We also know that the church is described as the bride of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 19:6-9) and we’re told that human marriage is a “great mystery” that points to the relationships between Christ and His church (Eph. 5:22-33).

What if God began revealing these aspects of His plan from the very beginning in the way He chose to create man and woman? or, to put it another way, what if the way God created man and woman teaches us that He didn’t want to be alone and that He’s fashioning a helper comparable to Him?

Not Good To Be Alone

Man and woman could have been created at the same time, but God did something different. First He “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen 2:7). Then, God put man “in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it” and commanded him not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:15-17). 

And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. (Gen. 2:18-20)

God would have known He was planning to create Eve as well as Adam, so why leave man alone long enough to put him in the garden and have him name all the animals? Was it to give the man a chance to realize what God already knew, that it is not good to be alone?

We know very little about the universe before God created the earth and set His plan involving man in motion. We know the Word and God were together, and we know there were angels. We also know that these two God-beings wanted to increase the size of Their family so much that the Word  was willing to come to this earth and die to get us there. Would it be too much of a stretch to say that God had decided “it is not good that We should be alone”?

In His Image

Woman was created from Adam’s rib, not formed out of the dust as he was. They weren’t created separately from different sources — they were literally one flesh. You might say Eve was made in Adam’s image, and that every person after has also “borne the image of the man of dust” (1 Cor. 15:49).

A compatible mate needs to be fashioned after the pattern of her bridegroom. Is that what the Father and the Word were doing when They decided, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Gen. 1:26)? Could we say that God, from the very beginning, planned to fashion “a helper comparable to” Himself?

The Rabbi in my messianic congregation was talking about this — being Yeshua’s “help meet” (Hebrew, ezer kenegdo) — just a few weeks ago. That phrase in Genesis 2:18 could also be translated, “I will make for him a strength equal to and adequate for himself.” Eve was to be doing the same things as her husband and filling a vital role, though she wasn’t over him in authority. We’re made in the image of God and we’re meant to “bear the image of the heavenly” just as we’ve born the image of the man of dust (1 Cor. 15:42-49).

Could it be that God is calling us to be a strength and helper alongside our Bridegroom Jesus Christ, standing with Him and building up the kingdom? Is that what Jesus was telling us when He said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son” (Matt. 22:1)? Is that what They were pointing to when They made man and woman the way They did?

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What do you think? Does this interpretation line up with other scriptures? add a deeper layer of understanding? help us draw closer to our Lord? Leave a comment and let me know what you think, and what you’d add, change,  or clarify. Let’s study this together!