God's Design
Passage: Genesis 2:18-25
Genesis 2 tells creation from a close-up view of the garden.
Overview
God said it is not good for man to be alone and made a helper suitable for him. The two become one flesh.
Going deeper
'Ezer kenegdô (help meet, suitable helper): 'ezer is used of God himself as Israel's help (Psalm 121:1-2), so it does not imply inferiority. Jesus quotes v24 in Matthew 19:5.
Key verses (KJV)
- Genesis 2:18 It is not good that the man should be alone.
- Genesis 2:24 They shall be one flesh.
From the commentaries
Adam's Dominion. (b. c. 4004.) Here we have, I. An instance of the Creator's care of man and his fatherly concern for his comfort, v. 18. Though God had let him know that he was a subject, by giving him a command, (v. 16, 17), yet here he lets him know also, for his encouragement in his obedience, that he was a friend, and a favourite, and one whose satisfaction he was tender of. Observe, 1. How God graciously pitied his solitude: It is not good that man, this man, should be alone. Though there was an upper world of angels and a lower world of brutes, and he between them, yet there being none of the same nature and rank of beings with himself, none that he could converse familiarly with, he
Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721)
18. it is not good for the man to be alone—In the midst of plenty and delights, he was conscious of feelings he could not gratify. To make him sensible of his wants,
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
Verse 18 It is not good that the man should be alone - לבדו lebaddo; only himself. I will make him a help meet for him; עזר כנגדו ezer kenegdo, a help, a counterpart of himself, one formed from him, and a perfect resemblance of his person. If the word be rendered scrupulously literally, it signifies one like, or as himself, standing opposite to or before him. And this implies that the woman was to be a perfect resemblance of the man, possessing neither inferiority nor superiority, but being in all things like and equal to himself. As man was made a social creature, it was not proper that he should be alone; for to be alone, i.e. without a matrimonial companion, was not good. ...
Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke's Commentary (1810-1826)
18. It is not good that the man should be alone Moses now explains the design of God in creating the woman; namely, that there should be human beings on the earth who might cultivate mutual society between themselves. Yet a doubt may arise whether this design ought to be extended to progeny, for the words simply mean that since it was not expedient for man to be alone, a wife must be created, who might be his helper. I, however, take the meaning to be this, that God begins, indeed, at the first step of human society, yet designs to include others, each in its proper place. The commencement, therefore, involves a general principle, that man was formed to be a social animal. Now, the human rac
John Calvin, John Calvin's Commentaries (16th century, Calvin Translation Society, 1840s-1850s)
Application
- How does 'helper' as a word used of God change your view?
- What does leaving and cleaving look like now?
- Thank God for your spouse or for community.