Selie Visa
Scripture reading:
Genesis 2 24
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Exodus 20:12 NIV
Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
The closest union:
God made the woman out of the man, to show that in a marriage the relationship between the husband and the wife is the closest union, and the most affectionate attachment. Marriage is instituted by God and by his command a more intimate connection is formed between the man and woman than even between parents and children. The two shall be one flesh, shall be considered as one body, having no separate or independent rights, privileges, cares, concerns, etc., each being equally interested in all things that concern the marriage. Their union will involves procreation for posterity-- the future generation of mankind.
Honouring our parents:
We must honor our parents. But the bond between a husband and his wife is far greater than this that Paul compared it to the church. A man leaving his parents to be united with his wife doesn't mean leaving them literally. It doesn't mean ignoring or neglecting them in order to start a family, a new beginning with his wife. It is also not a discouragement or prohibition of joint families. We should picture Jesus Christ dying on the cross and yet thinking of his mother Mary. He was concerned for her and placed her in the care of John. We must continue to look after the welfare of our parents, more so if they are elderly and lonely or with health problems. The statement emphasizes the unique union between married couples. It gives special importance to the marriage instituted by God in the garden of Eden.
Loving as Christ loved the Church:
The Bible passage of Ephesians 5:22-31 tells us that wives must submit themselves to their husbands as they do to the Lord. Husbands are commanded to love their wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.
Christ gave himself for the Church to save it, so husbands should, by all means in their power, strive to promote the salvation of their wives, and their constant edification in righteousness. Thus we see that the authority of the man over the woman is founded on his love to her. This love must be such as to lead him to risk his own life for her. In a patriarchal society, almost all domestic works, caring for children and formation of their minds and manners revolve around the mother. Therefore, she has need of all the possible assistance and support which her husband can give her. She deserves the utmost love and affection from her husband. Considering the creation and the original state of the first human pair, the woman is a part of the man. God made male and female, but the woman was taken out of the side of the man. Therefore she is the flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone. So, a husband who loves his wife loves himself for they are one flesh.
Made from the same substance:
Genesis 2:21-22 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
It is interesting that the forming of Eve from the side (rib) of Adam is often referred to as the first surgery in human history. First, God put Adam to sleep, similar to the use of anaesthesia on a patient about to be operated upon. Next, God took out one of the ribs of Adam and then he closed up the wound. The whole thing is similiar to a modern day surgical procedure. I love the popular saying which is often attributed to Matthew Henry. "The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved."
When she was brought to Adam, he said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man" Genesis 2:23.
The cosmos was created out of nothing. But Adam, was made from the dust of the earth and God breathed into his nostrils the breathe of life. God used Adam’s rib to made Eve to show that they are equal and of the same substance. Eve was God’s image just as Adam was. Eve was therefore truly the perfect companion for Adam. She was neither inferior nor superior to Adam but they would complement each other.
