From the Garden of Eden to Modern Marriage: A Biblical Perspective

Show Notes

Episode 419: 
In this episode, we dove into the second chapter of Genesis, exploring the significance of the creation of man and woman, emphasizing the relationship dynamics and the purpose behind their creation. We highlighted how marriage, as introduced in Genesis, is portrayed as a divine institution meant for companionship, love, and procreation.

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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Well, good morning everyone, Welcome to the Bible guys. I'm Christian. This is Jeff, Yes, and we are so glad to be here, and we're very excited as we are kicking off. This is the inaugural week nice term of our Old Testament Highlights series. I like it, and we have barely made it out of the first two chapters. Well, we're still in the second chapter Book of Gama. Yeah, yeah, that's and that's fine. In the Foundation, we're not going verse by verse, right, We're going by milestones or highlights of the Old Testament, that's right. So we're gonna be talking about the true knowledge of good and evil, the Tree of life, and about marriage and all that stuff today, right, right, Yeah, we're covering some ground today. But first, it's one of your favorite segments. Yes, and our listeners love this one as well. They play along. So this one is the movie cool Grace her I don't know so much today. So it's a movie quote race, Yes, and we're going to see how fast Chris can guess the movie based on these quotes, I'm going to give you get there's bonus points for the listeners who beat Chris. So let me let me think about this for a minute. A thousand point. No, if you beat Chris, I'm gonna give you ten thousand bonus points. Ten thousand. Today you dismissed a thousand like a terrible idea. Chris only wants you to have a thousand. Chris only wants you to have a thousand. But I'm thinking today is a special day, today only for only suggesting fantasy worthless points that knew nothing at the increment of the thousand a thousands, Right, So today only, we're going to give you ten thousand points. No, we're gonna give you ten billion, Jeff. And then we're at a million points, and then we're going to give Chris a thousand points for each of the correct Answerskay, here we go, here we go. Okay, I'm gonna seck myself up. Okay, So I'm going to say the quote, and you have to say the name of the movie as quickly as you can guess. Go ahead, Okay, she doesn't even go here, she doesn't even go here. Do we have a movie? It sounds like somebody three saying something about high school one. I have no idea, mean girls, Oh it is a high school thing. You go, yep, yep, she doesn't even go here? Okay, And why is the carpet all wet? Todd Oh, yes, I know that. That's uh National Lampoon's vacation. It's Christmas Christmas vacation, that's right. Yes, okay, wow, so hey, there's an opportunity right there. We have somebody one of our listeners already has twenty thousand points. You know that right, well, because they already because they already knew the mean girls one. And it took you a long time to get to Christmas vacation. Yes, you're right, you're right. So congratulations to our listener with twenty thousand points. Okay, all right, I'll try to be If you ain't first your last nights, that's ricky. If you can dog dodger wrench, you can dodge a ball, dodgeball. Come, that's awesome. According to the map, we've only gone four inches. Dumb and dumber. Ooh, there's another opportunity for ten thousand. Yes, hey, that's so funny that line. I love DuMond Dummer. So my favorite movies of all time. Well, some people say that's the tagline to our show, right right there you go, yep, Okay, I don't know how to put this, but I'm kind of a big deal. Oh Anchorman, Oh you left room for forty thousand points. Yeah right, because you were pretty quick on Talladagonites and Dodgeball. Yes, but the others are yeah, well it takes you a minute the process. We could have a fan out there with forty thousand. Hey, I only saw Mean Girls twice. I've only seen it. I've never seen Mean Girls once. Oh it's classic, it's super classic. Okay, but but yeah, it's it's a generation kind of thing. I think that people of the millennial generation would say, like that was their anthem movie. Oh okay, even like men. I know men who say Girls is our favorite show? Yeah wow, yeah, okay? Are they real men? Though? Then there that is a question. That is a question. Please do not write in gents and tell us that Mean Girls is your favorite show. Do not write. We don't want them. We don't want to go find another podcast that's so funny. Okay, So I'm going to go back and reread. If you liked yesterday, You're gonna love today because I'm going to read half the verses we read yesterday again. I meant to stop at verse fourteen, and I went on to verse twenty because context is great. Yeah, So what I wanted to do yesterday was read that God made people and made us a living soul, and then he made the garden. And then today I wanted to pick up that he placed them in the garden and gave them a job to and he made made woman. So here you go. Verse fifteen of Genesis chapter two, it says the Lord God placed the Man in the garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, you may freely eat of the fruit of every tree garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat it's fruit, you're sure to die. Then the Lord God said, it's not good for the man to be alone. I'll make a helper who's just right for him. And so the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the live stock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just write for him. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man's ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. At last, the man exclaimed, this one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh. She will be called woman because she was taken from man. And this explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Now, the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame. Okay, so that's what I meant to read today. So they were both naked and a shame. You know. That's the reason why she was called woman. Did you know that? Is that because when God created her and he saw her that way, he said, whoa man? That's right. I knew that was coming, but I wouldn't to give here. It is a good one. Good job, Hey, I get another one ready. How do we know that Adam wasn't a Texan, and that the Garden of Eden wasn't actually in Texas. I don't know. Have you ever seen a Texan give up a rib? No, to be honest with you, all right, As a matter of fact, I've never given up a rib. So well, I'm not used to live in Texas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's extra funny for you. That's very funny, And there's a lot of truth to it. That's a part of humor, is there's a little bit of truth to most things that are funny. Right, So here we go, God makes So this is Genesis two expands on what God said in Genesis chapter one. And so in Genesis one you see that God created the animals before he made man. But here he makes man and now making animals out of the ground. The difference was making two lamas is different than populating Peru with lamas, right, right. Making two birds is different than filling the whole garden with songbirds. Right. So, having established that they were going to be animals on the planet in what was it Day's four and five or whatever it was, Days five and six is different than here, now he makes man, and now he's making a bunch of animals and bringing them to Adam. This is that ongoing creation component. It's still all in the sixth day though. So Adam is naming animals. That's going to be a hippoponamous. Oh, that's a funny name. Hippopois right, that's a fly. I think you made that joke rightly, you know, So I have to believe that you know, did you know that there are over forty thousand different species of beetles? Isn't that crazy? Right? Wow? So I have to believe that Adam probably did not name all forty five thousand of them. That's the ricks beetle, right right, Like he didn't need to say that's a beatle. He just said that's a beatle. Yeah, yeah, And so I think that as time went on, we have given the different species different names. Well, so the in the first chapter it says that they were going to reproduce after their own kind. So what God did was, if you remember how how the structure of creatures is, kind is above species, so species is breaks into all kinds of subspecies, whereas a kind was that's a beetle, right now, there's lots of kinds or species of beetles. But there's one kind. That's that's why elephants and lions don't breed. It's because they're not from the same kind. But there are multiple species of or kind or types of elephants, right that they can enter breed. And there's multiple kinds or types species of tigers. Right, it's the same kind of thing here that they So God made them in a kind, and within those kinds, then there's all kinds. There's all types messing up that works that use kind a lot, right, there's all types of interbreeding that make different species from that. So anyways, it's kind of neat here we go. So the Bible says that God looked at Adam and said, it's not good for man to be alone, which I think is really a peek into the heart of God. That the whole story was a relationship story. The whole story is a love story. And so God made humanity for the purpose of relationship first with him, right. He wanted us to be able to know him and experience him. God didn't need anything. The doctrine of the Trinity is that He was completely and totally perfect in and of himself, complete in and of himself, but he desired us so that we could have a relationship with him, and so he makes us have a relationship. And then in the scope of how he designed creatures, there was a red cardinal and a slightly brown cardinal, the boy cardinal and the girl cardinal. Right. Uh, there was the male lion with the big you know, uh maine, and then there was the female lion who didn't have the main And suddenly Adams looking around, going, hey, wait a minute, it seems to be a system here. Right, there's boys and girls, but there's just me, and God says it's not good that man should be alone. And so then that's when he says, okay, I'm going to give him the woman, right, the woman? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So uh so, you know, so Adam is given this assignment to take care of the garden and then also to name the animals. But then, uh, he says that this is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. You should be called woman. And then it goes on to say this explains why a man leaves his father and mother and has joined his wife and the tour united into one. So so now it just sort of announces marriage, doesn't it. So it talks about you know, just from the very the very first moment of woman, you know, being a help meet to man is created in the garden, the institution of marriage. Yeah, so there's there's kind of a flow to creation. Fish and birds are far less sophisticated than the larger mammals, right, small mammals, big mammals. So he makes fish first and birds, and then he makes the animals on the earth, and he mentions the creeping things, and then there's the cattle and there's all these bigger animals that start to come. Then he makes man. And up to that point, man was the crown jewel of creation, but the final act of creation was woman. There it is right right, he takes he takes woman out of out of man. And so who is who's the only species gender that has the ability to reproduce life? Yeah, it takes both. It takes too, Chris, I get I can, but the only one that you know, the only one between the two of us who can grow another. I was trying to say something like that to give birth that okay, yes, And so you know this is incredibly important. Some cultures throughout history have minimized women substantially to the point where they're just property. Ah, I was in a country. Uh this I shouldn't laugh at this is a terrible I was gonna say, you should. I know, this was so weird though. I was in a country not long ago. I don't want to say the country now, but I was sitting along a very famous river and we were drinking tea and this guy comes up. He's got a bunch of stuff. He sets it down and uh, this lady puts it all in the boat. And then they get in the boat and then they're standing. There's a rowboat and they're standing there, and then they exchange spots, you know, so you know how just I'm watching it, thinking somebody's going to fall in the water, you know when you try to change from front to back spots and pass somebody in a rowboat. Yeah, that's what got my attention was that. And so they're passing each other in the rowboat and I'm like, somebody's gonna fall. They don't fall. They sit down and then the lady starts rowing them across the river right, and the guys just kick back, you know, looking around, drinking whatever he was drinking as she wrote him across the river and on one side. It was just it was a comical thing that was happening there where I thought they were going to fall in the water. That's why I laughed. But it was such a bizarre thing to me, the idea that in a lot of cultures women are property and that women do the work for the men, right, all those kinds of things. But it's really clear here that God took woman. She's the crown jewel of creation, and that you know, just because men are physically stronger, typically a lot of times then have suppressed women. But that's not how God designed it. And you've heard it before, You've heard preachers talk about this. I think it's worth mentioning again. God didn't take woman off the top of his head so that she would rule over him. She also didn't take He also didn't take woman from the bottom of his foot so that Adam would walk over top of the woman. He took her from underneath his arm right, so that he would draw her close and that they would walk. So I sometimes say that at a wedding suit, nor from his hand to be a servant to him, that's right, but under his under his arm for protection and near his heart to be loved that's right. That's the way I say it. That's that's beautiful. Right. And and so if you remember I mentioned this the other day, the law of first mentioned. The first god time God talks about a thing in the Bible is the foundation of what he wants you to know about that idea. Hey, everybody, there's a God and he made everything. And then hey, everybody, he made you personally, he wanted you, right, and he breathed into you the breath of life, and all these things. When it comes to humanity, when it comes to gender, when it comes to male female, the first time God talks about it, he talks about in a very beautiful way. She's the final creation. But she comes from Adam. They're from each other. Men can't exist without women. Women can't exist without men. They came from each other. She came from him, but she came from under his arm, right, not not you know, from his hands or under his feet or whatever. And so it's this equality in the relationship itself. We have different roles, we have different things. Men can't have babies, right, contrary to some professors right now, but medically it's not possible, right that we And at the same time, you know, men have a physical strength that women don't have. All we both bring great value, but oftentimes we look at what we don't have and then we get mad at the other instead of learning to compliment each other, which is what God wanted. God wanted a great compliment one to the other, that we would make each other better. Yeah. Right. There was a comedian that it was making fun of marriage and hilarious by the way, hilarious. Bit it makes me mad a little bit, right, but it was definitely funny. And he said something about, you know, marriage has a fifty percent failure rate. He's like, who would ever bet on those odds? And he started, you know, using scenarios of how much you risk and bet on fifty percent failure? And then he said he's like, and he goes, who would have signed up for that? He goes, So he goes, I'm gonna get He's like, where's the line that I need to stand in to lose half my stuff? He goes, he goes, where to take a chance to lose half my Yeah? So, anyway, so he's making fun of us, you know, the a fifty chance of dying on the way home. I think I'm going to stay right right, So anyway, he's making fun of it. But I think it's a good reminder that Genesis chapter two, verse eighteen reminds us eighteen through twenty four that marriage is God's idea. So there's a lot of people in this world that would say marriage is an obsolete institute, that you know, why would we even be married anymore, Just like this comedian who says, you know, it's like, why would I even bother with this idea? Just let's go ahead and playhouse together and let's not get married because it's an obsolete idea. But yet it's it reminds us that marriage is God's idea. There's a little chart here in the Life Application Study Bible, and it refers to verses that are to come all the way through Hebrews in the New Testament. However, I think that it's important to sort of remind everybody since this is where origins, or the marriage origins starts. And just like you said, right first mentioned right first mention. So Genesis two says marriage is God's idea. Genesis twenty four says commitment is essential to successful marriage. Proverbs tells us that marriage holds times of great joy Son a. Solomon says romance is important in marriage. Malachi says marriage creates the best environment for raising children. Matthew tells us that unfaithfulness breaks the bond of trust and the foundation of relationships and marriage. Matthew tells us that marriage is permanent. Romans talks about marriage and says the only only death should dissolve marriage. Ephesians mentions that marriage is based on the principle and the practice of love, not unfeelings. Ephesians tells us that marriage is the living symbol of Christ in the church. That's created as a you know, as a as a reflection of our relationship with our heavenly Father. And then Hebrews talks about how marriage is good and honorable, and so you know, here it is. God puts it in the motion in the garden, and he does it, by the way, with perfection. So if you wonder why marriage has a fifty percent failure rate, guess what it's because we're trying to uphold an institution that was given and established with no sin and so and so, yes, in the garden, it would have been the best it's ever been, and it could still be phenomenal. Right, you and I have both been married, not to each other, no, but to two lives, that's right, for almost the same length of time. Yeah, thirty years, thirty two years, thirty one years for me, okay, thirty two for me, and so right, thirty two, yes, thirty two, and or will it be thirty two? It must be going to be thirty It's going to be thirty two, you're right. But the point is is that marriage can be hard. It can be difficult, and it is and it's and it's complex, and it's uh and it's it takes work and commitment and everything else. But well it's hard. It wasn't supposed to be difficult, right, But it's hard because it turns out my wife is married to a sinner, right, right, and I'm married to a sinner. That's correct, right, That's that's why it's hard, right, And so if we can, if we can work past that, we have to work to overcome our failures is why it's so hard. But yeah, anyways, say interrupted you, Yeah, that's okay. I just wanted to mention that just just how just to remind everybody. If you're questioning the institution institution of marriage, guess what marriage was God's idea. Yeah. And by the way, I just read an article in the Wall Street Journal a couple weeks ago now that was talking about h how many of the recent generations, the two new generations coming up, Millennial and gen Z, are discovering that satisfaction in life is much higher for those who choose a monogamous relationship with a in a married relationship. Isn't it interesting? They thought they'd be happier running around sleeping with everybody and living with each other. But the research and the secular universities u fund the research, the happiness quotient is way higher, even with all the dangers in marriage is way higher for those who choose marriage. So I want to just point this out. By the way, remember how I was saying, the law first mentioned everything at the beginning is really important and it establishes everything else God intends. Notice that God's the one who established marriage. Thus God has authority over marriage. Right. Governments can try to define things if they want to. Governments will give you or sell you a piece of paper that says, Okay, you're officially married. But that's mostly about them tracking things right, trying to figure out who totacks that's what it's about. But God's the one who established marriage. Thus, God's plan for marriage between one biological male and one biological female, that's God's plan for marriage. So regardless of governments don't determine morality, right, Governments determined taxation and legality, but they don't determine what is moral and what is good and what is best. God did. So marriage was God's idea, not a government's idea. And marriage is God's gift to humanity. And then it's amazing. Within marriage, within the gift of marriage, God gives both the gift of intimacy the gift of children, right, these two things, and from the intimacy comes the children, and it's amazing if you want to look at the gift of marriage. Why we know God's gift of marriage was perfect was because this gift of intom he gave them a command, I want you to go and make lots of babies. But then he made that process extraordinarily pleasurable, right right. We don't know that he'd that for fruit flies, right, right, but he did for humanity. And there's a bond to that. That's why the Bible says they become one flesh Paul later on talks about that. We we We've talked about it several months ago in uh Paul's writings about when when two people come together, and man and women come together, they become one, right and and you know, don't break apart what God put together, and there is a oneness to that. Even the physical act of the secial experience is designed to be a soul to soul that experience, which is why you just said it, right. So, when when people go running around and they're playing house and sleeping with each other and everything else, the reason why they're so miserable and unhappy is because they can't help it. Part of their soul. They're tearing their soul. They tearing their soul away from each other. That's what it is, because it's designed for that, and so and so there's a there's a there's much more of an intimate, deeper connection that happens with the physical act than they ever inten, right, and so and so then people try their best to put up guardrails and mechanisms to be cold and and try not to let that part of it interfere. And that's why so many movies today, if you watch them they'll say, oh, I just I let my guard down and all of a sudden I got the feels and all these kind of things. Well, why do you think that it happens that way naturally? Because it's the way that God designed us. It's just that that's the way. So it's a beautiful gift, is what we're saying here. And God said, hey, I want this for you. And then they were, you know, both naked, but they felt no shame. You ever see a little kid come flying through the living room completely naked in front of company with no shame at all, Just same, big time right, all that kind of stuff. It was that just total innocence. And this is the beauty of what God wanted was a total innocence for humanity. I've got a job for you. It's going to be meaningful, fulfilling. You're gonna enjoy it. I've got intimacy that will lead to you being able to fulfill my command to fill the earth, you know, multiply. And so God put them in paradise. This was absolute perfection and it's what God desires for us even today. And you know, we're gonna talk about where it all went wrong tomorrow. But yep, that's right. Well, that looks like our time and we'll see you next time on the Bible Guys,