If you want to know how something is supposed to function or look you need to go back to the original. The original sets the pattern for what it should be in the future. Over time copies of the original can become distorted whether it’s a photo, a document, or whatever. That is certainly the case with marriage. God’s original design for marriage was heterosexual monogamy between one man (Adam) and one woman (Eve) for a lifetime. Polygamous marriages, open marriages, homosexual marriages, cohabitation were never (and still aren’t) God’s intent or design for marriage. If you don’t believe me, go back and read Genesis 2 and read the prima facie evidence for marriage.
Along that line, if you read Genesis 2 you will discover that God played 5 roles in the wedding of Adam and Eve. Let me back up. Why marriage? Why did Adam need to get married? God declared that it was not good for Adam to be alone (2:18), God then declares His intent to make “a helper suitable to him.” Just a few thoughts on Genesis 2:18 before I dive into the 5 roles of God in Adam and Eve’s wedding. The man was alone. God didn’t design human beings to live in solitude. Marriage between one man and one woman was part of God’s plan for humanity from the very beginning, even before sin entered the world or human government was established. God gave two benefits to Adam when He created Eve. First her creation would dispel Adam’s loneliness by being his companion, and secondly Eve provided farmer Adam with help in cultivating the Garden of Eden.
Some see Eve’s role as helper (ēzer in Hebrew) as demeaning and assume that she is less than Adam in her position or purpose. That’s not true. God describes Himself as a Helper (using the same Hebrew word ēzer) in Psalm 33:20, 70:5, 115:9. Eve is part of God’s good provision for Adam and vice versa. God’s original intent and design is for the man and woman to live and work and walk with Him together.
Now on to the five roles of God in Adam and Eve’s wedding:
Role #1-Anesthetist. From Genesis 2:21 we read “the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and he slept . . .” God is the anesthetist prior to the surgery that is to take place causing Adam to sleep during surgery.
Role #2-Surgeon. From Genesis 2:21 “. . . then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.” God now dons His surgical gown and becomes the surgeon making an incision and removing a rib and healing the wound.
Role #3-Sculptor. From Genesis 2:22 “And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man . . .” Now God becomes the sculptor shaping the rib into a human being. Now that’s amazing! Only God can do that!
Role #4-Father of the Bride. From Genesis 2:22 “. . . and brought her to the man.” God has now become the father of the bride and is escorting her to her future husband, Adam.
Role #5-Wedding Officiant. From Genesis 2:23, 24 “And the man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man’ For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” God steps into the role of the officiant overseeing Adam as he declares his wedding vows to Eve in the presence of God. Then follows God’s pronouncement that they are now husband and wife (Genesis 2:24, 25).
Weddings and marriages are God’s idea. We dare not minimize them or neglect them or change the template.
Written on Elsie and my 54th anniversary, July 20, 2022,
Irv