Genesis is the book of beginnings. While telling the story of creation, it also describes the first marriage—between the first man and woman. To better understand our

Creator’s original design for this relationship, it is crucial to take a thoughtful look at what God had in mind “in the beginning.”

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (Gen. 1:27).

This text shows that God had something uniquely different in mind for humans than for the rest of creation. While all of creation reflects the awesome power and creative genius of the mind of God, men and women were uniquely designed to reflect the heart of their Creator. Husbands and wives are to reflect the goodness and wonder of their Maker. Even the process God used to bring our first parents to life hints at their significant place in His plan.

Instead of speaking man into existence as He had done with everything else (Gen. 1:3,6,9,14, 20,24), God showed additional care by the way He used His own “hands” to mold and shape Adam. According to the book of Genesis, God formed man from “the dust of the ground” and then breathed into His creation His own living breath (2:7).

The image behind the word formed is that of a sculptor who moistens dry clay and squeezes and molds it into the exact shape he wants. No doubt the intensity of God’s concern in this special act of creation is related to the fact that He was making a creature in His own likeness. Adam was equipped with the capacities of personhood like God. Bible scholars affirm that such capacities as thinking, feeling, choosing, relating, and communicating with words are all manifestations of God’s image in man.

So God placed this perfect man in the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden and put him in charge of ruling over it (Gen. 1:26). All was right with the world—or at least that’s what we would expect in a perfect world. But God’s own commentary on the situation revealed that something was “not good” (2:18). Man was alone. That was a problem. Had God forgotten to make a companion? Hardly. But why didn’t He just scrape together two piles of soil, breathe into them His divine breath, and initiate the first marriage right from the start? That would have been obvious. But God is not a God of the obvious and expected.

God reveals Himself to us not only by what He does but also by how He chooses to do it. God doesn’t confine Himself just to the facts of the narrative but also reveals glimpses of His heart in how He tells the story. We must read the Bible with both mind and heart to understand the implications for us as modern readers. God did have a solution for Adam’s loneliness. But first He gave him a job—naming the animals.

The Necessity For Companionship. Giving Adam the task of naming all the animals God had created (2:19-20) seems out of place in the natural flow of the story. One would expect that once God identified Adam’s need for a helper (2:18) that He would have gotten right to it (2:21-22). The statements immediately preceding and following the account of Adam’s job, however, imply that God was using Adam’s work to teach him something. God wanted Adam to learn the necessity for companionship by discovering for himself three timeless truths.

It is not good for man to be alone. God knew that because Adam was alone, he needed a companion to help him (2:18). Adam seemed unaware of his aloneness. But in the process of naming the animals he became aware of something. He noticed that each of the animals God brought to him had mates “according to their kinds” (7 times in Gen. 1). God made companions for the animals. What God knew from the beginning of man’s creation, Adam discovered in the process of naming the animals—that there was no one of his own kind for him to relate to. He experienced human loneliness. He longed for companionship with another like himself. He learned that doing good work was not intended to be a replacement for a meaningful relationship.

Purposeful work is not fulfilling enough. Put yourself in Adam’s place. Imagine the joy he must have felt as an active participant with God. No longer was he just one of the creatures. Instead, he was making a difference in his world. What a privilege to be asked and entrusted with the creative process of naming the animals. Adam got his first taste of being made in the image of the Creator God by experiencing the joy of creative work. His God-likeness must have amazed and humbled him at the same time. While he must have been energized by the monumental task of naming what God had made, Adam soon realized that creative work would never fulfill his longing for relationship. Creative management of the garden was an expression of God-likeness, but man was made to reflect God’s image most fully in the context of relationships. Amazingly, Adam discovered that his longing for relationship was not fulfilled by his relationship with God.

Relationship with God alone is not enough. For those familiar with the Bible, that might sound like heresy. Asaph’s words ring in our ears: “Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You” (Ps. 73:25). But it is God Himself who designed Adam for more than a relationship with Himself. He made man to deeply connect with others as well. Jesus reaffirmed God’s design in Matthew 22:37-40 when He declared that the summary of all the Law and Prophets hangs on the two commands to love God and to love others. God has always intended for us to have a passionately heartfelt relationship with Him that overflows into loving relationships with others.

So God planned for Adam to discover through his own work that he had been designed and equipped for companionship. God’s solution for man’s aloneness was a woman.

The Provision Of A Partner. God put Adam to sleep and then proceeded to form a woman from the material He took from Adam’s side (Gen. 2:21-22). To simply say that “God made a woman” is too bland a translation of the Hebrew (v.22). It is more descriptive to say that God “built” the woman with His own hands—just as He sculpted the man from dust. Again, as in the creation of Adam, God was intimately involved in handcrafting a woman who was tailor-made for the man.

The perfect match for man. It is difficult for us to comprehend what Adam experienced when he awoke from his divinely induced sleep and was introduced to the first woman. The biblical author records his words at seeing this vision of feminine beauty:

This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called “woman,” for she was taken out of man (Gen. 2:23).

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.