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Two Become One: Is marriage "just a piece of paper," like so many people say? What is the purpose of marriage? Marriage is a gift of God for human flourishing. Marriage is intended to be a whole-life oneness between husband and wife. Recorded on Feb 6, 2022, on Genesis 2:18-25, by Pastor David Parks. Sermon Transcript All year, we’re talking about The Greatness of God. And today, we’re continuing a sermon series called The Making of Heaven and Earth from Genesis 1-3. As we’ve said, there are few more important chapters ever written than the first three chapters of Genesis. The creation narratives of the Bible shape our understanding of who we are, where we’ve come from, and the reason why things are the way they are today. But more importantly, they introduce us to the God who created and sustains all things. So far, we’ve considered in the creation of the heavens and the earth that, contrary to a materialistic cosmology, the universe is not the product of chance, but is the good design of a God who speaks light into darkness and order into chaos, resulting in abundant, flourishing life. In the creation of human beings, both male and female, we have both the incalculable worth of being made in the image of God, and also the very human vocation of working and caring for God’s good world. Today, we’ll consider the joining of the man and the woman, of two become one. We’ll consider the stunning beauty and goodness of marriage as God intended. If you have a Bible/app, please open to Genesis 2:18. Genesis 2:18-25 (NIV), “18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” 19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam[f] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[g] and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib[h] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man 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.” 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” So, the first five books of the Bible, called the Torah, are understood to have been first written by Moses, the famous prophet/leader of the people of ancient Israel during the time of the Exodus. He was writing during a critical time when God was giving his people their story, including these creation narratives which shaped their understanding of who they were and what they were created and saved for. As such, they are still important to us today because every generation needs to know who they were created to be and what they were created to do. Let’s go back and work through this text together. v. 18. Genesis 2:18 (NIV), “The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” So here, even in perfection, something isn’t quite right. In Genesis 1, God repeatedly assessed his creation as good, it is good, it is very good. But here, he sees something and assesses it as not good. It is not good for the man to be alone. I think this is as true today as it was all the way back then. Human beings were not ever intended to be alone. So many people in our church and in our world experienced the crushing reality of loneliness and isolation over the last two years. Now, it makes sense to be careful about being around other people during a global pandemic, but it is also true that it is not good for the man to be alone,