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In order to get a sense for this we need to go to the very beginning of the Bible.
First let's look at the way God created man. He created man in his own image. It goes on to say that he created them male and female. It also says God created them to have dominion over all the earth. Not only that, but it says that God blessed them. God then goes on to instruct them to be fruitful and multiply. This of course implies reproduction. So from the very beginning, before man fell into sin, God intended that Adam and Eve would reproduce and have a family. So contrary to what some have said, God intended that sex would be between a man and a woman for the purpose of reproduction and the creation of a family, in a blessed creation unblemished by sin.
Gen 1:26-28 (26) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (27) And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (28) And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
The next thing we notice from the beginning of time, as we see in Genesis 2:15 , is that man was intended to work, again, before the fall.
Gen 2:15-17 (15) And Jehovah God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. (16) And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: (17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Some have said that God is not the "author of evil". While it is true that God is love, it simply isn't true to say that God did not create evil. God gave us free will to choose between good and evil. So when God gave us that free will he made it possible for us to choose evil. In order to choose good we must have the option to choose evil. The question is not whether or not God created evil, the question is did God want us to choose good? The answer is yes. Was it possible for Adam to resist the temptation to eat the fruit? Yes. Just like it is possible for us to resist sin today. And as it was for Adam in the garden of Eden, it is for us today, when we sin there are consequences.
Gen 2:18-20 (18) And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a help mate for him. (19) And out of the ground Jehovah God formed every beast of the field, and every bird of the heavens; and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them: and whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was the name thereof. (20) And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; but for man there was not found a help mate for him.
Does God love his creation called man? Yes. From the very beginning God did not want us to be alone. Up until this point Adam was whole, yet he had no other just like him, and in that sense alone. God also knew that the job that he was calling Adam to was a big job. For this job, he would need a helper.
(21) And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: (22) and the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. (23) 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. (24) Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (25) And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
It has been said, and I think it's true, that there was symbolism intended in the bone that God chose to use to make Eve from. The rib attached to Adam's side. There was now a physical and also a spiritual gap at Adams side, almost like a hole in his life. God made Eve to fill that hole. Adam recognized that.
God made marriage as a reunification of two halves of one flesh. What a beautiful picture, God literally made two people in his image, created from one flesh, who were meant to be together for life. There they were, naked and unashamed, in the presence of the Lord.
So, in the beginning, God created man and woman to have a relationship with him and relationship with each other, to have a family, to work, and to enjoy his creation.
In the next few messages in this series I will discuss a number of things we can learn about God's plan for the family. Suffice it to say that It is a far cry different from your average North American family.
Briefly, we will see how God's plan of how a man should be to his wife, and how a wife should be to her husband, and how they should be to their children, and how their children should be to them, provides an environment of love, safety, and acceptance, and that encourages blessings rather than curses.
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