Genesis 2:24

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

From Background Notes [BN] for July 7^th & 8^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

The ancient texts of Genesis depict human men and women as naturally formed to be toward each other, and the degree to which they are able to live out the richness of that relationship rests with their awareness of each other as formed this way by God.

Seizing the power of this image, the writer in 2:24 tells us that since men and women belong together, they must begin their married life with the decision to be together, while making clean breaks with their birth families. The writer in this case knows that the ordinary way human beings come into the world is by women giving birth to them, and under that rubric, men come out of women, not the other way around. However, the natural order of birth conceals the deeper order of creation, where woman comes out of man. The reason for this reversal may involve both the patriarchal structure of ancient society and the desire to see origins equally in both male and female terms. There exist in the Genesis text the same tensions as we might experience today as we sort out the relationship of man and woman in marriage. No doubt, a later unknown writer who reflected on this passage had the same inner conflict when he suggested that “God did not make woman from man’s foot to be under him or from his head to be over him but from his rib, near his heart, to be beside him.” [BN, 4]

Join us this week in Study, Worship, Praise and Celebration at Chicago First Church of the Nazarene:

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am, 5:30pm