We are continuing our study in Genesis, but one of the things I want to do as we move through the Old Testament is bring the New Testament alongside it. The New Testament frequently reaches back into Genesis, and when it does, it often helps us understand why these early passages are so important.

In Genesis 2 we have just come to the creation of Eve. God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep, took from his side, and formed a woman for him. Before that, God had brought the animals before Adam and given him the responsibility of naming them.

That matter of naming is significant. We do it all the time. We name our children. We name our inventions. Every time something new is created, we give it a name. Naming reflects responsibility and authority. Adam had been given stewardship over the created world and over the garden, and part of that stewardship was expressed through naming the animals.

Yet among all the creatures there was none corresponding to Adam. None were like him. That is why Adam responds the way he does when God brings Eve to him:

“This one finally is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called woman because this one was taken out of man.”

For the first time Adam encounters someone who truly corresponds to him.

A Man Shall Leave His Father and Mother

Genesis then gives us a statement that becomes very important throughout the rest of Scripture:

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

What is interesting is that when this statement appears, there is not yet a father and mother in existence. There are only Adam and Eve.

Because of that, I understand this as Moses, under the inspiration of Scripture, providing an explanatory comment as he records the account. Moses was writing many years later, when marriage, parents, and families already existed. He is connecting the creation account to the institution of marriage as his readers knew it.

Something else has always struck me about the verse. It says the man shall leave his father and mother. It does not say the wife shall leave her father and mother.

I think there is significance there. From the beginning, the man was intended to lead, provide, and take responsibility. The emphasis seems to be on the husband establishing a new primary loyalty. Whatever attachment existed to father and mother must now give way to a new union with his wife.

Different cultures may express that in different ways. In the ancient world families often lived very close together, sometimes even adding living quarters onto an existing family compound. The command does not necessarily require a great geographical separation. But even if families remained close physically, there still had to be a shift in relationship. The man was to cleave to his wife.

That emotional and practical transfer of loyalty appears to be part of what the passage is emphasizing.

Jesus Appeals to Genesis

When we come to Matthew 19, Jesus quotes this very passage while answering a question about divorce.

The Pharisees came to Him and asked:

“Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”

Jesus immediately directed them to Scripture:

“Have you not read…?”

That was His authority. He did the same thing during His temptation. He continually appealed to what God had said.

Jesus answers by going all the way back to creation:

“He who created them from the beginning made them male and female.”

Then He quotes Genesis:

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

Notice what Jesus is doing. He is affirming the authority of Genesis and grounding His teaching in God’s original design.

This is especially important in a culture that increasingly rejects God’s created order. The biblical teaching is straightforward: God made humanity male and female. That is not merely a social arrangement. It is part of God’s design from the beginning.

Jesus continues:

“So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

Marriage is not merely a human arrangement. God joins husband and wife together.

The Pharisees responded by asking why Moses allowed divorce. Jesus explained that Moses permitted it because of the hardness of people’s hearts, but that it was not God’s original intention.

From the beginning, God’s design was permanence and faithfulness.

This is not simply an abstract issue. Divorce leaves real wounds. It affects husbands and wives, children and families. God’s design was not casual separation but covenant union.

Paul’s Use of Marriage in Romans

Although we did not turn there, it is worth remembering that Paul also uses marriage imagery in Romans 7.

His purpose there is not primarily to teach about marriage. Instead, he uses marriage as an illustration of the believer’s relationship to the law.

When a spouse dies, the surviving spouse is free from the legal bond of that marriage. Paul uses that principle to explain what has happened to believers in Christ.

All the judgment of the law was carried out on Christ. The law declared that sin deserved death, and Christ died in our place. Because of that, the law has no further jurisdiction over those who are in Him.

The demands of the law have been fully satisfied through Christ’s death.

One Flesh and Sexual Purity

Paul reaches back to Genesis again in 1 Corinthians 6.

The Corinthian church struggled with many moral problems, and Paul addresses sexual immorality directly.

He reminds believers that their bodies are members of Christ.

That is an astonishing truth. Sometimes we speak of the church as the body of Christ almost as a figure of speech, but Paul presses the idea further. Our bodies themselves belong to Christ.

Because of that, Paul asks:

“Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?”

His answer is immediate:

“May it never be.”

Then he quotes Genesis once again:

“The two shall become one flesh.”

Paul applies the language of Genesis to sexual immorality. A physical union creates a one-flesh relationship. That is why sexual sin is so serious. It involves the body that belongs to Christ.

He contrasts this with the believer’s union with Christ:

“The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”

Our bodies belong to God. We are not our own.

Paul says:

“You were bought with a price.”

Therefore:

“Glorify God in your body.”

Not merely in some inward spiritual sense, but in the actual use of our bodies.

Our eyes belong to Him. Our hands belong to Him. Our feet belong to Him.

When we use our bodies, we are using what belongs to Christ.

That old children’s song comes to mind:

“Be careful little eyes what you see.”

There is more truth in that song than we sometimes realize.

If our bodies are members of Christ, then what we watch, where we go, and what we do with our bodies all matter.

The Great Mystery

The most fascinating use of Genesis 2 may be found in Ephesians 5.

Paul begins with instructions to husbands:

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”

Christ loved the church sacrificially. He gave Himself for her in order to sanctify her and present her to Himself in glory.

Paul then applies that principle to husbands.

A husband should minister to his wife in such a way that she becomes more beautiful spiritually, more mature, more holy, and more Christlike through the years.

He should nourish and cherish her just as Christ does the church.

Then Paul quotes Genesis again:

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

At that point he says something remarkable:

“This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.”

Ultimately, Paul says, Genesis 2 is pointing beyond human marriage.

Marriage is a picture of Christ and the church.

That means every Christian marriage carries with it a testimony. The relationship between husband and wife reflects something about Christ’s relationship with His people.

When a husband loves his wife as Christ loves the church, and when a marriage reflects grace, faithfulness, and commitment, it becomes a picture of the gospel.

On the other hand, when a marriage is characterized by selfishness, bitterness, constant conflict, and disregard for one another, it distorts that picture.

Marriage was designed to point beyond itself.

It was designed to tell the truth about Christ and His church.

Returning to Genesis 3

As we come to Genesis 3, everything changes.

The chapter opens with these words:

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which Yahweh God had made.”

The serpent approaches Eve and asks:

“Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

Why that question?

The answer seems obvious. He is attempting to create doubt. He is questioning God’s word and planting uncertainty in Eve’s mind.

Another question naturally arises. Why did he approach Eve rather than Adam?

Several possibilities come to mind.

Adam had personally received God’s original command. Eve was not yet present when that command was first given. We do not know whether God later repeated it directly to her. Scripture does not tell us.

What we do know is that Adam had heard it firsthand.

Perhaps that is part of the reason the serpent approached Eve.

Whatever the reason, the strategy was clear. The serpent’s first move was not an outright denial. It was a question designed to make God’s word seem uncertain.

As we move into the account of the fall, it is worth reading the passage carefully and thinking through the details. The text invites us to engage with it, to ask questions, and to consider what is taking place as sin enters the human story.