From the Garden of Eden to Modern Marriage: A Biblical Perspective

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk

about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Well, good morning everyone,

Welcome to the Bible guys. I'm Christian. This is Jeff, Yes,

and we are so glad to be here, and we're very excited as

we are kicking off. This is the inaugural week nice term of our Old

Testament Highlights series. I like it, and we have barely made it out

of the first two chapters. Well, we're still in the second chapter Book

of Gama. Yeah, yeah, that's and that's fine. In the Foundation,

we're not going verse by verse, right, We're going by milestones or

highlights of the Old Testament, that's right. So we're gonna be talking about

the true knowledge of good and evil, the Tree of life, and about

marriage and all that stuff today, right, right, Yeah, we're covering

some ground today. But first, it's one of your favorite segments. Yes,

and our listeners love this one as well. They play along. So

this one is the movie cool Grace her I don't know so much today.

So it's a movie quote race, Yes, and we're going to see how

fast Chris can guess the movie based on these quotes, I'm going to give

you get there's bonus points for the listeners who beat Chris. So let me

let me think about this for a minute. A thousand point. No,

if you beat Chris, I'm gonna give you ten thousand bonus points. Ten

thousand. Today you dismissed a thousand like a terrible idea. Chris only wants

you to have a thousand. Chris only wants you to have a thousand.

But I'm thinking today is a special day, today only for only suggesting fantasy

worthless points that knew nothing at the increment of the thousand a thousands, Right,

So today only, we're going to give you ten thousand points. No,

we're gonna give you ten billion, Jeff. And then we're at a

million points, and then we're going to give Chris a thousand points for each

of the correct Answerskay, here we go, here we go. Okay,

I'm gonna seck myself up. Okay, So I'm going to say the quote,

and you have to say the name of the movie as quickly as you

can guess. Go ahead, Okay, she doesn't even go here, she

doesn't even go here. Do we have a movie? It sounds like somebody

three saying something about high school one. I have no idea, mean girls,

Oh it is a high school thing. You go, yep, yep,

she doesn't even go here? Okay, And why is the carpet all

wet? Todd Oh, yes, I know that. That's uh National Lampoon's

vacation. It's Christmas Christmas vacation, that's right. Yes, okay, wow,

so hey, there's an opportunity right there. We have somebody one of

our listeners already has twenty thousand points. You know that right, well,

because they already because they already knew the mean girls one. And it took

you a long time to get to Christmas vacation. Yes, you're right,

you're right. So congratulations to our listener with twenty thousand points. Okay,

all right, I'll try to be If you ain't first your last nights,

that's ricky. If you can dog dodger wrench, you can dodge a ball,

dodgeball. Come, that's awesome. According to the map, we've only

gone four inches. Dumb and dumber. Ooh, there's another opportunity for ten

thousand. Yes, hey, that's so funny that line. I love DuMond

Dummer. So my favorite movies of all time. Well, some people say

that's the tagline to our show, right right there you go, yep,

Okay, I don't know how to put this, but I'm kind of a

big deal. Oh Anchorman, Oh you left room for forty thousand points.

Yeah right, because you were pretty quick on Talladagonites and Dodgeball. Yes,

but the others are yeah, well it takes you a minute the process.

We could have a fan out there with forty thousand. Hey, I only

saw Mean Girls twice. I've only seen it. I've never seen Mean Girls

once. Oh it's classic, it's super classic. Okay, but but yeah,

it's it's a generation kind of thing. I think that people of the

millennial generation would say, like that was their anthem movie. Oh okay,

even like men. I know men who say Girls is our favorite show?

Yeah wow, yeah, okay? Are they real men? Though? Then

there that is a question. That is a question. Please do not write

in gents and tell us that Mean Girls is your favorite show. Do not

write. We don't want them. We don't want to go find another podcast

that's so funny. Okay, So I'm going to go back and reread.

If you liked yesterday, You're gonna love today because I'm going to read half

the verses we read yesterday again. I meant to stop at verse fourteen,

and I went on to verse twenty because context is great. Yeah, So

what I wanted to do yesterday was read that God made people and made us

a living soul, and then he made the garden. And then today I

wanted to pick up that he placed them in the garden and gave them a

job to and he made made woman. So here you go. Verse fifteen

of Genesis chapter two, it says the Lord God placed the Man in the

garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned

him, you may freely eat of the fruit of every tree garden, except

the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat it's fruit,

you're sure to die. Then the Lord God said, it's not good

for the man to be alone. I'll make a helper who's just right for

him. And so the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals

and all the birds of the sky, and he brought them to the man

to see what he would call them. And the man chose a name for

each one. He gave names to all the live stock, all the birds

of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no

helper just write for him. So the Lord God caused the man to fall

into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out

one of the man's ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God

made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.

At last, the man exclaimed, this one is bone from my bone,

and flesh from my flesh. She will be called woman because she was taken

from man. And this explains why a man leaves his father and mother and

is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Now,

the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.

Okay, so that's what I meant to read today. So they were

both naked and a shame. You know. That's the reason why she was

called woman. Did you know that? Is that because when God created her

and he saw her that way, he said, whoa man? That's right.

I knew that was coming, but I wouldn't to give here. It

is a good one. Good job, Hey, I get another one ready.

How do we know that Adam wasn't a Texan, and that the Garden

of Eden wasn't actually in Texas. I don't know. Have you ever seen

a Texan give up a rib? No, to be honest with you,

all right, As a matter of fact, I've never given up a rib.

So well, I'm not used to live in Texas. Yeah, yeah,

yeah, that's extra funny for you. That's very funny, And there's

a lot of truth to it. That's a part of humor, is there's

a little bit of truth to most things that are funny. Right, So

here we go, God makes So this is Genesis two expands on what God

said in Genesis chapter one. And so in Genesis one you see that God

created the animals before he made man. But here he makes man and now

making animals out of the ground. The difference was making two lamas is different

than populating Peru with lamas, right, right. Making two birds is different

than filling the whole garden with songbirds. Right. So, having established that

they were going to be animals on the planet in what was it Day's four

and five or whatever it was, Days five and six is different than here,

now he makes man, and now he's making a bunch of animals and

bringing them to Adam. This is that ongoing creation component. It's still all

in the sixth day though. So Adam is naming animals. That's going to

be a hippoponamous. Oh, that's a funny name. Hippopois right, that's

a fly. I think you made that joke rightly, you know, So

I have to believe that you know, did you know that there are over

forty thousand different species of beetles? Isn't that crazy? Right? Wow?

So I have to believe that Adam probably did not name all forty five thousand

of them. That's the ricks beetle, right right, Like he didn't need

to say that's a beatle. He just said that's a beatle. Yeah,

yeah, And so I think that as time went on, we have given

the different species different names. Well, so the in the first chapter it

says that they were going to reproduce after their own kind. So what God

did was, if you remember how how the structure of creatures is, kind

is above species, so species is breaks into all kinds of subspecies, whereas

a kind was that's a beetle, right now, there's lots of kinds or

species of beetles. But there's one kind. That's that's why elephants and lions

don't breed. It's because they're not from the same kind. But there are

multiple species of or kind or types of elephants, right that they can enter

breed. And there's multiple kinds or types species of tigers. Right, it's

the same kind of thing here that they So God made them in a kind,

and within those kinds, then there's all kinds. There's all types messing

up that works that use kind a lot, right, there's all types of

interbreeding that make different species from that. So anyways, it's kind of neat

here we go. So the Bible says that God looked at Adam and said,

it's not good for man to be alone, which I think is really

a peek into the heart of God. That the whole story was a relationship

story. The whole story is a love story. And so God made humanity

for the purpose of relationship first with him, right. He wanted us to

be able to know him and experience him. God didn't need anything. The

doctrine of the Trinity is that He was completely and totally perfect in and of

himself, complete in and of himself, but he desired us so that we

could have a relationship with him, and so he makes us have a relationship.

And then in the scope of how he designed creatures, there was a

red cardinal and a slightly brown cardinal, the boy cardinal and the girl cardinal.

Right. Uh, there was the male lion with the big you know,

uh maine, and then there was the female lion who didn't have the

main And suddenly Adams looking around, going, hey, wait a minute,

it seems to be a system here. Right, there's boys and girls,

but there's just me, and God says it's not good that man should be

alone. And so then that's when he says, okay, I'm going to

give him the woman, right, the woman? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So uh so, you know, so Adam is given this assignment to

take care of the garden and then also to name the animals. But then,

uh, he says that this is bone of my bone, flesh of

my flesh. You should be called woman. And then it goes on to

say this explains why a man leaves his father and mother and has joined his

wife and the tour united into one. So so now it just sort of

announces marriage, doesn't it. So it talks about you know, just from

the very the very first moment of woman, you know, being a help

meet to man is created in the garden, the institution of marriage. Yeah,

so there's there's kind of a flow to creation. Fish and birds are

far less sophisticated than the larger mammals, right, small mammals, big mammals.

So he makes fish first and birds, and then he makes the animals

on the earth, and he mentions the creeping things, and then there's the

cattle and there's all these bigger animals that start to come. Then he makes

man. And up to that point, man was the crown jewel of creation,

but the final act of creation was woman. There it is right right,

he takes he takes woman out of out of man. And so who

is who's the only species gender that has the ability to reproduce life? Yeah,

it takes both. It takes too, Chris, I get I can,

but the only one that you know, the only one between the two

of us who can grow another. I was trying to say something like that

to give birth that okay, yes, And so you know this is incredibly

important. Some cultures throughout history have minimized women substantially to the point where they're

just property. Ah, I was in a country. Uh this I shouldn't

laugh at this is a terrible I was gonna say, you should. I

know, this was so weird though. I was in a country not long

ago. I don't want to say the country now, but I was sitting

along a very famous river and we were drinking tea and this guy comes up.

He's got a bunch of stuff. He sets it down and uh,

this lady puts it all in the boat. And then they get in the

boat and then they're standing. There's a rowboat and they're standing there, and

then they exchange spots, you know, so you know how just I'm watching

it, thinking somebody's going to fall in the water, you know when you

try to change from front to back spots and pass somebody in a rowboat.

Yeah, that's what got my attention was that. And so they're passing each

other in the rowboat and I'm like, somebody's gonna fall. They don't fall.

They sit down and then the lady starts rowing them across the river right,

and the guys just kick back, you know, looking around, drinking

whatever he was drinking as she wrote him across the river and on one side.

It was just it was a comical thing that was happening there where I

thought they were going to fall in the water. That's why I laughed.

But it was such a bizarre thing to me, the idea that in a

lot of cultures women are property and that women do the work for the men,

right, all those kinds of things. But it's really clear here that

God took woman. She's the crown jewel of creation, and that you know,

just because men are physically stronger, typically a lot of times then have

suppressed women. But that's not how God designed it. And you've heard it

before, You've heard preachers talk about this. I think it's worth mentioning again.

God didn't take woman off the top of his head so that she would

rule over him. She also didn't take He also didn't take woman from the

bottom of his foot so that Adam would walk over top of the woman.

He took her from underneath his arm right, so that he would draw her

close and that they would walk. So I sometimes say that at a wedding

suit, nor from his hand to be a servant to him, that's right,

but under his under his arm for protection and near his heart to be

loved that's right. That's the way I say it. That's that's beautiful.

Right. And and so if you remember I mentioned this the other day,

the law of first mentioned. The first god time God talks about a thing

in the Bible is the foundation of what he wants you to know about that

idea. Hey, everybody, there's a God and he made everything. And

then hey, everybody, he made you personally, he wanted you, right,

and he breathed into you the breath of life, and all these things.

When it comes to humanity, when it comes to gender, when it

comes to male female, the first time God talks about it, he talks

about in a very beautiful way. She's the final creation. But she comes

from Adam. They're from each other. Men can't exist without women. Women

can't exist without men. They came from each other. She came from him,

but she came from under his arm, right, not not you know,

from his hands or under his feet or whatever. And so it's this

equality in the relationship itself. We have different roles, we have different things.

Men can't have babies, right, contrary to some professors right now,

but medically it's not possible, right that we And at the same time,

you know, men have a physical strength that women don't have. All we

both bring great value, but oftentimes we look at what we don't have and

then we get mad at the other instead of learning to compliment each other,

which is what God wanted. God wanted a great compliment one to the other,

that we would make each other better. Yeah. Right. There was

a comedian that it was making fun of marriage and hilarious by the way,

hilarious. Bit it makes me mad a little bit, right, but it

was definitely funny. And he said something about, you know, marriage has

a fifty percent failure rate. He's like, who would ever bet on those

odds? And he started, you know, using scenarios of how much you

risk and bet on fifty percent failure? And then he said he's like,

and he goes, who would have signed up for that? He goes,

So he goes, I'm gonna get He's like, where's the line that I

need to stand in to lose half my stuff? He goes, he goes,

where to take a chance to lose half my Yeah? So, anyway,

so he's making fun of us, you know, the a fifty chance

of dying on the way home. I think I'm going to stay right right,

So anyway, he's making fun of it. But I think it's a

good reminder that Genesis chapter two, verse eighteen reminds us eighteen through twenty four

that marriage is God's idea. So there's a lot of people in this world

that would say marriage is an obsolete institute, that you know, why would

we even be married anymore, Just like this comedian who says, you know,

it's like, why would I even bother with this idea? Just let's

go ahead and playhouse together and let's not get married because it's an obsolete idea.

But yet it's it reminds us that marriage is God's idea. There's a

little chart here in the Life Application Study Bible, and it refers to verses

that are to come all the way through Hebrews in the New Testament. However,

I think that it's important to sort of remind everybody since this is where

origins, or the marriage origins starts. And just like you said, right

first mentioned right first mention. So Genesis two says marriage is God's idea.

Genesis twenty four says commitment is essential to successful marriage. Proverbs tells us that

marriage holds times of great joy Son a. Solomon says romance is important in

marriage. Malachi says marriage creates the best environment for raising children. Matthew tells

us that unfaithfulness breaks the bond of trust and the foundation of relationships and marriage.

Matthew tells us that marriage is permanent. Romans talks about marriage and says

the only only death should dissolve marriage. Ephesians mentions that marriage is based on

the principle and the practice of love, not unfeelings. Ephesians tells us that

marriage is the living symbol of Christ in the church. That's created as a

you know, as a as a reflection of our relationship with our heavenly Father.

And then Hebrews talks about how marriage is good and honorable, and so

you know, here it is. God puts it in the motion in the

garden, and he does it, by the way, with perfection. So

if you wonder why marriage has a fifty percent failure rate, guess what it's

because we're trying to uphold an institution that was given and established with no sin

and so and so, yes, in the garden, it would have been

the best it's ever been, and it could still be phenomenal. Right,

you and I have both been married, not to each other, no,

but to two lives, that's right, for almost the same length of time.

Yeah, thirty years, thirty two years, thirty one years for me,

okay, thirty two for me, and so right, thirty two,

yes, thirty two, and or will it be thirty two? It must

be going to be thirty It's going to be thirty two, you're right.

But the point is is that marriage can be hard. It can be difficult,

and it is and it's and it's complex, and it's uh and it's

it takes work and commitment and everything else. But well it's hard. It

wasn't supposed to be difficult, right, But it's hard because it turns out

my wife is married to a sinner, right, right, and I'm married

to a sinner. That's correct, right, That's that's why it's hard,

right, And so if we can, if we can work past that,

we have to work to overcome our failures is why it's so hard. But

yeah, anyways, say interrupted you, Yeah, that's okay. I just

wanted to mention that just just how just to remind everybody. If you're questioning

the institution institution of marriage, guess what marriage was God's idea. Yeah.

And by the way, I just read an article in the Wall Street Journal

a couple weeks ago now that was talking about h how many of the recent

generations, the two new generations coming up, Millennial and gen Z, are

discovering that satisfaction in life is much higher for those who choose a monogamous relationship

with a in a married relationship. Isn't it interesting? They thought they'd be

happier running around sleeping with everybody and living with each other. But the research

and the secular universities u fund the research, the happiness quotient is way higher,

even with all the dangers in marriage is way higher for those who choose

marriage. So I want to just point this out. By the way,

remember how I was saying, the law first mentioned everything at the beginning is

really important and it establishes everything else God intends. Notice that God's the one

who established marriage. Thus God has authority over marriage. Right. Governments can

try to define things if they want to. Governments will give you or sell

you a piece of paper that says, Okay, you're officially married. But

that's mostly about them tracking things right, trying to figure out who totacks that's

what it's about. But God's the one who established marriage. Thus, God's

plan for marriage between one biological male and one biological female, that's God's plan

for marriage. So regardless of governments don't determine morality, right, Governments determined

taxation and legality, but they don't determine what is moral and what is good

and what is best. God did. So marriage was God's idea, not

a government's idea. And marriage is God's gift to humanity. And then it's

amazing. Within marriage, within the gift of marriage, God gives both the

gift of intimacy the gift of children, right, these two things, and

from the intimacy comes the children, and it's amazing if you want to look

at the gift of marriage. Why we know God's gift of marriage was perfect

was because this gift of intom he gave them a command, I want you

to go and make lots of babies. But then he made that process extraordinarily

pleasurable, right right. We don't know that he'd that for fruit flies,

right, right, but he did for humanity. And there's a bond to

that. That's why the Bible says they become one flesh Paul later on talks

about that. We we We've talked about it several months ago in uh Paul's

writings about when when two people come together, and man and women come together,

they become one, right and and you know, don't break apart what

God put together, and there is a oneness to that. Even the physical

act of the secial experience is designed to be a soul to soul that experience,

which is why you just said it, right. So, when when

people go running around and they're playing house and sleeping with each other and everything

else, the reason why they're so miserable and unhappy is because they can't help

it. Part of their soul. They're tearing their soul. They tearing their

soul away from each other. That's what it is, because it's designed for

that, and so and so there's a there's a there's much more of an

intimate, deeper connection that happens with the physical act than they ever inten,

right, and so and so then people try their best to put up guardrails

and mechanisms to be cold and and try not to let that part of it

interfere. And that's why so many movies today, if you watch them they'll

say, oh, I just I let my guard down and all of a

sudden I got the feels and all these kind of things. Well, why

do you think that it happens that way naturally? Because it's the way that

God designed us. It's just that that's the way. So it's a beautiful

gift, is what we're saying here. And God said, hey, I

want this for you. And then they were, you know, both naked,

but they felt no shame. You ever see a little kid come flying

through the living room completely naked in front of company with no shame at all,

Just same, big time right, all that kind of stuff. It

was that just total innocence. And this is the beauty of what God wanted

was a total innocence for humanity. I've got a job for you. It's

going to be meaningful, fulfilling. You're gonna enjoy it. I've got intimacy

that will lead to you being able to fulfill my command to fill the earth,

you know, multiply. And so God put them in paradise. This

was absolute perfection and it's what God desires for us even today. And you

know, we're gonna talk about where it all went wrong tomorrow. But yep,

that's right. Well, that looks like our time and we'll see you

next time on the Bible Guys,