And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
God declared it was not good for man to be alone because He had made him a social being who could not find perfect happiness in beautiful surroundings, delightful work, or even communion with angels without human companionship for love and sympathy. A help meet means one suitable, fitted and corresponding to him, who can be one with him in love and sympathy. God Himself instituted marriage in Eden by causing deep sleep to fall on Adam, taking a rib from his side, making a woman from it and bringing her to him to be his wife and companion. Her creation from his side shows she was not to rule him as his head nor to be trampled as inferior, but to stand beside him as an equal to be loved and protected, as part of himself and his second self. From the beginning God's order was one man with one wife, given as the pattern for all, with marriage and the Sabbath given together in Eden as two great gifts to provide for social needs, to cheer, encourage, bless and complete each other, and to elevate the physical, intellectual and moral nature.
Eden Setting and Meaning
The expression help meet means suitable, fitted and corresponding to the man, one who could be one with him in love and sympathy. Man was made to be a social being, so solitude was not good even in the paradise of Eden. Beautiful scenes and delightful work could not yield perfect happiness without human companionship for love and sympathy, and even communion with angels could not satisfy the desire for it. Man needs the softening, subduing influence of woman to give completeness to character building.
After every living creature was brought to Adam to be named, he saw each had a companion but none was equal to him, leaving him without one of his own nature to love and be loved. God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, took one of his ribs, made a woman from it and brought her to him. Adam recognized her as bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, called her Woman because taken out of Man, and the law was laid that a man shall leave father and mother and cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh.
Eve's creation from a rib from Adam's side shows she was not to control him as head nor to be trampled underfoot as inferior, but to stand by his side as an equal to be loved and protected. As part of man, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, his second self, she shows the close union and affectionate attachment that belongs to marriage. God presented Eve to Adam with angels as witnesses to that first marriage ceremony. Christ was present as Commander carrying out the work of making man, who had been formed from dust with the breath of life and appointed monarch under God with dominion over all living things.
The verse belongs to the time when Adam and Eve lived in Eden in holy innocence before sin and transgression of God's law, enjoying communion with God and sinless angels. Adam loved Eve's society so deeply that after she disobeyed he could not bear separation from her by death and wrongly chose to share her fate by disobeying. In that choice he lacked faith that the merciful Creator who had formed him out of dust into a living beautiful form and had created Eve for him could provide for him. Even Adam's sinless, unfallen human nature in Eden was so far below the Son of God that for Him to take it would have been almost infinite humiliation. Jesus did not take even that innocent nature, but took humanity as weakened and defiled by four thousand years of sin, accepting like every child of Adam the results of the working of the law of heredity in order to share human sorrows and temptations.
Marriage Institution and Purpose
Marriage was instituted in Eden by God Himself, the Creator of the universe and originator of the institution, who honored the family relation by giving Eve to Adam to be his wife and companion, presenting her to him with angels as witnesses to the ceremony. At the beginning He gave man two great gifts together, woman as a help meet and the Sabbath as a day of rest, establishing the marriage law at the same time as the Sabbath law. Family life and the Sabbath begun there are closely linked, with family members to share work, study, worship and recreation and parents to serve as teachers and companions to children, and marriage was one of the two institutions Adam brought with him beyond the gates of Paradise after the fall. It was one of the first gifts of God to man, and when divine principles are recognized and obeyed in this relation it is a blessing guarding the purity and happiness of the race.
God's order from the beginning was one man with one wife, giving Adam one wife as the pattern showing all who should live upon the earth what to do. Having a plurality of wives is contrary to that wise arrangement and divine order and law, a change to follow carnal and sinful desire after sin and wretchedness entered through transgression and the fall. The more men multiplied wives to themselves the more they increased in wickedness and unhappiness, and leaving that order brought rapidly increasing crime and wretchedness with the marriage relation no longer respected as men took by force the wives they coveted. Marriage is lawful and not sinful in itself but the fulfillment of duty, and all God's laws are marvelously adapted to meet the nature of man. Sin comes in perverting what in itself is lawful and corrupting God's gifts to minister to selfish desires.
Those who held the division-of-labor view taught that the human race was created male and female on that principle, the sexes not equal in faculties, capacities, duties and adaptations for duty, but each necessary as the complement of the other so that it takes both to complete either. Unlikeness was held to be as marked as likeness, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot every vital organ by form, locality and function belonging distinctly to one sex, with corresponding differences in mental, aesthetical and spiritual endowments. The weight of the passages holds that God made woman from man to be his companion and helpmeet, one with him, to cheer, encourage and bless him and through her softening, subduing influence to soften, improve and complete his character and character-building, while the man in turn is to be her strong helper. So designed, marriage provides for man's social needs and elevates the physical, the intellectual and the moral nature, and God designed the human family to be complete in the sacred bonds of matrimony to elevate and purify domestic life and make its joys complete through sanctifying grace.
Marriage was designed by Heaven as a blessing ordaining perfect love and perfect harmony, a sacred and holy union in holy wedlock in purity, holiness, truth and righteousness in which men and women rear families crowned with honor whose members may be recognized as part of the family above and symbols of the family in heaven. It is one of the greatest blessings ever given to the human family, yet it carries responsibilities beyond mutual love, including care for a family and regard for the physical, mental and moral well-being of children and for the family's influence on society, and it can become a curse when entered without considering them. Christ affirmed this holy institution, coming not to destroy it but to restore it to its original sanctity and elevation and to restore the moral image of God in man. He sanctioned and sealed and blessed the marriage He had made in Eden, first celebrated when the morning stars sang together, by His presence and His first miracle at the marriage festival at Cana at the start of His public ministry, showing He will not refuse His presence on marriage occasions.
True religion upholds God's plan for marriage, while laws forbidding marriage and secluding men and women put them in unnatural positions devised by Satan that open the door to adultery, fornication and the murder of children born out of wedlock. In the days of Noah men made marrying and giving in marriage, with eating and drinking and buying and selling, the supreme objects of life in intense worldliness, and the same will mark the days when the Son of man shall be revealed.
Union and Christian Home
Marriage was instituted in Eden when it was declared not good for Adam to be alone, with help meet meaning suitable, and the promise was fulfilled by making Eve and presenting her to Adam with angels as witnesses to that first ceremony. True marriage is not a lottery, for the spoken wedding vows alone do not make the couple a unit, and few couples are completely united when the ceremony is performed. The blending of the two in wedlock comes afterward through life together, and it can become a really happy union when each gives the other true, unselfish heart affection.
God made woman from man to be his companion and helpmeet, one with him, to cheer, encourage, and bless him, while the man in turn is to be her strong helper. All who enter marriage with a holy purpose fulfill God's purpose for them, the husband obtaining the pure affections of his wife's heart and loving and cherishing her, and the wife respecting and reverencing her husband while softening and improving his character and giving it completeness. Christ came not to destroy this sacred and holy institution first celebrated in Eden but to restore it to its original sanctity and elevation and to restore God's moral image in man. God designed husband and wife to be equal, with no inferiority or superiority and no independent interests, while each retains individuality in thought and action. Woman's distinctive duties are more sacred and holy than man's, and the world needs mothers who are mothers not merely in name but in every sense the word implies.
It is God's plan for a man not to be alone but to have a wife as a true helpmeet and companion in home and church, a woman of well-balanced mind who is kind, tender, and true to husband and children, meeting his need and bringing relief and blessing, with the Lord's hand in the union. This requires being converted heart and soul and brought into right relations with God, so her influence aids her husband's usefulness instead of becoming an ill-adviser through whom the enemy deceives him and mars his work. Man needs the softening, subduing influence of woman to give completeness to his own character building in and through Christ Jesus. God designed the human family to be complete in the sacred bonds of matrimony, to elevate and purify domestic life and to make its joys complete through sanctifying grace. A Christian home is the Lord's prescribed agency to purify the affections and to present to the world a symbol of the family above, where family life begun in Eden links family and Sabbath together and members share work, study, worship, and recreation with parents as teachers and companions to children.
God made man for happiness and placed Adam and Eve together in the Garden as an emblem of heaven and of His love, where in untainted purity they delighted in beauty and loveliness, grateful fragrance, precious fruit, and birds singing praise. He still wants people to rejoice in those sights and sounds, reposing in His goodness, mercy, and love as a joyful people, for it is not His order for people to be crowded into cities huddled in terraces and tenements. Sin marred His purpose and brought the care and anguish that rends hearts, yet He has not abandoned the earth, for sinners are to be converted, His image is to be impressed anew upon souls, and hearts are to be filled with heaven's peace. Eve was happy beside her husband with an assigned sphere of life and duties, but reaching beyond that sphere she fell, showing the danger of neglecting the daily duties of God's plan. After sin Adam's rule over her became part of the curse, which has often made women's lives grievous through men's abuse of superiority by arbitrary power. Jesus paid the price to ransom people from Satan so they must not repeat Eden's transgression but obey all God's requirements, and overcoming as Christ overcame brings people back to that Eden home, while bending footsteps heavenward points others to it.
God declared it was not good for man to be alone because He had made him a social being who could not find perfect happiness in beautiful surroundings, delightful work, or even communion with angels without human companionship for love and sympathy. A help meet means one suitable, fitted and corresponding to him, who can be one with him in love and sympathy. God Himself instituted marriage in Eden by causing deep sleep to fall on Adam, taking a rib from his side, making a woman from it and bringing her to him to be his wife and companion. Her creation from his side shows she was not to rule him as his head nor to be trampled as inferior, but to stand beside him as an equal to be loved and protected, as part of himself and his second self. From the beginning God's order was one man with one wife, given as the pattern for all, with marriage and the Sabbath given together in Eden as two great gifts to provide for social needs, to cheer, encourage, bless and complete each other, and to elevate the physical, intellectual and moral nature.
Eden Setting and Meaning
The expression help meet means suitable, fitted and corresponding to the man, one who could be one with him in love and sympathy. Man was made to be a social being, so solitude was not good even in the paradise of Eden. Beautiful scenes and delightful work could not yield perfect happiness without human companionship for love and sympathy, and even communion with angels could not satisfy the desire for it. Man needs the softening, subduing influence of woman to give completeness to character building.
After every living creature was brought to Adam to be named, he saw each had a companion but none was equal to him, leaving him without one of his own nature to love and be loved. God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, took one of his ribs, made a woman from it and brought her to him. Adam recognized her as bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, called her Woman because taken out of Man, and the law was laid that a man shall leave father and mother and cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh.
Eve's creation from a rib from Adam's side shows she was not to control him as head nor to be trampled underfoot as inferior, but to stand by his side as an equal to be loved and protected. As part of man, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, his second self, she shows the close union and affectionate attachment that belongs to marriage. God presented Eve to Adam with angels as witnesses to that first marriage ceremony. Christ was present as Commander carrying out the work of making man, who had been formed from dust with the breath of life and appointed monarch under God with dominion over all living things.
The verse belongs to the time when Adam and Eve lived in Eden in holy innocence before sin and transgression of God's law, enjoying communion with God and sinless angels. Adam loved Eve's society so deeply that after she disobeyed he could not bear separation from her by death and wrongly chose to share her fate by disobeying. In that choice he lacked faith that the merciful Creator who had formed him out of dust into a living beautiful form and had created Eve for him could provide for him. Even Adam's sinless, unfallen human nature in Eden was so far below the Son of God that for Him to take it would have been almost infinite humiliation. Jesus did not take even that innocent nature, but took humanity as weakened and defiled by four thousand years of sin, accepting like every child of Adam the results of the working of the law of heredity in order to share human sorrows and temptations.
Marriage Institution and Purpose
Marriage was instituted in Eden by God Himself, the Creator of the universe and originator of the institution, who honored the family relation by giving Eve to Adam to be his wife and companion, presenting her to him with angels as witnesses to the ceremony. At the beginning He gave man two great gifts together, woman as a help meet and the Sabbath as a day of rest, establishing the marriage law at the same time as the Sabbath law. Family life and the Sabbath begun there are closely linked, with family members to share work, study, worship and recreation and parents to serve as teachers and companions to children, and marriage was one of the two institutions Adam brought with him beyond the gates of Paradise after the fall. It was one of the first gifts of God to man, and when divine principles are recognized and obeyed in this relation it is a blessing guarding the purity and happiness of the race.
God's order from the beginning was one man with one wife, giving Adam one wife as the pattern showing all who should live upon the earth what to do. Having a plurality of wives is contrary to that wise arrangement and divine order and law, a change to follow carnal and sinful desire after sin and wretchedness entered through transgression and the fall. The more men multiplied wives to themselves the more they increased in wickedness and unhappiness, and leaving that order brought rapidly increasing crime and wretchedness with the marriage relation no longer respected as men took by force the wives they coveted. Marriage is lawful and not sinful in itself but the fulfillment of duty, and all God's laws are marvelously adapted to meet the nature of man. Sin comes in perverting what in itself is lawful and corrupting God's gifts to minister to selfish desires.
Those who held the division-of-labor view taught that the human race was created male and female on that principle, the sexes not equal in faculties, capacities, duties and adaptations for duty, but each necessary as the complement of the other so that it takes both to complete either. Unlikeness was held to be as marked as likeness, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot every vital organ by form, locality and function belonging distinctly to one sex, with corresponding differences in mental, aesthetical and spiritual endowments. The weight of the passages holds that God made woman from man to be his companion and helpmeet, one with him, to cheer, encourage and bless him and through her softening, subduing influence to soften, improve and complete his character and character-building, while the man in turn is to be her strong helper. So designed, marriage provides for man's social needs and elevates the physical, the intellectual and the moral nature, and God designed the human family to be complete in the sacred bonds of matrimony to elevate and purify domestic life and make its joys complete through sanctifying grace.
Marriage was designed by Heaven as a blessing ordaining perfect love and perfect harmony, a sacred and holy union in holy wedlock in purity, holiness, truth and righteousness in which men and women rear families crowned with honor whose members may be recognized as part of the family above and symbols of the family in heaven. It is one of the greatest blessings ever given to the human family, yet it carries responsibilities beyond mutual love, including care for a family and regard for the physical, mental and moral well-being of children and for the family's influence on society, and it can become a curse when entered without considering them. Christ affirmed this holy institution, coming not to destroy it but to restore it to its original sanctity and elevation and to restore the moral image of God in man. He sanctioned and sealed and blessed the marriage He had made in Eden, first celebrated when the morning stars sang together, by His presence and His first miracle at the marriage festival at Cana at the start of His public ministry, showing He will not refuse His presence on marriage occasions.
True religion upholds God's plan for marriage, while laws forbidding marriage and secluding men and women put them in unnatural positions devised by Satan that open the door to adultery, fornication and the murder of children born out of wedlock. In the days of Noah men made marrying and giving in marriage, with eating and drinking and buying and selling, the supreme objects of life in intense worldliness, and the same will mark the days when the Son of man shall be revealed.
Union and Christian Home
Marriage was instituted in Eden when it was declared not good for Adam to be alone, with help meet meaning suitable, and the promise was fulfilled by making Eve and presenting her to Adam with angels as witnesses to that first ceremony. True marriage is not a lottery, for the spoken wedding vows alone do not make the couple a unit, and few couples are completely united when the ceremony is performed. The blending of the two in wedlock comes afterward through life together, and it can become a really happy union when each gives the other true, unselfish heart affection.
God made woman from man to be his companion and helpmeet, one with him, to cheer, encourage, and bless him, while the man in turn is to be her strong helper. All who enter marriage with a holy purpose fulfill God's purpose for them, the husband obtaining the pure affections of his wife's heart and loving and cherishing her, and the wife respecting and reverencing her husband while softening and improving his character and giving it completeness. Christ came not to destroy this sacred and holy institution first celebrated in Eden but to restore it to its original sanctity and elevation and to restore God's moral image in man. God designed husband and wife to be equal, with no inferiority or superiority and no independent interests, while each retains individuality in thought and action. Woman's distinctive duties are more sacred and holy than man's, and the world needs mothers who are mothers not merely in name but in every sense the word implies.
It is God's plan for a man not to be alone but to have a wife as a true helpmeet and companion in home and church, a woman of well-balanced mind who is kind, tender, and true to husband and children, meeting his need and bringing relief and blessing, with the Lord's hand in the union. This requires being converted heart and soul and brought into right relations with God, so her influence aids her husband's usefulness instead of becoming an ill-adviser through whom the enemy deceives him and mars his work. Man needs the softening, subduing influence of woman to give completeness to his own character building in and through Christ Jesus. God designed the human family to be complete in the sacred bonds of matrimony, to elevate and purify domestic life and to make its joys complete through sanctifying grace. A Christian home is the Lord's prescribed agency to purify the affections and to present to the world a symbol of the family above, where family life begun in Eden links family and Sabbath together and members share work, study, worship, and recreation with parents as teachers and companions to children.
God made man for happiness and placed Adam and Eve together in the Garden as an emblem of heaven and of His love, where in untainted purity they delighted in beauty and loveliness, grateful fragrance, precious fruit, and birds singing praise. He still wants people to rejoice in those sights and sounds, reposing in His goodness, mercy, and love as a joyful people, for it is not His order for people to be crowded into cities huddled in terraces and tenements. Sin marred His purpose and brought the care and anguish that rends hearts, yet He has not abandoned the earth, for sinners are to be converted, His image is to be impressed anew upon souls, and hearts are to be filled with heaven's peace. Eve was happy beside her husband with an assigned sphere of life and duties, but reaching beyond that sphere she fell, showing the danger of neglecting the daily duties of God's plan. After sin Adam's rule over her became part of the curse, which has often made women's lives grievous through men's abuse of superiority by arbitrary power. Jesus paid the price to ransom people from Satan so they must not repeat Eden's transgression but obey all God's requirements, and overcoming as Christ overcame brings people back to that Eden home, while bending footsteps heavenward points others to it.