LEAVING, CLEAVING AND BUILDING ANEW

Since long, I have been meditating on this scripture verse and have always felt that it implies more than the literal meaning of just leaving and setting a separate household.  The creation account in genesis chapter one tells us that god created everything progressively. First he created the heavens and the earth, the light and the period of darkness. He divided the waters and also made land. He spoke the plant kingdom, the herbs, flowers, fruits, etc. into existence. He created two lights to guide the people and also to signal the onset of climatic changes. He created the sea animals, birds of the air and animals of the land. And when he saw his creation, the results filled him with a sense of joy and completeness.

Then the Lord God wanted a man to enjoy all that he had created.  

²⁷ So God created mankind in his image, in the image of god he created them;   male and female he created them.

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and  over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

God so loved the first man –Adam that the Lord God gave him the privilege to name everything that was created by god.

But a sense of completion eluded Lord God the father. He sensed Adam’s loneliness in spite of having the world at his disposal. The Lord God who created man in his image knew how much he enjoys communing with his triune self. He knew that being solitary is very damaging to anyone’s psyche.

¹⁸ And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 

The helper would be God’s creation and not involve Adam.  This helper would have to walk, talk, feel- sense, behave verbally and non –verbally just like Adam.

So Adam was put to deep sleep and Eve was created from the rib of Adam. The Lord God father divided a unit to make a helper comparable to Adam.

This explains Adam’s exultation at seeing the new creation.

And Adam 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.