The Bible begins and ends with a wedding. Here in Genesis we find the first wedding between the first man and woman. In our study of Revelation that we recently concluded, there was a wedding between Christ and His church.
"The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.'" (Genesis 2:18) Adam was lonely. He was the only one of his kind on the earth. He was able to commune with God but he couldn't see God. He couldn't touch God. He wasn't experiencing something that is vital to the well-being of every human on earth: companionship with another human.
While he waits for God to send him a companion, Adam goes about the work God gives him to do. "Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals." (Genesis 2:19-20a) The land animals and the birds were created from the same dust as we are. We have a common origin. We share this earth and we are all created from this earth. We started out in harmony with each other and, as we learned in Revelation, we will end up in harmony with each other forever.
God created many of the animals with a great deal of intelligence, but none was able to communicate with Adam and be the type of companion he needed. I think he enjoyed the company of the animals. I think it must have been very exciting to have all the animals come to him so he could name them. But not a single one of them, not even the most intelligent primate, was Adam's equal. He needed someone he could talk with, someone who would understand him, someone who saw the world the same way he did, and someone who felt the same emotions he felt.
"But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man's ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man." (Genesis 2:20b-22) God, the Great Physician, performs the first surgery. In addition to being a surgeon, God is an anesthesiologist, because we find Him putting Adam under during the surgery so he doesn't feel any pain or distress. On top of all this, God is a geneticist, for He took cells from Adam's body (many scientists of our day believe God removed stem cells from the marrow of Adam's rib) and created another living human being. In studying the Genesis account of the creation of Eve, stem cell researchers who are believers in God have stated that God chose the best bone of the adult human body from which to harvest stem cells capable of producing the desired result. Since God created the human body, of course He knew the best place to perform this surgery! There is nothing about our bodies that is a mystery to God. There is not a cell in our bodies or a hair on our heads that He isn't fully aware of. As the Lord Jesus Christ so beautifully and comfortingly put it when He assured people that God knew their needs and was capable of supplying their needs: "Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." (Matthew 10:30, Luke 12:7) The God who knows every hair on our heads knows every need we have, reads every thought in our minds, and is aware of every desire in our hearts.
It's a myth that males are missing a rib on one side of their body. Men have the same number of ribs on both sides. Adam was missing a rib, at least for a time. But ribs in mammals are capable of regenerating. Large portions of missing ribs are able to regrow within just a few months, so Adam may not have spent the rest of his life with a missing rib. Depending how much of a person's rib has been removed (due to an accident in which the rib was shattered, due to a tumor removal, et cetera), he will end up with at least part of a rib growing back and perhaps all of the missing area filling back in. God knew exactly what to do when creating a helper for Adam. He knew exactly how to perform this procedure in order for it to be a total success. How can we doubt that God always knows what's best?
God selected the best wife for Adam. If each person allows Him to, God will select the best mate for everyone who wants to get married. Now I want to be clear that I don't believe in the modern idea of a "soul mate" because the only soul mate you and I have is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only One who can complete us and make us whole. I feel that the idea that there is a person in this world who will complete us is an idea straight from hell. It has destroyed many a marriage because people have erroneously believed that if they were truly married to their soul mates they wouldn't still feel an emptiness inside. The emptiness inside is the place only Christ is meant to fill, but instead they've gone from relationship to relationship seeking wholeness from a another human being who is just as frail and just as empty as they are.
Our spouse is not our soul mate, but there is a great deal of value in prayerfully choosing a spouse. Out of all the people in the world, God knows who will be the best mate for each of us according to how this person will fit into His plans for our lives. Does that mean we will always get along with the mate God selected for us? No. As we will see before long, Adam and Eve didn't always see eye to eye. Will marriage between spouses God has selected for each other be free of trouble? No, because Adam and Eve are going to experience terrible family troubles that many families in our own times can easily relate to. Allowing God to choose our spouse doesn't mean it's always going to be smooth sailing, but it does mean that our marriages will stand a better chance of success. We are called to submit to God in every area of our lives, and that includes marriage. When we step outside of the will of God by choosing the wrong spouse, this doesn't give us permission to divorce that person and it doesn't mean that the marriage won't eventually work out (because God is capable of redeeming anything), but it does mean that we are going to have a more difficult "row to hoe" than we might have had otherwise. Whenever we get outside of the will of God, we are going to have some struggles that would have been avoided if we'd submitted to God when making our decision.
When Adam sees Eve, he makes a lovely statement about marriage. "The man said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman', for she was taken out of man." (Genesis 2:23) Adam views this woman as his counterpart, as his equal. They are partners. Eve is a part of him and he is a part of her, which is why the Apostle Paul instructed husbands to love and take care of their wives in the same way as they love and take care of themselves. (Ephesians 5:28) Husbands are to protect and provide for their wives just as they protect their own lives and provide for themselves.
When a man and woman are joined in marriage, they become a new family. "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh." (Genesis 2:24)
"Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame." (Genesis 2:25) I don't think this verse is meant to be taken in a sexual context, although naturally I assume the two of them had a sexual relationship with each other because they were married to each other. Sex within marriage is not sinful; in fact, it is the only sexual relationship that has the blessing of God upon it. But I think verse 25 means that Adam's life was an open book to Eve and Eve's life was an open book to Adam. Neither of them had anything to hide from the other. They had nothing to hide from God either, not having yet sinned against Him. Later, when they do sin against Him, their first instinct will be to try and hide from Him because they will feel exposed. They will feel ashamed of their sin. They will seek a covering for their sin, but man is incapable of finding a covering---an atonement, if you will---for his sin. God, who alone is capable of atoning for our sin, will provide the covering.
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