Ge 2:18 And the LORD God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him."

19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.

20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.

22 Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

23 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 a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Moses wrote this passage to teach his Israelite readers God's ideal for marriage. It was to buttress and emphasize the command: "Thou shalt not commit adultery."

God saw Adam's need of a companion and a helper comparable to him. So he made Adam realize it.

He brought animals to him. We are not to asume that all the animals in the world were brought to him. It's reasonable to assume that God brought only the animals in Adam's immediate environs. Adam's sovereignty over the animals is shown by the fact that he named them.

In naming them, he exercised intellect. We have reason to believe that he named them according to their respective natures. You see, God is not against the study of nature. He is not against science. He is for it.

They all came by pairs, male and female, and Adam realized that they all had mates comparable to them, but he had none. He had no mate with the same nature as his.

Then God put Adam to sleep and took something from his side and made it into a woman. Marriage is the oneness of a man and a woman. This is shown by the man leaving his parents and cleaving to his wife and becoming one flesh with her.

This oneness is cultivated by each partner's openness and intimacy to one another.

Here is the ideal marriage:

* It is for companionship.
* It is the man taking the lead in doing God's will (during this time it was about tending and keeping the garden) with the woman helping and assisting the man in doing it.
* It is the oneness of the man and the woman.
* It entails commitment.
* It entails openness and intimacy.