In the beginning man was physically one flesh, being male and female (Genesis 1:27), and this was very good (Genesis 1:31). However, there came a point in the life of the man, where being male and female (one flesh) wasn’t good any longer. Male/Female had to be separated, if they would continue to be the image of God (cp. Genesis 1:27). First, the Lord had man study the animal kingdom (Genesis 2:19-20), and it was then that Adam realized he had no helpmate. He was different from all of God’s creation, vis-à-vis he was not an animal. They were not like him, and he was not like them. From the beginning mankind had to be taught all these things, which we commonly understand today.
What the Lord did was perform an operation on the man, and separated the female from the male. Thus, the one became two (Genesis 2:21-22). When Adam was introduced to his helpmate, he exclaimed in approval: “This is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh!”[1] (Genesis 2:23). In other words, he was unique in the world. Animals of all kinds (species) were animals, but he was not of them. When the Lord introduced his helpmate to him, he realized immediately that she was OF him, and not of the animal kingdom. She was different; they, the man and the woman, were unique in God’s creation.
Then the Lord told Adam: “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother, and he shall “cleave” unto his wife…” (Genesis 2:24) This “cleaving” would affect them as individuals, “…and they shall be one flesh! (Genesis 2:24).[2] In other words, marriage, becoming husband and wife, is a return to the Lord’s original creation, not a physical union, as in the beginning, but a spiritual union. It is done by cleaving (dabaq; H1692), meaning to be joined, follow close, pursue hard, stick etc. When used in connection with the Law, the word has to do with clinging to or walking with or after the Lord (Deuteronomy 10:20; 11:22), just as was done by the faithful patriarchs, Enoch and Noah (cp. Genesis 5:21-22; 6:9).
In a negative sense, the word dabaq (H1692) concerns judgment that clings to man, like a disease (Deuteronomy 28:21, 60), when he walks contrary to the Lord. Thus, submission reaps a blessing, but rebellion reaps a curse. The word has to do with an inner work, and this inner work consumes our energy for good or for evil. When one is devoted to the Lord and his purpose/will, the clinging works for good/blessing. However, if one has given himself over to his own lusts/desires, and works against the Lord’s purpose, the clinging is for judgment and the inner work is like a sickness that consumes one’s life in a destructive sense.
Likewise, when the husband clings, follows after, is devoted to his wife, the marriage union is strengthened. In the New Covenant scriptures this is a mutual submission to one another (Ephesians 5:21). The union is destroyed, when either party ceases to cling to the other. The union is a God-joined one and can be, but must not ever be destroyed by man (Matthew 19:6).
When a man and a woman marry, it isn’t simply a legal matter. It isn’t simply something that man does through his own power of choice. It is also a spiritual matter, whereby the Lord joins the two in a spiritual union that embraces the original image of God, whom he created in the beginning (Genesis 1:27), which was very good (Genesis 1:31). Physically speaking, however, this goodness had its limitations, because mankind, eventually, needed to become two. Men need women, and women need men. Whether in a family environment or a business and social relationship, we complete one another, and it isn’t good for either of us to be alone and without the other (Genesis 2:18).
Now, consider what God said after he brought the woman to the man: “…a man shall leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife, and they will become one flesh!” Obviously, God didn’t intend to merge the two into a physical union once more, but marriage is a reverse of the division introduced into mankind at Genesis 2:21-22. Therefore, the conjugal union of the husband and the wife is a spiritual one, which must be taken seriously and not destroyed by the work of man.
The union is described as one flesh. Just as Adam was one flesh, physically, when God created him, and his physical ‘being’ was an image of God (Genesis 1:27), so the man and the woman who work together in harmony, mutually supportive of one another to establish a desired end, is an image of God. However, this “image” reaches its supreme and ultimate capacity in a marriage union between a husband and a wife, and it is this particular union, in contrast to all other unions, that God blesses and commands that no one destroy.
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[1] The word flesh is used in various ways in the scriptures. It is used of food (animal flesh), to describe all humanity, a single person, the carnal nature, a close relationship between two or more people, to distinguish one nation from another, one family from another, and when used of a marriage it is always described as “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5-6; Mark 10:8; 1Corinthians 6:16 (our marital relationship with Christ); and Ephesians 5:31).
[2] See my previous study: Dividing Mankind.
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