Genesis 2:18-24 New International Version (NIV)
18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
19 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. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 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. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 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.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
God did not finish his creation until he made woman. He could have chosen to make her from the dust like he did Adam, but he chose to make her from from the man’s flesh and bones. This is an illustration of marriage where a woman is symbolically united with her husband as one. Marriage is a mystical union of a man and woman’s heart and lives. This partnership is treated seriously by God all throughout Scripture. The goal in marriage is oneness.
