Garden of Eden

The concept of Right Man/Right Woman goes back to the Garden of Eden. After the Lord Jesus Christ created the first man, Adam, he gave him an opportunity to demonstrate his volitional understanding of creation. He gave him an assignment: "Name the animals." Since Adam was a genius, this was an interesting assignment. Adam learned quickly. He saw that animals all had mates: One male and one female. God's divine design is always perfect, and this was no exception.

Adam wondered as he compared his anatomy to the animals, "What about me?" By this time, he had figured out the basics of relationships: Friendship, love, sex. Of course, the Lord Jesus Christ taught him everyday about His Plan and about Creation; so Adam was becoming aware of his shortcoming. Well, God is perfect; His Plan is perfect, and He never forgets anything. God is omniscient: He knows and sees all. He doesn't make mistakes. This episode of letting Adam get established first, before bringing in the woman, was His all-wise, Plan for mankind.

The thinking of God is recorded in Genesis 2:18:

"Then the LORD God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper-counterpart.'"

It was never God's intention to leave Adam for long without his Right Woman. He said that He would make him a "helper-counterpart." This would be someone like himself (a human being) to help him. But help him do what? He didn't have to work. He had finished classifying all the animal kingdom. Why would Adam need help? He needed someone to complete him. He was incomplete without his Right Woman. The divine design was for male and female to be one unit. Adam, by himself, was only half.

Without the woman, Adam could not express personal love and could not respond to the intimacy of another person. Love for another person was not yet possible for Adam. However, according to the scripture, God's promise was to provide Adam a counterpart like himself.

"And the man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper-counterpart for him" (Gen. 2:20).

Adam's Rib

The woman for Adam was made from existing elements similar to Adam's creation. The existing elements came from Adam - namely, one of his ribs. This meant the same DNA, cell structure, blood type. Biologically, woman was the same as man.

"So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, He took one of his ribs, and closed up with flesh its place." (Gen. 2:21)

The Lord Jesus Christ, the "great physician," performed surgery on Adam. He put him to sleep, and removed a rib. He chose to make the woman from the man.

"And the LORD God built into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man." (Gen. 2:22)

From the rib, the Lord "built" the woman. The Hebrew word, "built," is banah, which means to build, to construct. The meaning is that the woman was "built!" She was a beautiful creature, built from Adam for Adam. Adam had simply been sculpted (Hebrew, "jatsar") from clay; but the woman was built. The architecture, symmetry, and beauty was the crowning glory of all creation.

The Lord removed the rib, took it away somewhere, and built the woman. Then when the woman was completed (and the scripture is silent about all this), the Lord Jesus Christ personally brought the Right Woman to the Right Man. Adam, being brilliant (genius mentality), caught on immediately. He recognized her by her bone structure, and he announced her name. He yelled, "Ishah"! In Hebrew this means, "woman." Since, he had been naming all the animals as the Lord brought them to him, he continued his work by naming his counterpart. Ishah is a very beautiful word in the Hebrew.

The First Wedding

The Lord Jesus Christ brought the Right Woman to her Right Man. Adam recognized her immediately. Then the Lord pronounced them husband and wife. Adam's recognition is explained in Genesis 2:23:

"And the man said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman (Ishah), because she was taken out of Man." (NAS)

The first wedding ceremony was very simple. The Lord Jesus Christ brought in the bride; the man recognized her; and they were husband and wife. They did not go through a courtship phase. There was no romance: No touching and kissing. The man recognized divine design, and the woman didn't have a clue. She was new to the Garden and to human life. Adam, however, was the master, and she would learn very quickly.

Consummation of the Marriage

The marriage was consummated when the Right Man and Right Woman had sex. This is the meaning of the principle for the human race stated in the next verse:

"For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall have sex with his wife; and they shall become one flesh." (Gen. 2:24).

The translation has been corrected. The Hebrew word, dabaq means to have sex, although it is often translated by the word, "cleave," which is ridiculous. The "one flesh" indicates one complete unit, the complete solution. Right Man and Right Woman are two halves that form one complete whole.

The Divine Precedent

The pattern established in the Garden of Eden between Adam and his Right Woman, "Ishah," (for she was not called Eve until after the fall) is a divine order of precedent. The Lord Jesus Christ made the woman out of man, brought the Right Woman to the Right Man, performed the marriage ceremony, and the marriage was consummated with sex. This divine order of precedent has never changed. The protocol is still the same today.

"For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man; for indeed man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake." (1 Cor. 11:8-9) (NAS)

The man is the leader, and the woman is the follower, per divine precedent. The man has the authority and the woman is to respect it. The man must lead on the basis of love, and the woman must recognize the authority of the leader. This is all clearly explained in number of New Testament passages, including 1 Cor. 11:10; Ephesians 5:25-26, 33; Colossians 3:18-19; 1 Peter 3:5.