92. From Eden with Love: Understanding God's Marriage Plan

G' day and welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

Dave here.

Have you ever noticed how hard grown ups find it to be or even to stay married?

I mean, lots of people really enjoy being married.

Even in the best marriages in the world though, where the husband and the wife love and care for each other very much.

They don't always treat each other the way they should.

Sometimes they argue, sometimes they fight.

And for lots of grown ups, sadly, their marriages come to an end.

For whatever reason, the grown ups think they can't be together anymore.

Maybe that's happened in your family, maybe it's happened in the families of your friends.

Some people look at that and they say, eugh, marriage stinks.

Why would you ever want to get married?

But you know what?

God's plans for marriage are really awesome.

When God first made the world in the passage we're looking at today In Genesis chapter 2, God sets up a wonderful marriage.

And you might think, what are you talking about, Dave?

I'm a kid.

I don't care about marriage.

But actually the first ever marriage and every marriage since points us to a marriage that every believer in Jesus is going to be a part of.

So pull out the roses and chocolates and get ready for our next episode of stories of a faithful God for kids.

So God made the whole world.

And then he finished.

And then he rested.

Then what happened was.

We interrupt our regular broadcast to bring you some breaking news.

Even though we heard about the creation of the entire world in Genesis chapter one, it turns out there's more that God wants to tell us.

Specifically, he wants to tell us more about how he created the first man and the first woman.

We're sending you live to our reporter on the ground, Dave Whittingham.

Hi everyone.

Dave here, coming to you live from Genesis chapter two.

It appears we've gone back to before God finished the creation.

It seems to be the sixth day.

There aren't any farms anywhere.

God hasn't sent any rain yet, but it seems like he's making something new.

Let's see, verse 7 says, then the Lord God took dust from the ground and formed man from it.

Well, I've done that sort of thing before at the beach.

I've used the sand to make people, to make mermaids.

I've even made sandcastles.

So is it any different when God makes a man out of the dust?

Well, actually it's very different because of what happens next.

We're told the Lord breathed the breath of life into into the man's nose and the man Became a living person.

Whoa.

I've never been able to do that with sand at the beach.

Did you know that's how God made the very first man?

He made him from the dust of the earth and then breathed life into him.

That's amazing.

Then God makes something else, something beautiful.

He makes the world's first garden a beautiful garden.

An amazing garden for the man to live in.

Verse 3 says, Then the Lord God planted a garden in the east in a place called Eden.

He put the man he had formed in that garden.

The Lord God caused every beautiful tree and every tree that was good for food to grow out of the ground.

This is an amazing place for the man to be.

God's giving him so much.

He isn't missing out on anything.

In the middle of the garden, there are two very special trees.

One is called the Tree of Life.

If you eat from that tree, you'll live forever.

He's also put a tree with a really weird name in it, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

We're going to learn more about both those trees in the next episode.

Also in the garden is a beautiful river that waters the garden.

It must be a pretty great river, because after it's flowed through the garden, it feeds into four rivers, rivers that give water and life to lots of other places.

Having put the man in the garden, God gives him a job and a gift.

The job is to care for the garden and work it.

Sometimes people think of work as a really bad thing, but God made us to work just like he worked.

To make the world work is a really good thing, especially in the Garden of Eden.

The gift he gives is delicious.

Remember, God's put everything, every beautiful tree and every tree that was good for food in the garden.

Now, in verse 16, he says to the man, you may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden.

Just think, cherries, apples, mangoes, oranges, lemons, bananas, pomegranates, grapes.

The man can eat any of the fruit.

Oh, except for one type of fruit.

God says, you may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil.

If you ever eat fruit from that tree, you will die.

Some people think God's being mean there, but actually he's being really kind.

If your parents say to you, you can eat food from any cupboard in the kitchen and just don't eat anything from the cupboard under the sink.

There's poison there and it'll kill you, you wouldn't complain about that they're protecting you and God's protecting the man.

Think about how good this is.

The man's allowed to eat from any tree except for the one that'll kill him.

That means he is allowed to eat from the tree of life.

God's giving him life and keeping him safe from death.

Sounds pretty awesome to me.

Then God says in verse 18, it is not good for the man to be alone.

Umm.

Say what now?

It is not good.

Hang on, hang on, hang on.

We read in chapter one how everything God made was good.

In fact, it was very good.

Now you're telling me there's something that's not good?

That's right.

It isn't evil.

It's just wrong.

It's not finished yet.

There's something missing.

It's not good for the man to be alone.

So God says, I will make a helper who is right for him.

Ok?

A helper who's right for him.

What can that be?

Perhaps a horse to pull things for him.

Or a dog to be his friend.

Or a panda to give him warm hugs.

Well, God's made all the animals out of the dirt, just like he made the man.

So now he brings all of them, all of the animals, to Adam, to the man, to see what he'll name them.

Remember, in chapter one, it was God who named things.

Now the man gets to do the same job as God by naming all the animals.

There's the rhinoceros, the gorilla, the armadillo, the tapir, the ant, the kangaroo.

Verse 20 says the man gave names to all the tame animals, to the birds in the sky, and to all the wild animals.

But Adam did not find a helper that was right for him.

You see, none of the animals are good enough for Adam.

None of them can be his proper helper.

He needs a helper to help him rule the world.

A helper who's also made in God's image.

Don't panic though.

God has a plan.

And the plan involves one of the man's ribs.

Ribs are the bones that run from the front of your chest all the way back round to your spine in the middle of your back.

Can you feel your ribs?

Well, first God makes the man fall into a deep sleep.

Then he takes one of the man's ribs out of his body and then closes the skin back over where he took the rib out.

A bit like a doctor might do in a hospital if he has to take something out of a patient.

Then God does something a doctor can never do.

He uses the rib from the man to make a woman.

That's right.

It's amazing.

The very first woman is made with a rib from the very first man.

That means she isn't less important than the man.

She isn't like one of the animals.

Just like we saw in chapter one when it talked about the man and woman both being in God's image, we now see the man and woman are equally important, equally special, equally human.

And when the man wakes up and God brings the woman to him, he gets it straight away.

He says in verse 23, now this is someone whose bones come from my bones.

Her body came from my body.

I will call her woman because she was taken out of man.

You know how the word man is in the word woman.

Woe, man.

That's to show that we all come from the same place.

We're different.

A man is not a woman and a woman is not a man.

God made us to be different, but also equal, equally important, equally special, equally in his image.

And because the woman is both different and equal, then she's the perfect helper for the man not to be alone.

And so the man marries this perfect helper.

The two people become like one person in marriage.

And in fact, that's why people keep getting married.

Verse 24 says, so a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two people will become one body.

And then we're told something that might make you giggle or it might make you a little bit embarrassed, or it might even weird you out.

Verse 25 says, the man and his wife were naked, but they were not ashamed.

Now, I'm guessing if you went to school or the shops naked, you'd be a little bit ashamed or embarrassed.

It's not normal.

And the reason it's not normal is because of something that happens in chapter three.

You see, things were different back in the garden.

People never did anything wrong.

They weren't mean to each other.

They didn't say rude things or hurt each other.

They never had to protect themselves from each other.

When God made the first marriage, everything was perfect.

The people were perfect.

Now, marriage is still really, really good.

But it's also a lot harder because people sin.

But do you know why God made marriage both the first marriage and every marriage since?

It was to get us ready for the best marriage of all.

A different sort of marriage.

A marriage between Jesus and all of his people, including you and me together.

Everyone who trusts Jesus is called the church.

Not a building called a church, but God's people.

Jesus, like a really loving husband died to save his people, his church.

And when Jesus comes again, he will live with his people, his church, forever in a brand new creation.

We'll live together like a perfect husband and wife.

Back in the garden Things aren't going to be perfect for much longer.

Even though the man and woman can eat from almost any tree in the garden, they're going to eat from the one tree that'll make them die.

But that's a story for next time.

Thanks everyone for listening.

Don't forget, you can download some colouring from the website for this episode or you can make your own picture.

You can use paint or lego or sand or whatever.

Send it to me@daveaithfulgod.net I'd love to see your work.

I love doing these podcasts, but I also love speaking to people face to face.

If you'd like to have me along as a guest for your kids ministry at church or school or holiday clubs or outreach or even a one off event, I'd love to come.

Or if you'd like me to speak to adults perhaps to do some training in teaching the Bible to kids, then please get in contact through the website faithfulgod.net if you think, oh, Dave's too far away, he'll never come here, I can certainly do some training over a webinar.

Or just ask and we'll see if we can work something out.

It might just mean getting a couple of other churches involved as well.

For now, keep trusting Jesus and we'll talk again soon.