God’s Order and Design
Genesis 2:21–22 (NASB95)
21So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
As the creation story unfolds, the formation of the woman stands out as a uniquely intimate and deliberate act of God. Many in our culture today recognize the deep human longing for companionship and argue that, since God made us with this desire—even need—for relationship, He would never deny us fulfillment, no matter how we seek it.
Genesis, however, not only affirms that God created us with a need for companionship but also reveals the specific way He provided to fulfill that need. God did not give Adam another man, a group of friends, a child, or multiple partners. Instead, He designed a solution for Adam’s loneliness: one woman, created from his side, as an equal and corresponding partner of the opposite gender. God provided not just any solution, but the precise one that fits His creative intent—one man and one woman, united in a bond of mutual support and complementarity to each other.
While the “side” or “rib” imagery underscores their unity and mutual fit, it does not erase order. The New Testament draws on this creation account to teach that the man is the “head” of the woman, just as Christ is the head of the church (Ephesians 5:22–31). This headship is not about domination or superiority, but about loving leadership, responsibility, and the unique way a husband and wife are called together to reflect Christ and His church.
As Aquinas wisely pointed out, woman was not created from the head to rule over man, nor from the feet to be beneath or trampled by man, but from the side to be close to the man's heart—indicating partnership within God’s wise plan for order and unity.
God’s creative work, described here with the same language used for building the tabernacle, reminds us that marriage, like the sanctuary, is a sacred space—carefully constructed to display both equality and distinction, unity and order. The woman is the final, crowning act of creation, demonstrating the high value placed on women in the Torah and the purposefulness of God’s design.
The church is called to honor both the equality and the order God established in creation. Relationships, especially marriage, are meant to reflect the loving unity and purposeful distinction modeled by Adam and Eve. As our culture debates the definition of companionship, the church must graciously uphold God’s intent: companionship is a gift, and so is the order He designed. Men are called to loving, sacrificial leadership; women are given dignity and unique value as partners. Together, we are to build relationships and communities that mirror the unity, order, and sacredness of God’s first sanctuary in Eden.