In Genesis 2:18, God says:
“It’s not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Often “alone” gets read as “lonely.” The two words though related are not the same and the result is that we can have a distorted understanding of what the issue was. I’ve been reflecting a little on the text and here are some, not yet fully formed thoughts.
First, it is often noted that this is the first “not good” following a sequence of statements that “it was good.” It is helpful to remember where those statements come. They punctuate each day as God completes a sequence of creation and then evaluates it. So “good” is God’s expression of satisfaction that a particular stage in creation is complete. God is saying that he is happy with the finished product if you like.
I wonder then, if it would be helpful to think in terms of “good” relating to “complete” or “finished.” If so, then for God to say that there was something “not good” about one of his creations was not applying a moral or qualitative evaluation. In effect, he was saying “incomplete, unfinished”. Or he was saying “I’m not done with this one yet.”
There are then things to observe both about the rest of creation and about how God proceeds to “make a helper” for Adam. Remember first of all that all of the other creatures are created male and female. Adam is meant to be like them. Secondly, think about how God has followed a pattern throughout creation of forming, structuring and filling. God takes the whole of creation and starts to divide it: light from darkness, waters above from waters below and land from sea. That’s what he does in Genesis 2 as well, he makes woman out of man, he divides one from the other. Perhaps a reminder too here that light/day and darkness/night, just like land and sea are not meant to rival but complement each other, to help each other.
Another theological factor is this. Throughout Scripture, we see how marriage portrays the way in which God loves his people, how Christ loves his church. If part of our purpose as humans is to reflect something of the image of God and to tell that story, then it is only when it is possible for humanity to do that that their creation is complete.[1]
[1] Incidentally, this kind of approach should protect us from seeing marriage as the cure for male loneliness or necessary for all. It is the creation of male and female that matters. Marriage is a good for all society but not necessary for all individuals.
Faithroots 