There is a comprehensive significance in, "The Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone;" Gen. 2. 18. It speaks of no particular period of man's life, and has no limit in its application. The entire narrative of the union of Adam and Eve, in the second chapter of Genesis, intimates the designed inseparable relationship between man and wife, in marriage as ordained of God.
Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh;" 2. 23. He evidently well understood this eternal relationship with Eve, when he answered the Lord's question, "Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?" and he replied, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat;" Gen. 3. 11, 12.
Here Adam tells the Lord, by way of apology, that in order to keep his commandment, that he and the woman should remain together, he was compelled to partake of the forbidden fruit after her. This is evidently the view the apostle Paul took of the subject: "Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression;" 1 Tim. 2. 14.
This inseparable connection between man and wife, in marriage as ordained of God, is further exemplified by the same apostle in Eph. 5. 22-33: "The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church." That is, as Christ is eternally the head of the church, so is the husband eternally the head of the wife. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church. * * so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh. * * Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself."
The principle of inseparable connection is fully expressed in Adam's answer to the Lord as rendered in the writings of Moses, translated by Joseph, the Seer. "The woman whom thou gavest me, and commanded that she should remain with me, she gave me of the fruit of the tree and I did eat;" P. of G. P., page 8.
We further read, on page 13, "In the day that God created man, (in the likeness of God made he him), in the image of his own body, male and female, created he them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam." Here we are informed that it required the male and female, united, to make one image of his own body, and that male and female were necessary to form one Adam, who was in the dual image of God his father. We also find by referring again to Gen. 1. 27, that it required the male and female to make an image of God.
The Lord has ever manifested a great interest in the marriage relations of his chosen people and Priesthood, and has protected the sexual relations by stringent laws and regulations. The importance of marrying in the same lineage, as themselves, appears to have been well understood by the patriarchs. For this reason, doubtless, Abraham married a near relation, and sent his servant, Eliezer, to his kindred to obtain a wife for his son, and heir, Isaac; Gen. 20. 12. Chap. 24.
Isaac also commanded Jacob to go to Padanaram, and take one of his cousins to wife; Gen. 28. 1-6. Twice the Lord interfered, in a miraculous manner, to prevent the wife of Abraham from being defiled; Gen. 12. 17-20. Chap. 20. 2, 3. Evidently for the reason that she was the foreordained covenant wife of Abraham, and destined mother of the Lord's chosen people. Israel was forbidden to marry with the Canaanites; Deut. 7. 3.
The Lord gave special commandments regarding the marriage of priests and their families. A priest's daughter that profaned herself was to be burned with fire; Lev. 21. 9. The High Priest was required to take a virgin of his own people to wife; verse 14. The sons of Aaron were commanded not to take a wife that was a whore, or profane, or a woman put away from her husband; verse 7.
"If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die;" Deut. 22. 22. If a man lay with a virgin, in the city, that was betrothed to an husband, they were both stoned to death; verses 23, 24. If a man lay with a virgin not betrothed, and thereby humbled her, he was required to pay her father fifty shekels of silver, and take her to wife, without the possibility of divorcing her; verse 28, 29.