1The heavens, the earth, and all their vast array were finished. 2On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. 3God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done.
4This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens. 5No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the earth. There was not a man to till the ground, 6but a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 8Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became the source of four rivers. 11The name of the first is Pishon: it flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are also there. 13The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush. 14The name of the third river is Hiddekel. This is the one which flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. 15Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it. 16Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”
18Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature became its name. 20The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper comparable to him. 21Yahweh God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22Yahweh God made a woman from the rib which he had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.” 24Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh. 25The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.
There is an order of things in the universe. God designed us and planned for us to function best when we follow His design. Peter gives instructions concerning the relationship between a husband and a wife. When there is order in the home, there is peace. When there is disorder, there is chaos and no peace. We are not to find our roles in marriage from the world. That will always end in chaos. Harmony exists in a marriage when a husband and a wife operate by the guidelines of scripture, and God knows best what we need.
There are more instructions in here for the woman than for the man. Why would that be? I think maybe it’s because a woman faces more challenges in marriage than a man does. It can be challenging for the woman because she is called to follow someone whom she knows is full of weaknesses. It is hard for a woman to submit to a man whom she sees as having his own problems. Husbands are called to lead, but we sometimes don’t do such a good job of it. The fact of the matter is that often women make better leaders, but God has called the man to step up and assume that leadership role, whether he's comfortable with it or not.
Peter begins speaking to the wives. He begins by telling wives to “be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives”. Note that this says the wife is to be submissive to her own husband, but not to all men. The Greek word for submission comes from a word meaning to line up (like the military) under a leader who knows how to fight. Part of a man’s role in marriage is to fight the battles of life and stand up to the world. He must fight off hunger and privation. That means he must provide security to the wife and the children. Society bristles at the thought of a woman standing by her man. I suppose, because without the governance of the Lord on a man, he is prone to be an abuser. A husband is never told to lord it over his wife in a spirit of supremacy and domination. He is ordered to be a leader. Unfortunately, many men have abdicated their leadership role. When a woman sees this leadership void, she is insecure and induced to fear. Fear opens the door to all kinds of dysfunction, and the temptation to right the ship and assume the leadership role is overwhelming.
This passage does not call women to suffer any kind of abuse. Instead, it is a fleshing out of what it means to be a “helpmeet,” as mentioned in Genesis 2:18. A man and a woman should be in harness together. “Helpmeet” is an Old English word meaning “suitable”. The New King James says that the wife is a “helper comparable to him”. God saw that Adam needed some help, and He sent him Eve. Adam was incomplete without Eve. This doesn’t mean that all men have to have a woman. The Apostle Paul even says that celibacy is a good thing for a man who is in Christian service. It also doesn’t mean that every woman must be a “completer” of some man. This is just pointing out that God made these two sexes, and when they are married to one another, there is an order that should be followed to get along, to procreate, to nurture, and to rear children. Again, this doesn’t speak to every Christian man and woman, but it sets a standard for how those who do marry are to function together best.