God commands man to leave his family and cleave to his wife
One of the great mysteries in the Bible is how God created man and woman. After God had created man from the dust of the ground, he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7 KJV) Then he created Eve from man. Not from the head to make her superior. Not from the feet to make her inferior. But from a rib in the side that she should be an equal and walk alongside the man. Then he told the man to leave his family and cleave unto his wife.
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:21-25 KJV)
Why does God give this command to the man?
I have always assumed this was not directed to the woman as an allowance for women to keep a relationship with their families. Because many women take the brunt of the responsibility for caring for aged and infirmed parents. So, I had assumed that God didn’t include them in this instruction to prevent husbands from interfering with that responsibility.
But there may be a more important reason God did not address women in this passage to leave and cleave.
God may have known that men need this direction more than women. And this has been my experience in many counseling sessions. I have found that immature men often maintain a strong tie with their parents and especially their mothers, which conflicts with their God-given responsibilities in their marriage. This is not good. And it causes many arguments and hardships in marriage.
Husbands: break the ties of physical, emotional, and financial dependency on your birth-family. Burn the sails. Cut the ropes. You need a permanent one-way commitment to your marriage family.
This is consistent with Biblical instructions to husbands.
- The Bible teaches how to be a godly husband
- The perspective of a successful marriage
- Daily marriage devotionals for growing Christian marriages
- Biblical relationship checkup – This Biblical relationship checkup helps couples find where they are on God’s map of a successful marriage and find direction for improvement