“It is not good for man to be self-sufficient.”
So YHWH made the man sleep deeply.
Then He took away one of the man’s sides.
The side which YHWH took from the man, He built into a woman, and He presented her to the man.
And the man said, “This one is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This one is called ‘woman,’ which means ‘opposite of man’ or ‘other side of man’ because she was taken from man.”
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This word, side, in Hebrew tsela, is most commonly used to reference the side of a building, a wall.
Exodus 26:20 “and for the second side of the tabernacle…”
Exodus 26:26-27 “make bars of acacia wood, five for the boards of one side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the opposite side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of tabernacle to the west.”
Exodus 25:12 “cast four gold rings for it (the ark) and fasten them in its four feet, and two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the opposite side of it.
Ezekiel 41:5 “he measured the wall of the temple, six cubits; and the width of the side, four cubits…”
Man didn’t lose one of his ribs. The entire other side of his Being was separated from him during that sleep.
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“So a man should leave his father and mother and be joined to his woman, and they will be one flesh.”
Tabernacle, tent, flesh… a union of sides supporting one structure, one purpose, one Being.
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How does a man know to seek? How does a man know to be dissatisfied?
One Being, he once had, now is lost. He seeks for his whole Being to be restored to him.
“In the image of God he created them. Male and female he created them.”
Man remembers. His own side of God’s image is fallen from that glory of one Being and he seeks restoration.
His other side, he remembers her as she was with him originally, in the garden, before the fall. And he’s looking for her.
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Next up: What is Lovely to me? Part Two