Man and Wife

Genesis 1:26-27 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

Genesis 5:2 “Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.”

In fact the word create in Hebrew is bara (ברא) with the letters meaning Son (בר) and strength (א) – to create is the Son’s strength!

John 1:3 “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Notice too, that God called them BOTH “Adam” as in the “human species”. In Modern Hebrew, “Human Being” is literally “son of Adam” – ben Adam – בן אדם. Before I get into the meaning of the word “Adam” please read these verses:

Ephesians 5:23-30 “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 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; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.”

Notice that Jesus sanctified and cleansed the church with the washing of water by the word – a most curious phrase.

John 15:3 “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”

John 7:38 “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

1 Corinthians 6:11 “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”

2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

So the “water” is the Spirit and the Word is Jesus. Another gem is the word for mother in Hebrew: אם with the meaning of “strong waters”. In Modern Hebrew, it also means nation, womb, people, race, etc.

• א – is leader, or strong, or sacrifice
• ם – (this is the form when “m” – מ – is the last letter of a word) is water, chaos, or spirit

Genesis 3:20 “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.”

Eve in Hebrew is Havah (חוה) meaning “life giver” and by letter “protector (ח) and (ו) grace (ה)”!

So let’s look at the word for “Adam” in Hebrew: אדם

• א – is leader, or strong, or sacrifice
• ד – is door, or path
• ם – (this is the form when “m” – מ – is the last letter of a word) is water, chaos, or spirit

So the meaning of Adam is “man opens door to the Spirit” and it can also mean “man opens door to chaos”, which is what Adam did; he opened up to the wrong spirit! Though we have free will, it really boils down to two choices: participate in God’s will, or not. God gives us the power to succeed through obedience, but if we are disobedient then we suffer loss, not so much from punishment, but more of an absence of God’s blessings. This is why God says He’ll heal the nation when HIS people repent. If a Godly nation becomes lost, it’s HIS people who are at fault.

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Even in churches today, “preachers” are saying the “problem is Washington” when in reality it’s the first 15 rows of the church or the pulpit!

So what is “man” and “woman”?

Genesis 2:21-23 “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.”

The word for woman here is אשה (ishah) and the word for man here is איש (ish). There are a few words for man, but this one is when man is in dignity – meaning obedient, righteous, and correct. So let’s look at the letter meaning of these words.

• א – sacrifice, leader, first, man
• י – hand, work, deed
• ש – destroy, consume, provide

So this man is “man’s work provides” and “man’s work consumes”.  I debated with myself concerning this last definition, but I realized that is exactly what we do. We work to provide for the family, but it’s the Lord that gives the increase. We cannot create, we can only consume, but it’s the Lord that sustains us. This is why many of the mezuzahs on doors have the letter shin (ש) on them. It represents God; El Shaddai (אל שדי) translated as “God Almighty”. However, שד means breast as in that which provides required nourishment – everything a baby would need. The letter yod (י) means “my”; so the full meaning of El Shaddai is “God my breast” as in “God is all I need to be nourished and provides for me.” The individual letters שד mean “consumes door”. What happens when a baby is hungry, besides cry, they open their mouth – the door. Exactly what Jesus meant:

Matthew 4:4 “But he answered and said, It is written (Deu 8:3), Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

So now let’s look at אשה (ishah) – woman – and the letter meanings:

• א – sacrifice, leader, first, man
• ש – destroy, consume, provide
• ה – reveal, window, grace

So the letters for woman mean “first to provide grace”. What traditional home isn’t where the father is the “law” enforcer and the mother is the one who dishes out “grace”! If this isn’t enough to warm the cockles of a cold heart, let’s look at what happens when a man and woman become one. As we can see that separately they reveal differing aspects of God, together they show even more. If you combine the letter of man and woman separating the common letters from the unique letters, you get the following:

איש (man) + אשה (woman) =  אש (fire) + יה (God) + אש (fire)

Notice that both man and woman turn into “sacrifice consumed” (the meaning of fire)! When a man and woman marry both must sacrifice their passions (fire) to compromise for each other, give and take, and allow God to work in their midst, otherwise they’ll become a conflagration – an extensive fire that destroys a great deal; fire + fire! There are two things I notice about this layout of fire on each side of God. One, both “fires” are identical words. Though men and women are not the same, they are certainly equal, one flesh. Eve came from Adam’s rib, not his foot or his head. The second is that in order to keep the balance, the difference, between man and woman requires God’s input into their individual differences as well as what they have in common. He is the pivot point.

Now if you combine all the letters of man and woman you get the word for foundation – אשיה with the letters meaning of “first provide the work of grace”. These two are the foundation for a family. We see the opposite of this everywhere now-a-days with so many divorces. No one takes the blame, and part of this is because neither prepares to be married before the wedding ceremony. So let’s look at the words groom (חתן – chatan) and bride (כלה – kalah).  Groom is:

• ח – fence, protect
• ת – sign, covenant, mark
• נ – ן (final form) – seed, life

So groom means “protect covenant life”. The man needs to first determine in his heart that his life is now linked to a covenant long before the wedding is consummated. This is why a written contract was drawn up and sealed with wine when a couple was betrothed. A new Covenant.  Sound familiar? The son would go home and build a house or an addition to the existing home for his bride. Only when the father felt the house was indeed a home fit for a bride, would he allow his son to get his bride. Only then would a wedding night occur, never before. Later, after a the marriage, it is up to the father to protect his family.

The letters for the word bride mean:

• כ – palm of hand, open, power to suppress
• ל – learn, teach, authority
• ה – window, reveal, grace

So bride means “open to teach grace”. It’s the mother’s job to show her children refinement and gentleness and grace. Bride can also mean “suppress her authority for grace.” If you take the first two letters they spell the word all (כל) in Hebrew. So the bride is also “all grace”. It is also required for the woman to submit to her husband as the man is to submit to Christ. Read Ephesians 5.

Romans 1:17 “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”

The first letters of each word groom (חתן) and bride (כלה) forms the word for power – כח with the letters meaning “open fence”. Think about it; power, God’s power has no limits, no hurdles, and cannot be fenced in.  The remaining letters make the word gift – לתנה. Together the man and woman become the gift of power, but what is this “gift of power”? It is to become one like God is One! On earth, the most powerful unit is the family.

Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:”

Genesis 2:24 “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

Matthew 19:5-6 “And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”

The letters for the word gift (לתנה) mean “authority of the cross is life of grace”; the gift of salvation!

Ecclesiastes 3:13 “And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.”

Romans 5:17 “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

2 Corinthians 9:15 “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.”

James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

Finally, let’s look at the word for family (משפחה). Since the man and woman a joined, a family is born.

• מ – water, chaos, from
• ש – consume, destroy, provide
• פ – mouth, speak, words
• ח – fence, protect, full expression of love
• ה – window, reveal, grace

Therefore the meaning of family is “flowing provision to speak the full expression of love, grace”. While this begs the question, how does this mean family? Well, you have to look at what a family is supposed to be. First, they’re a continual source of provision. When one member has a need, the others are there to help. A family is also one that produces fruit, the full expression of love. And finally, the family is supposed to be one of grace and forgiveness. When you look at this word through the eyes of Scripture, you find none other than the plan of salvation. When the flowing waters of life speak to the full expression of the love of God, grace occurs!

John 7:38 “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

John 1:16 “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.”

I hope you see the theme God put into His word and the letters and that is grace. No matter the sin in our lives, God’s grace will always super-abound.

Romans 5:20 “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:”

That is meaning of the word in Greek for the “more abound” in this verse: it’s “super-abound”! It’s just like the sun. Scientists say that of the energy the sun puts out, only a small fraction reaches the earth, the rest is lost in space. This is just like God to be so plentiful that we have all we will ever need. Just like Paul says:

2 Corinthians 12:9 “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

When we are weak, God’s power is more than sufficient to make me strong! Grace for grace! All glory is God’s!