‘Ish TO ‘Ishah
Genesis 1-3 contains many micro-cosmic elements. The creation week is symbolic of human history moving towards Sabbath, the day moves from evening to morning symbolizing the history’s eschatological movement towards the “Day of the Lord”, etc.
Another aspect is the progression from man to woman. Paul says that woman is “the glory of the man”(1 Cor 11:7). This is reflected in the verbs used to describe their respective creations. Man was formed (yatsar) from the dust but woman was built (banah) from the most glorious of all creation: man.
Israel made that same progression. In Exodus, Israel is God’s son (4:22-23). Later in the prophets, Israel is God’s daughter and bride (Isaiah 54, Jer 2; Ez 16; Hosea). Furthermore, there is a proliferation of female heroines as we move through the OT canon: Prov 31, Ruth, and Esther. Not until Ruth and Esther do you have whole books that focus on heroines. Thus, just as in Gen we move from male to the glory of the male (female), so Israel is moves from being described as God’s son to God’s daughter (cf. the numerous references to “daughter Jerusalem”).
Israel died (cf. Adam being put in a death-sleep) at the Exodus (the slaying of the first-born) and/or the golden calf (this death of the corporate Adam/Israel is continued into Numbers until the whole generation dies), and then was resurrected as a glorious bride whom the Lord married (cf. Ez 16).
This theme is intimated in Zechariah 9:17:
Grain shall make the young men flourish,
and new wine the young women
Jim Jordan has argued that bread/grain is an alpha/protological food and wine is an omega/eschatological food. This is buttressed by the fact that priests (or the laity) never drank wine. They could eat the bread and (some of) the sacrifices but the wine was always poured out. This is why Jesus’ command to drink the wine of the new covenant is so amazing. The new covenant is the maturation of God’s people to a pure bride for God.
In summary, there is a bridal destiny for creation. Creation’s goal is the beautiful and glorious bejeweled bridal city of Revelation 21.