The Gift of Woman
In the Garden, after creating Adam, God acknowledged a significant inadequacy: Adam was alone and did not have a suitable helper! God rectifies this inadequacy by creating Eve and identifies her as HELPER. Some have taken this purpose and trivialized it, relegating it to some secondary or subservient role. That couldn’t be further from the truth if we take the time to understand God’s perfect design for Eve and every woman.
Cultures and individuals that denigrate women have embarrassingly missed God’s heart. Some of Jesus’ best friends, biggest supporters and most loyal followers were women! For couples to enjoy True Intimacy it is imperative that men and women understand their differences and appreciate them. It is the differences that will keep you coming together and learning more about each other for the rest of your lives.
The Hebrew word to describe Eve’s purpose as one who would help was ezer which means aid or help. That word is taken from a root word, azar , which is almost exclusively used to describe God as our Helper. Upon further study, we would also discover that the writer of Genesis does not use the feminine version of the word ezer (esrah - “helper”) to describe Eve’s function. Instead the Holy Spirit inspires the author to use the term HELP MATE instead of HELPER. In the Hebrew, the word for mate is defined in Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary as “a front, that is, part opposite; specifically a counterpart, or mate.” And we wonder why opposites attract! God engineered it that way from the beginning.
As a side note, there is a very interesting parallel found in the New Testament to the gift of Eve to Adam. In the Garden God says “it is not good that man is alone…” which resulted in the creation of Eve as his help mate. In the New Testament, we find Jesus encouraging His disciples with this statement “I will not leave you alone (like orphans)” (John 14:18). Referring to the time following His death, resurrection and ascension Jesus assured them that He would send the Counselor, Comforter, Helper to come alongside of them. God said it was not good that Adam be alone so He gave Eve as his help mate. Jesus said it would not be good for the Church to be alone so He gave us the Holy Spirit.
Ladies, God has given you a very special purpose which can be extrapolated from this biblical parallel. Below are some insights to both encourage women and inspire the men to appreciate the help mates that God has given them:
- Woman is the helper, the rescuer, of relationship. Ladies, you were God’s answer to the only inadequacy in all of creation – man’s aloneness! You are hard-wired for relationship. As I have come to understand this more completely, I now run decisions that involve relationship past Linda. Where I might approach a letter that needs to be written from a purely logical or business mindset Linda balances and tempers my approach to be more relational.
- Physically and spiritually, women are designed to embrace, enfold and nurture. No matter your temperment or motivational gifts, a woman’s soul is best equipped for receiving and returning life and love, communicating and relating.
- Seeing the reflection of the Holy Spirit in woman’s purpose and design should inspire appreciation, respect and admiration from men and women alike. Although some societies, organizations and religions have disrespected or rejected a woman’s value we should be reminded that God has not. Understanding this should profoundly affect the way I treat and respond to my wife. I hope it also affects the way Linda sees herself as a wife, mother and woman!
- Although men and women are different we are still equals. Our differences were intended to be complimentary not detrimental. We are MATES - designed by God with the other in mind. Remember, we are BOTH created in the image of God.
This is such a reaffirming post the importance of realizing that though we’re all different, we’re still important. Too many people try to equate different with inferior when it’s the farthest thing from the truth. Thanks for appreciating what so much of the world tries to belittle.
Thanks for the encouraging post. I find that my husband and I complement each other very well. There are things I do that he just doesn’t understand or excel at, and vice versa.
Very good post, Tim. Thank you so much for sharing it.
So true! However, in my opinion, your point about the reflection of the Holy Spirit in a woman’s purpose goes deeper than inspiring appreciation, respect and admiration, because just as a woman can help and uplift her husband, if not careful, a woman can also hurt her husband with harsh words, lack of support, a critical or controlling/manipulative spirit, lack of encouragement… this makes it more important for women to reflect the Holy Spirit in all they say and do so that we can really be effective “help mates” to our husbands instead of being destructive.
Excellent post and a lot of food for thought!!!!
Different doesn’t mean better or worse, just different and necessary. Excellent words! Thanks for your insight.