Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him." Gen. 2:18Are you ready to embrace who God created you to be dear sister? Because I am excited to take you on an adventure into the Word of God to discover the truth about women. In our series Biblical Ishshah (Hebrew for woman, pronounced ish-shaw) we will start with the HELPER/HELP MEET.
In the Hebrew the word for the helper/helpmeet in the passages in Genesis 2 is `ezer which is a masculine noun. It has for the root the verb `azar which is also translated helper in the English.
What does that word “Help” or “Helper” mean in the Bible? Would you be surprised that it does not mean what we tend to think in our culture today?
We tend to think of the master tradesman who is the brains with the skills, who calls the shots and hires or enslaves a helper, whom is the lesser of the two. Maybe even apprentice comes to mind.
When people are told wives are created to be a helper to their husbands, an assumption is made based off our current cultural understanding of the word helper.
Let us dig into His Word to find out what a helper is. Helper is one who comes to the aid, to rescue, or deliver those in NEED of help. Does that sound like a lesser being or one further down on the totem?
2 Kings 14:26 we see that Israel is suffering because there was found no HELPER for them. In this case helper is a king, prophet, or military general who would deliver the people.
Job 29:12 speaks of the delivering the poor and the orphan who has no helper. Job was not the lesser, but rather capable of bettering the life of the poor and orphan (who had little or nothing) out of his own faithfulness and abundance.
In the Psalms, every time the word helper is used, it refers to God Himself. David recognized that he desperately needed God to help him, deliver him, rescue him, come to his aid!
In every passage in the Old Testament, the word Helper was understood to be a competent one(s) who came to the aid of the one in need of help. You were in a better position to help those who could not help themselves. Not a lesser position.
God knew from the beginning that He would create both man and woman. However, he allowed man to go for a time alone and separate to understand that He was in need of somebody to come to his aid.
Some say Eve was a helper suitable for Adam. The word that has been translated as suitable means conspicuous, in front of or corresponding to. So God fashioned Eve to come to the aid of Adam in ways that became conspicuous to him corresponding to his needs for help.
God did not create Eve to be treated as a peon. He created her from the side of Adam, not from his top to crush him, nor from his bottom to be trampled on. In every other place in the Bible the word Tsela` is never translated as RIB. It refers to the ENTIRE side, or half of the assembly/structure, even used in reference to parts of the Temple. How interesting. What if Eve was actually created from an equal half of Adam? Could it be? Do you see the Temple connection to our bodies now being His temple in the New Testament?
If God did indeed create marriage to be a three strand cord that correlates to the Trinity, then is Yahweh in this union the Father, while the husband is to be like the Son laying down his life in sacrificial love? If so, then that would mean the wife represents the role of the Holy Spirit who is also called a HELPER in the New Testament. Interesting, given the same role title, helper. Maybe even more than that, since the Holy Spirit inhabits the church, perhaps the wife is also symbolic of the Bride of Christ filled with Spirit. Think about how each role in the Trinity work in AGREEMENT to be part of the WHOLE and always with a purpose in mind.
You, my sister, were created with valuable design in the mind of God. He intentionally waited to create Eve until Adam realized he was in need of aid. He took the very side of Adam and fashioned Eve. She was an equal part of him. First the husband recognized his need for aid, then God made him incomplete without the help of his wife. A helper comes along side (never beneath) in our Bible to aid one in need.
If you are walking in singleness, all of this still applies to your standing. Equal in standing with man in the eyes of God, both are equally sinners in need of grace. You were created to be a helper to those in need of aid. There are plenty of hurting people who need the aid and compassion of a helper to lead them into truth and bandage their wounds with the healing ointment of Christ's blood.
Father God, in the name of Jesus Christ, I thank you for Your Word and my sisters. I ask that today you would reveal to each of my sisters, their standing and purpose in Your eyes as a helper. Help us to understand Your truth and walk in it. Let each of us serve out our purpose for which You created us. AMEN!
Julianne,
ReplyDeleteYou know, I really like this post and especially I had not thought about how we as women, closely resemble the Holy Spirit of the Godhead Trinity... How cool is that??? I need to ponder this for awhile. Love you girl. Great stuff to read here. Will keep me busy for a long while.
Hey Lynn! So good to see you again. I think marriage is fascinating, the more you realize it was all symbolic of God and meant to help lead us to a closer relationship with Him. He is truly amazing!!! I love you too dear sister! :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting - I like what the thought of "helper" means when you said, "Helper is one who comes to the aid, to rescue, or deliver those in NEED of help."
ReplyDeleteThere is a need, and God is using women to fufill His eternal purposes. Awesome to think of it that way.
Blessings dear sister :) May each of us honor our role as a helpmeet.
Indeed Susan. I find it quite interesting that God waited to create Adam UNTIL he realized he had a need for something/someone that he could not fulfill himself. Then God creates the woman from half of man. When the two then come together, they become ONE. I think there is so much mystery we still do not fully comprehend of how much all of this is symbolic of the godhead!
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by, as always a blessing to see you dear sister!
I'm not female, but as one who has never been married (yet) I got a lot out if this! Thanx.
ReplyDeletehubiegoode.blogspot.com
Hi Julianne, Good comments on marriage. We need more biblical teaching on the subject as we get easily culturally confused in our outlook. Appreciating you!
ReplyDeleteIn the Hebrew Language the word Ishshah, means Wife or Women, to truly understand dying for Sins on the Cross, which many of us find hard to get our minds around, insight to mutual Love empathy brilliance is exposed with the ministering aid of luxurious parfum in Matthew 26:9-11........"For this perfume might have been sold for a High price and the money passed on to the poor, but Jesus fully aware of this, said to them......"Why do you bother the Woman? For she has done a good deed to Me." "For you always have the poor with You, But you do not always have Me".......................for ever the Teacher, a lesson of Truth that Never Dies x
ReplyDeleteJohn, 1 Labors the point on the key to the Lord's text is the Use of the "Word"........
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Returning to Matthew 26:9-11 and the Word, "Bother" may be viewed as the shield to camouflage clandestine Love. The word Bother is essentially made up of two words, fundamentally "Both" which means the Two, the One and the Other, while Er is chosen to express hesitation often in tandem with er(a), which in turn is a series of years reckoned to be from a particular point, in a second meaning ER initials represent the Doctors Emergency Room, where often sadly it is the case, it is the grim doorway at Death, in the medical profession Saint John is our much loved adopted healing patron.............. Today Bible inspiration is frequently borrowed in movie home town Hollywood where time and again screen writers repeat the same old classic theme, for Actors and Acts, (Acts is the name given to the NT fifth gospel) our heroes and ever increasing numbers of heroines have to overcome extreme forms of adversary before faint signs of hope start to change the game turn around, time and again we see the dark influences of woe, trauma and mental and physical torture, and Death, then at the bottom of level of despair, the victim(s) whom are lucky enough to survive or other characters whom are some way emotionally tied put on the mantle-coat-cape and have a chance to overturn the negativity towards positive belief, this blueprint is something that every one with in the audience can relate with, after the darkness period, often it is replaced with light, love, happiness and Marriage, and bundles of Joy, Jesus and "that Women", served as the ultimate Love curse story where sensitive Hearts where united then broken............."that Women" understood the Scriptures and the nature of the game better than most, as her writings testify...............John 3:16 "For God Loved the World in this Way; He gave His One and Only Son, so that EVERY-ONE Who BELIEVES in Him will Not Perish but have Eternal Life"...... with God's repeated gifts of the circle of Death follows Life..........the Saintly patience of St John's heavenly healing is Testament to All believers whom accept that Love also is Never Ending...with the Er extended dark period now turned ..........."That Women's Heart" will be Renewed and ever Faithful and True, be-livers signals, a nod and wink for more Good Deeds Done, xxx