From Inferior to Extraordinary Pt. 2

We’ll begin the second part of this series with the creation of man, according to scripture. Most of us are very familiar with this story, and most of us know that familiarity can sometimes give us a bit of blindness to specific parts of a story that actually carry great significance. So we will examine parts of the creation story that are only a few words, but carry great impact in terms of women. The book of Genesis begins first with the creation of the world, and then the creation of man. God created man and then noticed that man, all by himself, was not as good as man with someone by his side. He needed a partner. God then seeks out a partner for man, first through animals. God lets Adam name each one, but even after going through every animal in creation, there was not a suitable helper to be found. God notices this and then chooses to create woman. This is described in Genesis 2:19-25.    

¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” ¹⁹  Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. ²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²² And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³ Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
            and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
    because she was taken out of Man.”

²⁴  Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. ²⁵ And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

We note from verse 2:18 that God refers to woman as the ‘helper’. When we look at the word ‘helper’ in the original Greek translation, we see the word ezer, meaning ‘one who helps’. This is pretty self explanatory, and most of us already know this quality about Eve. She was created as man’s helper. Upon reading this, this characteristic of woman isn’t very impressive. Anyone could be a helper. It’s doesn’t take much. But from what we read above, it’s obvious that Adam didn’t need just any generic helper—after all, no animal in all creation was suitable to be his helper; this tells us that God was truly creating something special when he created Eve. What did God intend when he gave woman this label? We get a better understanding of this when we look at the word ezer in other areas of scripture and see how it’s used.

We see this word used in Psalm 33:20,

“Our soul waits for the Lord;
            he is our help and our shield.”

Again in Psalm 70:5,

“But I am poor and needy;
     hasten to me, O God!
 You are my help and my deliverer;
    O Lord, do not delay!”

And again in Hosea 13:19.

“He destroys you, O Israel,
    for you are against me, against your helper.”

In a very beautiful way, we see clearly see that God uses this term to describe his relationship with Israel, his beloved. We know from scripture that God loves Israel with a fierce and undying love. God is forever forgiving, patient and gracious with them. If God refers to himself as the helper to Israel, then  refers to woman as the helper, it tells us a lot. It gives us a very clear picture of how he intended woman to relate to man, which is exactly as he related to Israel; with compassion, forgiveness, wisdom, and the thousands of other attributes that all stem from God’s main driving force in how he deals with humans—love. Woman was created to be a display of God’s love. And as most of us know, when love is received in it’s truest form, it is the most freeing and disarming thing of this world. We see this truth again in Proverbs 18:22 when Solomon states that “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.” Woman was created as one who blesses and loves.

So, we can clearly see God’s intent for woman, but what can we note from the process in which God created woman? We see in Gen 3:21-25 that woman was literally pulled from the flesh of man, indicating that she has an inseparable union with him. They are meant to dwell in interdependence. We see this in 1 Corinthians 11:11-12: “Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman.” Woman is not only God’s display of love for man, but also his complement, made from his very flesh.  We can even note from 2:23 a beautiful display of poetry, one could even call it a love song, as Adam stands back and admires the work of God’s hand: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”  After searching and searching for a partner, God has not only created him a partner, but a helper, radiant with the reflection of God’s love. Going even deeper into the text, in 3:21 we see that woman was made from one of man’s ribs. If we look at this symbolically, we can interpret this as a symbol of her equality with man. God didn’t pull her from a part of man’s foot, indicating his superiority, nor did he pull her from a part of his head, indicating her superiority. He pulled her from his side, indicating equality. Additionally, we know from human anatomy that the ribs of the human body have an incredible function—protecting one of the most vital and vulnerable organs, the heart. We can argue through this that woman was created to protect the heart of man. God had a truly exceptional and beautiful intent for woman; he created her invaluable and extraordinary. 

What happened to cause this truth to be skewed?

More to come soon.