What does it mean to be created with the purpose of being "a helper fit for man"? As we see throughout history this has been a troubling thought for many a woman. Many find this term to be demeaning and thus seek purpose through equality with men in the workplace and in everyday life. To seek equality one must first believe there is lowliness and a lack of importance or power in the word "helper." Let us look at the definition of this troubling word.
According the the Websters dictionary helper can have 1 or 2 meanings.
1st "A person or thing that helps or gives assistance, support, etc."
2nd "An extra locomotive attached to a train at the front, middle, or rear, especially to provide extra power for climbing a steep grade."
Now let us look at some synonyms to this word.
"Aid, Assistant; Supporter, Backer, Auxiliary, Ally."
When I read these definitions I do not understand why we as women seem defaced by this one word. Is it demeaning to be titled as a man's support or the one who gives assistance? Or how about the second definition? In this particular definition a helper is described as an extra locomotive which is attached to a train to provide extra power for climbing steep grades! Can you tell me that this role is lowly, not equally important or lacking in power or influence?! How about the synonyms to this word? Do you see inequality in the word Ally or Backer or even Supporter? Yet we as women see and have been taught that this word "helper" symbolizes weakness. Can we blame the Bible for this teaching? No. Eve was created as a helper for Adam not because she was weak or to be a flower on the shelf but because he needed her to Help-Support-Back-Aid-Assist him in his life work. These words stress action and hard work not futility and unimportance! To be a man's Ally is to go to war when he goes to war! To stand up beside him and "work the ground." For women to come and say that the Bible teaches unequal, weak, powerless roles in women is to spit in your own face. You lack understanding and satisfaction. For as long as you are blinded by your own greed and self gratification you will never be able to see the incredible role you were created to fulfill.You will continue to reach for that which does not exist as you cannot rewrite the DNA of your purpose of life. To reach for an equality higher than what we have already been given is to reach for the power of God. Let us not waste our life searching for something we will never find. Let us stand up as women and claim the purpose of our existence for it is equally a thing of beauty as that of power. I pray that as each day goes by I will forever be proud of being my husbands ally for life.
I will leave you with this poem from William Ross Wallace.
- Blessings on the hand of women!
- Angels guard its strength and grace,
- In the palace, cottage, hovel,
- Oh, no matter where the place;
- Would that never storms assailed it,
- Rainbows ever gently curled;
- For the hand that rocks the cradle
- Is the hand that rules the world.
- Infancy's the tender fountain,
- Power may with beauty flow,
- Mother's first to guide the streamlets,
- From them souls unresting grow--
- Grow on for the good or evil,
- Sunshine streamed or evil hurled;
- For the hand that rocks the cradle
- Is the hand that rules the world.
- Woman, how divine your mission
- Here upon our natal sod!
- Keep, oh, keep the young heart open
- Always to the breath of God!
- All true trophies of the ages
- Are from mother-love impearled;
- For the hand that rocks the cradle
- Is the hand that rules the world.
- Blessings on the hand of women!
- Fathers, sons, and daughters cry,
- And the sacred song is mingled
- With the worship in the sky--
- Mingles where no tempest darkens,
- Rainbows evermore are hurled;
- For the hand that rocks the cradle
- Is the hand that rules the world.
Genesis 2 (ESV)
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 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. 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. 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. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 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.”
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
.JPG)
