Genesis 2:18 “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a helper fit for him.” Wow, ladies, that’s us! Something that really stands out to me in this book is that I am to be helping my husband to do WHATEVER HE WANTS TO DO! I am not an equal partner here with the same right to vote! As I seek to be my husband’s helper he will be able to trust me and will ask for my input, but my input is not a right…it’s a privilege that I can earn by honoring God by submitting to the head He’s placed over me.
Praising God for his design…struggling to live it out by His grace!
Mindy
Contradictory Ben Says:
October 23rd, 2005 at 3:04 pmVisit Contradictory Ben
Just passing through, and couldn’t resist noting that the usage of ‘ezer, the Hebrew word your Bible translates as helpmeet, provides no support for the idea that Eve was created to help Adam do whatever he wanted to do: she is a help not a servant. Sometimes in order to help someone is necessary to go against their orders and their desires. It is used again in Exodus 18:4, Deuteronomy 33:7, Deuteronomy 33:29, and Psalms 33:20, 70:5, 115:9-11, 121:1-2, 124:8 to refer not to wives but to God. Does the God described in the Bible help human beings to do whatever they wants to do, or does He actually do what’s best for them? The verse usually (though not necessarily accurately) used to justify the subjection of wives to husbands is Genesis 3:16. This may well specifically refer, as apparently certain medieval Jewish commentators believed, to the sphere of sexual desire. (See Carol Myers, Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), especially pp. 109-17.) But in any case if Adam’s alleged subjugation of Eve was a punishment for Eve’s part in the Fall, then (if we interpret the text consistently) it can not also have been implied in ‘ezer, which describes Eve’s position before the Fall.
(Please note: I mean no offence. I’m also a reader, not a believer, so I’m sure you’ll think about it for yourself.)