Last year, Patti and I celebrated 25 years of marriage. Thank You Jesus! Heavenly Father always gives me much better than I deserve. God knew I needed a partner in life and ministry. I wasn’t made to do life alone.
Enjoying vital relationships is a good thing! We were created to be relational beings. Both man and woman share relationship with God and each other in the garden. Look back into the first chapter of Genesis; notice the last word of verse 10, 12, 18, 21, and 25. What’s the word God uses of His creation? “Good”!
- Land and Seas: “God saw that it was good.” (1:10)
- Vegetation, plants and trees: “God saw that it was good.” (1:12)
- Stars, sun and moon: “God saw that it was good.” (1:18)
- Fish and birds: “God saw that it was good.” (1:21)
- Animals and livestock: “God saw that it was good.” (1:25)
Genesis 1:31 underscores “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” (NIV) However, the Lord says, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:18 NIV) It is not good for any person to be alone.
Men and women who are kept in isolation suffer in many ways. We like reading stories about Robinson Crusoe’s lonely adventure and laugh in the theater as Tom Hanks talks to a volleyball, but in reality, human beings do not function well alone. We don’t want aloneness to happen to us. Man was not made to be completely alone! We are to enjoy vital relationships with God and with each other.
I am intrigued by what’s told in Genesis 3:8. Shortly after the Fall, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” (NIV) It appears that from time to time the Lord would fellowship with them in the garden. Both hid – not just Adam, Eve hid, too – because both apparently recognized the sound the Lord made as He was walking. This wasn’t something new. They both had a personal relationship with God along with sharing intimate relationship with one another.
Look back at the phrase “a helper suitable for him” in Genesis 2:18. This verse has been the tool used (by some folks) to somehow substantiate that women are insubordinate or inferior to men. However, the Hebrew phrase does not contain that connotation. Instead, the term emphasizes the adequacy of the woman. She is just what he needed! She is the answer to a problem. Relationship between male and female corrected the “not good.”
Almost every other time the Hebrew root of “helper” is uses in the Old Testament, it refers to God our help. For example, the same Hebrew root spoke of Eve’s relationship to Adam is used of the Lord in:
- His second son was named Eliezer, for Moses had said, “The God of my ancestors was my helper; he rescued me from the sword of Pharaoh.” (Exodus 18:4 NLT)
- Blessed are you, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will tread on their heights.” (Deuteronomy 33:29 NIV)
- We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. (Psalms 33:20 NLT)
- But as for me, I am poor and needy; please hurry to my aid, O God. You are my helper and my savior; O Lord, do not delay. (Psalms 70:5 NLT)
- O Israel, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield. O priests, descendants of Aaron, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield. All you who fear the Lord, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield. (Psalms 115:9-11 NLT)
- I look up to the mountains—does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth! (Psalms 121:1-2 NLT)
Saying, “The Lord is my helper” does not insinuate that the Lord is less! “This would suggest that the helper envisioned in Genesis 2:18 is not inferior in essence to the one helped. Rather, the helper is to be thought of as a co-worker or enabler.” (Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, 1998, p. 564) The man needed the woman, but the women needed the man, too.
One is not inferior; the other is not superior. Male and female need one another. We are created for relationship.
