Woman: The Helper, The Gift of God
Woman: The Helper, The Gift of God“It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make for him a helper fit for him.” (Genesis 2:18)
God can be alone, for in Him are all the attributes of perfection. He is in three persons, and so was never alone in one sense - there was always the Father, who is love, the Son, who is the object of that love, and the Spirit of love between them. But man is a creature and cannot stand by himself. God, in His love, thought up the wonderful idea of home—man and woman together, one flesh, and one mind and heart. God created the home as the perfect triangle—the man, the woman and the Lord, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12). As long as the Lord is on His point of the triangle, the edifice is sure. Then home life is to be centered on the Lord, as each encourages and prays for the other.
The Hebrew conveys the idea of a helper as before him, even as your face in the mirror is before you. The woman was meant to be a helper suited to man’s needs. The true idea of the woman is that she should be man’s complement, to fill up that which is lacking in him. Here is the foundation of the union between one man and one woman - God did not make the woman out of the dust of the ground as He had made the man. The man had life, and God made the woman out of the live man. She was taken from under his arm that he might protect her and from next to his heart that he might love her. We can understand this better when we dig under the English translation of Malachi 2:14, 15. “The wife of thy youth ... thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And why made He only one wife? Was it because He did not have breath enough? Why did He make but one? That He might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.”
Dr. Barnhouse reminds us that as husbands we should see our wives as a very precious gift. The only gift more precious is our redemption in Christ. Hug your special precious gift today and often, thanking the Lord for her.
Further reading: Ephesians 5:25-33
