Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:
“Genesis 2:18: “And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
It would seem that one of the greatest lies of the enemy was to guide the church into thinking that women were somehow limited in their service to God. Throughout church history women were not allowed to preach or teach. They could teach children or other women, they could be missionaries and do all the hard work but it was the man who was the pastor, the man who had the final say in what the Bible taught. I Corinthians 14:34 (women are to keep silent) has been taken so out of context. The translators of the KJV had their agenda to maintain the hierarchy of the church and thus they inserted little things into the translation that were not in the Greek. In I Corinthians 13:24 they inserted the word “your” for “your women” thus playing down the fact that these women that Paul was referring to were unconverted. They also inserted the words: “they are commanded” in reference to the phrase “under obedience” suggesting they were under subjection to the male leadership.
Yet, Paul took a woman with him on his missionary journey to Ephesus, at one point he called a woman a minister. Paul was a good Jew and he knew the teachings of the Jewish faith. He understood that a woman was created to be a gateway for man to understand God.
Genesis 2:18 lays it out very clearly. God said: “It is not good that man should be alone.”
The word “good” is “tov” which means to be in harmony with God. A more correct rendering would be “man is not in harmony with God because he is alone.” Note, when he created the seas, He said that it was “good” in harmony with him, the animals, He saw were good, the sun and stars were good, but he does not see that man was good when he created him. The only time the word “tov” is used in relationship to man is in 2:18 saying he was not good or in harmony with God. It doesn’t mean he was sinful, just not in a state of perfect harmony with God. God pointed out all that he created and explained to man that is was good. Having a free will separated him from perfect harmony with God but so long as he, by act of his will partook of all that was in harmony with God he would then be in harmony with God (1:31). But verse 1:31 is explained a little more in chapter 2. God made a “help mate.” I like the KJV rendering “help meet,” because he created someone that would help him meet God. Now take a close look at the literally rendering of this phrase in the Hebrew: “aoshe lu ozr kngou” I will make a helper to stand in front of him.” The sages often picture this as a gateway or doorway. Some, however, see a more deeper picture. A picture of someone taking man by the hand and leading him to God.
The Jews believe that women, by nature are more spiritual than men. That is why the Midrash teaches that God said to Moses in Exodus 19:3 “Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob (the women) and tell the children of Israel (the men). Perhaps you will recall an earlier study where I addressed the Jewish teaching of Jacob representing women and Israel representing men. Moses was to simply say to the women but he had to tell the men. Women tend to be more incline to obedience to God than men. A man would look to a woman to guide him in spiritual things. This is why the enemy tempted Eve and not Adam because he knew Adam would follow Eve’s guidance.
The word for a female is “yaldah.” The sages point out the word begins with a “yod’ and ends with a “he” which spells the word ‘Yah” the short form for the name of God. The “yod” represents a messenger from heaven; the lamed, prayer; the daleth, a gateway; and the he, the presence of God. A female is a messenger from heaven who through prayer will be a doorway to the presence of God.
The enemy throughout the ages has caused a confusion such that we have lost sight of the teaching of the woman’s role as a guide. The leadership and headship role of man has been so emphasized that it pushed aside the guiding role of the woman. Lewis and Clark were in charge of the expedition but it was a young Indian woman name Sacagawea who guided them. It may be known in history as the Lewis and Clark Expedition and not the Sacagawea Expedition, but without Sacagawea, we would not be reading about any Expedition.
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