“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 or Aramaic.  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 say 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 it 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 meet.  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 help meet which in the Hebrew is: ‘ezeg kenegedou.   The word ‘ezeg is really a reference to someone who will help you obtain something.  The word kenegedou comes from the root word neged which means to stand in front to lead or to announce, to clear the way, blaze the trail or make something clear.  It is a word used for a guide.  The Native American woman named Sacagawea who led and guided Lewis and Clark on their expedition would have been a neged. When God said He would make a help meet he was saying “I will make a helper to stand in front of him, to lead him, guide him and clear the way to my presence.”   The sages often picture a neged  as a gateway or doorway.  Some of the sages, however, see a deeper picture.  A picture of someone taking man by the hand and leading him to God.  That is why in Judaism a man is considered sinful if he is not married.  The Talmud declares that until he is married a man is just a boy.  I guess that make James Bond just some sort of juvenile delinquent.

 

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. That is why Adam said in his defense, “the woman that thou gavest me told me to eat.”   He was not trying to duck his own responsibility, he only asking, “But I thought you gave me this woman to show me the proper way?”

 

The word for a female in Hebrew is yaldah.  The sages point out the word begins with a Yod and ends with a Hei which spells the word Yah  the short form for the name of God.   The Yod represents a messenger from heaven; the Lamed shows prayer; the Daleth is a gateway and the Hei speaks of 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.  That is why in many societies woman are made to be almost second class citizens dominated by men as the enemy understood the crucial role that God created a woman to perform.  He knew it was the woman who was to lead a man to an understanding of God and His love.  In the love relationship between a man and woman a man would come to an understanding of what a love relationship was like with God.  This is why the enemy created pornography and perverted this intimate relationship that is why he is pushing homosexuality, so man will not follow the guide that God created to His presence.

 

God did give man the leadership role in the family but this leadership and headship role of man has been so emphasized that it pushed aside the guiding role the ‘ezeg kenegedou (help meet) role of the woman.

 

Lewis and Clark were in charge of the expedition but remember 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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