Chapter 3

A Suitable Helper

Chapter 3 Text

When God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him” (Genesis 2:18, KJV), He was observing a need and His response was to make a help suitable for him. So He took from his side a bride, the foreshadowing of another bride that was yet to come. The Church, the Bride of Christ was taken from the side of Jesus. He gave us life. We are His Body, an extension of Himself in the earth (see Ephesians 5:30).

So, God created Eve—a woman like Adam in terms of her humanity, but radically different from him in other ways. She wasn’t more than or less than Adam. She was simply different. God had fashioned her and made her what she needed to be to walk with Adam as his other self—his counterpart. They were, in today’s language, “made for each other.” She was God’s idea and together they were God’s design for the fulfillment of His plan of subduing the earth and taking dominion over it. God called her a help that was “meet,” meaning “suitable” and adequate for him, one who could come alongside him and walk with him in a deeply purposeful way.

Divine Help, Human Help

The Hebrew word for help, ezer, means: “to surround, to protect, to aid, succor.” Webster’s definition of succor is “help, to run under, to give aid or assistance in time of distress.” Help or ezer is an extremely strong word, used twenty-one times in Scripture. Sixteen times it refers to divine help (God Himself) and five times to human help, but always in the context of help in time of trouble or help against one’s enemies. The use of the word itself reveals God’s intent in sending Adam a help. God had fashioned the woman in such a unique way that she would be used to surround and protect Adam. There was a mighty call on his life—and now on their lives together. God had commissioned them to rise and walk in victory over the enemy.

Isn’t it interesting that God didn’t send Adam a fishing buddy, a basketball team, a boss, a brother, a father, or a coach? He sent him a woman because then, as now, it is the woman who is uniquely crafted by God to touch his heart, to engage his heart, and to help him open his heart to her and to God.

When God brought forth Eve in the earth, Adam immediately recognized her as “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23). He recognized something of himself in her. She brought to Adam something that he needed. She was, of course, both human and divine help, but the emphasis was on the divine quality of the help she brought to Adam. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament says, “While this word designates ‘assistance’ it is more frequently used to designate ‘the assistant’ (as with Eve). As to the source of help, this word generally is used to designate ‘divine help or aid.’”1 In Psalm 121:1 the word help reflects this definition: “I will lift up my eyes to the hills—from whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.”

Eve represents both human and divine help in that she was fashioned and sent from the hand of God. She is not the man’s savior, but she can be used to open and engage his heart in relationship at a deeper level, hence, bringing him out of his aloneness. God was giving the man help for himself, for his own person. God makes it plain when He says, “I will make him an help meet [or suitable help] for him” (Genesis 2:18, KJV, emphasis mine). She will also complete him in their role as dominion takers—those who move in divine displacement of God’s enemy, Satan. She was fashioned by the Father’s hand and sent from His heart into a situation that needed help, a specific need He saw in Adam’s life—to “surround, protect, aid, succor” the man, thereby bringing him into a relationship with her and, ultimately, fellowship with God.

Side by Side

When God looked upon the need created by the fact that Adam’s aloneness was not good, and intentionally committed to make him a help “suitable” for him, He “caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man” (Genesis 2:21, 22).

When we think of Adam and Eve, especially of her role in his life, we must remember that she was not fashioned from a place under Adam’s foot. She was not taken from his shoulder, his elbow, his hip, or some other part of his body, but she was drawn from a significant portion of his body—his side—because she was created to walk side by side with him. She was crafted to come forth and walk side by side with him in a meaningful, powerful, authoritative way, so the two of them together would be fruitful, be blessed, and walk in dominion in the earth.

Eve’s creation from the side of Adam teaches us that she was part of him, an extension of himself. When she was created, part of him was removed and returned to him in a very different package. The woman was not formed of new elements; she was not taken from the dust, hence, separate or independent from the man in that sense. She was part of who he was. He understood this, and delighted in it, saying: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 2:23).

It is interesting to note that the name given to the woman—Eve—is taken from a Hebrew word that also denotes verbal communication. Her name Chavvah means “life-giver,” but the verb form is chavah, which is consistently translated as “declare” or “shew” verbally. She was uniquely and specifically designed to stand before him in an intimate, face-to-face relationship. She was designed to talk to him, to encourage and challenge him in love, using life-giving words. God intended her to surround and protect something of His creation that was very precious in His sight, the heart of man—his thoughts, his feelings, his inner self.

The virtuous woman described in Proverbs 31 is often referred to on Mother’s Day in a sweet, sentimental way. Yet the strength and value of the woman spoken of in this passage is perhaps not fully realized: “An excellent [virtuous] wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life” (Proverbs 31:10–12, NASB).

The Hebrew meaning of the word virtuous (chaylil) is: “force, strength, able, power, might,” and describes her as coming with the strength of an army. Think of it. One woman, coming with the strength of an army! She was made for war. She was able, with her force, strength, might, and power, to come against any enemy that would arise against her family. Remember, God told us what dominion would look like in the earth; and it was male and female. Here, we are describing the powerful strength of “his other self, his other half.” God had called them together.

This unique creation of woman from the side of the man was the beginning point of God’s family, the emerging of the foundation of the House of the Lord and what would ultimately become the Church. As we read their story, we see unfold before our eyes a microcosm of the structure God chose to use on earth to display His glory and make His presence known. The foundation was male and female, the two were incomplete without each other—the two would together express the image of God. Out of this inaugural union, His glorious purposes would unfold and be manifest.

God’s Image Expressed

When God created Adam, He made him in the full image of Himself. But when God took the woman from the side of the man, what happened to that image of God? Was it added to? Was it subtracted from? It was neither. It was divided. And now, for the image of God to be seen and felt and known and heard and observed in the earth, it must come through both the man and the woman. As they stood together in the garden, this was a picture of the Church to come. Male and female together comprised the structure through which God chose to begin to reveal Himself and make Himself known in the earth. It could never come through men alone; it could never come through women alone. It has to be expressed through the two of them together.

From the beginning of the world, God has shown us what dominion would look like. It is male and female. “Together you will take dominion in the earth,” He says. We cannot have true dominion, nor can we see the full image of God without both men and women. We cannot have one without the other. Again, I am not simply referring to the marriage union. I am referring to the relationship between the male gender and the female gender. Together we make up the Church. Together we will take dominion in the earth.

In the beginning, God expressed His purpose for male and female through a man and wife, but we must realize that His plan extends and should function both within the marriage union and beyond it to every area of life and relationships. The first man and the first woman were called together to be fruitful and to take dominion on earth. Today, men and women are still called together. We are still called to be blessed and to be fruitful. For some this happens primarily through a marriage relationship. For some, it happens in non-romantic partnerships in which men and women work together as a team to accomplish God’s purposes. No matter how men and women work together, the kind of unity modeled in the garden results in great authority, great anointing, and great advancement of God’s Kingdom on earth.

Summary

• Eve was God’s answer to Adam’s aloneness. She was not “more than” Adam or “less than” Adam. She was simply different.
• Adam and Eve together were God’s original dominion takers. The relationship between the two of them was the structure through which His enemy, Satan, would be defeated.
• Eve represents both human and divine help to Adam. She was created as a suitable helper for him, to walk side by side with him in a powerful and purposeful way.
• Adam and Eve together express God’s image. The fullness of His image cannot be seen in the male alone or in the female alone.
• True dominion over the enemy must be expressed through male and female together.