PURPOSE OF WOMAN

  •  V.18 Helpmeet
    • One Hebrew translation of the term Helpmeet is “a helper fit” or a counterpart
    • The original text of Genesis 2:18 is even more enlightening. According to biblical scholar David Freedman, the Hebrew word translated there into English as “help” is ezer. This word is a combination of two roots, one meaning “to rescue,” “to save,” and the other meaning “to be strong.” Just as the roots merged into one word, so did their meanings. At first ezer meant either “to save” or “to be strong,” but in time, said Freedman, ezer “was always interpreted as ‘to help,’ a mixture of both nuances. Ezer appears twenty-one times in the Old Testament.”
    • In contrast, k’enegdo, another Hebrew word used in Genesis 2:18 to describe Eve, appears only once. Freedman pointed out that in late rabbinical commentaries k’enegdo means “equal” and stated that in his view “there is no basis for translating k’enegdo as ‘fit’ or ‘appropriate,’ as the traditional translators do when they describe the woman as a ‘fit helper.’” He concluded, “When God creates Eve . . . , His intent is that she will be—unlike the animals—‘a power (or strength) equal to him.’”4 Suppose we had all, male and female alike, been taught to understand Genesis 2:18 as something like the following: “It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a companion of strength and power, who has a saving power and is equal with him. From <https://www.ldsliving.com/The-True-Meaning-of-Helpmeet-and-How-It-Changes- How-We-Think-About-Womanhood/s/91103>
    • In today’s vernacular, helpmeet would seem to indicate a person of lesser stature, a subject, a subordinate. Yet a careful examination of this venerable expression yields an altogether different meaning. “Even with or equal to” is the meaning attributed to it by the Oxford English Dictionary.3 That definition adds clarity and gives us a more correct image.
    • From <https://www.ldsliving.com/The-True-Meaning-of-Helpmeet-and-How-It-Changes- How-We-Think-About-Womanhood/s/91103>
    • Another interpretation- It’s not good for man to be alone within himself. Eve was created to give Adam an outward focus
  •  V.22 Made He a Woman – God formed Adam from nothing, he made or created woman from Adam’s rib. Symbolically, this not only represents the intimate closeness of men and women, but also their distinction from each other. God “built up” the woman from Adam’s rib, instead of “forming” her as He had done in shaping dust into Adam. Men and women, in literal terms, each bring unique and necessary characteristics to the human family. From <https://www.bibleref.com/Genesis/2/Genesis-2-23.html>
  • V.23 Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh –
    • response to this good gift is delivered in the form an ecstatic poem. Adam was given the opportunity to name all of God’s other animals (Genesis 2:19), and found that none of them were a good match for him (Genesis 2:20). Now, “at last,” he finds a creature perfectly suited for him. The woman, whom we will later come to know as Eve (Genesis 3:20), was like Adam in another important way. She would share his unique human relationship with God as one made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). Unlike any of the animals, Adam and Eve and the humans to follow would have the capacity to know God, truth, beauty, and reason. Together and separately, their existence would be defined by their relationship with the Creator. From <https://www.bibleref.com/Genesis/2/Genesis-2-23.html>
    • This made them of the same essence, which is what the man (Adam) meant when he said to GOD, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.’ She was the most intimately connected to the man of any of the rest of creation because she was taken out of the man’s physical genetic substance. The Biblical meaning of the male and female being of ‘one flesh’, is that they were one, encompassing body and soul. This is covenant language. The idea of ‘Two bodies, one soul’. Some Hebrew thoughts; male and female cannot define themselves fully as human without the other, and it is the male and female together as one flesh that reflects the image of GOD.From <https://www.quora.com/What-does-the-phrase-bone-of-my-bones-mean-in- Genesis-2-22-of-the-Bible>

Biblical Understanding of the Purpose of Women

  • Genesis 1:27 – Created to reflect the image of God
  • Genesis 1:28 – to be fruitful and to multiply
  • Women as well as men need to understand the inherent nature of the woman, because most women have developed their identity from men, and they do not see themselves as God does. Women have essentially become the products of the societies and traditions into which they were born and bred.
  •  They would have realized that the spirit of equal rights that demands equality from men was never intended by God, because He has already made men and women equal. Men and women were created equal. Men and women are equal.
  • When you understand that equality is inherent and discover how it is to be manifested in your life, then you can begin to live in the full realm of that equality, regardless of what others tell you about yourself.
  • God’s creation of the female is fascinating because it exactly parallels His creation of man. Just as God had drawn man from Himself and created him as a spiritual being, He drew the woman out of the man and made her a physical being. God, who is love, needed someone to whom to give His love, and so He created man out of Himself. Similarly, the male needed someone to whom to give his love, and so God created the female from the male’s own body. This parallel in creation illustrates the oneness and mutual love that God and man and male and female were created to have.
  • The receiver has to be exactly like the giver. Just as man needed to be spirit in order to receive love from God and be in relationship with Him, the woman needed to be of the same essence as man in order to receive love from him and be in relationship with him. That is why God did not go back to the soil to fashion another house when He formed the female. If He had done that, she would not have been the exact duplicate of the man. She would not have been made of the essence of the male, the way humanity was made of the essence of God. So God took exactly what was needed from the male to make an exact replica, and He created the woman
  • The Bible says that the man was “formed” of the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7). The Hebrew word for formed is yatsar, meaning to mold, as a potter molds clay. However, the Bible says that God “made” the woman (Genesis 2:22). The Hebrew word for made is banah, which means to “build” or “construct.” Something that is built has the same components as the material from which it is made or from which it comes. Therefore, God built the female out of the part that He took from the male so that they would be made of exactly the same substance. She was made out of the essence of the male and in the physical image of the male in order to receive the male’s love and to reflect his nature.
  • The first purpose of the female as reflector is that she was made to be the object of the male’s love and to reflect the love that he gives her. When God made woman, He drew her out of man so that the man would have someone to love who was of his own nature. It was love that brought about the woman’s existence. In this way, the man was created to be a giver of love and the woman to be a receiver of love.
  • Love is the fuel of a female. When you give the female-man love, she comes alive.
  • It is interesting to note that nowhere in the Bible does God tell the woman to love the man. The woman is instructed to submit to the man, to respect and to honor him. Yet God commands the man over and over again to love the woman. Why? It is because the Fall damaged the male’s God- given natural love for the female, so that he wants to rule over her rather than to love her as himself. For the same reason, the female’s God-given natural respect for the male was damaged, and that is why she needs to be instructed to respect him.
  • “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify…her” (Ephesians 5:25–26 NKJV). If a man is going to love his wife, he has to keep company with Christ. He has to find out how Christ loved His church. It will take a lifetime to study that manual on love! He “gave Himself for her.” Then He sanctified her. – look at this as a model
  • First Corinthians 11:7 says that the woman is the glory of the man. “A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man.”
  • The glory of something is its best expression of itself. Reflecting the glory of God means reflecting His true nature.
  • The power of a woman’s influence may be seen in God’s original design for her and in His response to her after the fall of man:
  1. In creation, God gave the woman the assignment of rulership. This shows the respect He has for her
  2. God promised the devil that his destruction would come through the woman. He identified the woman as the instrument through which man would be redeemed.
  3. The woman’s influence-power, in its fallen state, is so potentially destructive that God felt he needed to put her under regulation for her own protection and the protection of others.

God gave the male the assignment of regulating the influence-power of the woman until the fullness of time when He would send His Son, born of a woman, to complete the process of redeeming her place of partnership with the man. A woman was not originally created by God to be regulated by a man. This is not God’s plan for the woman. Humanity’s disobedience to God is what altered her situation —but this alteration was only temporary. Because God knew the influence potential with which He had created the woman, He considered her to be more dangerous than the man in her fallen state. This is why God put her under regulation.

  • The woman doesn’t need regulation because she is the weaker vessel but because she is potentially the more dangerous one.
  • You can’t destroy position-power directly; you have to destroy it through influence. Therefore, satan went to the influence-power to get at the position-power. He hasn’t changed his tactic since, because it worked so well.
  • The power of a woman’s influence may be seen in God’s original design for her and in His response to her after the fall of man: 1.In creation, God gave the woman the assignment of rulership. This shows the respect He has for her. 2.God promised the devil that his destruction would come through the woman. He identified the woman as the instrument through which man would be redeemed. 3.The woman’s influence-power, in its fallen state, is so potentially destructive that God felt He needed to put her under regulation for her own protection and the protection of others. God gave the male the assignment of regulating the influence-power of the woman until the fullness of time when He would send His Son, born of a woman, to complete the process of redeeming her place of partnership with the man. A woman was not originally created by God to be regulated by a man. This is not God’s plan for the woman. Humanity’s disobedience to God is what altered her situation —but this alteration was only temporary. Because God knew the influence potential with which He had created the woman, He considered her to be more dangerous than the man in her fallen state. This is why God put her under regulation.
  • The woman doesn’t need regulation because she is the weaker vessel but because she is potentially the more dangerous one.
    Instead of asking if women should be in leadership, we should be asking how they are to exercise their leadership, given their purpose and design.
  • However, now that she has been set free, she has to guard against oppressing herself. How? By doing at the expense of being. The world tells us to prove our worth by what we accomplish. The Bible tells us to accept our worth in the One who loves us.
  • “While you are doing what God has called and gifted you to do, don’t forget the importance of His character in your life”:
  • Proverbs 31 gives us tremendous perspective on what a woman is meant to be. Let us not become overwhelmed when reading about what this woman does and miss out on the central message of who she is.
  • A woman first needs to find her identity in who she is in Christ—God’s beloved child. It is only as she does this that she can be fulfilled and carry out His plans for her.
  • “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us” (1 Corinthians 2:12).
  • The woman of Proverbs 31 is not just a busy woman. She is a woman who knows her purpose in God.
  • She knows that she is to trust God and draw her strength from Him so that she will not be paralyzed by anxiety; her family and others with whom she is in relationship will be able to put their confidence in her; they will know she has their best interests in mind (vv. 11–15).
  • She knows that God values her abilities and intelligence, and so she is free to pursue opportunities and make plans for expanding her realm of influence (vv. 16–18, 24).
  • She knows that God is her ultimate Source and desires to bless her, so she sets about her work with energy and anticipation. She has a good attitude and doesn’t complain (v. 17).
  • Since God has blessed her, she desires to be a blessing to others, and she reaches out to those less fortunate than she (v. 20).
  • Because she knows that her worth comes from her position in God, she treats herself with respect (v. 25).
  • She has immersed herself in God’s Word in order to know His ways, and therefore she is able to give godly wisdom and instruction to others. She honors Jesus with her life (v. 26).
  • Because she has come to know the God of all encouragement, she is an encouragement to her husband, children, friends, and coworkers and invests herself in their lives (verse 28). Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all. (v. 31)
    • Pursue all of God’s purposes for you. He created your spirit out of His being and out of His love. He designed you perfectly to fulfill your calling in Him. Accept the freedom He has given you in Christ. Know that you are esteemed by Him. Develop the creative ideas He has given you in your innermost being. Use the many gifts and talents He has placed within you. Be the blessing to yourself, your family, and your community that He created you to be.
    • First, let us consider once again that the dominion mandate was given to man, not just to the male. Genesis 1:28
    • To have dominion means to govern, to rule, to subdue, to control, to manage, to lead, or to administrate. It is a powerful word. Both women and men were given the same assignment of dominion leadership.
    • The woman and the man were both equal, blessed, subduing, ruling, and having dominion, and God said, “This is very good.” However, the way in which they execute dominion is different based on their distinct designs.
    • This means that anything that God said about the male-female relationship after Genesis 2 is a repair program
    • God designed the male to be a leader by position and the female to be a leader by influence. The man has position-power, and the woman has influence-power.
    • Position-power and influence-power are not mutually exclusive; they are meant to be exercised together in dominion.

From Royal Roots – The Purpose of Woman – From <http://www.herroyalroots.com/wordstudies>

  • Banah – a primitive root; to build (literally and figuratively):–(begin to) build(-er), obtain children, make, repair, set (up), X surely. From <https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Lexicon.show/ID/H1129/banah.htm>
  • When Yah created woman (Chawah/Eve) He created her with a purpose that would be perpetual. All the things that were carried out at creation were meant to duplicate themselves the same way after their own kind forever. What is unique about the human and more specially the woman is that she was created to do something much more than just reproduce. Animals and the vegetation do that and they are made and described with a different Hebrew word. The word used for the “building” of the woman was unique to her. The word means that she was create to house the see and to give birth to life. This is not just the seed of the children, but also the spiritual seed. She is where dreams and purpose are deposited. It is her job to take what the man gives her and to multiply it and yield it back to him 10, 100, 1000 fold. She is not just a place to create but she also serves as the mediator between the desire of the man and the product of that desire. It is only through her that man can bring forth the life that he carries inside of him. She doesn’t just stop at birth of the child but she is also supposed to take the children and raise them righteously, planting the seed of the word in their hearts and nurturing it so that when they are finally of age to be presented back to the Father and the community they raise up and call her blessed. The woman is continually open to the seed of truth, life, and prosperity in order to give back and bless her family and those around her. She is continually giving. It is only when you have the aleph (strong leader), the bet (house, womb), and the nun (seed, life) that you are able to see the foundation of the family.
  • Genesis 3 – The woman plays the intricate role of providing a place for life to come forth, hence Satan deceiving her, causing her to corrupt the seed. But just because she was deceived once doesn’t mean that she has to continue to live a life of separation. Yah has created a method to unifying His “image” (Gen. 1:27) back to Himself, but when the dual essence of male and female fail to be one (Echad), the seed suffers.
  • (Proverbs 14:1 – the wise woman builds her house) – We are built to guard, protect, give life, and then place that life back in the hands of the Father to prove that we managed what we were trusted with.

Woman as Builder

  • When you study words and the Hebrew language you will find that all things have significance. When Yah created man and woman he did two different yet complimentary things. He built woman and he formed man. There are two different English words here and there are also two different Hebrew words. The word built is the Hebrew word (banah) and the word formed is the Hebrew word (yatzar). From <http://www.herroyalroots.com/wordstudies>
  • Banah – a primitive root; to build (literally and figuratively):–(begin to) build(- er), obtain children, make, repair, set (up), X surely. From <https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Lexicon.show/ID/H1129/ban ah.htm>
  • (Proverbs 14:1 – the wise woman builds her house) – We are built to guard, protect, give life, and then place that life back in the hands of the Father to prove that we managed what we were trusted with.
  • Matthew 19:4-6 further expounds upon the meaning
  • Hebrews 3:1-6

From Your Version Beyond Happy

Your identity is who you are in Christ, but your purpose is what God has called you to do. 1 Peter 4:10-11 says, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ” (NIV).

When you realize that your passions and talents can make an eternal difference, you’ll see beyond the circumstances of this life to the joy of a job well done. (Matt. 25:23)

How can you use what God’s given you to serve His kingdom? (Romans 15:13)