Eve As Helper (Ezer)

In Genesis 2, Eve is created as a helper to Adam. There has been a lot of misunderstandings around the role of Eve and the intention of God’s creation of the first woman.

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper (Ezer) as his complement.”

Many people has interpreted this as a proof that women are less than men. Women are created to be subordinate. This understanding is very misleading and limited and far away from the truth.

The keyword here is helper, Ezer in Hebrew (pronounced ay-zar). This word occurs twenty-one times in the Old Testament. Twice it is used to describe the first woman. Three times it is used of people helping (or failing to help) in life-threatening situations. Sixteen times it is used in reference to the salvation that comes from God as a helper. (You can see these twenty-one verses here.)

May the Lord answer you when you are in distress;
may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
May he send you help (Ezer) from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion. — Psalm 20

and the other Eliezer (because he had said, “The God of my father was my helper (Ezer) and delivered me from Pharaoh’s sword”). — Exodus 18:4

For I deliver the afflicted who is crying, And the fatherless who hath no helper (Ezer). — Job 29:12

If we look at God’s creation in Genesis, there are two episodes. During the First episode, God created the heavens and the earth, and with the creation of humankind on the sixth day being the final climax.

So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. — Genesis 1:27

Then God said it was very good. Worth mentioning here is both male and female are created in the image of God. Despite Paul’s statement that man “is the image and reflection of God; but woman is the reflection of man” ( 1 Cor 11:7)

During the second episode, God create the garden and the river, and Adam to guard the garden, and with the creation of Eve being the final crown of this episode of creation.

Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Men and women are created to be this one unity in God’s image. We are meant to be codependent and work alongside each other to create and to multiply. Women are the crowns of God’s creation and queens of mother earth. Any culture that discriminate women is against God’s intention for men and women and deprives itself of the fullness of human potentials.

May we find our strength and life hidden in Christ as we stand up for equality, dignity, and respect of all humans regardless of sex, status, race or economic standing and to walk in the fullness of Christ as children of God.