Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” – Genesis 2:18
This verse had a different and stronger impact on me yesterday when I opened my bible to Genesis as I prayed on my way to Rolling Hills Community Church for the CLASBC Women Missionaries Union Fellowship. Was it an accident that I opened my bible to this passage at a time when I am on my way to a missionaries union fellowship and was it an accident that a realization of what this passage meant hit me on this very particular day and time?
The passage was talking about what God said when He decided to create the woman. “It is not good for the man to be alone…”, He knew that the man would need a companion, yes, but look at the rest of what God said, “I will make him a helper fit for him…”, a “helper” fit for the man, a “help-meet”, not a creature to be placed below or above the man in rank but a creature that is fit for the role of a “helper”. An assistant, someone who will help the man govern God’s creation, someone who is a coadjutor as the man performs his duties in the garden.
What hit me the most is that this is God’s very first spoken statement of His purpose in creating the woman. This was His very purpose for Eve, and that means this is God’s design for the woman: To be the man’s minister. Yes, women, here it is from the mouth of the Lord God Himself, it is He who had spoken, it is He who had set the parameters for us – that our very first ministry should be our husbands.
I have known for quite sometime already that my husband is my very first ministry, but you know, it just didn’t hit me this hard until I read that passage from Genesis. I used to believe in that only because it sounded logical that my husband’s needs should be met first before I can extend my ministry outside our home, I used to think that I should minister to my household first because that’s just the proper order of things. But then, here is this verse from the book of beginnings and I am just awestruck. God Himself declared His purpose for creating me. God Himself. What a revelation to my yet feeble mind!
P.S.
I shared this to the attendants of the fellowship as soon as the table was opened for sharing. No, I did not exhort on the passage like I almost did here but I gave them a brief sweep over and just prodded them to meditate on the passage. My prayer is that may they also feel the conviction that I felt and may they also find joy and peace in ministering to their husbands. May they obey the Lord with exultation and worship and when things get rough at home and they are in that moment when they just feel that their husbands are not their current most favorite person in the world, may they look past that, and instead focus on God so that they will not be compelled to disobey and stumble.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God – 1 Corinthians 10:31
