Most of us know the story of creation - God in all His sovereignty and majesty, spoke out the vision He had in His mind and created: day and night, waters and land, every tree and flower, flying and crawling and swimming animals and of course man. Adam had free reign over the whole earth and was given the awesome task of naming all the animals. But before God gave Adam this task he noticed something. Genesis 2: 18-20 records, "And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him." I personally find it interesting that just before God gives Adam the responsibility of naming every creature that walked the earth, God immediately noted to Himself that Adam needed help. Don't you find that peculiar? Adam was perfect in form and at this stage had no sin in him . He was the perfect image of God Himself and therefore must have encompassed the ultimate 'super' man. Yet God still makes the statement that he should not be alone. This makes a loud and clear statement that God is a relational God - relationship is important to Him!
After making this statement God continued in His quest - "And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him."
I get the picture in my mind of Adam sitting on lush green grass in a field that stretches as far as the eye can see. As he is basking in the crisp warmth of the morning, he watches as God brings each and every kind of creature parading across his path. Imagine it! Put yourself in Adams position for a moment. One by one the various shapes and sizes of creatures passes him by and using his God given creative skills, Adam names them. "The one with the long nose and big feet - elephant. The one with the long neck and jigsaw looking patterns - giraffe!" And so the parade continues until every creature had a name and could be named! Now remember before this event took place, God had made the statement that Adam needs a helper. And this is exactly what Adam noted himself.
After naming all the creatures and witnessing every creature in all their splendour, Genesis records that Adam noted that there was not one creature among them all that matched him! That could be his help meet! Yip, from the beginning of time, man just could not do without a woman.
Ladies, this is the good part of the story. Just after this, God caused a deep sleep to come upon Adam. Ever wondered why it had to be a deep sleep? I think because God needed time to build and make woman. God wanted to take time to make this help meet. She needed to be perfectly built to match and compliment and assist Adam. "And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he woman" (Genesis 2:22). The word "made" comes from the translated Hebrew word "banah" which means to build something. God took the rib from Adam and supernaturally built the first woman - Eve; the hands of God built Eve perfect for her match Adam,
There is so much significance in why God chose the rib to make woman. And I think once we understand this revelation, the reason why we as woman are the help meets will make complete sense. The Hebrew word for the word rib is "tsalah" which means - rib from a physical skeleton.This same word is used to describe the "beams" in king Solomon's houses. The beams of a house are the part of the infrastructure that keep the house standing. Without the beams, the house will fall. The beams are the strength of the house. The beams protect the house. The beams support the house. No matter how amazing the house looks from the outside, without the beams, it cannotstand. The beams are steadfast - reliable, dependable, always there, never swaying, solid, and steady. Without these characteristics, the house or building will not be able to fulfil its purpose. The inner beams are the exact structures that reinforce the rest of the building to stand against external stresses.
Ladies - did you just get that? As woman we were made to reinforce the strength in our husbands - to be their strength and steadfastness, and to be the support when external pressures and strains threaten the very purpose within them. We reinforce their strengths. We reinforce their purpose.
Together we make a structure that is strong, beautiful, steady in times of stress and full of divine glorious purpose! That is what a help meet is! That is who we are as woman! That is why God made us!
Now if you understand the above, you will realise that the often-believed stigma of woman being weak is so far from the truth. Yes, we are often weaker in physical strength! But there is a deep inner strength that is required for us to fulfil our functions as help meets. There is nothing weak or inferior in this. And when God was creating Adam He knew that Adam would need this support.
To nurture and take care of and have dominion over the earth would require support. God made woman to support the man in His God given mandate. Just as the rib protects the heart that is the very life of the person, like wise as the help meets, we protect our husbands emotions and inner man-his very life.
So what is a help meet? It is a high, awesome calling and function given to woman by God Himself - a calling to support and reinforce. A function to protect and provide steadfastness and reliability to the inner core and emotions of the man. Take a moment to look introspectively. Are you being a "beam" supporting, protecting and reinforcing? Or are you possibly causing the stress on the structure, swaying when the external pressures become too much and wanting to collapse when things don't go your way? Ladies, its time to rise up to our divine functions as help meets. With God's help we can. In Him, we will to do it.
We can stand firm and together with our husbands and fulfil our God ordained purposes as individuals, couples and families!
