Preached · May 10, 2015
Introducing a Word: Ezer
Well, we are going to end up on today's message in the book of Genesis chapter 2, but before we get there, I want to introduce you to a word. And we're going to do that by way of Psalm 115.
Now, this is the psalm whose first verse begins this way:
Not to us, O Lord, but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.
If you were here with us at 9:00 a.m., you may recognize that as our first song. But I want to continue on into verses 9 through 12. This is what Psalm 115:9-12 says:
All you Israelites, trust in the Lord, for he is their help and shield. House of Aaron—or in other words, the priests of Israel—trust in the Lord, for he is their help and their shield. All you who fear him—in other words, not only those in Israel, but anyone who fears God—trust in the Lord, for he is their help and their shield.
And the one particular word that I want to introduce you to this morning is the word "help," or in the Hebrew, ezer. Now, this is a word that pops up all over the Old Testament, and here's how one biblical scholar defines it: the assistance that one of strength offers to one in need. And this ezer, this help, can come from God, from a king, an ally, or an army.
Have You Ever Needed Help?
Have you ever needed help? Not just the Beatles song—any sort of help. Our lives, in some ways, could be chronicled as needing help, receiving help, time and time again. And there are lots of ways that we need help. We could need help in a kitchen. We could need help from a doctor when we find out that we are sick. We could need help asking for a loan.
I was thinking of one time I needed help. When I was like 10 or 11, my brother David was a couple years older than me, and he would hang out with this group of guys from the neighborhood—kind of the neighborhood gang, a friendly gang. They would play tackle football in our big side yard. We had a big lot, with two trees on either end of the yard, so they could play football pretty easily. And he would invite me to play football with him and his friendly gang.
Now, if you know anything about me, I play piano for a living. So football is not exactly what you would put down as one of my strengths—not a big resume builder for me. And so, inevitably, I'd go out there—because David was cool, and I wanted to be cool—and I'd try to play football, and I would drop the ball, and I would get tackled and have my face rubbed into the dirt. And then, eventually, the teasing began.
But there was this other person that David used to hang out with, and her name was Amanda. And she loved football, and she also was a recipient of teasing, because she was a girl, and girls can't play football. But she would help me. She would be kind to me. She would give me a hand back up from the mud, and she would defend me against all of these friendly gang members. That was help.
Ezer Across the Old Testament
Now, ezer, help, is used all over the Old Testament. We see it in the Psalms:
I lift my eyes up to the mountains. Where does my help—my ezer—come from?
Or here's one of my favorites:
Blessed are you, Israel. Who is like you, a people saved by Yahweh? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will tread on their heights.
This is good help. However, we're also warned not to turn against our help:
You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, Yahweh, against your helper.
Now, it's not only used of God. Ezer can also be used of kings or allies. So take, for example, this war report from 1 Chronicles:
They helped David against raiding bands, for all of them were brave warriors, and they were commanders in his army. Day after day, men came to help David until he had a great army, like the army of God.
So this is ezer; this is what it is to be a help.
Help Is Not About Hierarchy
So my question for you is: can we all be agreed that being an ezer, being a helper, is not about hierarchy or inferiority, but about the offering of strength to one in need? Can we all be agreed on this? Being a helper does not mean that you are lower, less important, or of less value than the one you are helping.
And you would be considered pretty rude if that's how you treated your helper—if you went to your doctor for treatment and treated them as if they were somehow lower than you because they were helping you out. Or here's my other example: you get stuck in the snow, which seems to happen about once every couple years for me, and you call up the tow truck guy, and he's pulling you out of the snow. Do you really think it's a good idea to say, "Hey, buddy, you're lower than me. You're helping me, and I'm better than you"? Who's stuck in the snow? It's not that guy. Okay?
Now, it would be nonsense to consider that ezer's use in Scripture—being used of God himself, of mighty warriors, and of other nations and militaries—means that this somehow has to do with inferiority or superiority. Okay? All right.
Genesis 2: "It Is Not Good for the Man to Be Alone"
So let's head to the book of Genesis chapter 2. To set the scene: Genesis chapter 1 is all about God making order out of chaos. So he says, "Let there be light, let there be ground, let there be sky." And we get to Genesis chapter 2, and we zoom in on God creating humanity. God created man, or the Adam, from the dust of the ground, the adamah. God has just created Adam, and he has placed him in a garden called Eden—the well-watered place—in order to keep it and to till it.
And so then we get to verse 18. This is what it says:
It is not good for the man to be alone.
To which all the wives in the house say, "Amen. Have you seen the home when I get back from vacation?" To which the other wives say, "Vacation? What's that?"
Now, this is the first time that we see the words "not good" in the creation account. Genesis chapter 1 is a refrain of God saying, "It is good, it is good, it is very good." And then we get to Adam being alone, and God says, "This cannot stand." Why? Why would God say "not good" about this particular thing?
Well, we're told in Genesis chapter 1 that God intends humanity to be God's image-bearers—to somehow, someway, reflect God's character, who God is, to the world. And so if God is creating humanity to be his image-bearers, that means we need to accurately reflect who God is. And there are many things we can say about God's character, many things we could say about who God is, but one thing we can say fairly definitively is that God is community. In all of eternity, there has never not been community, because God is triune.
If you've ever wondered why it matters that our God is a triune God—that the God of Scripture is a God of three and yet one—what's the practical meaning of this? This is it. God, the everlasting one, the eternal one, has always been in relationship: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Therefore, when God creates humanity, in order for us to accurately reflect who God is, then we also need to be created in community.
A Helper Suitable: Ezer Kenegdo
So what is God's solution? How will God solve this not-goodness afoot in creation? This is what God continues to say in verse 18:
I will make a helper suitable for him.
We meet ezer once again. Something is not good in creation, so how does God respond? With help.
Now, the phrase we want to zero in on is this phrase, "a helper suitable." It's made up of two Hebrew words: ezer, or helper, which we are acquainted with already—good friends—and kenegdo. That's a fun one. And it means "corresponding to."
Now, over the years, translators have struggled with how to translate these two words together. So we get "helper suitable," or "helper as his partner," or "helper corresponding to," or "helper fit for," or, if you're old-fashioned King James Version, "help meet." Now, the problem with all of these, at least from my experience, is that as soon as we see the word "helper," we have a tendency to think of an inferior, someone who is lower than.
But now that we're all good Hebrew scholars, we know about it, right? Because, remember what we agreed to: being an ezer is not about hierarchy or inferiority, but about the offering of strength to one in need. Or, as the Dictionary of the Old Testament puts it: the word ezer is not a comment on status and lacks overtones of subordination and inferiority. Instead, it describes one who possesses the desire and ability or capacity to help another. In other words, a partner.
So when we read that it's not good for the Adam, the man, to be alone, and that therefore God will create an ezer that corresponds to Adam—that relates to Adam, that is in unity with Adam relationally, spiritually, and creationally—then we should know that we are not dealing with issues of higher or lower, better or worse, up and down. God will make a helper, one whose strength will fulfill a lack that man alone has. And this helper, this ezer, is kenegdo to Adam. They are cut from the same cloth. They correspond to Adam. This is language of unity, not of inferiority or superiority.
The Parade of Animals
So what does God do? We keep reading in verse 19:
So the Lord God formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them. Whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all of the livestock, the birds in the sky, and all the wild animals. But for Adam, no suitable helper was found.
Now, if you're really honest with yourself as you're reading Scripture, aren't you kind of tempted to ask—I should whisper—is God, like, dumb or something? And there were gasps all around. Right? Isn't that kind of a question you would come up with? Because if God really wanted to make a helper that corresponds to Adam, then why on earth is God parading a bunch of animals in front of him?
To which I say: exactly. Remember who we're dealing with. Remember who would be reading this Scripture for the first time. They would be people who lived in a culture where sleeping with animals could be considered an act of worship, and where treating women like animals was socially okay. And so we shouldn't be entirely surprised if the author of Genesis—and the God inspiring the author to write—is trying to teach something important about what could seem to us like an entirely ridiculous and unnecessary parade of animals. It's not good for man as a species to be alone. They need a partner that corresponds to them. Is it any of these animals? No, it is not.
Furthermore, when we get to the apex of this chapter, we have it confirmed that the person who is the proper ezer kenegdo should be seen not as an animal, not as man's property, but as something else entirely.
Bone of My Bones
So, speaking of that, let's go there. Verse 21:
So the Lord caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
Now, we can get into all the nitty-gritties of what a rib is or isn't, but the essential contrast is between this verse and verse 19: out of the ground, animals; and from the rib of the man, a woman. This woman is made up of the same stuff as man. God breathed life into the nostrils of the man, and man became a living soul; and from this same material, this same living-soul stuff, God formed a woman.
And how does the man respond? He says:
This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.
In other words, the Adam beholds the ezer kenegdo that God has created and says, "She's made out of the same bones as me. She's made out of the same flesh as me. She's not like the animals, who were not compatible, who did not correspond, who were not helpful. We're made out of the same stuff."
God creates Adam and says, "It's not good for the man to be alone." Man needs a helper, someone who has strength for one in need—a helper who corresponds to man.
When We Get This Wrong
Culture can get confused and think that creatures—the animals—that the stuff we own and use and call our property is what will help us and fulfill us and complete us. Or worse, we look at the feminine gender and count it as somehow functionally unequal to the masculine gender: that they somehow carry less value, that they in one way or another have less worth, less to offer, or are by nature subservient to all men. And when we get this wrong, bad things happen.
And unfortunately, we have a history of getting this wrong. This particular passage has been used in ways to prove that women are somehow inferior to men. In one book, unfortunately called Created to Be His Help Meet, the author writes: "God gave Eve to Adam to be his helper, not his partner. You were created to make your husband complete, not to seek personal fulfillment parallel to him." At one point, this same author encourages a young mother—whose husband routinely beat her and threatened to kill her with a kitchen knife—to stop, quote, "blabbing about his sins" and win him back by showing him more respect.
Now, this may seem extreme to you, but centuries of getting God's intentions for women wrong has left us in a world where 11 million women are in forced labor, and one in five of those women are forced to sell their bodies for profit. Three out of ten women in the U.S. have experienced moderate to extreme abuse, including physical and otherwise. And of all domestic abuse situations, four out of five of them are female. And though this is a problem that crosses both genders, every time a man partakes of a stimulating image, we participate in a culture that objectifies and belittles who women are. And every time we use a woman's gender to exclude her, belittle her, marginalize her, or silence her voice, then we are a far cry's distance from Genesis chapter 2.
God has gifted the whole of humanity with an ezer kenegdo, a God-given help and partner. Are we really willing to spit that gift in the face and say, "Eh, I can do it better"?
How Do We Respond?
So how do we respond? Well, there are two things, and I want to start with the most obvious application and move to more insidious forms of treating women wrongly.
Number one: domestic violence is wrong. Being in a pattern of intentionally and purposefully harming your spouse, psychologically or physically, is harmful and sinful. Moreover—and I'm talking especially to women—your gender and your marriage covenant by no means demand that you must accept abuse. Whatever your theology of marriage and gender roles is, there will never be a good enough reason to harm your spouse.
Now, I realize that I have just stepped into a landmine of a subject, a long distance away from helping someone up from a muddy football field. So let it suffice to say this: whatever you're going through, you don't have to go through it alone. We will come alongside you and do our best to help you receive the best help and resources we can.
Number two: predetermining a woman's talents, gifts, preferences, hobbies, or calling based solely on her gender is wrong. Now, as a man, I am uniquely unqualified to talk experientially about this. So, here from author Sarah Bessey:
It used to feel like women's ministry was laser-focused on one type of woman, one season of a woman's life. But the women of our churches are not all wives and mothers. Some of us work outside of the home for diverse reasons. Some of us love Victorian flowers, and others fancy a bit of modern edge. Some women like to go do crafts, other women want to go golfing, and some women want to do crafts while they're golfing. And that's how many of us feel about the segregation of women into one slot. It's just not true of everyone. We're not all in the same season of life. We haven't all made the same choices. We don't have the same life experiences and backgrounds, and we don't have the same priorities and callings or hobbies. We've been grouped together by folk wisdom and our common anatomy, and yet we are all bearers of the image of God as women.
The Women of Scripture
So, now what? The now-what is to look at the examples of the Old Testament, the New Testament church, and the women in them, and see what they did.
And so we see Deborah, who was a prophet and a national leader; and Huldah, who was a prophet and a king's advisor. Mary was a mother to Jesus and to James, and likely a contributor to the book of Luke. Priscilla was a wife and a theological teacher. Junia was a wife and an outstanding apostle. And Phoebe was either a widow or single, and a deacon, who financially supported church plants and Paul, and was the likely expositor of the book of Romans to Rome.
And there were so many others. There's Miriam, and Lydia, and Nympha, and Euodia, and Syntyche, and the daughters of Philip, who were prophetesses, and the women who financially supported the ministry of Jesus.
Here's what I'm trying to say, and let me try to say it as carefully as possible. If you feel that God has called you to raise children, to work at home, to work in the nursery, to be an excellent cook or seamstress or scrapbooker or whatever, then shame on anyone who makes you feel small or insignificant in light of the gifts, talents, and calling that God has placed on you. Amen.
And if you feel that God has also called you to teach the Bible, to lead ministries, to manage corporations, to plant churches, to work for justice in the world, then shame on anyone who makes you feel small or insignificant in light of the gifts, talents, and calling that God has placed upon you.
Sarah Bessey continues:
You have a great church when there is room for everyone, when you have begun to celebrate the everyday women of valor sitting next to you, and when you encourage, affirm, and welcome the diversity of women—their lives, their voices, their experiences—to the community. Just as some men serve God in business and others in the farmland, some women serve God in missions and others serve God in their kitchens. There is not one way to be a woman. There is not one way to do women's ministry. There is only loving and serving God, doing life together in the full expression of our unique selves.
Church, make room for them all, and give glory to God.
One in Christ
As the video earlier this morning reminded us, women uniquely help reveal the character and nature of who God is. When God created Adam in his image, God said, "This man-by-himself world isn't good. This isn't all there is to being an image-bearer of God." And so God purposefully and beautifully crafted an ezer kenegdo, a help, a partner, so that together both men and women could fully reflect God's image.
I want to invite Pastor John and the worship team forward as we turn our attention toward the communion table this morning. As we think of communion, we are reminded of the words of Paul in Galatians 3:
You, church, have been clothed with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
As we share in this table together, we are reminded of our unity as the body of Christ through the bond of the Holy Spirit.
