Why are we continuing to talk about woman as a helper?  How does this have anything to do with "the king and his kingdom"?  Well I believe that the bride is married to the King, and His Kingdom is something that we have been given charge over to rule with him.  Therefore, the creation story brings a very interesting concept into the development of this topic through the metaphor of marriage and us being married to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

What we find here in the first three chapters of Genesis sets into motion and lays a foundation for this King and His Kingdom.  While we've typically looked at this story and used it to develop our theology of sin and redemption, I'm proposing that we look at this story not only as historical but also metaphorical so that we might understand more fully our relationship to the King and His Kingdom.  In that metaphor, regardless if you're a male or female, we are the woman and Christ is the man.  What does that mean for us as we develop our theology of our King and His Kingdom?

Our current discussion here at wildernesschild is wrestling with the words used to describe the what the female was.  At the bottom of this post are the verses in the Scriptures that use the same word as found in Genesis 2:18.  What I am interested in chewing on here is what the word help directly refers to.  In other words help to do what?  Or maybe what is this helper capable of.  I will do that by posting the 21 verses here that use the word "ezer" and then we'll look and see what the word help implies is going to happen.  [I'm still having trouble finding a program that renders the Hebrew to say "ezer kenegdo".  I have no problem finding theologians who say that this is the phrase used in this verse but I can't find a Hebrew translation that says this is so.  Why is that?]

One other discussion that I think is appropriate here is our understanding of the word help.  When the word help was used did it mean help in the sense of making things easier?  Or did it mean help in the sense of coming to the aid of and making a way possible where there seemed to be no way?  Historically the church has focused on the first concept that helper meant making things easier.  But my argument is that this does damage to our theology of women and marriage and ultimately the church and our marriage to Christ.  This also does damage to our theology of God as our helper and breeds the potential to view ourselves as one who could use God's help to make things easier but it would not be necessary.  As I read the verses below I see a helper who is necessary, needed urgently and someone who is essentially life sustaining!

My next thought was to say, but aren't we taking from the glory of Christ our King and husband if we assume the bride to have this kind of definition?  And yet I can't escape the fact that we are only doing the very thing which he commanded us to do and we're being the very thing which he created us to be [Matthew 16:18].  He has commanded us to be His helper in His Kingdom.  It is by His authority that he has given to us this ability - an authority that was given to him [Matthew 28:18-20].  It's in another metaphor describing our relationship to Christ that the writer of [Hebrews] says that Christ considers us as brothers (granted the first born) and we are neither superior nor inferior.  But we can know that those whom He has "predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified"

So when it comes to this King and His Kingdom what appears to be shaping our thinking?  Are we in Christ in such a way that this is the new creation - one that has been married and is now to be described as two who have become one flesh?  Have we been taken from Christ rib (to jump back into the creation metaphor) and are we now "bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh"?  Maybe we are not taking away any glory from Christ but instead we are boldly reflecting most radiantly that glory which is the King and His Kingdom.

Listed below are the other verses in the OT which use the term ezer.  Maybe you can read them again for the first time with ears that hear and eyes that see.

• As you've read through these verses what is at the heart of word ezer (to help or aid)?
• When the word help was used did it mean help in the sense of making things easier?
• Or did it mean help in the sense of coming to the aid of and making a way possible where there seemed to be no way?
• What did the word help directly refer to?  In other words help to do what?
• What is the helper capable of doing?
• Based on the uses that we find here how would you define helper.  Do you find my definition of help being someone who is necessary, needed urgently and essentially life sustaining?
• Why is it that something in me screams "YES! THIS IS THE CHURCH IN ALL HER GLORY!" and yet sadly enough I've never thought of other women in this kind of light?
• Have I acquired a very Christ-honoring view of women and their role in creation?
• How does my understanding of ezer not fit my current view of my wife and other women who are in my circle of influence?
• Lord, what is your view of women and the church as Christ bride?  What does this mean regarding Christ our King and His Kingdom?  Father, "I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!"