Going Back To Our Beginning

So, we’re about to get a little bit bible-heavy, but I promise it will be SO worth it – this is about to get really great.

We’re going right back to the beginning, our beginning, you ready?

Let’s go.

Way back at the beginning of time, God designed, chiselled and shaped the wonder that is humanity, it all started with just one man. But he had an issue with what he had made, the man was alone and that simply wasn’t good enough for God. Community is one of his favourite things after-all.

So, what did God do? He made ‘a helper suitable’ for the man (Genesis 2:18) AKA a woman.

I don’t know about you, but I read that sentence and I’m just a little like, ugh. A helper? Really? Is that really all God wants me to be? Was that seriously his plan for me all along?

These are questions I’ve asked myself a million and one times. That was, until I realised something amazing, something that I will never not know again, something that has been hidden in plain sight all this time.

You want in? It’d be my pleasure…

What I realised is that this sentence is one of the times where our English language doesn’t quite do justice to the original Hebrew it is trying to translate (I know this is getting nerdy, bare with me!) because in the original Hebrew version, this word ‘helper’ is actually ‘ezer’.

This is BIG news.

You see, the word ‘ezer’ is used twenty-one times in the Bible, and around sixteen of those times it’s actually used to describe God himself: When he’s saving his people, when he’s defending the ones he loves, and when he comes through for people who really need him. In those cases, he’s called an ‘ezer’.

I KNOW.

All of a sudden, we see this word in a whoooooole new light, it’s a word that means strengthener, defender, guardian, warrior, cherisher, advisor, teacher – the list is pretty endless. God’s an ‘ezer’ and so are you.

This word is actually filled with strength, vulnerability and beauty. How empowering is that?!

But let’s not stop there. What about that second bit, the bit that calls us ‘suitable’. That word is ‘kenegedu’, which is means more that just suitable, it means to mirror, parallel or equal someone else.

So let’s go back to our beginning and re-phrase: “it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a power to equal him.” (Genesis 2:18)

That’s who women are. It’s who we’ve always been. This was God’s intention all along.

Have a think about the women in your life – the women who have shaped who you are, they are total ‘ezers’, right?! When we know and understand who God intended women to be, we’ll notice that they’re all around us, empowering us, protecting us, leading us and encouraging us.

So ladies, now have a think about yourself in the light of this fresh new title, does this change the way you think about yourself? Does this fill you with a sense of purpose and identity? It should, because God looked at this world and thought it was missing something – it was missing you.

We’re commissioned to bring little pieces of Heaven to Earth, to see amazing things happen, to be a part of the action. Being a woman doesn’t get in the way of that! Maybe it’s about time we started viewing ourselves the way our creator views us, seeing the potential he see’s in us and allowing his voice to define us over any other.

Maybe it’s time we went back to the beginning, our beginning. Maybe we’ll re-find our identity there.