the first wife
Water cooler conversation:
What was your biggest win this week? What was your biggest challenge?
Do you believe in soulmates? What about love at first sight?
Unpack the Message:
At the end of each day of creation, God reflected on His work and called it good. Each element of His design was spoken into existence - He created something out of nothing. On the sixth day, God says, "Let us make mankind in our image." This is a trinitarian conversation - God speaking to Himself. He is both plural and singular - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - three in one. Verse 27 tells us He created mankind, male and female, in His image; he then blesses Adam and Eve, blessing them with fertility and dominion over creation.
Wives are Image Bearers.
The relationship between husband and wife mirrors the image of God to the world. As God exists three-in-one, so too the man and woman are to be one flesh when they marry. Richard Coekin says, "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live in a permanent, plural, equal, complementary, ordered, and loving union. And since we're created like God, we thrive in marriage relationships that mirror his trinitarian union."
At the end of the sixth day after He had created man, instead of saying it was "good," God says, "It is not good." It wasn't that His creation was lacking; instead, it is because it wasn't good for man to be alone. To remedy this, He takes a rib from the man and creates a woman. When a man and a woman marry, their loyalty is to one another above all other human relationships.
Wives are Equal Helpers
The term "helper" in no way connotes inferiority. There is order in the Trinity - both Jesus and the Holy Spirit submit to the Father's will, yet all are equally God. Likewise, just as Jesus rules over the church while also submitting to his Father, we have different roles in our human relationships. A woman may be in authority over her children or under the authority of her employer, pastor, or husband yet be equal in importance and dignity with them all. Likewise, within a marriage, the husband is the head, yet the wife is equal in stature and dignity to him. The word "helper" used here is the same Hebrew word used to describe God as our helper. Each is bone of bone and flesh of flesh. Because they are equal when they marry, they become transformed from two individual bodies into one body.
Wives are Equal Helpers with Bearing the Image of God
God formed Adam from the dust and gave him life by sharing His own breath (Genesis 2:7). Humanity is unique among all God's creations, having both a material body, an immaterial soul, and bear his image (Genesis 1:27).
Wives are Equal Helpers with Completing God's Creation
A husband and wife in a complementary relationship bear the image of God, helping to complete God's creation. God saw Adam alone and recognized he needed a partner, so He created a woman to be his partner, not his servant. A man and woman living together as one flesh help complete God's creation and God not only called this good but “very good.”
Wives are Equal Helpers with Enjoying God's Blessing
God's first instructions come as a blessing to Adam and Eve: to "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." They are given dominion over all creation and the blessing of procreation in a loving relationship.
Wives are Equal Helpers with Fulfilling God's Calling
When God created Adam, He recognized it wasn't good that Adam was alone. He created Eve to be in a relationship with him in a complementary relationship. Adam was incapable of fulfilling the mission God intended for him if Eve had not been created for him.
Wives are Equal Helpers with Walking in Obedience
In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve sin, and God's perfect creation is corrupted. From this point forward in time, their union is marred by the wife's desire to rule her husband and his desire to rule over her. God created man and woman to exist in equality - an image that reflects the image of God.
Reflect:
Why is it imperative that the husband and wife's loyalty is to one another above all other earthly relationships?
When you run into obstacles, roadblocks, or conflicts in your marriage, what's your default reaction?
Why do you think submission is seen as a negative in marriage?
Make a Move:
Identify one thing you can do this week to honor your spouse.
Prayer Prompt:
Father, help me to be a loving and wife to my husband so that he feels confident in his trust in me. May I enrich his life, comforting, encouraging, and doing him good as long as I live. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Father, thank you for the woman you have given me as my wife. Help me to see her through your eyes, an image-bearer of You, equal in value and in stature before you. Teach me to love her, to lead her, and create a home with her that honors You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.