Women as helpers?

Another Scripture that is used to “keep women in their place” comes in Genesis 2:18, God says “I will make a helper (ezer) fit for him (Adam).”  Women have long been told that this is their role—to be a helper to men, there to serve them.  It is an enlightening exercise, however, to look at the other occasions on which this word “helper” is used.  Of the 21 times, the Hebrew word “ezer” is used, in all but six it refers to God.  Typical examples include, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence comes my help.  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1, 2) or “Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 124:8).  The impression is more of a valued consultant brought in to assist where man is lacking than some kind of divinely appointed personal assistant.

Change is in the air.  There is currently a ground swell—a sense of the brooding of the Holy Spirit—over the topic of women in ministry.  It’s like the calm before the storm.  I believe that very soon we are going to see a movement of men and women—not a radical feminist movement of women reacting to the injustice of the past, but a move of God’s Holy Spirit where both men and women work together to free women into their destiny.  We will see Galatians 3:28—“There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians – you are one in Christ Jesus”—fulfilled in our lifetime.  What might happen when the other half of God’s army, the female warriors, begin to take their rightful place alongside the men to follow the Holy Spirit’s strategy in the world?