So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. – Genesis 1:27

 

Who am I?
I am a human being created by God in His image. (Gen. 1:26)
I am a woman. Not because I feel like a woman or look like a woman. I am a woman because God made me a woman. (Gen. 1:27)
Why did God make me? God made me to bring glory to Him (Jer. 9:23-24; Rev.4:11)
How do I bring glory to God? By knowing and fulfilling the role He has assigned to me.

When God made me, He assigned me my:
Identity (made in God’s image)
Gender – Female (The Bible always equates gender with biological sex.)
Role (worshipper of God and help meet to the man)

God did not leave me confused in any of these areas. As creator of all mankind, God assigns to everyone He has made their identity, gender and their role.

Genesis 1:26-28
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
From the beginning, we see God assigning Adam and Eve their identity – image bearers, their gender – male and female and their roles, Adam was created first, so the leader and then Eve was given to Adam as a help mate.

Genesis 2: 15-18, 21-23
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.

The scriptures in Genesis 1 and 2 above shows that I am the descendant of the first man and woman ever created by God – Adam and Eve. They were created sinless and perfect.

God created the man out of the earth and the woman out of the man, she was brought to the man by God and she was named by the man. Adam recognized immediately that she came out from him and was made for him. He called her ‘woman’. The man was created first to be the leader. He was to teach the woman God’s commands and lead her in the worship of God.

Being created first and given the position of leadership by God did not mean the man was superior to the woman, it meant he had a different God ordained role from the woman. God made him the head, the leader and He made the woman specifically for the man, suitable to his needs and to be his helper. (Gen.2:18).

The Hebrew word for helper is ‘ʿēzer’  The same word is often used in scripture to describe the help we get from God. ʿēzer  is the same word used for help in Psalms 121:2, Psalms 115:10, Psalms 124:8, as well in a host of other scriptures.  It is the root word for the name : Eliezer (Ex.18:4) – which means God is my help. The woman then was created to help the man be and do all the Lord has called him to be and do.

Adam, as the leader was given the very first command ever recorded in scripture with a consequence for breaking it. It was a command on how to live forever with God. All this was done before the woman came into the picture. The command is recorded in Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

So, What did Adam do with the command he was given?  How does all this help me understand my place in God’s story?  What does all this mean? We will explore that in future blog articles.

 

Soli Deo Gloria!