More for the women.
Sorry, those of you out there of the Y chromosome.
From Captivating:
“God endows Woman with certain qualities that are essential to relationship, qualities that speak of God.
She is inviting.
She is vulnerable.
She embodies mercy.
She is also fierce and fiercely devoted.
As the old saying goes, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” That’s just how God acts when He isn’t chosen.
“I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not share your affection with any other god!” (Ex. 20:5 NLT).
A woman’s righteous jealousy speaks of the jealousy of God for us.
While Eve has a glory for relationship, that is not all she is essential for.
Back in Genesis, when God set His image bearers on the earth, He gives them their mission:
And God said, “Let us make a human in our image, by our likeness, to hold sway over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the heavens and the cattle and the wild beasts and all the crawling things that crawl upon the earth.
And God created the human in his 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 conquer it, and hold sway over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the heavens and every beast that crawls upon the earth.: (Gen. 1:26-28)
Call it the Human Mission – to be all and do all God sent us here to do. And notice – the mission to be fruitful and conquer and hold sway is given both to Adam and to Eve. Eve is standing right there when God gives the world over to us. She has a vital role to play; she is partner in this great adventure…
When God creates Eve, he calls her an ezer kenegdo.
Hebrew scholar Robert Alter, who spent years translating the book of Genesis, says that this phrase is “notoriously difficult to translate.” Alter is getting close when he translates it “sustainer beside him.”
The word ezer is used only twenty other places in the entire Old Testament. And in every other instance the person being described is God Himself, when you need Him to come through for you desperately.
You see, the life God calls us to is not a safe life. Ask Joseph, Abraham, Moses, Deborah, Esther…ask Mary and Lazarus; as Peter, James, and John…
God calls us to a life involving frequent risks and many dangers. Why else would we need Him to be our ezer?
The longing in the heart of a woman to share life together as a great adventure – that comes straight from the heart of God, who also longs for this. He does not want to be an option in our lives. Neither does a woman. Eve is essential. She has an irreplaceable role to play.
And so you’ll see that women are endowed with fierce devotion, an ability to suffer great hardships, a vision to make the world a better place…
It is here, starting in our circles of intimacy, that we are first and foremost women. It is here that we must first turn our gaze to ask,
“What does it look like to offer my Beauty, my fierce devotion, my love? How do they need me to be their ezer?”
You have an irreplaceable role in your relationships. No one can be to the people in your life who you can be to them. No one can offer what you can offer.
There are many things God calls us to do, but loving well always comes first.
And don’t your relationships feel opposed?
Of course, they must be fought for.
[The enemy] makes a woman feel like, “What do I have to offer, really? They’re probably doing fine.”
Don’t you believe it for a moment. You have been sent by the Trinity on behalf of love, of relationships.
Fight for them…
Many of the Scriptures on the role of women in the church are a reflection of God’s concern for a woman’s protection and spiritual covering. We live in a dangerous world. Satan’s opposition of the Church is vicious. He bears a special hatred for Eve.
It follows that God would want to ensure that a woman helping to advance His Kingdom would be offered the covering and protection of good men. Issues of headship and authority are intended for the benefit of women, not their suppression. You know how dangerous it can be to try to come alive as a truly feminine woman. Right?
God desires that wherever and however you offer yourself to the Body of Christ, you’ll have the protection of good men over you. Not to hold you back, but to set you free as a woman. Christ has made man as his warrior, to offer his strength on behalf of Eve so that she might flourish.”