The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Gen. 2:18)
Everything God made was good. As creation week passed day by day, God pronounced everything he made as good. When he gathered the waters into seas and dry ground appeared, it was good. When the land burst forth in all kinds of vegetation, it was good. When he positioned the sun, moon, and stars in their places, it was good. He created the creatures of the sea and the birds of the air, and it was good. When the land produced living creatures, livestock of every kind, it was good.
But after God made man in his own image, he declared it was not good. He wasn’t saying the man was not good. Rather it was “not good for the man to be alone.” God did not want him to live in isolation. Furthermore, the man had no way to reproduce himself.
When the Scripture calls the man’s mate a “helper,” it does not imply she was somehow subordinate to him. God actually uses the same Hebrew word to refer to himself on occasion. For instance, in Psalm 33:20, the psalmist says, “We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.” One commentator says “helper” means someone who assists another to reach complete fulfillment. What a great way to consider the role husbands and wives play in helping each other find their fulfillment in God.
List some ways husbands and wives help each other be stronger believers.
Ron McClung lives in Fishers, Indiana, with his wife, Carol. He has served The Wesleyan Church for over fifty years and written his weekly column, Positive Perspective, for more than thirty.
© 2020 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
