Ezer.
Focus on the wife as her husband’s helper has led to the belief that God gave primary roles and responsibilities to men, and secondary, supporting roles to women. It has led to practices that communicate that women are second class citizens at home and in the church. None of this is true. There is nothing second class about God’s vision for his daughters, and the ezer holds the clues.
~ Carolyn Custis James
election, 4.
This week’s post comes from my friend Erin Richer, a pastor and spiritual director in San Diego, and a colleague in our doctoral program.
As a female pastor raised in evangelicalism, sexism has harmed both me and the Kingdom of God in ways we won’t fully grasp this side of the veil. I grew up in a family and an environment in which I could do or be anything I desired. It wasn’t until I engaged in Christian community that I encountered sexism and stumbling blocks for my leadership gifts. The church has been the sole perpetrator of sexism against me. Not my husband. Not my family of origin. The Church.
I love Scripture and hold it in the highest regard. It is poor interpretations of Genesis 1 and 2 which lead to other-ing between the sexes. A reasonable and scholarly interpretation reveals intimacy and mutuality between human beings of all differences starting with male and female. Therefore, the conversation around other-ing should always begin with sexism. In other words, our misinterpretation of Gensis 1 and 2 is not just the heart of sexism, it is the heart of all other-ing—racism, classism, ablism, and partisanship. My hope is that by the end of this reading, you’ll see it too.
In Genesis 1 we see God made humanity as male and female in God’s own image (v. 27), and their mutual purpose was to steward, care for, and cultivate creation (v. 28). This call to care for creation includes land, plants, creatures, and other human beings, which points to Cain’s question after the fall of humanity. “Am I my [sibling’s] keeper?” The correct answer based on Genesis 1 was and is definitively, “Yes.”
In Genesis 2, we’re told that Creator-God intends for human beings not to be alone. This human needs a strong rescuer, in Hebrew the word is ‘êzer neg̱eḏ. But something unexpected happens.
God doesn’t immediately create an ‘êzer neg̱eḏ. This has always fascinated me. It seems, the next sentence should certainly be, “So, God created ‘êzer neg̱eḏ.” Instead, God brings every creature before the earth-being for naming. The human points to each one: “Lion, Lioness, Buck, Doe, Rooster, Hen...”
At what point in this process did longing stir for a corresponding human in the way that a doe corresponds to a buck? Another human that fully shared in the purpose and joy of stewarding, naming, and enjoying this new thing called life? At some point, the human does recognize the longing and says what God knew before the naming process started: There is nothing that corresponds (neg̱eḏ) to me. Some corresponding creature was missing. God created a longing. and God had a plan to fulfill it with ‘êzer neg̱eḏ.
Ezer is generally translated with the anemic word “helper” that disguises its explosive power. Indeed, the word is used most often (16 times) for God’s salvific help in times of desperation, as in Psalm 46:1: “God is my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” This “helper” is better translated “rescuer” or “warrior.” While the human slept, God created another human, a salvific helper—a rescuing warrior—and brings this person to the human, who declares, “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” This is so incredibly significant.
Do not miss this: By naming all the creatures, which were different, God primed the human. In all the female’s differences—the most different kind of human—the man saw a human. He saw sameness. In the one he would call woman—the “other” human—the man saw his own flesh and bone with whom he shares human nature and purpose. The human declares:
My flesh and bone! We are the same!
What we see here is a human recognizing a human—a powerful rescuer from loneliness—to share in the joy of co-creation with God and other. It’s deep calling to deep. It’s a foreshadowing of the Kingdom Jesus came to restore and applies to every human relationship: male and female, Jew and gentile, slave and free. When our eyes are opened to see with Kingdom lenses, when we look at every other image-bearer, we see first and foremost a sameness in kind and purpose that eclipses all differences.
This is the intimacy we’re invited to share with God and one another because of the Spirit given to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Anything that marginalizes this equal, collaborative partnership, whether in the church or in society at large, is a threat to the Kingdom community Jesus came to establish.
growing your soul
Is there anything in your heart that resists—either as a man or woman—the full partnership that God calls us to in the Kingdom community?
serving our world
What woman in your sphere of influence needs a boost of encouragement to use her voice and move toward the fullness of her gifted being?
takeaway
Rescuing Warrior!