Genesis 2:18
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
“Help meet“
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for “helper” is ezer. It means someone who provides help, and most of the time, it refers to God. God is shown as a powerful helper because He can save and protect. For example, in Psalm 121:1–2, it says, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” This shows that God is always there to help His people.
Psalm 115 reminds us three times to “Trust in the Lord: he is their help and their shield” (115:9–11). Believers are encouraged to wait for the Lord because He is “our help and our shield” (33:20). The word ezer is even used in a strong, protective way in Deuteronomy 33 to describe God’s help in battles as a warrior: “There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help” (Deut. 33:26).
It’s important to understand that being a helper (ezer) doesn’t mean the helper is less important than the person they are helping. In fact, when God created Eve in Genesis 2:18, He called her Adam’s helper (ezer), saying, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” This shows that men and women were made to work together and support each other. They are both of equal value in God’s eyes.
So then, according to God’s design, the husband and the wife have been designed by God to stand together and help each other fight the battles of life. And God is there as the divine ʿēzer to fight with them.
There’s also a related word, ezra, which is used only in the Psalms to describe God’s help for His people, like in Psalm 22:19: “But be not thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee to help me,” and Psalm 40:13: “Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me.”.
Adapted from
William D. Mounce, Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), 332.”
Comments