A HISTORY OF THE INFLUENCE OF WOMEN

“It is not good for man to be alone, I will make a help-meet suitable for him.” After creation, Adam had a physical and emotional void. He was lonely. God passed all the animals before him and had him examine them and name them. There was no  creature with a sameness to him in physical features or in emotional likeness. He needed a soul-mate.

The Scriptures tell us that  all things were made by Jesus, our Redeemer. Creation began the long-range plan of the Godhead, a plan made before the foundation of the world. It is a mystery, only partially revealed to us through the Scriptures.

Adam was created with a capacity to relate to his Creator and he was unable to find another creature also made with this ability. God made Eve from Adam’s rib thus fulfilling this need. Ancient Jewish folklore teaches that a man with no wife lives without good, without help, without joy, without blessing and is incomplete.

Eve was appropriate  because Adam burst into joyful praise when he saw her. At last, a being  with whom he could relate, also important to him was the fact that she was a part of his own body. At last, he felt that he was complete! Although Eve was made from one of Adam’s ribs and was a part of his body, she was a separate individual.

Men and women were made for different roles in life. Eve was made to be an intellectual partner, an emotional partner, a sex partner and the bearer of children to make a family.

Women bear the children. She was created with the ability to nurse her children. Her body was made so that she could feed the helpless newborn. Most women are unhappy without children. The cry of an empty womb is pitiful and heart rending. Families are the foundation of civilization. This has always been God’s plan; even before the fall of man. Women being nurturers of their children was not part of the curse of Eve’s sin.

Many women today feel that they have been rendered powerless. NOT SO! What is power?  It is influence. Influence has an effect on the mind. Good women exert good influence on people‘s minds; evil women exert destructive influence on people‘s minds; Our greatest  power as humans is our ability to make choices, our second greatest power is our influence.

Thinking of influence as a power is strange to our thinking. Influence is such a different kind of power. It is not a gift, it is not a talent, it is a God given-power given to every human born. From the beginning of time women have wielded their influence not knowing that this power lasts forever.

Every woman is the “Daughter of Eve”. To some this statement means that women’s influence caused all of the problems in our lives. They acknowledge the power of a woman’s influence in a negative way.

Adam was created in the image of God. He made Eve a help-meet. Helpmeet suitable means it is innate and natural for a married woman is to want to help in a marriage; she was created to be this way. The perspective of a helper is someone who acts like God. Helping is unselfish, God is perfectly unselfish. Holy angels are messengers sent by God to help His people. We can choose to be rebellious against God, because we have free will. God will not make us do His will, but He is a helping God.

The God-human relationship becomes oppositional when a man or a woman refuse to listen and obey the Lord . If the man will not spiritually lead his wife; or the woman is not a willing help-meet, he/she is in disobedience to God.

Any time there is disobedience to God’s way, there is trouble in a marriage as well as in all other relationships. Many couples think that the marriage partner must ‘always be there’ fulfilling every want and desire that is imagined, but impossible for a human partner to fulfill. Marriage is a divine institution where God designed for the husband to be an unselfish, spiritual leader to his family. His wife is to be a suitable help-meet to his leading. This is the only way that marriage can be fulfilling, all other arrangements are in grave danger of failing.