The Wife as God's Gift to Her Husband
God's original purpose for a woman is defined in Genesis 2:18-24.
18 Yahweh God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helpmate .” 19 So from the soil Yahweh God fashioned all the wild beasts and all the birds of the heaven. These he brought to the man to see what he would call them; each one was to bear the name the man would give it. 20 The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of the heavens and all the wild beasts. But no helpmate was suitable for man was found for him. 21 So Yahweh God made the man fall into a deep sleep. And while he slept, He took one of his ribs and enclosed it in flesh. 22 Yahweh God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. 23 The man exclaimed,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
This is to be called Woman,
for this was taken from Man.”
24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body.
If we will go back to the story of God's creation of the world in the book of Genesis, God was pleased with each of His creation, as the Bible said " God saw that it was good". It was only in the creation of man that God saw something that was not good, and that is, it was not good that the man should be alone (verse 18), and so He created the woman to be man's helpmate (verse 20).
But first, He created the cattles, birds and wild beasts and brought them to the man to name them (verse 19). We may wonder that this has no connection with the creation of the woman. But God actually planned this to allow the man to feel a sense of longing as he finds no one suitable to be his partner after he named every pair of animal.
In verse 22, God presented the woman to the man. This means that we are God's gift to our man. A precious gift to have and to hold, to love and to cherish till death do us part.
Verse 24 implies that the wife becomes the primary relationship of the husband as he leaves his father and mother.
Therefore it puts a big challenge to the wife to be a worthy gift of God to her husband, as she becomes his top most priority relationship over and above his parents.
As a helpmate, we are called to support our husband so that he can perform well his duty as the head of the family. We are called to submit to him as the church submits to Christ (Eph 5:22). It is not a mere blind submission but it should be out of faith in God and out of love for our husband.
God designed marriage such that the man and woman will have a common goal and vision to pursue one life together, not just to be happy, but to bear witness of what it means to know, love and serve God.
May God bless your marriage to bear witness of his love and mercy!
