word 4 women

Lesson 3

• Submitting each relationship to the authority of God’s Word
• Applying Foundational Principles of Biblical Womanhood to relationships
• Thinking Biblically and living covenantally

Lesson 2

God our Helper

As we learned in our first lesson, we were created by God to be an "ezer kenegdo."  A helper corresponding to that which is in front of you. We will look in the next few weeks at just what the helper design looks like in our daily lives.

The Hebrew Word ezer is used many times throughout the old testament to refer to God as our helper. We will walk through the following verses and discover some of the attributes of a helper and how that relates to our role as shown in scripture.

After 6 days of creation and God continued proclamation,  “it is good” we come to a point where God pronounces “it is NOT good”.  God refers here to Adam being "alone" as being "not good". As a result the Lord causes a great sleep to fall upon Adam and God removes from Adam’s side a bone and from this He builds woman.  In the Hebrew man is known as Ish and woman is known as Ishsha as she was formed from man. Adam at this point refers to the woman as

“bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”

 Take time and dwell on this statement. The first statement uttered by man of woman.

Several months ago when discussing biblical submission with my Sunday School class I asked the following question:

If your husband were to look at you and declare with all that was within Him

 “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”

would you hesitate to biblically submit to him in all things? The overwhelming answer was N o! There would be no hesitation.  As we further discussed the issue I reminded each woman that we are responsible before God for our actions and our sin. We were not to “wait” until we heard these words or something else to joyfully submit but we were to glorify our Father by faithfully following God’s plan for our lives by fulfilling the role established for us here in the book of Genesis.

Your Role?

 Our role is to be a “helper comparable”.

When you think of the word helper don’t become side tracked by visions of being a line leader in elementary school or “helping” pass out bulletins for the Christmas program. This is NOT what the Lord means in this scripture.

The Hebrew word here is “ezer”, this is the same word used numerous times in scripture to describe God as “our” helper. As I write this, the words to the hymn “Oh God Our help in Ages Past” flow through my mind. To link to the hymn click here:  http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/g/ogohiap.htm

Assignment

This week please read through the  six scriptures listed below and answer the following:

What has the Holy Spirit communicated to you in each of these verses?

What "helper" function is the  scripture relating?

What might I do in my daily life to best fulfill this function?

Lesson 1

As we begin our first Lesson together let’s step through a few things to be done with each lesson:

Prayerfully approach each lesson seeking to clear your mind of any preconceived notions and focusing on what the Holy Spirit will teach you.

Write notes as you read and study the book and the WORD and notate any questions you may have about the material. When you have completed your lesson please forward all questions and comments to cindy@word4women.com  answers and comments will be posted on the blog.

Before proceeding to the next lesson, ask yourself:  Why did God create me woman and how does that look in my day to day life.

**unless otherwise stated all scripture is from the ESV"; and "English Standard Version" are trademarks of Good News Publishers.

Now let’s move forward to the lesson. Below you will find the objective for Part one of Legacy of Biblical Womanhood.  If you have access to a printer I encourage you all to print this and display it in an area you will look at several times a day. In this way you will be reminding yourself of what you have studied.

Course Objective Part 1

To know the foundational principles of biblical womanhood

To use these foundational principles to articulate a biblical *apologetic for womanhood

 To cultivate an environment of grace among the participants in the study

** An apologetic is a defense: To give answer (proß apologian). "For an apology," the old sense of apologia, an answer back, a defense (not excuse), as in Acts 22:1, from apologeomai to defend (not to apologize).

*** Course objective is from Legacy of Biblical Womanhood by Susan Hunt and Barbara Thompson

1 Peter 3:15

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

Christian women are continually bombarded by questions from other women:

 ~      Why don’t you work outside the home?

 ~      Why do you ask your husband before you accept our invitations?

 ~      Don’t you feel like a second hand citizen?

 ~      And many many more…….

How do you answer these questions? Do you just smile and say because I am a Christian? Do you boldly proclaim “God told me to”?

While both of these answers may quiet someone for a moment, neither is a defense based on the Word of God.  As you read through Chapter One of Legacy of Biblical Womanhood, please pray and open your heart to the ministering of the Holy Spirit as you are guided through God’s Perfect Design for you.