What Happened to Us in Eden? - Psychology of the FallSample

SUITABLE HELPER, STRONG ALLY

The second account, where we’ll pause now, opens the door to some key realities:

• at first, the woman wasn’t there yet; she was created later.
• the text highlights it plainly: “It is not good for the man to be alone.”
• Adam lacked a suitable helper—literally, in Hebrew, a “strong ally”—which all the other living creatures already had. Without this, the assignment from the first account could not be fulfilled. Something was missing, but it wasn’t a “mistake by God.” There is always purpose in His timing.

The presence of the woman was to be much more than simply a gender complement for sexuality and reproduction—things that the rest of creation already carried out. The word used to describe the kind of helper the woman would be, ezer, is the same word used for God Himself as our Helper.

That nuance is no small thing. It shows clearly that this help doesn’t imply hierarchy. Rather, its meaning is more like an embrace—someone who surrounds, supports, and strengthens. A strong ally.

And yet, tragically, women have often been reduced to sexuality and motherhood as if those were their only purposes. This has caused deep hurt and confusion—not because sexuality and motherhood are bad in themselves (something many feminists misunderstand), but because of the misuse and distortion of them throughout history.

Let’s go back to the account in Genesis 2 and look more closely at some details:

• God forms all the animals from the ground and brings them to Adam to be named.
• This only highlights even more clearly the absence of a suitable helper, since none was found for him after the task was completed.
• Then God brings a deep sleep over Adam, and from his very flesh and bones—not from the ground, though Adam himself was formed from it—He makes a woman.
• Once she is created, God brings her to Adam, who exclaims: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.”

Is there a greater declaration of equality than that?

And could it be that, by embracing the idea of woman as a strong ally, we might renew our vision of how men and women can walk and build together—reflecting the heart of our true Helper?