Welcome to As He Leads Podcast - a Bible study for busy women! I am Rachel Kennedy and I'll be guiding our journey through scripture today. In case you notice a discrepancy in dates, I wanted to offer an explanation. I was sick with a bad cold and lost my voice so I couldn't record anything for about a week. Hopefully, that won't happen again and we'll be meeting daily. 

Today's Takeaways: 

• Woman was created as a helper (êzer) for man. We were given one of God's own names! 
• God saw Adam's need for a partner but didn't immediately fulfill the need. He met the need when Adam realized the need, too. 
• We cannot meet the needs of our husbands if they don't recognize their own needs. As a helpmate, watch for ways to help.

From The MacArthur Bible Commentary:

• 2:17 surely die. To die has the basic idea of separation. It can mean spiritual separation, physical separation, and/or eternal separation. At the moment of their sin, Adam and Eve died spiritually but, because God was merciful, they did not die physically until later (5:5). There is no reason given for this prohibition, other than it was a test (see note on v. 9). There was nothing magical about that tree, but eating from it after it had been forbidden by God would indeed give man the knowledge of evil-since evil can be defined as disobeying God. Man already had the knowledge of good.

From Strong's Bible Concordance

verse 18 the Hebrew word helper here is ‛êzer. There are 21 uses of the word ‛êzer in the Old Testament. In all but three of those instances, ‛êzer is used in reference to God Himself.

From Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible for Genesis 2:18-25:

• it is not good for the man to be alone (vs 18-19) — In the midst of plenty and delights, he was conscious of feelings he could not gratify. To make him sensible of his wants, God brought unto Adam — not all the animals in existence, but those chiefly in his immediate neighborhood to be subservient to his use.
• Genesis 2:19-20 ESV
• And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name - His powers of perception and intelligence were supernaturally enlarged to know the characters, habits, and uses of each species that was brought to him. The design of this singular scene was to show him that none of the living creatures he saw were on an equal footing with himself, and that while each class came with its mate of the same nature, form, and habits, he alone had no companion.
• took one of his ribs — “She was not made out of his head to surpass him, nor from his feet to be trampled on, but from his side to be equal to him, and near his heart to be dear to him.”

Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions, concerns, observations, comments, or complaints at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you!

Rachel Kennedy

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