What is a WOMAN according to Scriptures?

 

Creation was perfect 

but 

incomplete without the woman

The LORD God made a new creature call "woman" expressly to complete man. The design of "woman" is in harmony with Creation as a whole, with her biology and with her psychology; in Genesis chapter 2, the Scriptures tell us that she was created to be a HELPER to Adam because Adam was incomplete. 

Gen. 2:20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. 

Gen. 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

Gen. 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made a woman, and brought her unto the man.

Gen. 2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

In Genesis chapter 3, we read another word that captures what "woman" is; she is a MOTHER.  

Gen. 3:20 The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 

Motherhood comes from the Hebrew word "Hawwah" which means the living one or the source of life; Eve is referred to in the Bible as the Mother of All Living. 

In the Creation narrative, woman has a mandate; firstly she has a mandate towards another person; Adam. 

That interpersonal orientation is quite a hated thought in our day and age because we live in a world of self advancement; individual power and independence. These values are highly coveted and these narratives are taught to young women; the new world values are grasping at power but unfortunately it does not value the giver of power. It values "being strong" but it does not value the rendering of strength. 

It values self-expression and does not value helping the other to achieve; it values first, and it does not value being second. 

It turns out that God's values are incredibly different to our modern ways and that demands our attention in itself. It turns out that heaven's rewards system is very different to this world's reward system. 

The first mention of woman is that of a "helper" and this in itself describes feminity. Modern psychology tells us that woman has a special interest in the interpersonal realm. We say "a woman intuition". We have all experienced the interpersonal antenna of wives, mothers or female colleagues and friends. This female intuition understands people and sees past the spoken words; it anticipates needs and meet them, it can discern deficiencies and weaknesses and intercede for them, it can see anxieties below the surface and comfort them. 

These interpersonal qualities of woman is an interpersonal strength that has become a pillar of strength in our lives; in our homes. Though subtle, it is a reality. 

Man and woman are different. They complete each other as was the plan in the Garden of Eden.  That was the sovereign wisdom of the LORD God. 

There is nothing about woman that God has endorsed more than motherhood. The first endorsement of motherhood is very early in the Bible; it is found in a promise of God:

Gen. 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head; and you shall bruise his heel. 

The LORD God announced that Satan's head will be crushed by a mother's child and sin and death will end. That is the grand plan for the cosmos and in the LORD's first announcement of that plan, which theologians call the Proto Evangelium, the First Gospel, God places a humble, forgotten, selfless and often despised motherhood right there, at the centre of His plan of redemption for mankind. 

The seed of the woman becomes the hope for mankind. 

The worst moment in Bible history from the long anarchy of the days of the judges to the enslavement of the people of God in Egypt, to the silent 400 years at the end of the Old Testament, when the people are longing for a Messiah, each of these periods ends with a motherhood story. 

Period of Judges - Hannah prayed for Samuel who ended the days of Judges and inaugurated the monarchy for Israel and anointed the first two kings; Saul and David. 

Jochebed hid her child (Moses) in the bulrush and Moses grew up with Pharoah and ended the days of slavery for Israel. 

Elizabeth birth John the Baptist who becomes the prophet to foretells the coming of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. 

Mary, a young adolescent, was obedient to God and she becomes the mother of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Satan is seeking to destroy the seed that will crush his head. The prospect that every child born could be his mortal foe to fulfil the promise of Genesis 3:15 has provoked him to do unspeakable demented evil against children because in his mind, the next child to be born might be his powerful enemy that will stand against wickedness and will promote salvation in the next generation. 

Satan was crushed at Calvary and he has an amplified desire for revenge against mothers and children. 

He was insulted with Jesus birth because his plan failed when a young, poor, powerless Jewish woman birthed Christ and crushed him and Christ will give him the fatal blow in the future. 

In our day and age, this belief of motherhood and helper is not a top priority in our culture. This belief deprives her from her self-fulfilment and her "true" empowerment in the eyes of society. She will pursue careers, sexual liberation and live young and free until she hits her mid-30s and realises that she had forgotten what is the most important reason of her existence. 

Satan is still alive and well. He still hates WOMAN because her seed crushed him and it continues to oppose him in a way that strikes fear and revenge in his heart. 

My dear sisters, it would be a mistake to entirely forget the unique thing that womanhood brings into this world where no amount of masculinity will ever compensate for. 

Let us all Come back to our roots. It is our calling. We were designed by God for something so important for the betterment of the earth.