Helper Does Not Mean Servant

I am not a feminist.

Sorry to disappoint some of you.

I am also not a misogynist, so there ya go.

I grew up in a tradition that taught female subordination to male headship.  Male was created first, female to be his helper.  With this in mind, it was obvious that the Bible called women to be servants to men; specifically wives to their husbands.  This is what I knew.

But is that what Genesis really says?

Out and In: the Faithful Promise

Abraham is more talked about in the New Testament than Adam.  Abraham is more talked about than David, Solomon, or any of the prophets.

Abraham, we could say, is important.

This wanderer, this nomad, is crucial to the faith we inherit.

And I noticed something amazing as I read the story of this man's calling:

"Come out of your land, out of your people, our of your father's household, and come into a land I will show you."

Out of and into...

Out of and into...

Out of and into...

Our English translations rarely do justice to this simple comparison.  This was more than just a simple call to leave a geographical position.  This was more than a statement of relocation.

This was a call to leave an identity and come into another.

Abraham's identity was changing.  He was no longer a person among his genetic heritage.  He was no longer constrained by his past geopolitical environment.  He was new.  He was in a new land.  God was creating a people and a nation that didn't exist yet.

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And in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.  For out of many nations and peoples and identities we are now brought into one person:  Christ.