MY MARRIAGE IS HONOURABLE
MY MARRIAGE IS HONOURABLE
A DAILY DEVOTIONAL
She’s not a junior Partner
THURSDAY APRIL 4, 2024
NIYI ODUNSI
“ Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.” ( 1 Peter 3:7)
The Bible has adequate information that shows that every child of God has a divine assignment and by now I’m sure you know that your spouse is best suited as God’s special help-meet to help you succeed in His divine assignment for you. However, there are some misconceptions about the word “Help meet” and over time, men have considered their wives as subordinates.
In our theme scripture, the great Apostle Peter warns us of the consequences of such a wrong mindset. There’s no doubt that the Husband is the head of the wife but that doesn’t automatically translate to the wife being a subordinate. Lets take a closer look at the compound word “Help meet” to see what it actually means.
“Help meet” is from the Hebrew word “ezer” and it simply means aid or help. But ezer is from the root word “azar” and this is where it gets interesting. The word azar means “to surround, that is to protect or aid; help, succour”. This means that God gave Adam a Help meet for protection, aid and succour. The word succour is a variant of the original word succor, which is from the Latin word succurrere. It means to run up, run to help. It also means relief or something that furnishes relief.
When you consider that God gave Eve to Adam as a Help meet, and as such Eve was to protect (surround) aid and furnish relief to Adam, you begin to see that it wasn’t God’s intention to make her subordinate to Adam. There’s no account in the Bible that suggests that Adam treated Eve as subordinate.
The word ezer is also translated as “Help” twenty one times in the Old Testament. Now, more than half of the times the word is used, it is used for God or in relation to God. A good example is in Psalm 121;1-2 “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. 2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.”
Well, if God also used the word for Himself some eleven times in the context of helping man, can we say that a Help meet is subordinate? Surely, God is neither subordinate nor inferior to us. There’s just no scriptural backing for the idea that Eve was subordinate to Adam because God made her a Help meet for him.
A wife cannot be and is not subordinate or inferior to her husband. Dear Husband, if you have this wrong notion, you’d do well to renew your mind. You have to be grateful for and treat your wife as your Protector, Aid and Succour. To do otherwise is to work against your success and have the heavens closed to your prayers.
CONFESSION
I thank you Father that you did not leave me without help for the assignment you’ve given me to accomplish. I acknowledge that my spouse is my Helper, my Aid and my Succour for the assignment you’ve so graciously chosen us to accomplish. I declare that my spouse and I shall with great joy accomplish the assignment that you have given us.Thank you Lord Jesus.
FURTHER STUDY
Psalm 20:2, Psalm 33:20, I Peter 3:7, Ephesians 5:23