Where does “the woman” belong?
There is much controversy in Christian circles over whether or not women should pursue work outside of the home. The women’s liberation movement of the 1960′s drew two rather extreme responses from the Church: either we jumped right on the equal rights bandwagon and set up church day schools and child-care centers to help the church women pursue careers, or we withdrew in shock and horror and deemed anything not concerned with home or children inappropriate, even unbiblical, for women’s interest. Extremes usually fall short of wisdom. These responses are no exception.
God’s Image of Woman
Genesis gives us a clear view of what woman is created to be.
So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:27-28, NASB).
God’s creation of both male and female was in His own image; so we see, first, that woman was created to reflect God’s image. God’s instruction to both man and woman was to be fruitful, multiply, replenish and subdue the earth, and have dominion over all living creatures on the earth. The command to mankind in general was to procreate, to fill the earth with people, and to rule over the earth and all it contained.
The command to mankind as separate sexes is explained in Genesis 2:
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. (Genesis 2:15).
This instruction is specifically to the male, as the female has not yet been formed. Adam is to “dress” the garden, or to work and labor in it, and to “keep” the garden, which implies having charge of, guarding, and retaining it. If this is the man’s specific job, what is the woman’s? And the LORD God said, [It is] not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. …
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. (Genesis 2:18, 22).
God does not make another garden and lead the woman to it and give her the same set of instructions as he did the man. Instead, he creates woman and leads her to the man. She has been deemed his help meet: his capable helper, one fit to assist him in the work he has been given.
The Mandate: Woman as Help Meet
Woman was created to be a help meet to man. Every liberated woman will roar (as women are said to do) at this statement, but it is simple truth. God’s promise is that the truth will set us free, so accept this truth as something that leads to greater freedom, not less, for us as women.
God says woman is to be a help meet. He does not say, “I will make a homemaker for him…” or “I will make a domestic slave for him…” or “I will make an additional income provider for him….” Yet, O Women, have we not identified ourselves in such roles before? Homemaking is not next to godliness; neither is having a career. Neither pursuit is our God-mandated work. At different times we may be called upon to be homemakers or to be assistants in a different sphere. Let us not confuse the means with the mandate. The mandate is to be a help meet. The means will vary.
Putting the Mandate First
When any work becomes more important than the work of helping our husbands, we have fallen away from God’s mandate. Sister, your house may be clean, your meals may be perfect, your children may be excelling at everything you put before them; but what is the motive of your work? What is your heart? Have you forgotten the mandate in your busy, efficient home management? Sister, your work may be valuable, your income may be treasured, your contribution may be unquestioned; but what is the motive of your work? What is your heart? Have you forgotten the mandate in your smart, diligent pursuit of a career?
Neither the home nor the office can claim exclusive rights over “a woman’s place.” God has defined that place as something beyond physical and social boundaries, something that can change as the seasons of life change without compromising its purpose. To assist our husbands in ruling the earth is a broader and greater work than we have deemed ourselves capable of. Let us walk in faith, and not be so small-minded as to limit our lives to only one small part of this work.