What is a shield mate?
Have you ever seen a battle scene in a movie where one person is fighting with a sword, and someone was beside him holding a shield and protecting him on the opposite side from the sword, not hindering the one actively fighting. They worked together and were a much better team than if they were alone. Marriage is like that. Husband and wife are to be a team fighting together against an enemy. God has put the two of you together to fight alongside each other, and protect each other. Many times the case is often the opposite, we are fighting against each other, and the enemy is watching with great delight as we win the battle in his favor instead of for our King.
I believe that as a wife, it is my job to be my husband’s shield mate. If my husband is engaged in the battle, he is the one actively fighting and protecting my children and I from the enemy. If he is not I feel lost, alone and vulnerable. If he is not it is my job to encourage him to follow The King into battle. When he does, I need to join him in the battle as his shield mate. I need to block and protect my husband from attacks lobed by the enemy. I also need to block my husband from pursuing, and falling for the enemy’s tricks and lies. My job is to point him back to obeying and following hard after The King.
Why, do I need to be a shield mate?
We are in a battle. This battle is for our souls. The battle between good and evil. A battle between God (our King) and Satan (the enemy).
Our enemy’s job is to kill, steal and destroy anything and everything that God has made and loves.
God has designed marriage and said that it was not good for man to be alone. When God made Eve from Adam’s side, and brought them together God pronounced it very good, not just good. God knew that life would be hard to live alone. He knew that Adam would need a helpmate/helper suitable. In Hebrew those words are translated Ezer kenegdo. Ezer is used in the bible to describe only God Himself, when man desperately needed God to come through, to be a life saver.
The true Hebrew meaning of “ezer” is actually a combination of two words, strength and power. Definitions of ezer that are used in the Bible can mean “to save” or “to be strong.” In Genesis 2:18b, when God speaks of the woman He is to create to relieve the man’s loneliness, He is surely not creating this woman to be the man’s savior. This makes no sense. God creates this new human to be, like the man, a power (or strength) superior to the animals. This is the true meaning of ezer as it is used in this passage.
The second word from Genesis 2:18b that we must examine is kenegdô. This word appears in the Bible only once. In Hebrew, the root keneged means “equal,” When God creates Eve from Adam’s rib, I believe that His intent is that she will be—unlike the animals—”a power (or strength) equal to him.” ezer
kenegdo fills the literary function of two phrases in Genesis 1—“in the image of God” and “male and female He created them.” Eve is in Adam’s image to the degree that she is his equal—just as man is created in God’s image in that he fulfills an comparable role, “male and female He created them” does not lead us to conclude the superiority of either.
“The word ezer is used only twenty other places in the entire Old Testament. And in every other instance the person being described is God himself, when you need him to come through for you *desperately*. (Deut 33:26, 29; Ps 121:1-2; Ps 33:20; Ps 115:9-11)
“Most of the contexts are life and death by the way, and God is your only hope. Your ezer. If he is not there beside you…you are dead. A better translation therefore for ezer would be “lifesaver”. Kenegdo means alongside, or opposite to, a counterpart.” "Redeemed women of God have tender, merciful hearts, backbones of steel, and hands that have been trained for battle. There is something incredibly fierce in the heart of a woman that is to be contended with, not dismissed, not disdained, but recognized, honored, welcomed and trained." (Captivating, 31-32)So get ready for battle ladies, put on the Armor of God and take your place beside your husband. Engage and fight beside him, not against him, but together, side by side, protecting each other, lifting each other up, pointing each other to God, encouraging one another. That is the only way to survive the attacks launched against God's beloved children. We need to work together for the benefit of each other and for those God has blessed us with our children. To work against each other is to work for the enemy. To work and fight against each other, only with yourself in mind is also a way you will join with the enemies ranks. Life together is meant to be shared, not to be looking out for number one. It is to look out for the others that God has put into your life as well. God meant for you to be equal partners in this life. He told Adam and Eve to rule over the earth and subdue it. He did not mean for us to be alone, we are equally needed in this battle.
Praise God!
But Adam didn't find a helper that was right for him. So the Lord God caused him to fall into a deep sleep. While the man was sleeping, the Lord God took out one of his ribs. He closed up the opening that was in his side.
Then the Lord God made a woman. He made her from the rib he had taken out of the man. And he brought her to him.
The man said,
"Her bones have come from my bones.
Her body has come from my body.
She will be named 'woman,'
because she was taken out of a man."
That's why a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. The two of them will become one.
Then God said, "Let us make man in our likeness. Let them rule over the fish in the waters and the birds of the air. Let them rule over the livestock and over the whole earth. Let them rule over all of the creatures that move along the ground."
So God created man in his own likeness.
He created him in the likeness of God.
He created them as male and female.
God blessed them. He said to them, "Have children and increase your numbers. Fill the earth and bring it under your control. Rule over the fish in the waters and the birds of the air. Rule over every living creature that moves on the ground."
So God created man in his own likeness.
He created him in the likeness of God.
He created them as male and female.
God blessed them. He said to them, "Have children and increase your numbers. Fill the earth and bring it under your control. Rule over the fish in the waters and the birds of the air. Rule over every living creature that moves on the ground."
