A Mighty Warrior

The geese are going to get what the ganders got this morning. The theme for the Women's Weekend, as a lot of you know, is building bridges. And as I mentioned, so Roger's going to have to hear this again. So if I faint or have a heart attack or something, Roger can come up and finish the sermon for me, because he's heard it. This is what Evelyn has to have every week. I speak twice. But as I mentioned in the beginning, I thought about how to introduce it in the theme of building bridges.

And bridges are extremely important, especially during times of warfare. And the thought that came to me was the 1957 movie. It came out in 1957. That was the Bridge Over the River Kwai, which actually was a true story. It was somewhat fictionalized by Hollywood, but it was a true story that took place in 1942 in World War II. And actually there were two rivers in Thailand called Kwai. I forget the second one, but the Kwai Yai River, I think, was the one where this incident actually took place. But it came out in 1957, and in the 1958 Oscars, it was actually nominated for eight Academy Awards, and it won seven Academy Awards.

It won the Best Motion Picture Award, and Alec Guinness won an award for the Best Actor in a Lead Role. It also starred William Holden. As I said, it was based on a true story, but it was somewhat fictionalized. In the movies I recall, I've never seen it in 1957. I didn't say this down there, but actually, in my time in high school, I only went on two dates.

I was kind of afraid of women. So I only went on two dates, and one of them I happened to take to this particular movie, so that's why I remember it. But anyway, in the movie, there was, as I recall, there was one wooden bridge that was built.

It was a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp with a lot of British prisoners. In the movie, the British prisoners of war were building this bridge for the Japanese to connect Bangkok, Thailand, to Rangoon, Burma. They had a railway in Burma, but they needed to connect Rangoon, I mean, they needed to connect Bangkok, Thailand, to Rangoon, to that railway system, so they could get supplies from Thailand and troops over to Burma, which was a major staging area for the Japanese in World War II, a major theater of operation, I should say. So, in the movie, there was just one wooden bridge, and I think in the movie, as I recall, I think they built it about two months or so.

Now, in actuality, if you go into history, there were actually two bridges that were built. One was wood and the other was steel. The wooden one took about eight months, rather than two months, to build, and the steel one took a little bit longer than that. And also, in the motion pictures, I recall, after the bridge was built, of course, then the prisoners of war, in order to try to thwart the Japanese, when they had some major supplies and things they were going to take across that bridge on a train, they blew up the bridge to try to thwart the Japanese.

In reality, they didn't do that. In reality, all the bridge was damaged, several times, during the war, by Allied bombers, actually. It wasn't destroyed right until the end of the war. The wooden bridge, I believe, was destroyed about June of 1945, right towards the end of the war. But it wasn't destroyed by the prisoners of war in that camp. It was actually destroyed by Allied bombing attacks. But the Japanese needed that bridge to help move Japanese supplies, and troops from Bangkok to Rangoon, in Burma. But the movie, Matthew, showed the importance of bridges, especially in the time of war. Very strategic. And I got to thinking about that, and I thought, well, you know, right now, of course, from the time we're called, actually, we're entering into a spiritual warfare.

And we're all in a spiritual warfare right now. And turn to Ephesians 6, which Paul, Paul, Paul said Paul, he knew he was in a spiritual life and death battle. And the church back then was, as well. And so he was inspired to write this, as we're recording Ephesians 6, verses 10 through 13, where he says, Against powers, against the rulers of darkness this age, against spiritual hostlessness in heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all, having done everything that's in your power, that you will still be standing when the battle is over. You will not be a casualty of war. And in 2 Timothy 2, verses 3 to 4, which I'll just quote, Paul adds this, No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life.

Because that's going to distract you from what the real battle is. That he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. So when we were, we committed our lives to God and to Jesus Christ, and we were baptized, we basically enlisted ourselves in God's spiritual army as soldiers of Jesus Christ. Because we were going to be in a warfare. Satan was going to be going after us right at that point. And from that time on until the day we die. So we are spiritual soldiers who've all been enlisted in God's spiritual army to stand together to fight a life and death spiritual battle against our enemy, who is Satan, the devil.

And when you think about that, you think about the importance of bridges in warfare. Spiritual bridges are every bit as important, in fact even more important, in our spiritual warfare as physical bridges are in physical warfare. See, in order to win a war, every army needs courageous soldiers who are willing to get in there and fight and lay down their lives for their country, for their cause, and for their fellow soldiers, their brethren. Every army needs what I would call as a mighty warriors, if you will. Men of valor, women of valor, who are very courageous. And everyone needs a strong ally who can fight with them side by side against our common enemy.

Which brings me to the presentation I gave this morning, and I'm going to give here this afternoon, regarding building bridges and a mighty warrior, if you will. I'll phrase it like that. And the question I asked, and I think this is really important, not just for... There are a few women here, but I gave this, of course, to the women, but it's very bit as important for men to understand this as it is for women.

Important for me to understand as in for anybody else. See, what is the true biblical role of a woman? The world doesn't really know. Women of the world don't really know. And I think even God's Church doesn't really understand it, as they should. See, what is a woman and a wife supposed to be? We all know Genesis 2.18, which I'm going to get to a little bit later in the sermon, but God told Adam there who would make him a helper comparable to him.

But you have to ask the question, what does that really mean? What kind of a helper did God create Eve to be for Adam, or the woman to be for the man? What kind of a helper?

That's what I want to take a look at. I want to look at the biblical role God created all women to fulfill. And this applies to men, too. But it's crucially important to understand, but very, very few do. So the title that I gave my presentation is, A Mighty Warrior, the Hebrew biblical role of a woman or a wife. Basically a woman, because it applies to women whether they're married or not. It applies to men, in a sense, too, as we'll see. And to do that, to understand that I'm only going to focus on, I'm going to be very focused just on two scriptures, and basically focusing on two words in those two scriptures.

And what they mean. Because you read those verses in English, or even if you could read it in modern Hebrew, you really would not get the true meaning of those words and those scriptures. But their true intended meaning does clearly reveal the God-intended role of a woman and of wife. I want to give you a little bit of background first before I go into this, because, as I mentioned this morning, back in 2004 it was, and this was just before the feast, around September, first part of September 2004, a Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit came to Birch Run, Michigan.

Birch Run is about 20 minutes north of where we lived in Fleishing, just up the freeway about 10 miles or so. So, Evelyn and I went up there to see it. Thought that would be very interesting. It was an interesting exhibit. And on the table there, at that exhibit, they had all kinds of books there for sale. You could purchase. Very interesting books. And so, I know Evelyn bought one or two of them.

I got a couple. And they had this beautiful Tyndale Bible. It went like this. It was written in William Tyndale's translation of the Old and New Testaments. And they only had one there, and it was quite expensive. And so, I passed it up. I thought about it after. Boy, that sure would be neat to have that.

So, about two days later, I went back to actually think the thought. I talked to Evelyn about it and said, Well, should I really spend that much for this? He said, Well, I think it would be something to be worth while having. Why don't you go ahead and get it? You'll probably never get another opportunity. So, well, maybe I will. Well, when I went back up there, it was gone. Somebody had already got it.

And it was only one, like I said. But I looked through the books again. I saw a couple more that got my interest. And one Evelyn had purchased the day before, but this was one that caught my interest. So, I bought this one here. It's called Hebrew Word Pictures. And it was written by Dr. Frank Seekens, who teaches modern Hebrew and ancient Hebrew at either the University of Arizona or Arizona State University.

He lives out in Arizona. And he wrote this book and talks about the ancient Hebrews being a word picture language. And so, I thought that looked quite interesting to me. And I think the day before, my wife had picked up this book here called A Mighty Warrior, which is also written by Dr. Frank Seekens, based on Hebrew word pictures and their meaning. As I was purchasing that book, the lady there, as I was checking it out, said, well, you know that Dr. Seekens is going to be here in two days. I think this is a Tuesday, and he's going to be here Thursday.

And if you can come back, he's going to give a lecture at 11 o'clock on ancient Hebrews. It's a fascinating lecture. And she said, I'll give you a pass so you can get back in without pain if you'd like to come and see it. So I said, great. So I went back to the lecture, and it was one of the most fascinating lectures I've ever had the privilege of sitting in on and hearing. So I bought every single book he had available. He had, like, about five or six of them.

Like I say, he taught Hebrew and ancient Hebrew. By the way, just to let you know, Dr. Seekens is also a Christian. He's not a orthodox Jew. He's a Christian. And he teaches, actually, marriage, counseling, and family relationships, based on ancient Hebrew word picture. It's a word picture language.

So he showed how ancient Hebrew, which is the Hebrew language that was written from the time of Moses until the fall of Judah, was actually a word picture language. The characters were not written like they are today in modern Hebrew. He showed in his research, he found out that actually when the southern tribe of Judah went into captivity by Babylon, there was a lot of confusion during that period, and what came out of it, the language changed. They started writing more in Aramaic, and basically what evolved out of that was modern Hebrew. Modern Hebrew is not a word picture language, as ancient Hebrew was. So the ancient Hebrew word picture aspect of the language was lost when Judah went into captivity in Babylon. As we know, from all of you know, ancient Hebrew, or just Hebrew period, Hebrew and ancient Hebrew, but a Hebrew has 22 letters in their alphabet. Twenty-two letters.

And back originally, in ancient Hebrew, each of those letters was drawn so that it pictured something. It was drawn to actually picture something, unlike modern Hebrew. Therefore, each word then, since every letter of each word had a picture, you could derive then a word picture meaning from each of those Hebrew words, as they were originally written.

Here's the amazing thing.

The vast majority of our English letters today, and we have 26 letters in our alphabet, but the vast majority of the letters in our alphabet can actually be traced back to ancient Hebrew. Not modern Hebrew, but ancient Hebrew. And there's some similarities even, as we'll see.

They came from ancient Hebrew to early Greek to Latin, and then they came into our English language. In fact, some of them are, one letter in particular we're going to look at is identical to the way it was written in ancient Hebrew. In fact, it's interesting you just take the word alphabet. Alphabet, of course, consists actually of two words, alpha, bet. A lot of you are familiar with the word alpha from several verses in Revelation, but particularly Revelation 22.13, where Christ said, I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Well, alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. So, I'll tell Tizin what he probably said there, I'm the first and the last. Turn to Psalm 119.

Turn to Psalm 119, verse 1. I just want to point some things out here. Psalm 119, verse 1. Now, most of your Bibles, I mean, if you have an older Bible, it may not be here, but most of our Bibles, above verse 1, you'll see the word aleph, A-L-E-P-H.

Aleph. And you'll have the modern Hebrew letter next to it, as it's written in modern Hebrew, we'll be right next to it. Not ancient Hebrew, but modern Hebrew. Aleph is the first letter of the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. If you go down to verse 9, it says, bet, which can be spelled B-E-T, as in alpha, bet, or B-E-T-H. See, bet, the second word in our word alphabet is actually a Hebrew word. It's the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So our word alphabet has a Greek word and a Hebrew word, and our language actually goes back to the Greek and the Hebrew. That's our heritage.

And it's interesting that Psalm 119, as we know, there's 176 verses in Psalm 119, and it's divided into 22 8-verse segments.

8 times 22 is 176. Now, here's another amazing thing. If you could read this in Hebrew, now, Hebrew reads from right to left. The words are written right to left, and the sentence is read from right to left. Just the opposite. We do. But if you had the Hebrew here, you would see that each of these 8 verses, first 8 verses, each of those verses begins, the first word in those verses, begin with the letter aleph. Verses 9 through 16, each of the words in the beginning of each of those verses begin with the letter bet, et cetera, all the way down to tau, which is the 22nd and last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It goes all the way through here. So you can look right here in Psalm 119, and every letter of the Hebrew alphabet is there. You've got aleph, bet, gimel, dalette, hay, et cetera, et cetera, all the way down to tau.

And I'll just point something out. You might turn to...

Let's see. Oh, verse 121. Just look at verse 121. Because I have one particular word I want to show you, so I just want to show you these particular letters. Verse 121. And right above verse 121, you see the an, a-y-i-n. We're going to be looking at that letter a little bit later. If you go back to verse 49, and look above verse 49, you'll see the letter zan, z-a-y-i-n. And if you go back to verse 153, you'll see the letter rech, R-E-S-H.

I want to point those three out because those three letters, an, zan, rech, spell an extremely important Hebrew word that we're all familiar with the way it's translated, but you're not familiar with the word. It's an extremely important Hebrew word that clearly demonstrates what the God-created role for the woman is, that the world does not understand. And even most churches don't understand. Even churches are God. But Dr. Seakins brings it out, points it out here. It's what I said as a fascinating lecture. So with that background in mind, let's go to Proverbs 31 verse 10, which is one of the two verses we're going to take a look at today. Proverbs 31.10. And we'll look at this verse and one particular word in this verse.

Proverbs 31.10. Who can find a virtuous wife? This is the new King James. Old King James says, who can find a virtuous woman? Either translation is correct. Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above Ruby's. See, the right kind of a wife. If a wife is really fulfilling her God-created role, she is extremely valuable. Extremely valuable, not only to her husband, but to mankind as well. This applies to all women, whether married or unmarried. And it applies to her role in serving and being aid to mankind. The role applies to mankind as well.

Now, it's interesting also. Now, they've got a space up between verses 7 and 8, but it really should be between verses 9 and 10. Because Proverbs 31 and 10 actually begins a very special concluding segment of the book of Proverbs. Now, you can't really detect it in English, but if you're reading in Hebrew, if you can see here, even modern Hebrew, you would be able to detect something very interesting.

Proverbs 31 and 10 is the first of the last 22 verses in the book of Proverbs. Verse 10 through verse 31, that's 22 verses. Does that ring a bell? 22 letters to Hebrew alphabet. And each of these verses begins with a different letter of the corresponding Hebrew alphabet. In other words, verse 10 begins with the letter aleph. Verse 11 begins with the letter bet. Verse 12 begins with gimel. Verse 13 begins with dalet, all the way down to verse 31, which begins with the 22nd and last letter, the Hebrew alphabet, the letter tau. T-A-U.

Here's the thing that's really amazing. You can apply this to Psalms 119. Each of the verses that begins with aleph, for example, you can apply this to verse 10 here, as we'll do. Since each of those letters pictured something in Hebrew, as a picture of something, what that letter pictured then ties into and adds meaning and substance to each of these verses. Verse 10, when you understand what aleph pictures and what that means, the characteristic it symbolizes, that adds meaning and weight to this verse. And the same applies to all the rest of the verses, depending on what letter they started with. And the same applies to those sections in Psalm 119. Those first eight verses in Psalm 119 all tie into the picture meaning of aleph.

But today we're only going to look here in Proverbs 31, we're only going to look at one verse, verse 10. Who can find a virtuous wife or a virtuous woman? Again, this particular verse, the first word in this verse begins with the letter aleph. Okay, what does that mean? See, aleph was drawn in ancient Hebrew to picture something.

Well, actually, what I did, I drew some things ahead of time, so I'll go ahead and show them to you.

There's the word aleph. It pictured the head of an ox. This is this yoke, and it just kind of drawing to symbolize the head of an ox. In fact, aleph is the word for ox in the Bible. Look up ox, you'll find aleph is the word for ox. Also, aleph is the number one, number one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, like the first commandment. The first commandment is aleph, is the first commandment, that's the word for one. Now, you know, you go back to biblical times, an ox was really, really one of the most valued animals in biblical times, because the agricultural community, and an ox is an extremely strong animal that can carry very heavy burdens. And so, biblical times is one of the most prized and most valued of all animals. As such, aleph, pictured and betrayed and characterized tremendous strength.

Tremendous strength.

Now, I'll just give you, just as a side, the second letter, bet, B-E-T or B-E-T-H. I've drawn it here, bet or bet, B-E-T-H. Here's how it was drawn in ancient Hebrew. It was drawn to picture a tent or a house. Of course, at the time this verse was written this way, they were in the wilderness and they kept in tents. So, bet was drawn to picture a tent or a house. So, symbolized a house or a family or a household.

Now, I want to point out something that's also extremely interesting in ancient Hebrew. Two words I want to point out to you. The Hebrew word for father, and a lot of you know the Hebrew word for father, it's ab, a-laf, bet, A-B or a-laf, bet, is the Hebrew word for father. Like, Abraham was the father of a multitude.

Ab is the Hebrew word for father. The Hebrew word for mother is am, spelled E-M in English, or spelled in Hebrew, alef, alef, mem.

So, in ancient Hebrew, both a father and a mother both begin with the letter alef, which symbolized tremendous strength. So, both a father and a mother in ancient Hebrew have a very strong role to play that God created them for. Tremendously strong role.

I want to just show you something.

Just to show you how ancient Hebrews becomes a word pitch or language. Father, which is spelled alef, bet, as we saw alef, pictures strength as an ox. Bet was a picture of a house or a household. So, what would the word picture meaning of ab then be? What was the word picture meaning of the Hebrew word for father? It would mean that a father was pictured there as being the strength, the leader, and the head of his house or household. That's the meaning of the word ab in ancient Hebrew. He's the strength of the household, the leader, the head of the household. But let's go to the word mother.

Mother was om, spelled E-M, spelled alef, ma'am. Now, I've written this backwards, by the way. I should have written it the other way because in Hebrew it reads from right to left. So, this should be alef, ma'am, this way, right in the way I've gotten it. But just so our brains don't get confused. Alef we already saw was a picture of a head of an ox, a picture of strength, something very strong.

Ma'am, the Hebrew word m, which became our letter m, pictured a wave of water. Pitched water. In fact, if you think about our letter m, the way we write our m, small case, it's very similar to a wave of water, even there. Still maintains that to some degree. So, mother then is pictured to be strong water.

That's what I'm doing with anything, strong water. Well, you think about water. Water is absolutely essential for life, isn't it? If you don't have water, there is no life. You have to have water to have life. So, mother is pictured having been very strong when it comes to life, a strong giver of life, a strong sustainer of life, a strong protector of life. But it goes much more than that with modern research, as I pointed out this morning. You know, modern technologies uncover something that shows that a mother is literally strong water.

When a mother becomes pregnant, a tiny embryo and then a fetus forms within that mother's womb. And an embryonic sac forms around that little fetus in that embryo. And that embryonic sac fills with a water-like substance, fills with water, which then nourishes that little embryo in that fetus. Not only that, it becomes a river of living water, tied in with Ezekiel 48, because the water in that embryonic sac is replenished and refurbished and renewed about two or three times a week.

And that embryonic sac is extremely thin. It's thousands of times thinner than a piece of paper. In fact, it's about the thinnest thing you can make physically. It's only two cells thick. Now, you can't get any thinner than that. You've got to have two cells to form a substance. But those two cells have such an incredibly tight bond, leaving that little transparent sac, and the baby can, as it develops, it can start pushing, and every mom who's ever had a baby knows this. It can start pushing and stretching and all this, but the sac will not break. Because extremely strong bond. It will not break until the baby's ready to be born, which is when mother's water breaks, because that sac then breaks, so the baby can be born. But if it broke prematurely, the baby would die. So literally, a mother is strong water. She's first water in strong water, just as the word for mother is pictured in ancient Hebrew. Very fascinating. And since Proverbs 31.10 begins with the letter aleph, which fits your strength, the role, then, of a woman or a wife has to do with that particular quality of something very strong. It has to do with power and strength. Again, Proverbs 31.10, who can find a virtuous wife, her worth is far above rubies, do we as men really value and understand the role for which God created women? Do we realize the value for which He created them is far above rubies, far above anything we could have materially for wealth?

So who can find a wife or woman who has a great deal of strength? Who has strength of character, strength of mind and purpose, strength of resolve, strength of maybe carrying heavy burdens emotionally and physically, or not physically but spiritually? Who can find a woman or a wife who has tremendous spiritual strength, who has a strong relationship with God? Because that's the most important relationship of all, isn't it?

Who has built a strong bridge to connect with God? In other words, we all have to have that, don't we? Men and women. We need a strong bridge to connect with God and to Jesus Christ.

Around these Bibles today, at least the King James and New King James, say who can find a virtuous woman or a virtuous wife?

Now that can be misleading because today the word virtuous to dust today, and it's got a very good meaning. It can mean moral excellence. It can mean righteousness, having very strong character.

And it's hard to find someone like that today, either men or women. But that's not what it meant when this was written in 1611. The word virtuous didn't mean that back then.

Back in 1611, when this was written, the word virtuous meant something else entirely. In 1611, the English word virtuous meant strong, powerful, mighty, having valor and courage, especially when it came to war and to warfare and fighting battles. In 1611, the word virtue literally meant power. Not what it means today. In fact, we have an illustration of that in the New Testament.

Luke 8, verses 45 and 46, you don't have to turn there. I'm just referencing. But there you have this woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years, and she spent all she had and gone to the physicians, and she hadn't gotten any better. But she knew that Christ could heal. So you thought, if I could just touch His garment, I could be healed. So there's a big crowd there, and she comes up, sinks it behind, she grabs it out, and she touches His garment. And immediately, Christ realized something had happened. And He says in Luke 8, 45, Well, who touched Me? Christ said.

The minister says, For I perceive that virtue has gone out for Me in the old King James. The new King James corrected that, and has it, I perceived power going out for Me. Because in 1611, that is what the word virtue meant. It meant power.

Thus, Proverbs 31, 10 could read, Who can find a powerful woman or a powerful wife?

Who can find a wife or a woman with great courage and valor?

Who can find a woman or wife who can fight alongside her husband in life's many, many battles? And, of course, if a woman may not be married, then, of course, our ally then is Christ. Christ, the one we want to have fighting beside us and fighting with us.

But who can find a powerful woman? Who can find a powerful wife?

Now, many men might be intimidated by that, but they shouldn't be. They should find that as a tremendous quality to have and to look for in a woman. And it's not only important, it's essential.

Now, the Hebrew word translated virtuous, here in Proverbs 31, 10, is the Hebrew word hayil.

It's spelled C-H-A-Y-I-L. H'il. Virtuous or powerful? Proverbs 31, 10. Hayil. It's pronounced hayil. Modern. These letters, spelled with three letters, hay, yud, and lamid, which became the letter H, Y, and L in our language today.

But the first two letters in this word hayil, translated virtuous in Proverbs 31, 10, are hay and yud, hay and yud, which is pronounced hayi in Hebrew, as far as I can tell.

But they're the Hebrew word for life. So the word for life is incorporated in this word here that means virtuous or powerful. The word for life is incorporated in there. And the third letter, the other letter, is the letter lamid, which is drawn to picture a cattle goat or a shepherd's staff. Lamid was drawn to picture a shepherd's staff.

So what would hayil picture then? It has the word life in there and it has a shepherd's staff in there. Thus according to Dr. Seekens, hayil thus pictures a powerful woman as being one who shepherds or controls life, one who shepherds life. Shepherd's staff and life, one who shepherds life. Excuse me.

You know, life has lots of problems.

Shepherd's staff, you know, it symbolizes shepherding the sheep, keeping the sheep out of trouble, keeping them in the pasture where they should be, protecting them, guiding them, so on.

So one who shepherds life is one who then controls life. One who shepherds life is one who controls life.

Because there are always problems in life.

Someone who is weak is controlled by the problems that come up in life. But a powerful person or a powerful man or a woman directs her life and takes control of his or her life.

She doesn't allow what happens in life to get the best of her, to control her. Instead, she faces life problems with confidence, with courage, and with the conviction of gaining wisdom and spiritual strength by going through those problems and learning what God would want her to learn, or the same would apply to a man. So for a powerful woman, then, who shepherds life is one who controls circumstances, rather than allowing the circumstances to control her, that takes a great deal of strength. It takes strength from God.

Again, the same could be said of a man as well. But here in Proverbs 31-10, speaking of a powerful woman, in Proverbs 31-10, powerful or virtuous woman is a woman or wife who shepherds life. The word picture meaning of that word that's used here is translated virtuous or powerful as it could be.

Also, this particular word used translated virtuous here in Proverbs 31-10, if you look it up, you'll find out in the King James Version, it's also translated army or armies 59 times.

Because it's a power, might encourage and valor that's needed in warfare. And it's often in the Old Testament associated with warfare. Like I say, it's translated army or armies 59 times.

So a Proverbs 31 powerful woman must be able to utilize that strength and valor in times of warfare. And God created her for that purpose, as we're going to see specifically in a little bit. Which is why I've also titled this presentation a mighty warrior. Because it's power that has to be utilized at times of warfare.

So an insinuated meaning in a Proverbs 31-10 could be who can find a mighty warrior for a wife, for a worth as far above rubies.

You can say it's far above all the spoils you can receive in a battle after winning it. See, God created a woman or a wife to have tremendous strength and power and valor, spiritually speaking.

Like it says in Genesis 2.18, it says, her role is comparable to that of a man. They both have extremely strong roles that are comparable with one another, that are equally important and valuable before God. Especially during times of spiritual warfare.

Now, as I said a little bit earlier, to some men that might seem to be somewhat intimidating. But why should every man and every husband want a powerful woman or a mighty warrior for a wife? You say, boy, I don't want that. I want somebody, you know, I don't want somebody to compete with me, you might say. Well, that brings us to the second scripture, to our second word, which in turn has tremendous meaning to God's view of the true biblical role of a woman or a wife. Which every man and every husband needs to understand as well, because when you understand it, we men can understand it, then we can highly value our wife for the qualities that God created in her to fulfill. We can value those. Everything is how essentially important it is. Let's go to Genesis 2.18.

We're very familiar with Genesis 2.18, where Lord God said to Adam, It's not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him. I'll make him a helper comparable to him. And this not only applies to the man, Adam, or to a husband. It also applies to the word man here, although it can be specifically to a particular man or husband, but also can apply generally to all of mankind. It's like we can say man and we refer to all of mankind. So this role of a woman also applies in a relationship to all of mankind as well. It applies to all women, married or unmarried, whatever their role might be, their situation might be. So now we'll make him a helper. The question is, and this is what we have not understood in the past, What kind of a helper did God intend a wife to be to her husband?

Because in Hebrew there are two words that could be translated helper, and they both have very different meanings and very different applications. And you read it in English, you don't know. Which word did God use? What's the difference? What kind of a helper did Adam need? Now you think about the particular scene taking place here. You've got Satan working behind the scenes here, lurking behind the scenes, just waiting to pounce on Eve and to blow up a bridge. To blow up her connection to God, her connection to her husband, and their connection to their children. What kind of a helper in that situation? When you understand what's going on spiritually here, with Satan wanting to destroy their connection to God and to one another, what kind of a helper did Adam need at that particular point in order to be able to thwart Satan's purpose? Well, one Hebrew word which could be translated helper is the Hebrew word obed, O-B-E-D. It's the Hebrew word for servant, as in the name of one of the minor prophets, obidiah, which means servant of God. Is that the kind of a helper God created Eve to be for Adam? Did he want her to be a servant helper? Now granted, a lot of us men need servant helpers at times, but is that the role that Eve was supposed to fulfill?

No. That was not the role for which God created a woman, and it's not the word used here in Genesis 2.18. God does not use the word obed. Eve was not created to be an obed or a servant helper. Her role is far more vital than that, and it's a role, as it says here, that's comparable to her husband. It's equally important with the husband's role. They tie together.

And the word that's used here is a word that has a crucially important meaning. Before I tell you what it is, let me ask this. Why is that role, I mean, why is that meaning of the word that's used here? Why is it so crucially important? Now you think about it. What kind of a helper do you need when you're in a life and death struggle, in a battle, in a warfare?

See, what kind of a helper must a wife be if she and her husband are able, going to be able to win major spiritual battles together? They'll have to face in life. Because when you get married, there can be all kinds of situations and battles you're going to have to face together. How can you be assured of winning those battles? What kind of a helper do you need? What kind of a helper does a husband need? What kind of a helper does a wife sometimes need? See, the Hebrew word here translated helper is ezir, E-Z-E-R, as in Ezra, which means God is my help. God is my help. When I'm in a battle, I want a strong ally helper. I want a strong ally to fight there side by side with me to give me the strength to win. And Ezra means God is my help. An Ezra helper is an ally helper, a strong ally who can fight with you to give you added strength to defeat an enemy. See, to win major battles in times of war requires a strong ally helper. And nothing illustrates that better than World War II. You know, Germany, you know, Chamberlain, he went to Hitler and signed a peace agreement. He said, peace in our time? That was all a ruse. Hitler had no intention of peace. He wanted to destroy Britain, just like Satan wants to destroy us. So, Germany attacks Britain. And for a while, at the beginning of World War II, Britain was still alone. They didn't have an ally helper. The United States, at that time, had an isolationist policy. They wanted to stay out of the war. They said, we'll give you supplies. We'll be a servant helper, and we'll give you supplies, but that's not what Britain needed. They needed somebody who was going to get in there as their ally to fight with them against an extremely strong enemy. And at the beginning of the war, Britain was losing. They were in danger of losing. It was very difficult. London was being pummeled. Of course, we all know what happened, don't we? The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, forced the United States into the war to join with Britain as an ally helper to fight against Germany and Japan. And that changed the course of the war and the course of history. Now, the same is true in marriage. If a wife is a strong ally helper, she will then be standing side by side with her husband, and they will be fighting their battles together, even as Britain and the United States did in World War II.

And if a single woman is an ally helper to Jesus Christ, and if Christ is her ally helper, Satan will not prevail against her, because you have a strong ally. So that applies to us whether we're married or not. But in any life and death struggle, we don't want to stand alone. We all need a strong ally to fight alongside of us and fight with us. We need an ally helper who is strong, courageous, who is a mighty warrior, who is willing to fight and lay down their life for us, to fight with us. And that is the God-intended role of the woman and of the wife, to be a powerful ally helper or a mighty warrior, if you will.

Now, I want to go into, because the thing that really seals and makes me understand is the word-picture meaning of the word that's used for a helper here in Genesis 2.18, this word, ezzor. It's spelled with three letters, and it gives us a very clear word-picture meaning in ancient Hebrew.

I think I've got a chart here. Ezzor, helper, Genesis 2.18. It's spelled with...and I've got this backwards because it should be going this way because I say Hebrew reads right from right to left, but I wrote it left to right because I didn't want to confuse my brain. But it's spelled...the first letter is an, which should be over here, but anyway, it's an, zan, reis. Those letters I pointed out to you in Psalm 119. They're written like this in ancient Hebrew. That was written kind of like elongated like that. Zan was written just like our letter Z. It became our letter Z. This letter, this one here became our letter O.

And then this one here was just like, if I was standing sideways like this, it would be like busting my head. It became our letter R. And if you turn around this way, you can see an R kind of is an outline of a head of a man as well.

And as the 16th letter of the Hebrew alphabet was an inch and a half drawn to picture an I. It's a picture of an I.

It's also the Hebrew word for I. And as I said, it became our English letter O, which of all of our English letters probably most resembles a picture of an I today even.

But A and thus symbolize seen or understanding. That was the symbolic meaning of the letter A and means to see or understand something.

Second letter in Ezra, or L.I. Helper in Jesus 2.18 is the letter Zan, which is like our letter Z. It was drawn to picture a weapon. You can imagine this being the handle here. It was drawn to picture or symbolize a weapon. Of course, they had hand-to-hand combat like then, and that's the way weapons were. They were hand-to-hand combat, the type of weapon you have in your hand. So it pictured a weapon and it meant a weapon. In fact, it's even a modern Hebrew word for weapon. It became our letter Z, and it was drawn like a Z back then, ancient Hebrew. The third letter in Ezra is the letter Resh. It's right here. Again, it was drawn to picture the head of a man and symbolize a man.

The 20th letter of the Hebrew alphabet became our letter R, like I said. And it symbolized what picture? It symbolized a man. So we now then have an ancient Hebrew word picture, meaning of Ezra, of an L.A. helper, spelled An, Zain, Resh. An, picture of an eye, meant to see or understand. Zain was a weapon, so to see a weapon. Resh, a man, to see a weapon, man. This is the word translated helper now. Remember that in Genesis 2.18. And the word picture, meaning is to see, weapon, man.

What is a weapon, man?

Well, the last two letters in the word Ezra are Zain and Resh. The Hebrew word Zar, or spelled T-S-A-R sometimes. It's a Hebrew word for enemy. Now there are actually two Hebrew words for enemy, but this is used for enemy. It's used for enemy in Psalm 78, verse 42. It's translated enemy. This word, spelled Zain, Resh, or Zar.

So a weapon man, a man with a weapon, is an enemy. The word enemy pictures a man with a weapon. So an enemy is a man with a weapon. So the helper here in Genesis 2.18 is someone who sees and understands an enemy.

An ally helper is one who can see and understand an enemy.

I think that's fascinating because how many times, for example, has a wife warned her husband about something and then been ignored. Well, I know my wife has warned me a lot of times and I've ignored her. Only then did she realize that she saw him and said something that maybe I didn't see. You know, a woman can sometimes have what they call a sixth sense.

You know, she can look after her and see that, you know, look, if you don't take care of yourself, if you don't eat better, if you're in an exercise, you know, I'm afraid I'm going to have to outlive you and I don't want to be a widow.

Sometimes women can see things. They can set things and they can be an ally helper to their husbands. They look, you know, you need to change some things here because I love you and I don't want to lose you.

And sometimes they can see things spiritually, too. If they're connected with God, they have a good bridge to God and Jesus Christ. And each husband and wife, we each have to have our individual bridges.

Because if Satan bombs one of our bridges and damages it, then the other one's still intact, then the one that's still intact can help the other one to get through that together spiritually, so that bridge doesn't get destroyed. So both of you lose connection with God.

But it's very important for a woman to realize that she is to be a strong ally helper who can help see the enemy.

See, if a woman only views herself as a servant helper, she will not likely be a mighty warrior in times of major spiritual battles.

Because a husband and wife often have to join together in life's battles throughout their married life, especially spiritually speaking.

Let's tie all this together. In Genesis 2.18, God said He would make man an ally helper comparable to Him, who could stand by His side throughout life's many battles, who could then help Him to see and to understand who the real enemy is at times. And in Proverbs 31.10, God asks, who can find a powerful woman for her worth is above rubies?

So putting them both together, then, you could say, well, who can find a mighty warrior for a wife who will fight side by side with her husband as a strong ally helper? And, of course, their verse is true also. But I want to expand that. After I gave this, Leon Lucre was talking to me, as Lucre was, and said, you know, the man in Genesis 2.18 can fly to all mankind. And you think about it. Women can also be created to be ally helpers for all of mankind in many roles that they can fulfill in their lives. And you could just think of all kinds of examples where women can be ally helpers of mankind as well. And they were created for that role as well. So you can expand on this and gain a lot more meaning from it. But let me ask this question. Why am I not a man or a husband, want a powerful wife or a mighty warrior for a wife?

I think it's important to think about that because I think there's two reasons that come into my mind. One, because maybe he doesn't view her role as being that of an ally helper. If we don't view our wife or a woman as an ally helper, we won't value that role.

So that's one reason. Two, because he maybe doesn't see the need to have an ally helper. You know, men, we can be kind of independent and say, I need help. I can get through this on my own.

Sometimes we need help. Two, there's a far stronger bond than one.

Especially when you have Satan as the enemy who's trying to destroy you.

So we should never think that we can conquer all of life's problems and battles on our own. It's just important for men and for husbands to understand the role of a wife, as it is for the wives to understand their true roles.

But an ally helper who is a powerful warrior should be highly valued, especially in times of warfare, because that's what you want. The more powerful, the better. So it's truly important then for every woman to be able to maintain her own personal bridge to God, as it is for the husband as well, to stay connected with God. Because Satan, our enemy, he knows the importance of bridges. He's going to do everything he can to damage or destroy bridges.

That's why it's vitally important for both men and women to build their own individual bridges to God.

That way, if one is damaged, the other might still be intact. So they continue to battle their common enemy as ally helpers. In conclusion then, the 1957 movie, The Bridge Over the River Choir, showed the importance of bridges during times of war.

And bridges are not only important, they're absolutely essential in order to win a war, to keep supply lines open and maintained. That's true spiritually, even more so than physically.

Spiritually, it's essential to be able to maintain spiritual bridges that connect us with God and to God's Word into one another.

Now Satan often tries to blow up bridges, destroy those bridges by getting us focused on things of the flesh instead of things of God.

Satan understands that God intended role for the wife of the woman. He understood that. He understood it back there in Genesis 2.18, that she was created to be a powerful ally helper and a mighty warrior to her husband. So the very first spiritual bridge that Satan sought to blow up and destroy was Eve's bridge to God. Want to blow that up? Because if he could do that, he could then also damage and blow up the bridge that Eve had with her husband, and that Adam and Eve had with their children. Satan's out to blow up bridges because he knows how important they are. And I'm talking about spiritual bridges of communication and helping one another.

Satan does not want a woman or a man, for that matter, to understand the real role for which God created a woman.

As it says there in Genesis 2.18, And the Lord God said, It is not good, the man should be alone. I will make him an ally helper comparable to him. And then in Proverbs 31.10 says, Who can find a powerful wife?

Who can find a mighty warrior for a wife? Who can be a powerful ally helper to fight side by side with her husband, and seeing and understanding and defeating their common enemy who is out to destroy them?

You think about how successful is Satan being and confusing the real role of a woman and the relationship of a husband and wife? Well, he's turned that upside down. Today he has most husbands and wives viewing each other as enemies. He has them fighting each other against each other, they're not fighting with each other. Satan has got the world turned upside down.

And today he has most husbands and wives pitted against one another.

He has them vying against one another and viewing one another as enemies instead of as allies sometimes. And in some cases and in some societies, he has women viewing themselves as only servant helpers rather than ally helpers. And the husbands do them that way as well. So never forget Genesis 2.18 and Proverbs 31.10, and the true God-intended role of a woman and of a wife. To be your husband's ally helper as a mighty warrior, to battle and defeat their common enemy who is Satan who is out to destroy them.

Because that is the God-intended role of a wife and woman, to be an ally helper and to be a mighty warrior.