If you listen to current conversations about gender roles, the end goal is self-serving. I want to be who I want to be because it will make me feel better. But from the Bible’s perspective, the reasons why God created woman are outside herself. In other words, why did God create woman? To serve a purpose greater than her feelings and wants.
As women, we may sigh at this revelation. I get it. Our lives, day in and day out, may seem like it is constantly about others’ well-being. If you are a wife and mother, your energy may be consumed by your husband and children, not to mention friends, extended family, neighbors, etc. If you are single, your parents, siblings, and church may all be vying for your attention. It is exhausting! But know that someone was created to take care of you! Man. When God created Adam, it was also for him to serve a purpose greater than himself, and part of that purpose is to love you the way Jesus loved the church.
I want you to keep that in the back of your mind as we explore why God created women. Because it is not that God isn’t worried about your needs. He absolutely is, but he is teaching you to live outside yourself as he is teaching men to do the same.
To Bear His Image
The first time that the female gender is mentioned is in the first chapter of Genesis and so it is worth starting there.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27
Both men and women were created to bear God’s image. While this reason is not uniquely ours (as men were also created to bear His image), it is of extraordinary importance. To bear the image of an all-powerful, all-knowing being is an indescribable privilege. So how does a woman reflect the image of God?
We Reflect the “Feminine” Characteristics of God
In the scriptures, God demonstrates characteristics that we might find to be more feminine. Isaiah 49:15 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible, not only because it shows God’s extraordinary love, but because God uses the instinctive and natural love of a mother for her children to prove his point. We know from simple observation that fathers are more easily capable of abandoning their children than mothers. That is why God compares his love to that of a mother who is far less likely to leave her children.
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
Isaiah 49:15
Consider, Isaiah 66:13 as another example where God tells us that He comforts his own like a mother comforts her children. Or, Hosea 13:8 where God demonstrates that His fury is like a mother robbed of her cubs.
God does not shy away from comparing himself to women because our feminine characteristics flow from Him, not the other way around.
So yes, those characteristics that make us uniquely women also reflect God and we were indeed created for that purpose.
To Have Dominion
In that same section of scripture where God announces to the world that we were created in His image, he also reveals another purpose, to have dominion. Genesis 1:27 is sandwiched by two verses that emphasize that very point.
Like being created in His image is a purpose we share with men, so is having dominion. We are to rule together and we will certainly bring a different flavor to leadership than men will. And a husband may have a higher authority than his wife in a marriage per the Bible, but that doesn’t take away from her purpose to reign alongside him (as opposed to being used or viewed as a servant).
I have two daughters and I am married to a Marine. My husband has led men and he has led them well. But leading men is different than leading women. So one of my roles as my husband’s “helper” or “help meet“is to help him take a different approach with our daughters than he would with his men in the Marines. Together we reign our little dominion after the example of Christ (of service and sacrifice) and I bring the feminine flair in whatever capacity is necessary for the goals God set before us.
The role a woman brings to leadership can extend outside of marriage whether the woman is the boss or not. A woman at a place of business will bring a different perspective than her male counterparts. A woman at church will see needs that men just won’t or can’t because they are wired differently. We don’t need to act like men to be good leaders, but we will certainly want to incorporate the male perspective to have a balanced view. The opposite is true. A male leader will want to incorporate the female perspective in his leadership decisions.
Bottom line, having dominion for His glory is part of the reason God created us and the feminine viewpoint is an important element of that.
To Be an Ezer
In the second chapter of Genesis, God tells us that he created woman to be Man’s helper. She was created for man. I know, many of us cringe at the thought, but that is because that idea has been perverted for self-serving purposes. Most of us have been abused by men in one way or another (anything from catcalling on the street to living the nightmare of an abusive spouse or parent). But when you have experienced the love, protection, and care of a man, helping him becomes second nature. That is what it was meant to be and not what it has been perverted to be.
That same perversion has caused a misunderstanding of the word helper as God uses it in the Bible. A help meet, known in Hebrew as “ezer” (transliterated version), is not a servant. The kind of help a woman is expected to provide has little to do with bringing him coffee or washing his clothes. Not that those things can’t play a role (I make my husband his coffee every morning), but the word “ezer” has more of a military context and functions more as a protector. It is a word used in the Bible mostly to refer to God as the helper of his people against their enemies. That is a much different use of the word than many traditionalists would like to admit to, but that is what is in the Bible.
So ladies, yes, you were created to be an ezer to your husband (if married), just like God was an ezer to his people. God would never use a demeaning word to refer to himself and he didn’t use a demeaning word to refer to you.
For the complete analysis, view my article, “A New Look at Help Meet.“
So ladies, yes, you were created to be an ezer to your husband (if married), just like God was an ezer to his people. God would never use a demeaning word to refer to himself and he didn't use a demeaning word to refer to you. Click To TweetTo Bear Children
Just like in having dominion, or bearing God’s image, both men and women share the responsibility of being fruitful and multiplying as God commands in Genesis 1:28. And yet, in being fruitful and multiplying, women have a much different role than men. Men will never know what it feels like to have a period (despite current cultural narratives to the contrary), experience birth pains, or push a baby through the birth canal (or deliver a baby via C-section). Carrying a baby for nine months is exclusively a female role in the reproductive cycle. And without women, there are no children.
Does that mean that a woman who can’t have kids or chooses not to is not a woman? Not at all. Paul encouraged Christians to be single so they could focus their efforts on serving God. If single, a woman is not bearing kids if she is aligning herself to biblical principles of not having sex before marriage. And if a woman chose to be single, she is not abdicating her womanhood. Instead, she is redirecting all that feminine wiring exclusively for God’s purposes.
In the same way, if a woman is infertile, she is still a woman. Her body is generally still wired as if she is to reproduce (she still has eggs) and all the hormones, instincts, and emotions that come with it. That instinctive nurture can still be used for God’s glory in various capacities outside of bearing kids. She is still a woman through and through.
To Be Loved
All the reasons I have discussed thus far that answer the question “Why did God create woman?” are for the purpose of serving a purpose greater than ourselves. And that is a good, godly attitude for both men and women to have…to always remember that ultimately our purpose is to bring God glory. But as I have read the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, one thing is clear, women were created to be loved and all that comes with that including protection and provision. They were never meant to be used. That is a perversion of God’s intention, an intention that is stated in Ephesians 5:25-31.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
Ephesians 5:25-31
I have been blessed to have a husband that loves me this way. Trauma, abuse, and selfishness kept me from truly appreciating who and what I had but lately, I have just been reveling in my husband’s care and provision. It is a beautiful place to be and it gives me an earthly glimpse at the immense love that Christ has for me (which is even greater than either my husband or I can comprehend). That was God’s intention…for all women to be loved that way. If not by a husband, then by Christ himself.
In a fallen world where most women have been used at one point or another, the first step is to recognize that is not what is meant to be. Ladies, you were meant to be loved. I have ministered to many women who have been abused and their natural default when they are finally in a position to choose is to gravitate to other men who will use and abuse them. So I will say it again, you were meant to be loved.
A Beautiful Purpose
As we reflect on all the reasons why God created women, let’s embrace them. Many times we have the tendency to want to be more like men and tamper our feminine traits, probably as part of a defense mechanism. And by feminine, I don’t mean makeup and high heels. Real women know neither of those things makes a woman.
When I speak of feminine traits, I don’t want to label a specific characteristic as solely feminine since you will find the exception, the woman who lacks that trait and a man that has it. But if you look at women as a whole and in terms of the full gambit of possible feminine characteristics, there is a stark difference between men and women. I lack a lot of common female characteristics, and yet I am amazed at how often I have similar experiences to my friends’ interactions with their husbands. Their husbands respond to a given scenario similar to mine and I respond similarly to them. It is the male vs female brain at work.
The important part is that whatever “feminine” characteristics we have like nurture, emotional intelligence, passion, gentleness, compassion, and so on…… embrace them. They serve a purpose, a beautiful purpose uniquely calibrated for you. Seek to glorify God and use every part of you as a woman to do so. It is why you were created. Celebrate it and rest in the knowledge that God made you woman, in His image, to have dominion, an ezer, with the capacity to bring forth life…..a woman He loves.
Other articles about biblical womanhood that may interest you.
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