Women of the Bible: Man, woman intended by God to complement each other as team
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On the first page of the Bible, God creates people along with the rest of creation. Genesis 1:27 says, 'So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.'
Men and women both bear the image of God equally. In the next chapter, it becomes apparent that men and women simultaneously bear God's image equally and in unique and complementary ways. Paraphrased, God says in Genesis 2:18 that man should not be alone because he needs a matching counterpart able to meet his deficiencies. So God made women. Pointing toward Adam's joy over meeting his wife for the first time, the Bible declares, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.' (Genesis 2:24)
God intends unity between the genders, each participating as part of a team to meet the other in their complementary strengths and weaknesses.
Often, when I counsel with an engaged couple, I like to warn them that once they get married, their relationship will change significantly. Even couples who have lived together and even have kids together find that after becoming officially married — and therefore one flesh — the relationship takes on a new essence. This 'one flesh' unity is created by God and can work for good or for evil and operates in people who follow God as much as it does in people who hate him.
I offer the case of Jezebel and Ahab for evidence.
1 Kings 16:29-30 records, 'In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel. ... Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him.' The first thing we know about Ahab is that he was already, by himself, more evil than any other king in Israel before him. The phrase 'evil in the sight of the Lord' doesn't mean he was particularly cruel or tyrannical — though he was — but that he had no interest in ruling according to God's Word. In fact, he had less interest in God's Word and ways than any other king before.
With his heart already in that condition, the Bible says, 'It came about ... that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshipped him.' (1 Kings 16:31) In marriage, Ahab and Jezebel became one flesh. In their unity, they walked away from God together and they enhanced each other's evil. Over the next several chapters of first and second Kings, we see a division of labor in the royal marriage. Ahab is consistently evil in foreign affairs, constantly engaging in wars God did not endorse. Jezebel is consistently evil in domestic affairs, acting as the nation's prophetess and high priestess of the false god Baal and the chief agent in persecuting the prophet Elijah. Ahab spurred Jezebel on as she persecuted Elijah, and Jezebel encouraged Ahab to have Naboth killed to take over his land. And they both worshipped a false god together.
For all the evil they did, Jezebel and Ahab had a model marriage. They were unified in their service to their god. Ahab served their god in ways only he, as the king, could, and Jezebel supported him in it. Jezebel served their god in ways she was uniquely qualified to serve as a priestess, and Ahab supported her in it. They just served the wrong god.
Instead of being more good together, Ahab and Jezebel became more evil together. Even in people who hate and refuse to follow the true and living God, we see the God's principle of the woman complementing the man as an equivalent and suitable helper in a 'one flesh' union at work.
Consider how much more this principle works in favor of people who follow God. Jezebel's primary focus was not on Ahab, but on the false gods she worshipped. Her focus on her false god deeply affected her husband toward that false god. Similarly, a godly woman's focus on the true and living God can deeply affect her husband. This is why Peter tells believing women to 'accept the authority of your husbands. Then, even if some refuse to obey the Good News, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. They will be won over by observing your pure and reverent lives.' (1 Peter 3:1-2) This ministry of influence God has given wives has been one of the most formative powers on the planet, both for good and for ill.