Eve
Eve, she is also known as;
the first woman ever, the mother of all humanity, and the one who brought sin
into everyday life.
Eve was the second person to
be created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26.) What does that mean to be made in
the image of God? Obviously it isn’t a physical thing since we can’t see God
and don’t even know if He has a body like we do. No, it is spiritual,
characteristic, and the deepest part of who we are meant to be. We, being made
in the image of God, are able to have a personal relationship with God because
we too are relational as He is. Nothing else on earth, plants, animals, atoms,
or cells, can be in relation to God as we can. This is what we were created
for!
Eve was created for a
purpose, on purpose. We first see that she and Adam were given the job of
ruling over the fish, the birds, and the animals. They were also given all the
vegetation and animals as food (Gen. 1:28-30.) They were essentially the caretakers
of the Garden of Eden, this wonderful paradise that God had created. He
entrusted both Adam and Eve with this purpose.
Secondly, she was made to be
a help mate for Adam (Gen. 2:18, 20.) She was meant to be the one to work
alongside Adam in caring for the Garden of Eden. She and Adam were one (Gen.
2:24b.) Ever wonder why God didn’t just create Eve from the dust of the earth
and His breath as He did Adam? If Eve was created in that way, then she would
not physically by a part of Adam, and God meant for them to have the unity of
being one from the very beginning.
The
man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be
called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” Genesis
2:23
This oneness was the first
covenant between man and woman. This is still where we have our basis for the
covenant that we take in our marriage vows today. From the very first two
people, we see that God established a clear picture of what marriage is suppose
to be, even for us today.
For
this reason a man will leave his father and mother be united to his wife, and
they will become one flesh. Genesis
2:24
This verse itself is so
future minded for where it is placed in the story of Adam and Eve. Think about
it, aside from the heavenly Father, neither Adam nor Eve had parents. For them
there wasn’t any leaving their parents to join together to form a new family
unit. Clearly this verse was meant as an establishment for a basis for marriage
for future generations.
And then Eve makes the
biggest mistake of her life, she listens to a serpent. Eve was the first person
ever to disobey God and thus bring the sinful nature to mankind. Wow, the guilt
that she must have felt. There was one thing, just one thing, that she and Adam
were not to do, and she did it. She fell into the trap of temptation that was
set before her and led her husband down with her. Paul later refers to this
deception in 1 Corinthians, “But I am afraid that just as
Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your
minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (1 Cor 11:3.) Pretty sure that wasn't what Eve wanted
to be remembered for. Now, Adam was guilty of being tempted and giving in to
that temptation. He is responsible for his own actions though, and could have
said “no” to eating the fruit. So, Eve wasn’t the only one who had to bear the
guilt and shame of what was done. Of course there is the serpent too, and the
part that he played. He too is responsible for what he did. God didn’t buy it
when any of them tried to play the blame game either. Nope, He knows all and
thus that game just doesn’t work with Him. They all had to suffer the
consequences for the sins that they committed. Which are as follows:
1.
They brought
guilt and shame into the world.
2.
The serpent would
be a lowly creature and there will always be enmity between it and mankind.
(This totally means that my fear of snakes is biblical.)
3.
Childbirth would
be painful.
4.
They would now
have to work for food from the ground while weeds would grow with no problem.
5.
Eventual they
would die.
6.
They were
banished from the Garden of Eden.
I doubt that Eve took into
consideration the consequence of what she was doing when she bit into that
fruit. In fact, the serpent made it seem like it would actually be a good
thing. Gee, seems that the way the temptation of sin works hasn’t changed a bit
since the beginning of time. You would think that we would learn, but we keep
falling into the same trap over and over. Just like Eve we then bring guilt and
shame for what has been done upon ourselves. We even still try to blame others
for it. And we still have to deal with the consequences that come with sin. Thankfully
there is a God who forgives and has the ability to remove the guilt and shame
from our lives.
Eve was the first mother as
well. “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” (Gen. 4:1b.) Of
course it was only with the help of the Lord, aside from Adam, poor Eve didn’t
have anyone else to help her during childbirth. Soon after we learn of the
birth of Cain and Able we read about how Cain murdered Able. The Bible doesn’t say
anything about what Eve went through with the loss of her son. We can know
though that Eve knows what it is like to lose a son. She must have mourned the
death of one son and the fact that the other son was the killer. God gave her
redemption of this loss in another son, Seth.
God
has granted me another child in the place of Abel, since Cain killed him. Genesis
4:25b
From here we begin to see the
wonderful redemptive quality of God. And over and over and over we will see
this redemption repeated in the Bible.
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