Eve. Through her story, we learn about the creation, fall and redemption of mankind
Quoted in the Bible is a conversation between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit about the creation of humans. Gen 1v 26,27 – Then God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
The very first thing the Bible says about women, is found in these verses – We are created after the likeness and in the image of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I want to pause right there and let that sink in. Your body, your mind, your emotions, your heart are all created after His likeness. Do not despise it, for the sake of what mere men say. Do not let your heart believe the lie that you are less than what God says of you. And He says that He created both male and female in His image. So, believe it.
In Gen 2, God pauses the narrative to go into the details of the creation of the very first woman and we can read of it in v 21. But I want to start in verse 15 because there are a couple of diamonds to dig out that we might otherwise overlook. Side note: whenever you are reading the Word of God remember to read things in the context of what happened before and after the actual event. It corrects perspective.
So here we go, starting in Gen 2v15-18: “15The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16And the Lord God commanded the man, saying “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. 18 Then the Lord said it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him.”
Verse 18 starts with the word “then”. The purpose of that “Then” is to draw your attention to the sequence of the next statement to the previous statement. The sequence worth noticing here is the fact that God gave a commandment to Adam, to not eat of the tree of good and evil and then immediately declared that it is not good for Adam to be alone. I believe there is a deep connection between the two events. That God commanding a relationship of obedience and Man needing help to do so. What mercy and grace fills this moment when the all-knowing God declares that we need each other to help us keep His commandments. Following God takes community. He goes on to create the very first unit of community – marriage.
He creates for Adam, a helper fit for him – the woman.
V 21 – “The Lord caused a great sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man He made into a woman and brought her to the man”.
Can you picture this? The Father bringing the very first daughter down the aisle of Eden to her husband. Adam breaks into poetry in verse 22 “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man”. He saw her as an equal. As part of him, no less and no more. Made of the very same essence – flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones. Matthew Henry, an English clergyman, wrote – “Eve was not taken out of Adam’s head to top him, neither out of his feet to be trampled on by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected by him, and near his heart to be loved by him”.
It’s important for us today, as men and women of God, to see each other with the same eyes that Adam saw Eve with. Though different – yet equal. When we tear one down or lift the other higher, we fall outside God’s definition of man and woman. I’ll leave this issue of sexism at that.
Continuing with Eve’s story – This beautiful woman, created after God’s likeness, in His very image, was in perfect relationship with Adam and with God. But Satan, seeing the very first family in perfect communion with God, disguised himself as a serpent. We are all familiar with the story of Satan tempting the woman to eat the apple. But it is important to bear down on how he did so, because he does it to this very day. He is still the master of disguise, he still lies and deceives, and he still twists the word of God. Chapter 3v1quotes Satan very first words to mankind – “Did God actually say?” He still says this. Making the children of God doubt what God said is still his favorite trick and most powerful tool against mankind. This is how he tempted Jesus in the desert – twisting the word of God and tempting Jesus to profess against God and His word. Jesus responded, “It is written” “It is written” “It is written”. Three times, our Lord and Savior fought the devil off in the middle of the desert by simply quoting scripture. In the story of the first woman, we are exposed to the age old tactic of the great liar and in the story of the last Adam, we are exposed to the strategy to fight. Ephesians 6v 17, calls the word of God the sword of the spirit. This is the weapon with which we fight the evil one. This is why it is so important to pick up the Bible again and again, daily, to read and meditate, because the adversary has had years of practicing this tactic with much success.
The first woman, however, engaged in what she probably considered, harmless banter. Obviously, she didn’t know she was dealing with the devil. This was the very purpose of his disguise as a serpent. In the woman’s eyes, the serpent was just one of God’s creations which God called good. “Did God actually say you should not eat of any tree in the garden?” he asked her. Now V 2-5 “And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
She fell for his deceptive words and entertained the idea of doubting God’s word and his trustworthiness, and it was just a quick step to believing the devil’s lies. V 6 says, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her.” He was with her! This whole time, Adam was with Eve. She was supposed to be his helper, but she was deceived, and he didn’t fight either. I’ve heard it said. The woman was deceived, but Adam simply disobeyed. Bible teacher, Marian Jordan Ellis says, “Everything that is broken in this world, can be traced to this moment”. She’s right. When you see a child with cancer, an abusive marriage, a murderous terrorist – everything you see wrong in this world, can be traced back to this moment, when Eve was deceived, and Adam disobeyed.
Our failure to recognize the evil that tempts us has disastrous consequences. We see this in the first woman’s story. Where they once knew no shame or guilt and lived in perfect innocence with God, they now hid themselves from Him and covered their shame-filled nakedness with fig leaves. The Lord asked Adam – “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man was quick to blame his wife, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” We see the first crack in marriage as Adam blames his bride and even God for his disobedience. The Lord asks Eve, “What is this that you have done?” She replies, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.” Neither of them said they were sorry. Regardless, the Father filled with compassion over His children who have been stripped of their innocence, curses the serpent to go down on his belly for all the days of his life and promises an end to him through the offspring of the very one he deceived. To the woman and all women who followed, who now held the responsibility to populate the earth, especially to bear the promised Redeemer, would do so with much pain and suffering. He also reminded her that from that day, until Jesus sets things straight in his heart, her husband would rule over her.
Jump down to verse 20, Adam changes his wife’s name to Eve – which means mother of all living. Yes, to this point, he lovingly called her Woman, because she was created out of him. Now, Eve – the mother of all living, carried the promise of future generations, one of whom would ultimately be the Savior.
The Lord God, the compassionate Father that He is, though He cursed the serpent, did not curse His children, rather promised them redemption even in the midst of the pain and suffering caused by their sin. For His children who now knew evil and would suffer all their life for it, He didn’t want to risk them eating of the Tree of life as well. Eating that fruit would mean an eternal life in brokenness. Essentially hell. To save His own from such a fate, He sent them out of the garden of Eden. What a heart-breaking scene as He drove out His beloved children from the home He so lovingly created for them!
Adam and Eve went on to have children, toiling the earth for food and suffering in their separation from God. Imagine the guilt and pain Eve endured through her last breath. How gracious it was for God to make sure there was an end to that misery with the hope of redemption. What many read as curses are truly blessings from our Father who is infinitely wiser!
The story of the Woman who came to be named Eve is a heart wrenching on. But it gives us insight into the true story of God, us and the devil. The key characters of each of our story plots.
We may blame Eve for it all, yet the unconditional truth is that it could have and would have been any of us. The Bible says, we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We need our Redeemer to defeat the great deceiver and to restore us back to the image of God.
May Eve’s story encourage you. In her story is wrapped, the promise of God’s sovereign plan of salvation for all.
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