Women of the bible series - Eve

Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start……

Of course when you start reading up on the women of the bible

, you have to start with the very first one…..EVE – or Mrs Adam if you want to get all formal.

We are first introduced to humans during the creation story in Genesis. Surely Eve is one of the most well known biblical figures and a lot has been placed at her feet as far as fault and blame go. Poor Eve is regularly bought up when we have a difficult labour, or even when we see a weed growing.

In Genesis Chapter 1, verse 26 The Lord speaks….”Let us make human beings in our image and likeness”.

Eve was not an afterthought! God had her planned all along I think – perhaps as a really sweet surprise for old Adam. Verse 27; He created THEM, male and female.

Verse 28 says that God “blessed them”. I have some exciting news to share here…..Genesis chapter 1, verse 31 reveals just how God felt about all this; “God looked at EVERYTHING He had made and it was VERY good”. Not just ok. VERY GOOD!

In Chapter 2 of the Genesis story, we loop back a little and have a window seat into the actual creation of our first woman. Verse 7; “Then the Lord took dust from the ground and formed a man from it. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nose, and the man became a living person.”

Adam was formed out of the creation. He was formed with God’s own hands, with the very breath of God lovingly breathed into him.

The breath of God is what made Adam a living person! Before that, Adam was just a beautiful, lifeless ‘thing’.

A garden is then established and old dusty Adam is placed inside to look after it. Perhaps God could see that the roses were getting trimmed at the wrong time of the year, or that he was getting distracted by all the animal naming he had to do and lawns needed a trim!!!! So, in verse 18, we see this happen…”Then the Lord said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is right for him.”

Bless.

Adam got to have a good deep sleep, and wham…..a little rib surgery and he wakes up to probably the most beautiful creature God had ever formed and brought before Adam. Don’t forget, he’d been busy naming things like Sloths, Giraffes, Rhinoceros and Cats! All of a sudden, God’s handiwork in the form of a woman is standing beside him, being given to him as his wife!

Two things I picked up on here;

1. Eve was a ‘helper’

Other words for helper include; companion, collaborator, attendant, deputy, aide, partner, supporter, friend.

A great design by God for a marriage partnership.

2. Eve was made “right for him”.

She was designed by God to exactly meet the requirements God knew suited Adam. What an encouragement. This is how God designed things. Remember this girls if you are praying for a husband, men for a wife. Pray and wait for the one who the Lord has created ‘right’ for you.

(Me and my 'right for me' man!)

This is the first marriage and as we saw in the creation story, God would have seen that this was very good.

We are not told the time frame between the creation story and the very famous ‘fall of man’ text. During the in-between times though we can imagine Adam and his beautiful Eve walking together in the garden with God each day. The relationships would have been close, personal and perfect. Eve would have been chatting to her creator regularly, enjoying the perfection that she was brought into. I wonder if she had a sense of perfection at that point. Perhaps not – she knew no different.

We are moved pretty quickly however into Chapter 3 of the Genesis account and smack bang into the slimy wiles of old Satan himself. We have the understanding that this snake (serpent) was the devil himself, but the text in multiple biblical versions calls him a serpent or snake and makes sure we understand that he was more clever (MSG), crafty (NIV), subtle (KJV) skilled in deceit (AMP) than any of the other animals that the Lord had made. Is this why the devil chose the form of a snake?

There’s a couple of things going on here that I thought about for the first time;

1. The serpent was talking to Eve! I can’t see anywhere else in the creation story that any other animals were talking to the humans. Was this a shock to Eve!?! Or not????

2. He had a nature – crafty etc.

3. The serpent did to Eve, what he often still does to us. He placed a very cleverly crafted doubt in her mind. “Did God REALLY say…….”???? (Chapt 3 v 1). How quickly or minds are changed or deceived, or muddled up with doubt even if one person questions us.

Then, Eve succumbed to the very first recorded lie. “You will not die!” (Chapter 3 v 4). Satan, the Father of lies at Eve’s service.

How quickly things have changed for Eve. The immediate verse following this (v5) says that Eve saw the tree in a different light. All of a sudden, it looked desirable and she had to have it! How often, we too still justify our actions because we have a deep desire to possess something. Her heart was manipulated.

Eve’s choice then, was to make the decision to believe the lie and give herself over to the temptation brought before her. A very simple transaction.

We see Satan use similar tactics when he tried to tempt the only perfect human – Jesus. He uses the words “if you” a lot in the Matthew Chapter 4 text. Here he again attempts the doubt tactic. Of course, Jesus is a whole lot cleverer and shows us the ultimate way to overcome temptation……with the word of God! Eve had been in a close relationship with God but failed to secure her future in it and stand confidently in all she knew of her creator.

Simple really!!! Haha :)

Well, what a slippery slope Eve set herself on.

The very first marital blame game was set in motion and from there – well we all know the ending.

After having a free and open, loving relationship with their creator, all of a sudden Eve was hunting for the nearest bushiest bush.

She need to hide from God since an overwhelming sense of shame had come upon this very first couple and all of a sudden, these created humans rejected Gods offer of relationship.

Was this another lie of the devil, or just one of the first consequences of sin?

We read now that God lays down some basic principles. There has to be consequences for choosing sin.

Eve had to be clothed for the very first time along with her hubby. God provided the clothing through the death of an animal, I suppose exampling a new way that His creation now needed to be utilised for humanity. What a loving Lord.

As a couple though they were ‘shown the door’ so to speak. Cut off from the perfection that they had resided in since God breathed life into their lungs. You see, a perfect creation cannot be tainted by imperfection. They had to go! I know how heartbreaking it was once when a bank threatened to take our farm – the place we called home and thought was perfect for us. How much more difficult for Eve and her husband to be escorted from perfection – no weeds, no hunger, no wanting for anything, into a vast, unknown world. DO you think they looked back, trying to capture one last visual memory?

God made it clear what their lives would now look like and for Eve it meant that every pregnancy and birth from here on would be fraught with trouble and pain.

We do go on in Genesis chapter 4 to see that Eve does in fact give birth to two sons, Cain and Abel who themselves have fractured relationships ending in the world’s first murder.

I have a feeling that Eve may have leant back into her relationship with her Creator as she recognises the Lord through the names of her sons;

Genesis 4:1 “...with the Lord’s help, I have given birth..”

Genesis 4:25 “….and she gave birth to a son. She named him Seth and said ‘God has given me another child..’

We don’t hear anything further about Eve from about this point on. We are given Adam’s genealogy and length of life, from which I suppose we can conclude Eve’s.

Foe me it is hard to assume that Eve walked away from the Lord altogether and we won’t get to meet her in heaven. Why would she honour God in the birth of her children if she completely rejected Him? I find it hard to believe that she didn’t spend a whole lot of home-schooling time making sure her kids and grandkids heard all about the beautiful garden of Eden and the loving nature of the Creator God. Eve was tricked and easily deceived by a different ‘truth’. Paul even uses Eve as an example for the Corinthian church to keep an eye out on this very thing.

Eve truly experienced the first battle of the mind and unfortunately she lost – big time.

So lets not be too hard on her. How would we have held up in the same situation?

Some last thoughts on our sister Eve…

Consider this…

Eve was:

Perfect – she must have been visually stunning

Never a child, daughter, or sibling

Never single

The first to be called ‘wife’

One of the first ways God reflected His creativity

The first to be challenged by Satan – was this a reflection of the trustworthy nature of the female race?

How incredible is God though? He made sure that Devil was told that at one point in the future, a descendant of the ‘woman’ will crush your head.

There would ultimately come a blessing, a redemption, an atonement for this mess and it would come through a descendant of the woman. I think this is just beautiful!

God loved Eve so very much that He wanted it recorded in the biblical text that women are part of the whole story! They were considered carefully in the very beginning and had already been thought of for the future redemption story.

Do I understand it all?

Nope.

I don’t claim to.

What I do know is this though. Eve was considered, cherished, loved, and loved some more. She has been used throughout the ages as the first example of sin, but perhaps there is more to this woman worth mulling over.

None of us since her have lived a perfect life, and none will. I am sure she had days that must have almost broken her. She seemed to, however, still honour God – at least through the naming of her kids.

My takeaway from re-reading her story though is this; I need to be careful in my mind. If I have doubts, instead of embracing them, I need to go to my Creator. I need to trust everything He has told me in the past. I need to remind myself that His word is true – always. It never fails and He never ever lies.

What can you take away from this first woman?