Eve

FIRST GOOD GIRL GONE BAD
GENESIS 1 – 4

IMAGINE: Being the first woman. Upon opening your eyes, you hear the story about how you came to be. Your only companions are God, your Creator, and some stranger called a husband.

Eve was the last of God’s glory to be created. But…as her journey begins she is the first to experience many of life’s events.

 Then the Lord God made the
rib He had taken from the
man into a woman and
brought her to the man.
Genesis 2:22

She is the first woman. Eve was never a baby, child, or teenager. There were no awkward stages for her to go through. She was created in God’s mind, physically molded from Adam’s rib, received the breath of life and was placed on planet earth as an adult woman.
She is the first wife. Eve made up the other half of the institution called marriage. She was created as a helpmate for her husband, Adam. (Gen. 2:24)
She is the first woman to be given a name. Adam names his bride “Eve” which means “Mother of all living”. (Gen. 3:20).
She is the first and only woman to know true innocence. This first lady was perfectly innocent in every way. Scripture indicates she and Adam walked naked in the Garden and were not ashamed. (Gen. 2:25).
She is the first woman to walk with God. Eve was the most beautiful woman ever, highly intelligent, extremely humorous, very compassionate, and the embodiment of love at its fullest. Most of all she was totally devoted to her Creator God and her husband Adam. (Gen. 3:8).
Eve is the first woman to be approached by Satan. Satan is described as an angel of light. Nothing indicates Eve was fearful or surprised by this encounter. We do not know if she and the serpent were familiar with one another or not. Ezekiel 28:13 indicates what the serpent might have resembled. “You were in Eden, the Garden of God. Every kind of precious stone covered you”.
She is the first woman to be deceived by the wiles of the Devil. In all fairness to Eve, she may have thought he was a messenger from God because of his radiant beauty and supernatural cunning. She had never been introduced to a lie so all she was accustomed to would have been the truth. She may have thought she was receiving better clarity of God’s instructions. Was he not telling her she could be like God if she just took a nibble of this one fruit? She must have misunderstood her husband’s instruction concerning this one of many, many trees in the Garden. It appears she was deceived into believing she was doing the right thing. (Gen. 3:13; 1 Tim. 2:14).
Everything changed after speaking with the serpent. With doing just that Eve became guilty of listening and taking up conversation with the enemy. She listened while he insinuated doubt and denial of God’s word. Eve would now be made aware of the presence of sin, the power of sin, and the penalty of sin.
She is the first woman to disobey God’s command. Eve was not some lost pagan running loose in the world. She was handmade by the Creator, Himself. She was not going to be able to blame her environment or heredity, for her disobedience.
She is the first woman to continue the blame game. Again, in all fairness to Eve, her husband first blamed her for this disaster that had come upon them. After Adam blames Eve, she continues the blame game by indicating it is all the fault of the deceiving serpent. (Gen. 3:13). The blame game, still observed today, did not work then nor does it now, and serious repercussions began. Starting with Mr. and Mrs. Adam, consequences for sin became known and severe.
She is the first seamstress. Because of Mr. and Mrs. Adam’s disobedience, shame and embarrassment are now a reality. There is now a need for clothing and thus the idea of fig leaves for covering. She is the first woman with custom made clothing. Trying to cover their sin in their own way was not sufficient. The fig leaves were not going to work. God had to kill an animal to make clothing out of the skins, thus bringing in the first blood sacrifice for sin.
She is the first woman to become separated from God. God’s command to keep away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was His protection over them from evil. God had said “don’t” for their own good. Eve chose “do” which caused consequences to occur. Adam and Eve would now experience spiritual death which, for them, became separation from God.
She is the first woman to give birth to a child. In Eve’s punishment, childbearing would be difficult and painful as the sin was being passed on to the next generation. The Hebrew word for the woman’s pain is “itstsabown” which means worrisomeness, i.e. labor or pain: sorrow, toil. This word derives from the Aramaic word “atsab” (in a bad sense) to worry, pain or anger: displeasure, grieve, hurt, be sorry. Eve’s pain was equal parts of physical, emotional, and spiritual.
She is the first woman to lose a child to death. The curse of human death pronounced against Adam had now been realized. Eve now experienced the pain of physical death in the loss of her son. Eve had been given the blessing of life. Because of not consulting with her husband or with God, her Creator, but instead choosing to listen to Satan’s lie “you surely won’t die”, she now had received the curse of physical death.
Adam had been given everything up to and including the perfect helpmate. The entire world had been given to him. But…there was satan lurking in the back ground to take all this perfection into his own hands. And he was going to go through the first woman to get to the first man.
God commanded Adam not to eat from the tree of “the knowledge of good and evil” before Eve was created. (Gen. 2:16, 17). But…it appears Eve disobeyed her husband who apparently had explained the Garden rules to her. (Gen. 3:3).
Somewhere along the way, and probably in a very short time span, Satan heard the command concerning the forbidden tree and hatched his diabolical plan of destruction. This needed to be done quickly as to guarantee there would be no Godly line to follow Adam and Eve, as they went forth and filled the Earth with offspring. In his haste, satan pointed to the one and only tree not suitable for food thus seductively enticing Eve toward that one tree in and among all the other trees, which were pleasing in appearance and good for food.
And, destroy he did. Mr. and Mrs. Adam had enjoyed direct fellowship with God, a beautiful home, and all the food they could eat. Eve lived in a perfect place, with perfect love, and a perfect future ahead of her.
In the middle of this good life comes Satan to do what he does best. By twisting God’s word, he was able to deceive Eve. Through Satan’s deception, Eve ate and passed some to her husband and he ate. These were God’s own people, His only people at the time. Eve’s deception moved from want, to blame, to shame, and onto grief beyond measure. The future was not going to be a walk in the park as it had been.
Two people whom God had loved were not the only ones grieved. Adam and Eve had failed to love God in return. God’s created beings had told Him no. They would now have to be removed from the garden so as not to eat of the “tree of life” and so forever be broken by sin, with no remedy.
The stark reality of each day would bring unimaginable struggles. Life from now on would be much different than what they had been familiar with.
God moved this first couple away from the Garden and all that had been home to them. It is hard to imagine what Eve thought when she received her eviction notice to vacate her perfect world.
Could they see the Garden from where they were banished? Were they reminded by the cherubim and flaming, whirling sword on the east side that they could no longer live in what had been the only home they had known? They would have remembered the tasty fruit, beautiful plants and the aroma of the trees surrounding them. Was there a sadness that came over them when they recalled their interaction with the animals? Did they miss laughing, running, and just being silly, without a care in the world? Possibly this all became a distant memory as time went on.
Now life had changed. Now there was nothing but thorns, thistles, and dust. Dust? Adam had to think – that’s what I was made from. That’s what I will return to. Maybe there was not much time in a day to think along those lines. Work became hard and tedious. It became difficult to pull enough from the ground to sustain them each day.
Through it all, it appears Eve did not close her mind and her heart to her Creator, thus not having to experience the third example of death, eternal death, separation from God forever.
The last mention of Eve is where she has given birth to yet another son. She names him Seth, claiming “God has given me another child”. (Gen. 4:25). Scripture indicates mother Eve spoke to son Seth about the things pertaining to the Lord in that when Seth had a son he named him Enosh. Scripture states, “at that time people began to call on the name of the Lord”. (Gen. 4:26).
Adam lived to be 930 years old and he died. (Gen. 5:5). The Scriptures, concerning Eve, do not mention how, where, or when she died. Eve was constantly treading in uncharted territory. Her disobedience brought death to a perfect world. But…Eve would experience yet another first.
She is the first woman to experience God’s amazing grace. God’s grace upon her brought, through her seed, the one who would bring life to a new heaven and a new earth. She is the first woman in the lineage of Christ who would come and undo what she had done.
From Eve came Seth, came Noah, came Shem, came Abraham, came Isaac, came Jacob, came Judah, came David, came Jesus Christ. So, indeed, she is the Mother of all living.
God’s rules are bathed in love for us. They are for our good and His glory. Satan’s suggestions are for our harm and his exaltation. The Devil always makes things and circumstances look as if he is looking out for our best interests, but his promises are always a tremendous let down.
Because of Eve being deceived and Adam’s rebellion toward God’s command, there followed lifelong struggles within the relationship of this first couple. (Gen. 3:16). Eve would now wish to override her husband’s instructions as she had done in the Garden. By design the man is to be the protector and provider for the home, but with Eve prompting Adam to sin, came the curse against this design.
Women’s lib is apparently not something new on the scene. Because Adam listened to his wife instead of obeying God’s instruction, role reversal became an issue. Because of this turn of events, Mr. and Mrs. Adam’s household was turned upside down.
Indeed, Eve did walk where no other woman had tread. She is the first and only woman to live in a perfect world. She is the first and only woman to be perfect, herself.
With the world so broken today, it is hard to imagine what Eve had and what Eve lost. She, like all mankind since her, stood ever ready to look at what she did not have instead of all the Blessings from God she did possess.
She literally entered this world possessing everything good. She was able to walk in the cool of the evening breeze with her Creator. (Gen. 3:8). Her world was perfect. A loving husband, a beautiful home, all the luscious food she could eat (without gaining weight), no make-up and never a bad hair day. She had all kinds of pets she could play with. Eve had complete peace and truly lacked for nothing. Sadly, enough never being enough, is not a new concept on planet earth. 
Eve lost her perfect way of life. She now would live in and among thorns and thistles, and bear children with intense pain. Her first born son would murder her second born son. God had given a command for their own good. To not eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good an evil, they would continue to know only good and not have to encounter any form of evil.
God had created mankind with the ability to make choices. In the Garden of Eden was another tree, the tree of life. There is no mention of the fruit from it being forbidden. By all appearances, Adam and Eve were given a choice between life and death, just as it is today.
Because God does not want man to die in his sins and thus be separated from Him forever, He has provided another tree of life. His name is Jesus. Those who choose to trust in Jesus will one day experience what Eve had, but without the tempter there to take it all away.
God’s Word brings life and order. Satan’s rhetoric brings chaos and death. Eve has taught a very valuable lesson to all those who would come after her. Don’t answer the Devil’s questions. Don’t take up a conversation of any kind with him. Don’t even bother to just say “no”. Say nothing! Turn him over to Jesus and just walk away.

Thought for the day:
 Never let things you want,
make you forget the things you have.  
Anonymous.