Imagine a perfect world where everyone is kind to one another and you never hear any negative words. Imagine being able to pluck your dinner from a tree without having to labor for it. Imagine being able to have your babies in ease and comfort.
Perhaps the scenario would go something like this:
Eve: “Husband, it’s time for our child to make her appearance. I think I’ll just go over to that nice spot we picked out and wait for her.”
Adam: “Ok, wife. You go on over and rest. I’ll go pick us some extra fruit while you deliver that baby.”
The Lord, Who is walking in the garden, comes along and says, “Well, done, good and faithful servants. You are doing a fine job as My vice-regents taking care of the earth. The animals are all happy. Oh, I see that you are about to procreate. That is exciting! You will be blessed with many children. There is enough food for everyone in this beautiful garden.”
A short time later:
Eve: “Wow! It’s a girl child. What shall we name her?”
Adam: “Honey, you are the mother of all living. You name her.”
Does this scene look too fanciful? Is it out of the bounds of possibility?
We really don’t know what life may have been like for Adam and Eve if they would not have eaten the forbidden fruit. The Scriptures do not tell us. We can only look at what God did say to our original parents after they sinned. There we can get some clues as to what life should have been like forever in the Garden of Eden.
Everyone is familiar with the story. The serpent (who we really know was the devil, Revelation 12:9) came along and tempted Eve to eat from a tree that had been forbidden to her and Adam. We could all wish that she wouldn’t have done it, but she did when “she saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” (Genesis 3:6).
After Adam ate some of the fruit, they were ashamed and tried to hide from God. The Lord confronted them with their sin and told them what life would now be like. First, God cursed the devil for his part in destroying their beautiful life.
Before He spoke to Eve and Adam, He promised a way to save mankind. We believe that Genesis 3:15 is the promise of our Savior, Jesus Christ, the One Who would “bruise (Satan) on the head.” Though Eve was standing there, ashamed and miserable, she could hear these words of encouragement. All was not lost. The same serpent who deceived her would one day be destroyed.
Then, “To the woman He said, ‘I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children; yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you’” (Genesis 3:16).
Next, God told Adam how hard it would be to get something to eat. The ground would be cursed. Not only that, but now instead of fellowship forever with God in the garden, Adam would die and return to the dust from which he was taken.
Lastly, the Lord sent Adam and Eve out of the garden into the world to cultivate the ground and live their lives. Adam named Eve “the mother of all living.” Soon she would bear Cain and Abel and then other children, including Seth.
The Bible doesn’t tell us anything further about Eve’s life. I believe that she and Adam repented and were saved as they looked forward to the coming Messiah. They worked hard and lived lives that were as pleasing to God as possible in the now sin infected world.
Since so much has been written about the meaning of Eve’s actions during the fall of man, I would like to make some observations.
First, of all, let us please just read what the Scripture says and do not read our own biases and emotions into Eve’s part in the fall. The fact that people believe everything from extreme egalitarianism to extreme hierarchy just shows that there is much speculating going on. I would caution following either of these views. Both groups have an agenda. I don’t believe that their agendas are Biblical. I believe that both groups are displeasing to God.
The truth, as is so often the case, is somewhere in the middle. Let’s just start with a recap:
1. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Gen. 1:26). At this point, men and women are equals. In this great first chapter of the Bible we see God’s wonderful creative activity. Everything God made was good, and the first couple was “very good” (Gen. 1:31). God told them to be fruitful and multiply and to rule over everything else He had made. This job as vice-regents was given to both of them equally.
2. In Genesis, chapter 2, we are given a few more details about what God made specifically for the earth. Special attention is given to the Garden of Eden. There He placed the man that He had just formed out of dust. Adam was to cultivate the garden.
3. Now, God says that “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him” (Gen. 218). Here might be a good spot for Eve’s appearance, but instead God brings the animals to Adam for their naming. The Bible does not tell us why this is the order of things, and the point I want to make is that this is one of those places where there is much speculating going on. The folks who favor a strong patriarchy in society will say that the fact that Adam was created first, and was given the authority to name the animals (and subsequently his helper) proves that he was meant to be in charge of the woman as he was the animals. But, does the Scripture say that Adam is to be in charge of the woman? May we please just go with what the text says, “It is not good for man to be alone.”
4. God creates the woman out of one of Adam’s ribs. Two things are of interest here. One is that while man was brought forth out of non-living dust, woman was made out of living material. Our egalitarian friends believe that this shows the superiority of the woman. Again, I ask, let’s please just stick with what the Bible says and not read into it.
The other thing to note is that we are actually given the reason for the creation of woman out of the side of the man and it is not so that he can rule over her. Adam tells us himself that this special creation has to do with marriage. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24). God gave us a very graphic picture of the oneness of a married couple in the creation of Eve.
So far, we have a married couple ruling together as co-vice-regents in a beautiful garden where no sin has entered as of yet.
Things are about to change; but how?
Let’s stop and think. Ponder on the following questions and next week in Part II, we will explore some possible answers.
1. Did Eve enjoy the same fellowship with God as Adam did in the garden? Was she aware of God’s prohibition against eating the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? How did she find out since she was not there when God told Adam?
2. Is there anything in the first two chapters of the Bible that suggests that Eve was inferior to Adam in any way? I mean inferior as a person, intellectually, emotionally, or willfully?
3. What does the manner of Eve’s creation mean to you?
Next time we will talk about the fall, the “curse”, and what life is like for women because of those events.
In the meantime, rejoice because the promised Messiah has come bringing new life for us.
