July 16, 2024 • 45 mins
What if Eve's story is one of redemption and hope rather than blame and shame? This episode of We Who Thirst challenges traditional perceptions by providing a nuanced exploration of Eve's character in the Bible. We'll examine Genesis chapters 2 through 4, shedding light on Eve's role as an indispensable partner to Adam and the emotional and psychological impacts of their choices. Prepare to see Eve not as a mere "helper" but as an essential ally in the divine narrative of creation.
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Episode Transcript
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Jessica Jenkins (00:00):
Welcome back to the we who Thirst podcast.
We are currently consideringwomen of the Bible in their
cultural, familial andhistorical context.
You can support the ministry ofwe who Thirst by joining us on
Patreon For the moments you arewanting to ask questions or
discuss these women of the Biblein even more detail.
We have a member-only Discordgroup for the $6 and above tier
(00:22):
on Patreon.
Now let's get started.
Today we are talking about Eve.
A lot of us especially as Ilisten to you have heard very
negative things about Eve in theway she's been taught.
Some of us have been taughtthat she is the reason for the
fall of humanity, that womencan't be trusted, that they need
(00:44):
men to make choices for them,that if Adam had been a biblical
man, he would have stopped her.
If she had been a biblicalwoman those are in quotes she
would have submitted to Adam orfollowed his leadership, rather
than eating the fruit.
Today, what I want to do inthis podcast is walk through
Genesis 2 through 4, looking atEve as a person and a character.
(01:08):
We're not today going to dealwith whether she is an archetype
or whether she really lived.
I am going to handle the textof Scripture as though it is
accurate to her experience, andwe're going to talk about the
way she is presented inScripture.
As I have studied Eve over thelast couple years, I find her to
actually be a very redemptivecharacter and for there to be
(01:30):
great beauty in her story, andthat's what I want to dive into
today.
One thing I think is reallyimportant for us as we look at
Eve is to think about our ownlives.
We all know the general storyof Adam and Eve in the garden
and how she ate the fruit andgave it to the man.
But we often don't think abouthow she would have felt in
(01:57):
chapter four, where her sonmurders her other son and she
has to process that.
And how does she process that?
I'm sure all of us can relateto making a mistake and looking
at that and seeing theconsequences of that and wishing
we could take it back.
And Eve shows us somethinginteresting about how do you
(02:20):
make the biggest mess up in theworld, how do you process that
and how do you move forward inthe future.
So let's start at the beginningof the story of Eve.
We see in chapter one of Genesisthat Eve is created in the
image of God.
It means she is arepresentative of God alongside
(02:42):
Adam.
She is created to be his helper, she is created to partner with
him and we'll walk through it,little bits at a time as we go
through.
So God has created a garden.
It is the holy of holies.
It is his meeting place for hisdivine heavenly council of
rulers and his human council ofrulers over the earth.
(03:06):
You have both going on in thissetting.
That is the garden, it is theholy of holies and the cosmic
temple of God.
God has made the man and he hascommissioned the man, the human
, to be a priestlyrepresentative on God's behalf
over all of creation.
But God looks at the man who hehas just created and he has
(03:27):
said it is not good for the manto be alone.
I need to make for him anindispensable ally, to partner
with him in the task of being apriestly representative over the
entire earth.
Task of being a priestlyrepresentative over the entire
(03:48):
earth.
Our English translations usuallysay a helper suitable.
I'm reading the NIV.
That is what the NIV says.
And so God creates Eve to be ahelper suitable in your Bible,
most likely some version of thator I think a better translation
would be indispensable ally.
Before we dive into Eve and herstory, I want to unpack that
(04:10):
for us very briefly.
I will unpack it in more detailin the complementarian
egalitarian cohort.
But helper suitable, I think,is actually not the best way to
describe Eve or women in general.
The word helper in English has alot of connotations that are
(04:31):
not the connotations of theHebrew word ezer, which means
helper.
In English we think of helperas somebody who's secondary,
their role, is assistant.
They are assistant to thegeneral manager.
They're not doing the work,they are helping someone else
doing the work.
Typically, a helper is someonewho has less experience,
(04:52):
expertise, knowledge orownership of a project.
They are often a lower socialclass and even a juvenile Think
about like Mommy's Little Helper.
Or for a lower social class,think of the movie the Help that
talked about Black women whowere just the help for the white
women.
(05:13):
When I think of helper, I thinkof maybe my husband's best
friend coming over to help himbuild a deck.
My husband's best friend mayhave more knowledge and
expertise on how to build a deckthan my husband, but he does
not have ownership of that deck.
It is our deck, it's not thebest friend's deck.
So, whereas he has greaterknowledge and expertise, he
lacks ownership.
(05:34):
If you have equal ownership,equal knowledge and equal
expertise, then the word inEnglish we would use to describe
you is rarely helper, but it isoften partner or even ally, and
it is this picture that theHebrew has for Eve.
Helper also has connotations inEnglish for a subordinate status
(05:57):
, and help is often nice butit's not necessary.
I like having help around thehouse.
It would be great if someonewould help me do the dishes.
But are any of those thingsnecessary?
Not in the slightest.
I can do it.
Would I like help?
Sure, it's nice, it makes mylife easier, but it's not
necessary.
But when you look at Genesis 2and 3 in the Hebrew, what you
(06:21):
see is that the creation ofwoman, the creation of Eve, is
absolutely necessary.
She is a necessary ally topartner with man in the task of
being a priestly representative.
In 2.15, genesis 2.15, it saysNIV, the Lord God took the man
and put him in the Garden ofEden to work it and take care of
(06:43):
it.
Those terms work and take careof.
When used together, thoseHebrew terms indicate a priestly
function.
Throughout the rest of Moses'writings, the first five books
of the Bible and most of the OldTestament.
So what, in 2.15, god is doingis instilling the man as a
priestly representative in theGarden.
He is a priestly functiontaking care of the holy of
(07:05):
holies of God's cosmic temple.
God looks at the man and he saysthis job of being a priestly
representative is too big foryou to do alone.
You can't do it by yourself.
You need an indispensable,because you can't do it without
them.
I lie, because you need someoneequal to you to do this.
And so, therefore, god makeswoman.
(07:28):
So just pause for a second andimagine your woman, regardless
of the literature or whethershe's a real person.
We're just going to go throughthe text as though what it says
is how it happened for Eve.
So imagine you're Eve and youjust wake up.
God has taken the side of theman.
That's not his rib and that'snot splitting him in half.
(07:49):
That Hebrew word side literallymeans like put the sticker on
the side of the box, that kindof side.
It's a directional termindicating the side of a
structure, a box like the Ark ofthe Covenant or a building.
So God has taken part of theside of the man and he has
crafted a woman.
And she wakes up, she opens hereyes and she is in the Holy of
(08:13):
Holies of the Cosmic Temple.
There are flowering treessurrounding her, rabbits hopping
slowly through the grass, maybea deer foraging off to her
right.
She sits up and they're gazingat her.
An absolute wonder and awe isher man, from whom she was
creative, and he bursts out injoyous song, verse 23,.
(08:37):
This is now bone of my bonesand flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called woman, forshe was taken out of man.
She hears these words from Adamand her heart thrills.
He is the one to whom she isconnected.
They intrinsically belongtogether.
They are one flesh, createdfrom the same thing.
(08:58):
She walks with him and theybecome one flesh.
They are united together.
They are both naked and theyfeel no shame whatsoever.
This is how it began for Eve.
Then the story moves on alittle bit farther.
It introduces a new character.
(09:19):
It says now the serpent wasmore crafty than any of the wild
animals the Lord God had made.
This is chapter 3, verse 1.
Now, if you recall some of theGenesis posts, serpents in the
ancient world were consideredbeings of chaos.
They are chaos agents, oftenrelated to the sea, and they
(09:40):
would bring chaos and typicallygods like Baal or Marduk have to
defeat the serpent of chaos.
So now we have a serpent in thegarden and the original
audience is going to be like, ohdear, what's going on with the
serpent?
Think dragon.
Think like Chinese dragon kindof serpent, not like little cute
snake.
Some of you may not thinksnakes are cute.
(10:00):
I think they're kind of cute,but think like ferocious Chinese
dragon.
Think the serpent in Revelation, the red serpent that wants to
eat Mary.
That kind of serpent,dragon-esque kind of animal.
It's not a little garter snake,it's not a boa constrictor, it
is a dragon, it is an possibleand this idea comes from Michael
(10:24):
Heiser in the Unseen Realm thatthis serpent was at one time a
throne guardian for God.
I mentioned very briefly thedivine counsel God has.
He made a spiritual realm thatwe are not fully aware of and we
struggle to understand and inthe spiritual realm he made
angels and seraphim andmessengers, and there's bunches
(10:44):
of different names for thesedifferent spirit beings.
Some of them fell, some of themrebelled against God and got
kicked out of heaven at somepoint in all of the biblical and
creation story.
One of these was a beautifulangel and he I'm using angel
generically for spirit beingsand he decided he was as good as
(11:05):
God and God said no and kickedhim out of heaven.
And so this serpent may or maynot be that exact angelic divine
, not as in God, god, god but aspirit being.
This serpent may be that.
I'm not going to go into thewhole spirit realm, but you have
(11:27):
this serpent who appears in thegarden.
Now it's interesting because welook at this and say she's not
surprised.
No, one's surprised.
A snake is suddenly talking toher.
Wouldn't that be shocking?
Well, if you consider thegarden as the holy of holy of
God, it is his meeting placewhere God would meet with both
his spiritual, divine council ofspirit beings who later on he
(11:49):
gives them power to rule overnations, these spirit beings,
and his human council, which isAdam and Eve.
The garden is the meeting place.
Eve could have been used tointerfacing with these spirit
beings all the time.
It is not unusual for her to beseeing these spirit beings, and
they might need to take acorporeal form to interface with
(12:11):
Adam and Eve, and who knowswhat different forms they would
take.
And so she sees a talkingserpent.
Okay, one of God's messengers ishere, somebody part of the
divine council, that's fine, I'mgoing to have a conversation,
but this conversation does notgo the way she expects.
She starts to engage him and heimmediately starts questioning
(12:31):
her about the covenant that Godgave both to her and Adam before
she was created.
And that covenant was back inverse 16 and 17,.
The Lord, god, commanded theman and said you are free to eat
from any tree in the garden,but you must not eat from the
tree of the knowledge of goodand evil, for when you eat from
it you will surely die.
(12:52):
So God has given this covenantto the man.
The covenant is you must noteat.
If you eat you will die.
That's the whole thing.
So the serpent eat, you willdie.
That's the whole thing.
So the serpent, this spiritbeing, starts talking to Eve and
he questions it.
He said did God really say youmust not eat from any tree in
(13:12):
the garden?
And the woman said to theserpent we may eat from the
trees in the garden, but God didsay you must not eat fruit from
the tree that's in the middleof the garden and you must not
touch it or you will die.
She adds to God's command hereas she's trying to process and
think this through.
The serpent replies you willcertainly not die.
(13:34):
Verse four the serpent said tothe woman for verse five you
know that when you eat from ityour eyes will be opened and you
will be like God, knowing goodand evil.
And here Eve pauses.
She knows she's in the garden,she knows it is a beautiful
place, she knows she has perfectcommunion with God and perfect
communion with Adam.
(13:54):
But she hears what the serpentsays and she wonders knowing
good and evil, this is somethingthe serpent knows about.
The divine creation of God'sdivine counsel, this is
something obviously God knowsabout.
Did God fail to give his humanrepresentatives the same kind of
knowledge he gave his divinerepresentatives?
(14:15):
And again, divine is not likeGod there, it's more like a
spirit being.
So she's questioning this andshe wonders.
So she's questioning this andshe wonders.
And that plants in her heart aseed wondering is God really
good?
Am I missing out on something?
And verse six then the womansaw the fruit of the tree was
good for food and pleasing tothe eye, and it was also
(14:37):
desirable for gaining wisdom.
So she took some and ate it.
She also gave some to herhusband who was with her, and he
ate it.
Then the eyes of both of themwere open and they realized they
were naked.
So imagine this for a moment.
Eve listens to the serpent.
Whatever is going on in herthought process?
We don't know.
(14:58):
Scholars will give you answers.
They'll say she wantedknowledge, she didn't trust God.
We are not told what is goingon in her heart.
We know she listens, we knowshe sees the fruit, that it is
good and it is pleasing anddesirable for gaining wisdom.
She wants that wisdom, so shetakes and she eats.
(15:18):
Imagine with me that moment.
You were in the garden.
It is beautiful.
Think about that feeling inyour chest or wherever in your
body.
You feel this emotion, the mostjoyous moment you can imagine.
Just that feeling of delightand ecstasy in your heart and in
your body, the lightness ofyour spirit.
(15:39):
You have no weight, no concerns.
It's just this joyful moment.
If you have one of those inyour life, conjure up that
feeling in your body.
That is where Eve is at.
She's just living in that spaceall the time because she's in
perfect communion with God andher husband.
And then she wants the wisdomand she decides to disobey God
(15:59):
and the moment her teeth crunchinto the fruit.
Everything changes.
She crunches the fruit, shehands it to Adam, who is with
her, and we'll talk about thatin a second.
He takes a bite and then theylook at each other.
Everything changes.
They look down at themselves.
(16:21):
They realize they're naked.
The wonderful light, freefeeling of joy is gone and it's
replaced with terror.
It's replaced with shame.
They look at each other andthey almost recoil.
They want to dive into thebushes to hide themselves.
Everything shifted in a moment.
(16:43):
She and Adam.
They are looking at each other,maybe hiding in separate bushes
.
Not sure how do we commune withone another Now we're naked.
What's going on?
I want to hide.
I'm terrified.
They start gathering leaves,trying to sew them together with
bits of vine.
They don't know what's going on.
They just they feel this terror, this shame.
They have to cover themselves.
(17:03):
They have to.
They don't know how they needto figure this out and they're
looking at each other withdistrust.
Eve woke up to a face of ardentadmiration, and now those same
eyes glare at her with blame andconcern.
Arms that once wrapped her upin safety and love now are
(17:28):
frantically sewing leavestogether to hide his shame,
something that she cannot be apart of and though she bears her
own, she cannot understand hisand she cannot connect with him.
That connection that they had.
That instant beautiful onenessof flesh is now severed.
And she looks at the fruitlaying on the ground where they
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dropped it.
And she looks at her husbandand she looks at the leaves
she's trying to patch togetherto make clothing, and sorrow,
for the first time, enters herheart and she cannot process
this feeling.
She has no tools.
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She's never felt it before.
She just sits there in thishiding, trying to cover up what
has happened, and she is afraid.
Then they hear God's voice.
(18:29):
The man and his wife verse 8,heard the sound of the Lord God
as he was walking in the gardenin the cool of the day.
And they hid from the Lord Godamong the trees of the garden.
But the Lord God called to theman where are you?
Adam, in this text, is thefirst representative, she is the
second representative.
They partner together torepresent God as priests, but
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Adam is the first representativeand God calls to him.
And God says Adam, where areyou?
And Adam answers I heard you inthe garden and I was afraid
because I was naked, so I hid.
Eve's listening to this exchangeand she hears the Lord's voice,
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she hears the sorrow, she hearsthe distance and she's afraid.
She's never been afraid of Godbefore, but now she's afraid of
God before, but now she's afraid.
She hears his voice, as theLord says, who told you that you
(19:35):
were naked?
Have you eaten from the treethat I commanded you not to eat
from?
And then she hears the man, theone with whom she is one flesh,
the one who is supposed to carefor her and hold her and
partner with her.
But now he acts as an enemy andhe says the woman you put here
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with me, she gave me some of thefruit from the tree and I ate
it.
A voice who once sang over herwith joyous celebration now
points an accusing finger at herand says it's her fault.
She did it.
We are in this mess and it isbecause of her.
The man ate just as willingly.
(20:18):
Some people would say oh, theman.
He was being passive.
He didn't do his manly duty ofleadership and protection, and
that's why they're in this mess.
Or the woman didn't do herwomanly duty of following and
submitting to the man's rule.
Rather than talking to theserpent, she should have gone
and got Adam to talk to theserpent, because a woman
shouldn't do that.
(20:38):
The text doesn't say any ofthis For the original audience,
women handing food to a man isnormal.
They wouldn't have seen thosesorts of connotations in the
text.
And if you're going to go tothe woman failing to act as a
godly woman and the man failingto act as a godly man, then
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you're jumping the original sinto something pre their
disobedience.
You're saying original sindidn't really start with them
choosing the fruit to eat thefruit.
It really started when man waspassive and didn't lead and when
woman stepped up and didn'tfollow.
And you're making the issue ofGenesis about a manhood and
womanhood decision.
(21:19):
That is circumsposed upon thetext rather than what the text
says, which is disobedience.
They both chose to disobey.
It never says the man waspassive.
We do not know what he was doing.
We know he was there with her.
He could have been cheering heron, he could have been agreeing
with her.
They could have even had a sideconversation.
That's not recorded.
We don't know.
We simply know that she ate thefruit and he ate the fruit and
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they disobeyed.
And now that man who made aconscious choice to eat the
fruit he may have even let hereat first, out of
gentlemanliness or kindness.
He could have had her eat thefruit first to be like oh God
said, this fruit would kill us.
Well, I'm going to test it outon her before I eat it myself.
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Oh, she didn't die, I'll eat it.
We don't know what he wasthinking either.
It's dangerous to assume theirthoughts.
But we do know here that he nowturns on her.
He made a conscious choice and,rather than taking
responsibility, he blames thewoman.
And he says to God the womanyou put here with me.
(22:26):
So not only does he blame thewoman, he blames the creator, he
blames God.
You gave me the woman.
She's the one who did this.
She gave me from the fruit andI ate it.
And now, the moment the womanhas been absolutely dreading
since her teeth pierced, theskin of the fruit, has come.
The Lord, god, looks at her andI imagine Eve just breaking
(22:49):
down in sobs.
She doesn't even know how torespond.
And as God's heart breaks, hesays to the woman what is this
that you have done?
The woman said serpent deceivedme and I ate.
She points to the serpenttrying to explain the story and
(23:09):
she admits I ate.
I was deceived, I am to blame.
So then God turns to the serpent.
Adam and Eve breathe a sigh ofrelief.
Now he's no longer looking atthem.
And God says to the serpentbecause you have done this,
(23:33):
cursed are you above alllivestock, all wild animals.
You will crawl on your bellyand you will eat dust all the
days of your life.
I will put enmity between youand the woman, between your
offspring and hers.
He will crush your head and youwill strike his heel.
As Adam and Eve sit and listento this, she's pondering and she
(23:54):
hears God say that the serpentwill hate her, there will be
enmity between her and theserpent, and that this will be
for their offspring as well.
And that feeling of terror thatshe has had is now amplified.
She sees the serpent staring ather with hatred, with anger,
(24:18):
and she senses that from now onshe and her children will never
be safe.
There is a spiritual being outthere that has it out for them.
Particularly this being desiresto harm Eve and all of her
(24:44):
daughters.
He desires to harm her childrenbecause there will be an
offspring.
And as she ponders, a tinyflicker of hope resurrects in
her heart.
She has a tiny flicker of hopewith an avalanche of terror.
And the hope is, one day, anoffspring of hers.
(25:05):
She's seen baby animals born.
She knows someday she will havea child.
This offspring will crush thehead of the serpent.
Maybe she straightens hershoulders a little bit and
glares back at the serpent,thinking your end is coming and
I will have a hand in bringingyou down.
(25:26):
Then God turns to her and hesaid I will make your pains and
childbearing very severe.
With painful labor you willgive birth to children.
Your desire will be for yourhusband and he will rule over
you.
The interpretation of verse 16is varied and it's all over the
board.
It's outside the scope of thispodcast episode to go into it.
(25:48):
We will dive into it much moredeeply in the complementarian
egalitarian cohort.
But in brief, her desire to befor her husband.
In church history.
The interpretation of that isthat this God says this to the
woman that her desire will befor her husband.
In church history, theinterpretation of that is that
this God says this to the womanthat her desire will be for her
husband.
(26:08):
She will need his protection,she will need his provision, she
will need him to watch over herwhile she has children and she
will have sexual desire for himbecause he just told her she's
going to have pain in childbirth.
So she needs to have a biggerdesire in her heart than her
fear of pain in order for her towant to have children.
(26:29):
And God is saying I'm going towork all that out.
It's going to hurt.
The world is now shattered.
It's broken.
Having kids is going to hurtyou like nothing else.
Not just the conceiving, notjust the bearing, not just the
carrying in pregnancy, not justthe giving birth.
Having children is going tohurt, and any of us who are
mothers know a snippet of thatpain.
(26:50):
When our children turn on us,maybe they even say the words
mommy, I hate you when ourchildren do something wrong,
like we can see.
If you do that, it's going tohurt.
But I have to let you make somemistakes, because you're going
to learn more from messing upand falling and scraping your
knee than you are from metelling you don't do that or
(27:11):
you'll scrape your knee.
I have to let you hurt, butwhen I let you hurt, it hurts me
too.
The reality of the broken worldis that as Eve watches her
children and her children'schildren and her children's
children's children, it's goingto hurt.
We see something similar tothis when Simeon in the temple
(27:32):
talks to Mary and he says Mary,your son is destined for the
rise and fall of nations, but asword will pierce your heart as
well.
There is pain that goes alongwith mothering, because the
world is broken.
But there will be a child thatcomes from woman who will crush
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the serpent.
The chaos dragon of old willhave power no longer.
His head will be crushed by thefoot of an offspring of the
woman.
And Eve stares back at theserpent, clinging to that thread
of hope.
She was perhaps first todisbelieve God of the human race
(28:15):
, but now she has a hope to holdon to.
Then the Lord turns to the man.
To Adam, he said because youlistened to your wife and ate
fruit from the tree about whichI commanded you that you must
not eat from it.
Cursed is the ground because ofyou.
God doesn't actually ever curseAdam and Eve.
He curses the serpent and hecurses the ground.
Cursed is the ground because ofyou, through painful toil.
(28:38):
You will eat food from it allthe days of your life.
It will produce thorns andthistles for you and you will
eat food from it all the days ofyour life.
It will produce thorns andthistles for you and you will
eat the plants of the field bythe sweat of your brow.
You will eat your food Untilyou return to the ground, since
from it you were taken.
For dust you are and to dustyou will return.
Adam was created from theground, the Adamah, and so from
(29:04):
the Adamah you were taken dust,and to dust you will return.
God speaks over them.
I believe these often shorthandcalled the curses.
But even though only the serpentand the ground are cursed, I
think for Adam and Eve, hespells out for them the results.
This is the results of thebrokenness that they ushered in.
(29:28):
The result for the woman isthat the serpent has an extra
special hatred for her and he'sgoing to be trying to hurt her
in every way possible.
The result is having childrenin every way is going to be a
painful experience.
The result is she will have adesire for her husband that will
motivate her to have childrenand her husband will rule over
(29:52):
her.
I believe this is wherehierarchy comes into gender
relationships.
It is because of the fall thatman will rule over women.
We see cultures from here onout that are primarily
patriarchal.
There are almost no trulymatriarchal societies ever in
the history of the world, and wecan point right back to this
(30:12):
verse, because he, the man, willrule over you, the woman.
Ergo patriarchy for the rest ofknown history.
The man work is going to behard.
It's not going to be fulfilling, everything's going to go wrong
.
You're going to have printersthat aren't working.
You're going to have fieldsthat grow thorns.
You're going to have buildingsfall on top of laborers.
(30:33):
You're going to do this untilyou finally become the ground
from which you were made.
In response to this, adam turnsto Eve.
She might be waiting.
What is he going to say?
He's already blamed me.
He said it's my fault, but Adamwas listening too, and Adam
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heard the promise and he heardthe hope.
And so Adam turns to his wifeand named her Eve, and this is a
name that is a recognition ofher role and her status.
Think about how beautiful thisis.
She in many ways did leadhumanity into sin.
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Her husband immediately turnson her and blames her, when he
is just as culpable.
But now he looks at her and herecognizes, according to God's
promise, that there will be aseed from you that will crush
the serpent.
Now Adam looks at Eve and saysyou will be the mother of all
living.
He gives her a name that is theembodiment of hope.
(31:38):
It is from you, eve, that God'spromise will be fulfilled.
And Adam gives this to her as agift after their entire world
falls apart.
Then the Lord, god, madegarments of skin for Adam and
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his wife and clothed them.
I think this is such abeautiful picture.
In the New Testament it talksabout how God clothes his people
, how, as new believers, we longnot to be further unclothed but
to be further clothed.
And here God clothes them.
This had to be a moment of bothsorrow and terror, as well as
(32:24):
hope, as they watched God killan animal maybe that deer she
saw earlier grazing.
Now God strikes it dead, skinsit and crafts clothing for them.
Now, this clothing that Godmakes for Adam and Eve, remove
from your mind all every singlepicture you've ever seen of the
clothing of Adam and Eve.
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Most of the time in children'sstorybook Bibles you see Adam
and Eve running from the gardenin caveman-esque hides.
Cobbled together, they looklike something from a cave
painting from 20,000 years ago.
No, that is not what theseclothes were.
The God, who just created theheavens and the earth, is now
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making a garment for Adam andEve out of leather, to picture
for them and to point towardsthe covering Jesus' blood would
have over them Far off inhistory.
This clothing is a symbol thatGod is the only one who covers
our shame.
It is a symbol of a future hopetied up in the seed of the
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woman.
This clothing, I imagine, isthe most supple, soft, beautiful
, long-lasting decorativeornamental leather you can ever
imagine.
It is this clothing God craftsfor Adam and his wife.
The Lord God, verse 21, madegarments of skin for Adam and
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his wife and clothed them.
This is rich and full ofsymbolism.
Hope upon hope upon hope.
Then the Lord God said and he'ssaying here he's speaking, I
believe, to his divine counselthe man has now become like one
of us.
(34:10):
This is an inter-conversationin the Trinity.
That's not what's going on.
Remember, this is the Garden ofEden, the Holy of Holies, the
meeting place between God, theone true God, the only God, his
spiritual counsel of angelicbeings and his human counsel
that have now fallen into sin.
And God speaks to his spiritualcounsel and says the man has
(34:33):
now become like one of us,knowing good and evil, he must
not be allowed to reach out hishand and take also from the tree
of life and eat and liveforever.
So the Lord, god, banished himfrom the Garden of Eden to work
the ground from which he hadbeen taken and after he drove
the man out, he placed on theeast side of the Garden of Eden
cherubim and a flaming swordflashing back and forth to guard
(34:54):
the way to the Tree of Life.
Adam and Eve were set in thegarden to guard.
They were priests.
One of their roles was guarding.
Now a cherubim, a spirit being,does it in their stead.
They chose to disobey God andtheir role has dramatically
shifted.
And again, unlike children'sstorybook Bibles that show a
(35:17):
thunderous God wrathful towardsAdam and Eve, casting them out
of the garden, I view Godremoving them from the garden
and disallowing them the tree oflife to be another instance of
God's great mercy.
God could not fathom a life forAdam and Eve where they would
have to live forever as immortalbeings broken by sin.
(35:42):
As immortal beings broken bysin, death is a mercy, because
then they can be redeemed and gointo their eternal rest with
God the Father.
He did not want them to livefor eternity, eating the tree of
life in their broken state.
He casts them out of the Holyof Holies because they are
broken, but also because he doesnot want them to exist in this
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sin, in this pain, in thisbrokenness of relationship
forever.
He knows their pain.
God's heart is severed andbreaking and he has already
foreseen and foreknown andplanned that the only way to
make this right is for himselfto die.
(36:30):
The mystery of the incarnationis what is needed to make things
right.
And God looks at Adam and Eveand says I have to carry.
I got the father.
I, jesus, have to carry thispain forever because I am
outside time.
And so, whereas a skinned kneefor you is a moment, for me a
(36:54):
day is as a thousand years and athousand years is as a day.
And whereas I am eternal and Ilong to be united with my people
, I will carry this pain forever.
But I do not want that for you.
So I remove you from the treeof life so that you do not have
to carry this pain forever.
(37:17):
So God sends Adam and Eve out ofthe garden with hope, hope that
there will be a promised childto someday defeat the chaos
dragon who deceived them anddrug them into his rebellion and
(37:40):
they walked there by choice.
And so we move to chapter four.
They are now outside the gardentrying to make sense.
Adam made love to his wife Eveshe knew, he knew her, the text
says and she became pregnant andgave birth to Cain and she said
(38:03):
with the help of the Lord, I'vebrought forth a man.
Most recountings of the storyof Eve stop at the end of
chapter three, with them beingremoved from the garden, and
then they stop considering Evewhen it comes to chapter four
and they start talking aboutCain and Abel, which most of the
chapters about Cain and Abeland Cain's sons, and that's
appropriate to talk about.
But we cannot miss the end ofEve's story and we so often do.
(38:27):
There's a principle in Biblestudy and it's not an
all-the-time principle, but itis something you pay attention
to and it's called the principleof first speech, and there are
times it does not matter, butthere are times where I think
it's highly significant and itshows a lot of character
development.
The first speech that happensafter they are removed from the
garden is Eve.
(38:49):
We never hear Adam talk again.
The only thing we see Adam dois have sex with his wife.
That's the only thing he doesfrom here on out.
In Genesis, eve, however, speaksand she says with the help of
the Lord, I've brought forth aman.
Even the commentators I readthough there's not a lot of
(39:10):
writings on this even thecommentators I read said this
shows Eve's renewed hope.
This shows her clinging to God.
She is outside of the garden.
Maybe they could even see thegarden from where they're living
.
She could look up God's holymountain and see the garden on
the top, with the rivers flowingdown, as they've created a
(39:30):
small little hut and they'retrying to eke out a small
farmland.
She has this baby and she saysit is only because of the Lord
that I was able to do this hardthing of giving birth.
With the help of the Lord, Ihave brought forth a man.
And she names the child just asAdam named her.
Adam named the animals, whichwas the finalizing of God's
(39:54):
creation, him showing hispriestly representative nature
that he is partnering with Godin the finishing of creation.
In the ancient Near East,something was not fully created
until it was named.
So God created and then he gaveAdam the job of naming all the
animals.
God made them, but Adam had tofinalize that creation.
And so now Eve finalizes thecreation of humanity.
(40:20):
She gives birth to a son andshe names him Cain.
And she said it's because ofGod I can do this.
And her heart reaches back tothe Lord.
Though she was the one who atethe fruit, though she was the
one who was deceived, though inmany ways the dominoes started
because of her, she is now theone to reach back to God.
(40:42):
We don't know what Adam did wesee nothing more of him in the
story but we see Eve speakinghope, speaking truth and
clinging to the Lord.
Then she gave birth again tohis brother, abel.
You're familiar with the storyof Cain and Abel.
Cain murders Abel.
God speaks to Cain, sends himout to wander.
(41:03):
Eve watches Sorrow upon sorrow.
That happy, joyous feeling thatonce was her entire being is
now fleeting.
She might have had it inbetween pain of recovering from
childbirth, as she looked atthese babies and wondered will
(41:26):
one of these be the seed thatwill crush the head of the
serpent?
Will one of these be that whichsaves us?
But then she watches.
No, these will not be theeldest murders, the youngest,
and the pain she felt in thegarden is now once again
amplified as the children shebore slaughter each other in
(41:49):
jealousy and rage.
I imagine Eve praying how do Iprocess this?
How do I get through this, thisburden, this pain?
And it is my fault, I did it.
Well, we see how eve processesit.
(42:12):
We see how she gets through it.
At the end of chapter four itsays adam made love to his wife.
Again there we have hiscontribution.
And she gave birth to a son andshe named the son Seth.
And once again this name isfull of rich theological meaning
.
She's the first humantheologian in scripture saying
(42:35):
God has granted me another childin the place of Abel since Cain
killed him, the firsttheologian since they were
removed from the garden.
I think Adam was a theologianin his naming of Eve and now Eve
echoes that first theologianafter they were removed from the
garden.
God has granted me anotherchild in the place of Abel since
(42:58):
Cain killed him.
She once again sees God's handin her pain.
She sees God's hand at workamong humanity, she recognizes
her role in the midst of it andshe breathes hope over her
(43:19):
children.
Seth also had a son and henamed him Enosh, and at that
time people began to call on thename of the Lord, official
worship, people worshiping God.
And I wonder this is Jessica'smusings where did these boys
learn to worship the Lord?
Maybe it was their mother?
She is the one we see after theyare removed from the garden
(43:41):
calling out to God in prayer.
Maybe Adam did as well, wedon't know, but the text
describes Eve doing it.
So, dear ones, as you walk awayfrom our study of Eve and as
you ponder her as a person, Iwant you to be able to reframe
how you view Eve.
(44:02):
Yes, able to reframe how youview Eve.
Yes, she helped bring sin intothe world, but she is also a
vehicle of redemption and hope.
Her very name, eve, is a livingimage of God's promise in 3.15
(44:25):
that the seed of the woman willcrush the chaos serpent.
She clings to God after they areremoved from the garden when we
see no one else doing it thatway.
We see her praying, we see herclinging, we see her theology.
And she wasn't completely right.
She was hoping maybe one of herphysical babies would be the
(44:47):
promised seed to crush theserpent, and it's Jesus, it's
pointing to Jesus, it'sthousands of years in the making
.
She doesn't know, she has noone to teach her theology, save
for God, and she is clinging tohim and she is hoping.
So, as you ponder Eve, thinkabout her entire story, think
about the depths of pain shewent through and think about the
(45:12):
one place she put her hopeBecause, yes, she messed up no
one is going to deny that and wesee consequences for that all
throughout Scripture.
Scripture is one big book onthe consequences of her decision
, but it is also one big bookpointing to Jesus, the Messiah,
(45:33):
who came from her.
The seed of the woman willcrush the head of the serpent.
Eve clung to that promise.
Every child birth, maybe thisis the son.
I'm clinging to the promises ofthe Lord and that, I believe,
is the legacy we have to keep inmind as we consider this woman
(45:55):
of God.
Welcome back to the we who Thirst podcast.
We are currently consideringwomen of the Bible in their
cultural, familial andhistorical context.
You can support the ministry ofwe who Thirst by joining us on
Patreon For the moments you arewanting to ask questions or
discuss these women of the Biblein even more detail.
We have a member-only Discordgroup for the $6 and above tier
(00:22):
on Patreon.
Now let's get started.
Today we are talking about Eve.
A lot of us especially as Ilisten to you have heard very
negative things about Eve in theway she's been taught.
Some of us have been taughtthat she is the reason for the
fall of humanity, that womencan't be trusted, that they need
(00:44):
men to make choices for them,that if Adam had been a biblical
man, he would have stopped her.
If she had been a biblicalwoman those are in quotes she
would have submitted to Adam orfollowed his leadership, rather
than eating the fruit.
Today, what I want to do inthis podcast is walk through
Genesis 2 through 4, looking atEve as a person and a character.
(01:08):
We're not today going to dealwith whether she is an archetype
or whether she really lived.
I am going to handle the textof Scripture as though it is
accurate to her experience, andwe're going to talk about the
way she is presented inScripture.
As I have studied Eve over thelast couple years, I find her to
actually be a very redemptivecharacter and for there to be
(01:30):
great beauty in her story, andthat's what I want to dive into
today.
One thing I think is reallyimportant for us as we look at
Eve is to think about our ownlives.
We all know the general storyof Adam and Eve in the garden
and how she ate the fruit andgave it to the man.
But we often don't think abouthow she would have felt in
(01:57):
chapter four, where her sonmurders her other son and she
has to process that.
And how does she process that?
I'm sure all of us can relateto making a mistake and looking
at that and seeing theconsequences of that and wishing
we could take it back.
And Eve shows us somethinginteresting about how do you
(02:20):
make the biggest mess up in theworld, how do you process that
and how do you move forward inthe future.
So let's start at the beginningof the story of Eve.
We see in chapter one of Genesisthat Eve is created in the
image of God.
It means she is arepresentative of God alongside
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Adam.
She is created to be his helper, she is created to partner with
him and we'll walk through it,little bits at a time as we go
through.
So God has created a garden.
It is the holy of holies.
It is his meeting place for hisdivine heavenly council of
rulers and his human council ofrulers over the earth.
(03:06):
You have both going on in thissetting.
That is the garden, it is theholy of holies and the cosmic
temple of God.
God has made the man and he hascommissioned the man, the human
, to be a priestlyrepresentative on God's behalf
over all of creation.
But God looks at the man who hehas just created and he has
(03:27):
said it is not good for the manto be alone.
I need to make for him anindispensable ally, to partner
with him in the task of being apriestly representative over the
entire earth.
Task of being a priestlyrepresentative over the entire
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earth.
Our English translations usuallysay a helper suitable.
I'm reading the NIV.
That is what the NIV says.
And so God creates Eve to be ahelper suitable in your Bible,
most likely some version of thator I think a better translation
would be indispensable ally.
Before we dive into Eve and herstory, I want to unpack that
(04:10):
for us very briefly.
I will unpack it in more detailin the complementarian
egalitarian cohort.
But helper suitable, I think,is actually not the best way to
describe Eve or women in general.
The word helper in English has alot of connotations that are
(04:31):
not the connotations of theHebrew word ezer, which means
helper.
In English we think of helperas somebody who's secondary,
their role, is assistant.
They are assistant to thegeneral manager.
They're not doing the work,they are helping someone else
doing the work.
Typically, a helper is someonewho has less experience,
(04:52):
expertise, knowledge orownership of a project.
They are often a lower socialclass and even a juvenile Think
about like Mommy's Little Helper.
Or for a lower social class,think of the movie the Help that
talked about Black women whowere just the help for the white
women.
(05:13):
When I think of helper, I thinkof maybe my husband's best
friend coming over to help himbuild a deck.
My husband's best friend mayhave more knowledge and
expertise on how to build a deckthan my husband, but he does
not have ownership of that deck.
It is our deck, it's not thebest friend's deck.
So, whereas he has greaterknowledge and expertise, he
lacks ownership.
(05:34):
If you have equal ownership,equal knowledge and equal
expertise, then the word inEnglish we would use to describe
you is rarely helper, but it isoften partner or even ally, and
it is this picture that theHebrew has for Eve.
Helper also has connotations inEnglish for a subordinate status
(05:57):
, and help is often nice butit's not necessary.
I like having help around thehouse.
It would be great if someonewould help me do the dishes.
But are any of those thingsnecessary?
Not in the slightest.
I can do it.
Would I like help?
Sure, it's nice, it makes mylife easier, but it's not
necessary.
But when you look at Genesis 2and 3 in the Hebrew, what you
(06:21):
see is that the creation ofwoman, the creation of Eve, is
absolutely necessary.
She is a necessary ally topartner with man in the task of
being a priestly representative.
In 2.15, genesis 2.15, it saysNIV, the Lord God took the man
and put him in the Garden ofEden to work it and take care of
(06:43):
it.
Those terms work and take careof.
When used together, thoseHebrew terms indicate a priestly
function.
Throughout the rest of Moses'writings, the first five books
of the Bible and most of the OldTestament.
So what, in 2.15, god is doingis instilling the man as a
priestly representative in theGarden.
He is a priestly functiontaking care of the holy of
(07:05):
holies of God's cosmic temple.
God looks at the man and he saysthis job of being a priestly
representative is too big foryou to do alone.
You can't do it by yourself.
You need an indispensable,because you can't do it without
them.
I lie, because you need someoneequal to you to do this.
And so, therefore, god makeswoman.
(07:28):
So just pause for a second andimagine your woman, regardless
of the literature or whethershe's a real person.
We're just going to go throughthe text as though what it says
is how it happened for Eve.
So imagine you're Eve and youjust wake up.
God has taken the side of theman.
That's not his rib and that'snot splitting him in half.
(07:49):
That Hebrew word side literallymeans like put the sticker on
the side of the box, that kindof side.
It's a directional termindicating the side of a
structure, a box like the Ark ofthe Covenant or a building.
So God has taken part of theside of the man and he has
crafted a woman.
And she wakes up, she opens hereyes and she is in the Holy of
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Holies of the Cosmic Temple.
There are flowering treessurrounding her, rabbits hopping
slowly through the grass, maybea deer foraging off to her
right.
She sits up and they're gazingat her.
An absolute wonder and awe isher man, from whom she was
creative, and he bursts out injoyous song, verse 23,.
(08:37):
This is now bone of my bonesand flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called woman, forshe was taken out of man.
She hears these words from Adamand her heart thrills.
He is the one to whom she isconnected.
They intrinsically belongtogether.
They are one flesh, createdfrom the same thing.
(08:58):
She walks with him and theybecome one flesh.
They are united together.
They are both naked and theyfeel no shame whatsoever.
This is how it began for Eve.
Then the story moves on alittle bit farther.
It introduces a new character.
(09:19):
It says now the serpent wasmore crafty than any of the wild
animals the Lord God had made.
This is chapter 3, verse 1.
Now, if you recall some of theGenesis posts, serpents in the
ancient world were consideredbeings of chaos.
They are chaos agents, oftenrelated to the sea, and they
(09:40):
would bring chaos and typicallygods like Baal or Marduk have to
defeat the serpent of chaos.
So now we have a serpent in thegarden and the original
audience is going to be like, ohdear, what's going on with the
serpent?
Think dragon.
Think like Chinese dragon kindof serpent, not like little cute
snake.
Some of you may not thinksnakes are cute.
(10:00):
I think they're kind of cute,but think like ferocious Chinese
dragon.
Think the serpent in Revelation, the red serpent that wants to
eat Mary.
That kind of serpent,dragon-esque kind of animal.
It's not a little garter snake,it's not a boa constrictor, it
is a dragon, it is an possibleand this idea comes from Michael
(10:24):
Heiser in the Unseen Realm thatthis serpent was at one time a
throne guardian for God.
I mentioned very briefly thedivine counsel God has.
He made a spiritual realm thatwe are not fully aware of and we
struggle to understand and inthe spiritual realm he made
angels and seraphim andmessengers, and there's bunches
(10:44):
of different names for thesedifferent spirit beings.
Some of them fell, some of themrebelled against God and got
kicked out of heaven at somepoint in all of the biblical and
creation story.
One of these was a beautifulangel and he I'm using angel
generically for spirit beingsand he decided he was as good as
(11:05):
God and God said no and kickedhim out of heaven.
And so this serpent may or maynot be that exact angelic divine
, not as in God, god, god but aspirit being.
This serpent may be that.
I'm not going to go into thewhole spirit realm, but you have
(11:27):
this serpent who appears in thegarden.
Now it's interesting because welook at this and say she's not
surprised.
No, one's surprised.
A snake is suddenly talking toher.
Wouldn't that be shocking?
Well, if you consider thegarden as the holy of holy of
God, it is his meeting placewhere God would meet with both
his spiritual, divine council ofspirit beings who later on he
(11:49):
gives them power to rule overnations, these spirit beings,
and his human council, which isAdam and Eve.
The garden is the meeting place.
Eve could have been used tointerfacing with these spirit
beings all the time.
It is not unusual for her to beseeing these spirit beings, and
they might need to take acorporeal form to interface with
(12:11):
Adam and Eve, and who knowswhat different forms they would
take.
And so she sees a talkingserpent.
Okay, one of God's messengers ishere, somebody part of the
divine council, that's fine, I'mgoing to have a conversation,
but this conversation does notgo the way she expects.
She starts to engage him and heimmediately starts questioning
(12:31):
her about the covenant that Godgave both to her and Adam before
she was created.
And that covenant was back inverse 16 and 17,.
The Lord, god, commanded theman and said you are free to eat
from any tree in the garden,but you must not eat from the
tree of the knowledge of goodand evil, for when you eat from
it you will surely die.
(12:52):
So God has given this covenantto the man.
The covenant is you must noteat.
If you eat you will die.
That's the whole thing.
So the serpent eat, you willdie.
That's the whole thing.
So the serpent, this spiritbeing, starts talking to Eve and
he questions it.
He said did God really say youmust not eat from any tree in
(13:12):
the garden?
And the woman said to theserpent we may eat from the
trees in the garden, but God didsay you must not eat fruit from
the tree that's in the middleof the garden and you must not
touch it or you will die.
She adds to God's command hereas she's trying to process and
think this through.
The serpent replies you willcertainly not die.
(13:34):
Verse four the serpent said tothe woman for verse five you
know that when you eat from ityour eyes will be opened and you
will be like God, knowing goodand evil.
And here Eve pauses.
She knows she's in the garden,she knows it is a beautiful
place, she knows she has perfectcommunion with God and perfect
communion with Adam.
(13:54):
But she hears what the serpentsays and she wonders knowing
good and evil, this is somethingthe serpent knows about.
The divine creation of God'sdivine counsel, this is
something obviously God knowsabout.
Did God fail to give his humanrepresentatives the same kind of
knowledge he gave his divinerepresentatives?
(14:15):
And again, divine is not likeGod there, it's more like a
spirit being.
So she's questioning this andshe wonders.
So she's questioning this andshe wonders.
And that plants in her heart aseed wondering is God really
good?
Am I missing out on something?
And verse six then the womansaw the fruit of the tree was
good for food and pleasing tothe eye, and it was also
(14:37):
desirable for gaining wisdom.
So she took some and ate it.
She also gave some to herhusband who was with her, and he
ate it.
Then the eyes of both of themwere open and they realized they
were naked.
So imagine this for a moment.
Eve listens to the serpent.
Whatever is going on in herthought process?
We don't know.
(14:58):
Scholars will give you answers.
They'll say she wantedknowledge, she didn't trust God.
We are not told what is goingon in her heart.
We know she listens, we knowshe sees the fruit, that it is
good and it is pleasing anddesirable for gaining wisdom.
She wants that wisdom, so shetakes and she eats.
(15:18):
Imagine with me that moment.
You were in the garden.
It is beautiful.
Think about that feeling inyour chest or wherever in your
body.
You feel this emotion, the mostjoyous moment you can imagine.
Just that feeling of delightand ecstasy in your heart and in
your body, the lightness ofyour spirit.
(15:39):
You have no weight, no concerns.
It's just this joyful moment.
If you have one of those inyour life, conjure up that
feeling in your body.
That is where Eve is at.
She's just living in that spaceall the time because she's in
perfect communion with God andher husband.
And then she wants the wisdomand she decides to disobey God
(15:59):
and the moment her teeth crunchinto the fruit.
Everything changes.
She crunches the fruit, shehands it to Adam, who is with
her, and we'll talk about thatin a second.
He takes a bite and then theylook at each other.
Everything changes.
They look down at themselves.
(16:21):
They realize they're naked.
The wonderful light, freefeeling of joy is gone and it's
replaced with terror.
It's replaced with shame.
They look at each other andthey almost recoil.
They want to dive into thebushes to hide themselves.
Everything shifted in a moment.
(16:43):
She and Adam.
They are looking at each other,maybe hiding in separate bushes
.
Not sure how do we commune withone another Now we're naked.
What's going on?
I want to hide.
I'm terrified.
They start gathering leaves,trying to sew them together with
bits of vine.
They don't know what's going on.
They just they feel this terror, this shame.
They have to cover themselves.
(17:03):
They have to.
They don't know how they needto figure this out and they're
looking at each other withdistrust.
Eve woke up to a face of ardentadmiration, and now those same
eyes glare at her with blame andconcern.
Arms that once wrapped her upin safety and love now are
(17:28):
frantically sewing leavestogether to hide his shame,
something that she cannot be apart of and though she bears her
own, she cannot understand hisand she cannot connect with him.
That connection that they had.
That instant beautiful onenessof flesh is now severed.
And she looks at the fruitlaying on the ground where they
(17:49):
dropped it.
And she looks at her husbandand she looks at the leaves
she's trying to patch togetherto make clothing, and sorrow,
for the first time, enters herheart and she cannot process
this feeling.
She has no tools.
(18:09):
She's never felt it before.
She just sits there in thishiding, trying to cover up what
has happened, and she is afraid.
Then they hear God's voice.
(18:29):
The man and his wife verse 8,heard the sound of the Lord God
as he was walking in the gardenin the cool of the day.
And they hid from the Lord Godamong the trees of the garden.
But the Lord God called to theman where are you?
Adam, in this text, is thefirst representative, she is the
second representative.
They partner together torepresent God as priests, but
(18:50):
Adam is the first representativeand God calls to him.
And God says Adam, where areyou?
And Adam answers I heard you inthe garden and I was afraid
because I was naked, so I hid.
Eve's listening to this exchangeand she hears the Lord's voice,
(19:11):
she hears the sorrow, she hearsthe distance and she's afraid.
She's never been afraid of Godbefore, but now she's afraid of
God before, but now she's afraid.
She hears his voice, as theLord says, who told you that you
(19:35):
were naked?
Have you eaten from the treethat I commanded you not to eat
from?
And then she hears the man, theone with whom she is one flesh,
the one who is supposed to carefor her and hold her and
partner with her.
But now he acts as an enemy andhe says the woman you put here
(19:56):
with me, she gave me some of thefruit from the tree and I ate
it.
A voice who once sang over herwith joyous celebration now
points an accusing finger at herand says it's her fault.
She did it.
We are in this mess and it isbecause of her.
The man ate just as willingly.
(20:18):
Some people would say oh, theman.
He was being passive.
He didn't do his manly duty ofleadership and protection, and
that's why they're in this mess.
Or the woman didn't do herwomanly duty of following and
submitting to the man's rule.
Rather than talking to theserpent, she should have gone
and got Adam to talk to theserpent, because a woman
shouldn't do that.
(20:38):
The text doesn't say any ofthis For the original audience,
women handing food to a man isnormal.
They wouldn't have seen thosesorts of connotations in the
text.
And if you're going to go tothe woman failing to act as a
godly woman and the man failingto act as a godly man, then
(20:59):
you're jumping the original sinto something pre their
disobedience.
You're saying original sindidn't really start with them
choosing the fruit to eat thefruit.
It really started when man waspassive and didn't lead and when
woman stepped up and didn'tfollow.
And you're making the issue ofGenesis about a manhood and
womanhood decision.
(21:19):
That is circumsposed upon thetext rather than what the text
says, which is disobedience.
They both chose to disobey.
It never says the man waspassive.
We do not know what he was doing.
We know he was there with her.
He could have been cheering heron, he could have been agreeing
with her.
They could have even had a sideconversation.
That's not recorded.
We don't know.
We simply know that she ate thefruit and he ate the fruit and
(21:44):
they disobeyed.
And now that man who made aconscious choice to eat the
fruit he may have even let hereat first, out of
gentlemanliness or kindness.
He could have had her eat thefruit first to be like oh God
said, this fruit would kill us.
Well, I'm going to test it outon her before I eat it myself.
(22:05):
Oh, she didn't die, I'll eat it.
We don't know what he wasthinking either.
It's dangerous to assume theirthoughts.
But we do know here that he nowturns on her.
He made a conscious choice and,rather than taking
responsibility, he blames thewoman.
And he says to God the womanyou put here with me.
(22:26):
So not only does he blame thewoman, he blames the creator, he
blames God.
You gave me the woman.
She's the one who did this.
She gave me from the fruit andI ate it.
And now, the moment the womanhas been absolutely dreading
since her teeth pierced, theskin of the fruit, has come.
The Lord, god, looks at her andI imagine Eve just breaking
(22:49):
down in sobs.
She doesn't even know how torespond.
And as God's heart breaks, hesays to the woman what is this
that you have done?
The woman said serpent deceivedme and I ate.
She points to the serpenttrying to explain the story and
(23:09):
she admits I ate.
I was deceived, I am to blame.
So then God turns to the serpent.
Adam and Eve breathe a sigh ofrelief.
Now he's no longer looking atthem.
And God says to the serpentbecause you have done this,
(23:33):
cursed are you above alllivestock, all wild animals.
You will crawl on your bellyand you will eat dust all the
days of your life.
I will put enmity between youand the woman, between your
offspring and hers.
He will crush your head and youwill strike his heel.
As Adam and Eve sit and listento this, she's pondering and she
(23:54):
hears God say that the serpentwill hate her, there will be
enmity between her and theserpent, and that this will be
for their offspring as well.
And that feeling of terror thatshe has had is now amplified.
She sees the serpent staring ather with hatred, with anger,
(24:18):
and she senses that from now onshe and her children will never
be safe.
There is a spiritual being outthere that has it out for them.
Particularly this being desiresto harm Eve and all of her
(24:44):
daughters.
He desires to harm her childrenbecause there will be an
offspring.
And as she ponders, a tinyflicker of hope resurrects in
her heart.
She has a tiny flicker of hopewith an avalanche of terror.
And the hope is, one day, anoffspring of hers.
(25:05):
She's seen baby animals born.
She knows someday she will havea child.
This offspring will crush thehead of the serpent.
Maybe she straightens hershoulders a little bit and
glares back at the serpent,thinking your end is coming and
I will have a hand in bringingyou down.
(25:26):
Then God turns to her and hesaid I will make your pains and
childbearing very severe.
With painful labor you willgive birth to children.
Your desire will be for yourhusband and he will rule over
you.
The interpretation of verse 16is varied and it's all over the
board.
It's outside the scope of thispodcast episode to go into it.
(25:48):
We will dive into it much moredeeply in the complementarian
egalitarian cohort.
But in brief, her desire to befor her husband.
In church history.
The interpretation of that isthat this God says this to the
woman that her desire will befor her husband.
In church history, theinterpretation of that is that
this God says this to the womanthat her desire will be for her
husband.
(26:08):
She will need his protection,she will need his provision, she
will need him to watch over herwhile she has children and she
will have sexual desire for himbecause he just told her she's
going to have pain in childbirth.
So she needs to have a biggerdesire in her heart than her
fear of pain in order for her towant to have children.
(26:29):
And God is saying I'm going towork all that out.
It's going to hurt.
The world is now shattered.
It's broken.
Having kids is going to hurtyou like nothing else.
Not just the conceiving, notjust the bearing, not just the
carrying in pregnancy, not justthe giving birth.
Having children is going tohurt, and any of us who are
mothers know a snippet of thatpain.
(26:50):
When our children turn on us,maybe they even say the words
mommy, I hate you when ourchildren do something wrong,
like we can see.
If you do that, it's going tohurt.
But I have to let you make somemistakes, because you're going
to learn more from messing upand falling and scraping your
knee than you are from metelling you don't do that or
(27:11):
you'll scrape your knee.
I have to let you hurt, butwhen I let you hurt, it hurts me
too.
The reality of the broken worldis that as Eve watches her
children and her children'schildren and her children's
children's children, it's goingto hurt.
We see something similar tothis when Simeon in the temple
(27:32):
talks to Mary and he says Mary,your son is destined for the
rise and fall of nations, but asword will pierce your heart as
well.
There is pain that goes alongwith mothering, because the
world is broken.
But there will be a child thatcomes from woman who will crush
(27:55):
the serpent.
The chaos dragon of old willhave power no longer.
His head will be crushed by thefoot of an offspring of the
woman.
And Eve stares back at theserpent, clinging to that thread
of hope.
She was perhaps first todisbelieve God of the human race
(28:15):
, but now she has a hope to holdon to.
Then the Lord turns to the man.
To Adam, he said because youlistened to your wife and ate
fruit from the tree about whichI commanded you that you must
not eat from it.
Cursed is the ground because ofyou.
God doesn't actually ever curseAdam and Eve.
He curses the serpent and hecurses the ground.
Cursed is the ground because ofyou, through painful toil.
(28:38):
You will eat food from it allthe days of your life.
It will produce thorns andthistles for you and you will
eat food from it all the days ofyour life.
It will produce thorns andthistles for you and you will
eat the plants of the field bythe sweat of your brow.
You will eat your food Untilyou return to the ground, since
from it you were taken.
For dust you are and to dustyou will return.
Adam was created from theground, the Adamah, and so from
(29:04):
the Adamah you were taken dust,and to dust you will return.
God speaks over them.
I believe these often shorthandcalled the curses.
But even though only the serpentand the ground are cursed, I
think for Adam and Eve, hespells out for them the results.
This is the results of thebrokenness that they ushered in.
(29:28):
The result for the woman isthat the serpent has an extra
special hatred for her and he'sgoing to be trying to hurt her
in every way possible.
The result is having childrenin every way is going to be a
painful experience.
The result is she will have adesire for her husband that will
motivate her to have childrenand her husband will rule over
(29:52):
her.
I believe this is wherehierarchy comes into gender
relationships.
It is because of the fall thatman will rule over women.
We see cultures from here onout that are primarily
patriarchal.
There are almost no trulymatriarchal societies ever in
the history of the world, and wecan point right back to this
(30:12):
verse, because he, the man, willrule over you, the woman.
Ergo patriarchy for the rest ofknown history.
The man work is going to behard.
It's not going to be fulfilling, everything's going to go wrong
.
You're going to have printersthat aren't working.
You're going to have fieldsthat grow thorns.
You're going to have buildingsfall on top of laborers.
(30:33):
You're going to do this untilyou finally become the ground
from which you were made.
In response to this, adam turnsto Eve.
She might be waiting.
What is he going to say?
He's already blamed me.
He said it's my fault, but Adamwas listening too, and Adam
(30:55):
heard the promise and he heardthe hope.
And so Adam turns to his wifeand named her Eve, and this is a
name that is a recognition ofher role and her status.
Think about how beautiful thisis.
She in many ways did leadhumanity into sin.
(31:15):
Her husband immediately turnson her and blames her, when he
is just as culpable.
But now he looks at her and herecognizes, according to God's
promise, that there will be aseed from you that will crush
the serpent.
Now Adam looks at Eve and saysyou will be the mother of all
living.
He gives her a name that is theembodiment of hope.
(31:38):
It is from you, eve, that God'spromise will be fulfilled.
And Adam gives this to her as agift after their entire world
falls apart.
Then the Lord, god, madegarments of skin for Adam and
(32:00):
his wife and clothed them.
I think this is such abeautiful picture.
In the New Testament it talksabout how God clothes his people
, how, as new believers, we longnot to be further unclothed but
to be further clothed.
And here God clothes them.
This had to be a moment of bothsorrow and terror, as well as
(32:24):
hope, as they watched God killan animal maybe that deer she
saw earlier grazing.
Now God strikes it dead, skinsit and crafts clothing for them.
Now, this clothing that Godmakes for Adam and Eve, remove
from your mind all every singlepicture you've ever seen of the
clothing of Adam and Eve.
(32:46):
Most of the time in children'sstorybook Bibles you see Adam
and Eve running from the gardenin caveman-esque hides.
Cobbled together, they looklike something from a cave
painting from 20,000 years ago.
No, that is not what theseclothes were.
The God, who just created theheavens and the earth, is now
(33:06):
making a garment for Adam andEve out of leather, to picture
for them and to point towardsthe covering Jesus' blood would
have over them Far off inhistory.
This clothing is a symbol thatGod is the only one who covers
our shame.
It is a symbol of a future hopetied up in the seed of the
(33:28):
woman.
This clothing, I imagine, isthe most supple, soft, beautiful
, long-lasting decorativeornamental leather you can ever
imagine.
It is this clothing God craftsfor Adam and his wife.
The Lord God, verse 21, madegarments of skin for Adam and
(33:50):
his wife and clothed them.
This is rich and full ofsymbolism.
Hope upon hope upon hope.
Then the Lord God said and he'ssaying here he's speaking, I
believe, to his divine counselthe man has now become like one
of us.
(34:10):
This is an inter-conversationin the Trinity.
That's not what's going on.
Remember, this is the Garden ofEden, the Holy of Holies, the
meeting place between God, theone true God, the only God, his
spiritual counsel of angelicbeings and his human counsel
that have now fallen into sin.
And God speaks to his spiritualcounsel and says the man has
(34:33):
now become like one of us,knowing good and evil, he must
not be allowed to reach out hishand and take also from the tree
of life and eat and liveforever.
So the Lord, god, banished himfrom the Garden of Eden to work
the ground from which he hadbeen taken and after he drove
the man out, he placed on theeast side of the Garden of Eden
cherubim and a flaming swordflashing back and forth to guard
(34:54):
the way to the Tree of Life.
Adam and Eve were set in thegarden to guard.
They were priests.
One of their roles was guarding.
Now a cherubim, a spirit being,does it in their stead.
They chose to disobey God andtheir role has dramatically
shifted.
And again, unlike children'sstorybook Bibles that show a
(35:17):
thunderous God wrathful towardsAdam and Eve, casting them out
of the garden, I view Godremoving them from the garden
and disallowing them the tree oflife to be another instance of
God's great mercy.
God could not fathom a life forAdam and Eve where they would
have to live forever as immortalbeings broken by sin.
(35:42):
As immortal beings broken bysin, death is a mercy, because
then they can be redeemed and gointo their eternal rest with
God the Father.
He did not want them to livefor eternity, eating the tree of
life in their broken state.
He casts them out of the Holyof Holies because they are
broken, but also because he doesnot want them to exist in this
(36:08):
sin, in this pain, in thisbrokenness of relationship
forever.
He knows their pain.
God's heart is severed andbreaking and he has already
foreseen and foreknown andplanned that the only way to
make this right is for himselfto die.
(36:30):
The mystery of the incarnationis what is needed to make things
right.
And God looks at Adam and Eveand says I have to carry.
I got the father.
I, jesus, have to carry thispain forever because I am
outside time.
And so, whereas a skinned kneefor you is a moment, for me a
(36:54):
day is as a thousand years and athousand years is as a day.
And whereas I am eternal and Ilong to be united with my people
, I will carry this pain forever.
But I do not want that for you.
So I remove you from the treeof life so that you do not have
to carry this pain forever.
(37:17):
So God sends Adam and Eve out ofthe garden with hope, hope that
there will be a promised childto someday defeat the chaos
dragon who deceived them anddrug them into his rebellion and
(37:40):
they walked there by choice.
And so we move to chapter four.
They are now outside the gardentrying to make sense.
Adam made love to his wife Eveshe knew, he knew her, the text
says and she became pregnant andgave birth to Cain and she said
(38:03):
with the help of the Lord, I'vebrought forth a man.
Most recountings of the storyof Eve stop at the end of
chapter three, with them beingremoved from the garden, and
then they stop considering Evewhen it comes to chapter four
and they start talking aboutCain and Abel, which most of the
chapters about Cain and Abeland Cain's sons, and that's
appropriate to talk about.
But we cannot miss the end ofEve's story and we so often do.
(38:27):
There's a principle in Biblestudy and it's not an
all-the-time principle, but itis something you pay attention
to and it's called the principleof first speech, and there are
times it does not matter, butthere are times where I think
it's highly significant and itshows a lot of character
development.
The first speech that happensafter they are removed from the
garden is Eve.
(38:49):
We never hear Adam talk again.
The only thing we see Adam dois have sex with his wife.
That's the only thing he doesfrom here on out.
In Genesis, eve, however, speaksand she says with the help of
the Lord, I've brought forth aman.
Even the commentators I readthough there's not a lot of
(39:10):
writings on this even thecommentators I read said this
shows Eve's renewed hope.
This shows her clinging to God.
She is outside of the garden.
Maybe they could even see thegarden from where they're living
.
She could look up God's holymountain and see the garden on
the top, with the rivers flowingdown, as they've created a
(39:30):
small little hut and they'retrying to eke out a small
farmland.
She has this baby and she saysit is only because of the Lord
that I was able to do this hardthing of giving birth.
With the help of the Lord, Ihave brought forth a man.
And she names the child just asAdam named her.
Adam named the animals, whichwas the finalizing of God's
(39:54):
creation, him showing hispriestly representative nature
that he is partnering with Godin the finishing of creation.
In the ancient Near East,something was not fully created
until it was named.
So God created and then he gaveAdam the job of naming all the
animals.
God made them, but Adam had tofinalize that creation.
And so now Eve finalizes thecreation of humanity.
(40:20):
She gives birth to a son andshe names him Cain.
And she said it's because ofGod I can do this.
And her heart reaches back tothe Lord.
Though she was the one who atethe fruit, though she was the
one who was deceived, though inmany ways the dominoes started
because of her, she is now theone to reach back to God.
(40:42):
We don't know what Adam did wesee nothing more of him in the
story but we see Eve speakinghope, speaking truth and
clinging to the Lord.
Then she gave birth again tohis brother, abel.
You're familiar with the storyof Cain and Abel.
Cain murders Abel.
God speaks to Cain, sends himout to wander.
(41:03):
Eve watches Sorrow upon sorrow.
That happy, joyous feeling thatonce was her entire being is
now fleeting.
She might have had it inbetween pain of recovering from
childbirth, as she looked atthese babies and wondered will
(41:26):
one of these be the seed thatwill crush the head of the
serpent?
Will one of these be that whichsaves us?
But then she watches.
No, these will not be theeldest murders, the youngest,
and the pain she felt in thegarden is now once again
amplified as the children shebore slaughter each other in
(41:49):
jealousy and rage.
I imagine Eve praying how do Iprocess this?
How do I get through this, thisburden, this pain?
And it is my fault, I did it.
Well, we see how eve processesit.
(42:12):
We see how she gets through it.
At the end of chapter four itsays adam made love to his wife.
Again there we have hiscontribution.
And she gave birth to a son andshe named the son Seth.
And once again this name isfull of rich theological meaning
.
She's the first humantheologian in scripture saying
(42:35):
God has granted me another childin the place of Abel since Cain
killed him, the firsttheologian since they were
removed from the garden.
I think Adam was a theologianin his naming of Eve and now Eve
echoes that first theologianafter they were removed from the
garden.
God has granted me anotherchild in the place of Abel since
(42:58):
Cain killed him.
She once again sees God's handin her pain.
She sees God's hand at workamong humanity, she recognizes
her role in the midst of it andshe breathes hope over her
(43:19):
children.
Seth also had a son and henamed him Enosh, and at that
time people began to call on thename of the Lord, official
worship, people worshiping God.
And I wonder this is Jessica'smusings where did these boys
learn to worship the Lord?
Maybe it was their mother?
She is the one we see after theyare removed from the garden
(43:41):
calling out to God in prayer.
Maybe Adam did as well, wedon't know, but the text
describes Eve doing it.
So, dear ones, as you walk awayfrom our study of Eve and as
you ponder her as a person, Iwant you to be able to reframe
how you view Eve.
(44:02):
Yes, able to reframe how youview Eve.
Yes, she helped bring sin intothe world, but she is also a
vehicle of redemption and hope.
Her very name, eve, is a livingimage of God's promise in 3.15
(44:25):
that the seed of the woman willcrush the chaos serpent.
She clings to God after they areremoved from the garden when we
see no one else doing it thatway.
We see her praying, we see herclinging, we see her theology.
And she wasn't completely right.
She was hoping maybe one of herphysical babies would be the
(44:47):
promised seed to crush theserpent, and it's Jesus, it's
pointing to Jesus, it'sthousands of years in the making
.
She doesn't know, she has noone to teach her theology, save
for God, and she is clinging tohim and she is hoping.
So, as you ponder Eve, thinkabout her entire story, think
about the depths of pain shewent through and think about the
(45:12):
one place she put her hopeBecause, yes, she messed up no
one is going to deny that and wesee consequences for that all
throughout Scripture.
Scripture is one big book onthe consequences of her decision
, but it is also one big bookpointing to Jesus, the Messiah,
(45:33):
who came from her.
The seed of the woman willcrush the head of the serpent.
Eve clung to that promise.
Every child birth, maybe thisis the son.
I'm clinging to the promises ofthe Lord and that, I believe,
is the legacy we have to keep inmind as we consider this woman
(45:55):
of God.
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