Eve, formally known as Woman. Woman came from man but was created by God for man. The beauty of the Garden of Eden was spectacular, breathtaking. Based on how our (women) bodies contridict man's, Eve must have been equally breathtaking.
God brought her to man. Man didn't just "find" her, she was gifted to him by the Creator Himself. What a gift she must have been for man. God created an equal to man to work beside him in support of him (Genesis 2:18-22). Adam expressed his delight in Genesis 2:23, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man."
Verses 24 and 25 of Genesis 2 is our first glimpse of marriage. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." The unblemished, uncorrupted couple had no one to compare themselves to and were unashamed of their bodies.
Then chapter three starts and our world as we know it begins. A crafty serpent who has the ability to communicate strikes up a conversation with Eve. Allow me to state the obvious, if a serpent began to talk to me, I would not be able to engage in a legible conversation. Every corner of the world would hear my scream and God would have one more angel. So doubt is introduced into the Garden by the serpent. The phrasing of his question leads Eve into a dangerous conversation. "Did God actually say 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?"
She answered, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" When you give a toddler a "shall not" rule, your rule becomes more (sometimes less) than you said. In their minds this is how they make sure they "shall not". I believe Eve, being newly created and told the "shall not" rule by man, created a way to stay away from that tree at all costs. So she added the "neither shall you touch it". Proverbs 30:6 instructs us, "Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar."
So the serpent introduced contridiction in verse 4, "You will not surely die." And in verse 5 he shifted the focus from what God said (God's Word) to knowledge. In Eve's innocence, she took the bait. And seeing he had succeeded in his quest, the serpent silenced himself.
Desire and disobedience was introduced in verse 6, "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate." Misery loves company. Again think of that toddler, if there is another toddler around, one will lead the other one down a troubled path. Continuing in verse 6 "And she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate."
Did you catch that small, but powerful phrase? "WHO WAS WITH HER." Not "who joined her" or not "who she sought." But "WHO WAS WITH HER." So that small statement is telling. God gave man the rule when He placed him in the garden (Genesis 2:16-17). He knew the rule well and could have stopped her as she reached up. Or as she brought the fruit down to her mouth. He could have said no, but he did not. He joined her in disobedience and in sin.
One bite lead to another sin. Yes, woman took the first bite and she lead him to sin. Two bites from the same fruit and they learned shame instantly. They would learn regret too. They hid themselves from God. We try to do that too. We are no better at it than they were. Blame and not resposibility was introduced in verse 12. Verse 13 is woman's turn to play the blame game.
And God with His great understanding, did not allow the serpent to shift the blame. In man and woman, there was an innocence that lead to their downfall. But in the serpent, there was no innocence. He knew what he was doing when he slithered up to woman and opened his mouth. And God cursed him. Our (woman's) fear of snakes was born in verse 15, "I will put enmity between you and the woman...".
God dished our punishment to man and woman as a consequence of those bites of the forbidden fruit. That fruit exist today in our lives. Our secret sin is that forbidden fruit. But after passing judgment, God showed compassion and sacrificed an animal for its skin in order to clothe his wayward children. Adam finally gave woman a name because she was the mother of all living thing.
Adam and Eve received a punishment that affects us today. He (man) works hard to produce for his family and she (woman) suffers during childbirth. But only Adam and Eve received a punishment that they fully understood. The removal of their place within the Garden and the separation from God.
God gave them everything they could want. He would have given them more if they had just asked. We crave the connection that Adam and Eve had; to walk in God's company, to commune with God in such an intimate and personal way. To hear God, to see God and to be with God daily. And two bites change it. Adam lived 930 years. We do not know his age when he was removed from the garden and there is no sense in trying to figure it out, but you know he grieved the loss daily for a while. As did Eve. How could they not? Taken from their lush home, and placed to work the hard ground. No longer able to experience God in the same way as before.
How can we understand that kind of loss? For me, it is family. My parents and brother have been gone for a while now. I grieved them heavily at first. Now, it comes in waves. Conversations are what I miss the most. Laughter is absent from my dinner table. I dare say, I miss the unwanted advice I got. We spend a lifetime trying to get back what Adam and Eve lost. But we have an advantage over them, God's Word in writing.
In the garden, innocence was lost. Sin was instroduced. We found shame, deceit, disobedience and denial. Two bites created our world, one bite each from man and woman. But we also found regret, consequences, and compassion.
Psalm 51 is our response to sin. It should be our prayer:
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,and you tach me wisdome in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop,and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot our all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then teach trangressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in scarifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure, build up the wall of Jerusalen;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
ความคิดเห็น