Endeavoring Women of the Bible: Eve
You may have read my article Children of the Light, where I talked about wanting to be able to provide some light in a dark world. Going along with this, I am wanting to start blogging some more devotionals. I myself follow several fashion and home decor blogs, but I found my heart searching Google for something different. I wanted to hear truth spoken into my life. Into those dark spaces. And so the search began for a relatable Christian blog written by a younger 20 something woman like me. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good Beth Moore book, but I was looking for something a little different. However, I had trouble finding it! And so I am writing this content in hope that you might be able to relate to it and it can shine a little of God’s light into your life this week!
So knowing this I sat down and said “God, where do you want me to start?”. Last year I had read through the whole New Testament and absolutely loved it. (Jesus did some crazy things and there is so much to learn and be encouraged by.) But I wasn’t sure what to look at going forward this Spring/Summer. So what I talked with God about it this morning, and I felt like I will start by looking at women in the Bible. Although commonly done, I feel like I haven’t actually looked into it so that is where God wants me to start. So, as of now that is what I will try to consistently blog about each week. Stores of significant women endeavorers in the Bible.
EVE
Location: Garden of Eden
Time: Beginning of time
Context: The creation story, where God is making the heavens and the earth
Passage: Genesis
So, as I went to start out of the narrative of the Bible, the obvious first women I encountered was Eve. The woman of all women. (can you say #QUEEN)
Eve is also one of the more known women in religious history (in multiple religions even!) and so you probably have heard of her. Her story is pretty well known, and frankly, kinda gives women a rough reputation. However, when you look more into her story … she is such a stinkin relatable woman. And her story offers us a lot of hope in our brokeness in today’s world.
So, let’s dive in.
We meet Eve at the start of time. The first chapter of Genesis, baby. If you know the story, you know God created the Earth in seven days and on the sixth, he created man and woman. On that sixth day, as you probably know, God first creates Adam.
It says that “the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life
and the man became a living being”
(Gen 2:7).
First, woah. You know, the casual creation of man! But looking at the verse, take note: what did God create Adam out of? DUST. A lot of people use this passage to suggest men are superior to women, but it more so is a reminder that we are dust without God’s breath in us. We are all created in His image.
So what is then interesting is that God could have created Eve out of dust too. But why not? How did he create her?
“God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man”.
This part of this chapter I believe is so significant. It has so many implications about one-ness for marriage, but also for women and men in general. That we are not separate or better than each other, but part of each other. All created in His image. So again we can learn a lot about marriage in this passage, but for today I want to focus specifically on Eve. So we learn at this point that she is formed from man’s rib and is also in the image of God.
What is next is huge and kind of what I want to focus on. We enter the temptation of Eve. This is where her story seems to start to go downhill.
Now, people often drag Eve through the dirt. That she was tempted and failed. So, like, the ultimate #fail. And don’t get me wrong, she did. But as you look closely at the communication in the story, the conversation and process may not seem so “out there”. It may actually be one you might be familiar with. So let’s take a look:
We enter chapter 3 of Genesis and all is going well. They’re chilling in The Garden when Eve encounters the serpent. He was a crafty animal, and he approaches Eve and says to her
“Did God really say, ‘ You must not eat form any tree in the garden’?”.
(Genesis 3:1)
What is happening here? Satan is making Eve question God. Have you ever questioned God and why he did something? Um, I know I have been in this boat before. So note, the serpent begins by makes Eve question God’s goodness. Let’s keep going.
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’.
(Genesis 3:2-3)
Note here, that we as readers are living thousands of years later. We see the big picture. Do you see how God tells us things for a reason. At the time this sure seemed like a big restriction to Eve, but God does stuff because he cares for us. He knew the knowledge of good and evil would hurt us, but he wanted to give us free will. To choose to love Him. To choose to follow Him. He doesn’t try to harm us or put strict rules just for fun… He does it because he wants the best for us.
So the serpent then says to the woman “You will not surely die.. for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil”.
(Gensis 3:5)
Here the serpent begins to make Eve feel inferior. That she is missing something. Rather than seeing all she was blessed with or all God has provided, she allowed the serpent to tempt her to focus on the problems rather than focusing on God.
The next part was so relatable to me. It says that
“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.”
(Genesis 3:6)
Ever want something? Something “desirable” for gaining something? For gaining a bigger house, more friends, a better job, a better marriage, more money, less pain, better looks… the Devil can make things seem so desirable.
Okay. So let’s keep in mind this is, what, like a one minute conversation?! But let’s look at what that process looked like:
The serpent makes her question God’s goodness.
She focuses on what she feels she lacks more than she focuses on God.
The serpent makes that which is the wrong path of action seem so desirable
Action is taken.
I don’t know about you, but this little one minute conversation can so easily happen in my life. Satan knows those things that trip us up, and he wants to create a barrier between us and God. (And we see that barrier play out in the next section of Scripture).
So what happens? What action is taken? Eve ends up giving the fruit to Adam to eat and their “eyes are opened”. They realize they are naked and make little coverings for themselves.
And then God calls out to them: “Where are you”.
I absolutely love this because: you don’t think God knows here they are?! Um, He’s GOD. He knows where they are! But he wants reconciliation. He wants relationship. He wants to offer Adam redemption. And so the story goes on and Adam tells God that “he was afraid because he was naked and hid”. God asks him, “ Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?” And what does Adam do? Throws Eve under the bus! Not only under the bus, but he actually says it in a way that says "The woman you put here with me gave [me] the fruit”. Oh snap. But then you think Adam is bad? God asks Eve what she has done, and what does she say? She throws the serpent right under the bus as well! Do they not learn?!
Have you ever felt guilt and shame and wanted to throw anyone else right under the speeding bus, rather than owning up to your sin? Well, you’re not the first because here we see Adam and Eve just handling shame and guilt the wrong way. They set up barriers and rather than owning up to their sin they look for excuses.
From there God sets in all sorts of consequences, and you see the generational effects of the seemingly small sin. And in that passage following the sin and guilt, we see that God makes “garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them”. Even in their sin he cares for them and equips them to move forward.
And so at this point, this story at this point seems like kinda a downer. Both Adam and Eve give us a pretty good glimpse into sin, temptation, and guilt. They screwed up, were filled and surrounded with guilt and shame. But we also know that God doesn’t forget them. They are his beloved and made in His image. There is separation because of sin, but that doesn’t mean that God abandons them. In fact, we see He deeply loves them. He seeks reconciliation and wants their hearts. From there, we don’t hear too much about Eve. We see her kids have some trouble and the generations go on, but we can look at her story here in Genesis and learn so much.
So for each woman I study I want to try to make one defining lesson or word from their story. And for Eve I am going to choose choosing redemption in shame and temptation. In this story, we see the narrative of temptation and failure. One that might be familiar to many of us. But what is so cool about this story is we see how God wants to work through the tough things with us. Eve screwed up. The reality is she was tempted, and didn’t do well. She let the lies overpower her faith in God. At that point, God could have said “Okay - show’s over, shut it down”. But what does He do? He asks “WHERE ARE YOU”. He wants to work through tough things with us. Does it hurt him? Oh boy, yeah. But he wants us to see where we are wrong, acknowledge our sin, and move forward. The lies, guilt, and shame that you may feel shouldn’t define you. They are meant to bring you to a powerful and forgiving God who loves and wants to work through things with you. He wants what is best for you (remember, he didn’t want them to go to the tree in the first place!) but in our free will He wants to work through these things. He so deeply loves us.
This week look at what lies and little “one minute conversations” Satan may tempt you with, and know that God is a God who wants us to '“cast all [our] anxiety on him because he cares for [us].” (1 Peter 5:7). And remember that even in this familiar stories of temptation, failure, and guilt that God asks where you are and wants to be there with you.
“Lord, I pray over the endeavorers reading this that you will give them peace this week. That wherever they are in life let them know you are asking: “Where are you?”. You are so good and you love us. You created us in your image. We are your children. Whatever failure or guilt or temptation comes our way this week may we be reminded that you don’t give up and you aren’t scared by it. Sin pains you, but you are a big and powerful God. You take our stories a different direction. You bring hope and want to love us. We thank you and praise you.”
PODCAST VERSION:
I want to make my blog posts available to everyone! I know sometimes I don’t have time to read through a whole blog but I do have a 15 minute car ride when I need some encouragement! So I wanted to make it so you can listen to the blog posts too! See the attachment at the top of this post to listen!
Life Application Study Bible - NIV. Zondervan, 1997.
