Eve's First Example

Eve’s First Example

3/24/18

From the time our lives begin to learn about our surroundings we are being taught.  If allowed we would figure things out on our own without any other help from those older but when we have teachers who provide examples to us first, it seems like our steps are less awkward and troublesome in many ways.  Our biblical examples fared in the same way and upon reading the stories of their lives we have a further example of such notoriety.  God does not leave us hanging nor does He set us on a path and not show us or provide us with valuable information to help us on our way.  The lessons we learn should teach us how to tell others about this journey and the dangers that are around us through God’s Word that we should have known about before our journey gets into full swing.  Telling others and leaving good examples for others in the future should be the goal of every human being but as well all know sometimes we fall down, but God is always right there to pick us up and set us back in motion.

How many examples have our eyes, heart, and spirit known over the course of our lives?  If truth be known it would be hard to give an accurate count to each one but we find it easy to remember some that come to mind quickly.  I remember when I was a young kid my parents would tell me about things and how I should or should not have anything to do with those activities or situations.  But at the same time, I must also admit that many of those times that they were trying to explain things to me my mind was not there and I just wanted them to end their speech so I could go and do my own thing.  Boy, how I long to sit on the porch again and shell purple hull peas and snap beans as I was told to do many times in the past.  I realize those times are long gone for me but as I have aged I look back now and I cannot help but feel ridiculous for if I had really heeded my parents’ advice back then I wonder how my life would be different today.  Nevertheless, I find myself now a parent and giving the same information to my grown children just to watch them do their own thing and then ask “why”.

I wish that I could say that all examples that we are exposed to when growing up and learning was good and at the same time I wish I could state that every example that our eyes and ears come into contact with today came from good sources but in both accounts, I cannot.  There is always some part of the world around us that wishes to see us suffer in the name of having fun or doing your own thing yet at some point in the future this type of activity ends up hurting and brings an entirely different type of personal pain that kills a part of our lives as it continues to infect.  It is now to the point where our hearts and minds compete to see how much damage to each other and how much further escalation we can achieve while harming others, a sinister progression that only the world and its spiritual leader can provide and a process that ONLY God can end and a return to Him can stop.  I hope we can take the scales off of our eyes before God has to complete this process, for while we glorify the event of Saul on the road to Damascus it must have been a terrifying personal experience for him while God was grabbing his attention.  Hint, hint!  When our eyes and ears see such tragedies cross our screens all of us have to ask and have asked the question of why would God allow such a situation to occur.  Or, we have asked the question of where was God in all of these instances?  Unfortunately, it is a common misfortune for us to go through these misgivings and in some cases, people go through more of their share than others, a mind-boggling question, and process that we all fear.

Many of us give Eve the bad rap for being the one that Satan deceived and then gave Adam the fruit to eat and while that is a true statement we need to find out just what occurred before this tragic event took place and answer the question of why did Satan have access to Eve in the first place.  It is a common topic and well-known passage of Scripture of how God talked with Adam and then gave him the command about the Garden of Eden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but what about Eve and her beginnings?  I know I have read this passage many times and even read it many times since God began showing me things and telling me things to write about in Genesis, but this detail passed me until a short time ago and it is this detail that describes a completion of a process that we all fall into because of the initiation of Adam and Eve.

As we have been told, Satan is on a chain and cannot do anything without God’s permission.  Every detail and every action that Satan does is authorized by God and while that seems to be a bad thing it should reemphasize in our hearts just how important we are to God and how much confidence God has in us to complete the Divine purpose that He has created us to do.  The legality of Satan’s authority comes from the initiation by God just ask Job or better yet, study the beginning of Job’s ordeal and you will find that it was God who initiated the situation of Job and Satan could only do what God allowed.  Anyway, we know about the conversation and contact between God and Adam where did the contact between Eve and God originate, for we know that Satan cannot do anything without God initiating items first.

Genesis 2:21-22 gives us the answer to this question and as stated above I have read this passage many times over my lifetime but never have really seen what it said, sometimes the human mind just skips over important information and does not process it accurately and is the perfect reason why God should be totally in control of our lives at all times for His Word brings life and protection to all those who live under His Covenant Word.  This passage states as follows: “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.”  Now, how many times have you read this passage?  Probably numerous times and even more than I have but until a few weeks ago, a certain phrase bypassed my heart and it serves as the answer to how Satan had access to Eve and why Satan addressed Eve as well at the tree.

When we focus on these verses it has for the most part been centered on the creation of the woman and how God put Adam to sleep in order to complete this miraculous technique.  However, when you read the remaining portions of Genesis Chapter 2 and the first six verse of Genesis Chapter 3 you find no other mention of God talking to either Adam or Eve only a few further details about how the man is supposed to leave his family and cleave to the wife and right as Chapter 2 closes we find that they are naked and not ashamed.  So how did Satan gain access to Eve if there is no mention of Eve any further until the fateful conversation in Genesis Chapter 3 and more importantly if God and Adam already had a conversation and Adam had exposure to what he was supposed to do and the reason why, then there must be a key in order that Eve would fall into the same level as Adam.  For if she did not then this would point out an inaccuracy in God’s Word and pose serious questions about the legitimacy of the Bible.  But we have that clue and it comes in a small phrase at the end of verse 22 of chapter 2.  More pointed, it comes in a specific word in this last portion of that verse.

Now, for most of my life, I have had the belief that while Adam was asleep God stood in the area around Adam and made the woman.  When Adam woke up there was his helpmate and they knew that they were to be together and life as they knew it followed; you know, like the fairy tale and they lived happily ever after.  But as God showed me that belief of mine is wrong because His Word does not say that at all.  Yes, God takes the rib from Adam and makes the woman from the single rib but the key phrase and more specifically the keyword comes from the small phrase “and brought her to the man.”  Okay, this phrase changes the entire scope of how this occurred and it is this phrase and word “brought” that changes the plan.

The Hebrew word “brought” that is used here is “waybieha” which comes from the verb portion “bo” which literally means to bring to, or to come to, to go, or to come in.  This definition means that whatever the subject or object is it is being brought to another person or place.  Some of you may know that the Hebrew language can be vague at times and when this ancient text was written they did not have many additional words to complicate matters any, which for us with basically unlimited resources of communication complicates matters tremendously.  But in this phrase, it is very specific and precise enough to understand that God took Eve somewhere for an unspecified amount of time from Adam for verse 22 states that God brought the woman to the man.  So, if God made the woman in front of the man then He would not have had to bring her to him, right?

The most important truth about God is that He is all about relationship and to establish and then maintain a holy and healthy relationship with His children.  Therefore, why would God allow a magnificent creation be completed and then “let loose” without any instruction or guidance as to proceed with their life?  It would be impossible for God to act in such a manner to which this verse or the last portion of verse 22 gives us.  We have no idea about how long this time period away from Adam was but it had to be enough time in order for God to adequately explain to the woman about what she is going to face and how to act, handle things, and any other advice that a father would give his daughter and in this case a holy and eternal Father.  I am leery of guys who come into my daughter’s life and I do not know anything about them, and I refuse to allow them any “real” status of a relationship with them until I meet them, it is the proper way to begin a relationship that any part of a long-term goal involved, I cannot see or believe that God would act any differently

It is through this process that allows God to teach the woman some things about the man and what to expect from all of his whimsical attitudes and activities also for Him to explain the dangers that will present themselves to her at some point in time.  It is not an easy process to get to know, the other sex, and for most of us it is an interesting time of learning and understanding on a purely intimate level, one that binds so tight that if ever broken a world of options can occur and if this process occurs we need to be understanding enough not to continue the hurt but allow healing to occur then top things off with a detailed and organized description of an enemy that has not been witnessed as of yet.  God never intended for mankind to be alone and most definitely never to be hurt by another human being.  So why is it that one of the “best” things humans can do to each other is to hurt each other in ways so spectacular and on an intimate level?  This verse is the one that sets the stage for this confrontation in our futures and gives us the clue as to why Satan chose Eve to fulfill his sinful plan.

Question for you: who would you think would be more prone to break a rule, the original person giving the rule or a person who was created from them?  I ask this question because it poses a setting that we face today from our children.  I am 50 years old now and knowing that specific generational timeline I can proceed with this example.  Back when my parents were in high school the most common problem that the teachers faced coming from the kids in class was talking and chewing gum, what seems like an innocent and minor issue to us today was a huge problem for that era.  When I was in class the issues became a tad worse for my generation decided to begin smoking more openly and losing our filters on our language skills, a continuation of issues but one would agree that it was a slight step forward in the provocation status.  Today, there is an entirely different animal that attends the schools for they do not respect the teachers or any school authority for that matter.  There are no language filters present on any level, sex dominates the hallways and no one has the knowledge of how to stand up to a bully inside or outside of the school.  Not to mention that we have now a rash of violence that has infiltrated our school systems that are constantly rearing its ugly head and will only escalate unless a solution is found. 

It is not hard to see the increasing pattern here and it is this pattern that we shall study as the root issue of why the Word of God says that Satan chose the woman to talk to at the tree.  In NO WAY, am I saying that the woman was inferior at this time at all, for both the man and the woman at this point knew no sin but even in this condition they did have the ability to make choices and then to act upon those choices after determining them.  When Genesis Chapter 3’s timeline comes along, we find that Satan freely talks with both the man and woman and from the tone of the conversation between them he is not agitated or nervous at all but comfortable around them and does not feel out of place. It looks like the stage is set but at this point, the woman’s first example has already been defined and thus open to our enemy.

Referring back to above statements concerning the legality issues that Satan has to follow along with previous article topics we find that since God gave Eve her first example of Kingdom, Satan was now allowed to take his turn when he felt the time was right.  We have no idea how long Satan took before the proceedings of Genesis Chapter 3 occurred, nor do we have an accurate amount of time that God had with the woman first, but what we do know is that by the time Genesis chapter 3 occurred, Satan was comfortable enough with the humans that his presence was not exaggerated in any way.  When God made Himself known to the woman there was no pomp and circumstance around and this normal appearance of God’s physical presence was the same with Adam as well.  Not with Satan however, he placed himself in an exotic capacity by disguising himself as a serpent, an act that did not seem to bother Adam and Eve which concludes the fact that Satan was trying to change the course of the Garden of Eden’s status with the excitement of something new, a status of illusion and imitation that many of us still fall into today as well.

By Kingdom definition, God must give Satan permission to do things before he can do them, given this truth that means Satan cannot do anything that God does by God’s definition, for Satan cannot stand God or anything that God promotes, including YOU and YOUR EXISTENCE!  Here is the point that we need to continually keep in mind for if we forget this detail about our enemy then we shall not be able to defend against our enemy.  Satan cannot tempt you in any way without a cause or foundation to come against, which means that we must have already had our meeting with God first.  In the case of Adam and Eve, God was there personally with them first, both of them, which this presence established their foundation in God thus providing the doors for Satan to legally acquire access to humanity.  God would have never allowed His children to be subject to our enemy without being prepared, any good father would not allow this type of action occur to his child.

Now, placing all of this information together we have the perfect stage for either a total rejection of God or a total rejection from Satan.  We do not have to rehash the story again because we all know who won that day and as a result, we are in the state of affairs that we hold onto today.  The main issue of today’s problems has not changed one bit from the time in the Garden of Eden for we are continually and willingly choosing to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of listening, remembering, and most importantly obeying God’s Ways.  Adam and Eve had God personally present as their source of information and instruction and we have the Word of God as our source of personal information and instruction and just like Adam and Eve on that fateful day, we are following directly in their footsteps.  In other words, just like Eve, we are not following her first example concerning our lives.

God gave humanity an equal shot at knowing only one way of the Creator but we chose to take our own route instead.  That single act of disobedience was a mistake that all of us now have to endure but in this choice of ours, God did not leave us empty handed or alone.  The relegations of such sinful tragedies we had no knowledge about directly but when we fell for the lie of the one that God warned us about when He told us about the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil our lives changed in such a way that we no longer can comprehend the value of purity.  It is this value of purity that God has continued to provide us through His Word and it is imperative that we get to know His Word as much as possible so that we can share it with others.  God is our Holy and Eternal Father and only His Word can provide us with the truth about everything we need to know to survive both physically and spiritually and the fruit of the world will only gift us death even though its beauty is beyond comprehension sometimes.

One of the major hang-ups that many Christians have is the fact that we may carry around the Bible and say that we know God but have no clue about what His Word actually states and says about our own lives then wonder why deem us hypocrites and not “qualified: to witness to them.  How can we effectively fulfill the mission that Jesus gave us when we do not even know what we are supposed to be sharing?  Eve spoke these fumbling words to Satan when they were having the discussion about the fruit on the tree, she remembered what God had spoken about it and what Adam probably had told her but when it came time, when the rubber met the road she did, was not able to repeat that most important command correctly.  She understood what had been told to her but she had been duped enough by the flamboyant sales pitch that she opened the door further for our enemy to deceive her over time.  God made it possible for us to have free will, and while carrying this unique gift of ours we have the responsibility to understand exactly what we are up against and if we only place our eggs in a one-sided basket we will not be able to defend ourselves.  Yes, it is important to understand the other side of the aisle for if we do not then we will not know what he is capable of doing in order to advance his kingdom.

God would never allow us to enter into a battle not prepared with the correct spiritual equipment, and it is this type of equipment He gave to Adam and Eve when He walked this earth.  His Word serves as this spiritual battle equipment today and it contains the exact information that God gave to Adam and Eve for the same Kingdom principles are in play today as they were back then.  Church, we have fallen down and I know that almost every single article that God has given me to write ends with some type of repentance message and a return and restoration setting immediately afterward.  There is a reason for this and it is another example that God shows us that our hearts are not right with Him.  God has given us the ability to understand what we need to do in order to survive the world and He has also given us the outlined version of the spiritual tools necessary in order to fight our enemy.  Turn our hearts and let us once again look back to Eve’s first example and to Adam’s first example and get our eyes off the fruit on the tree and obey God’s Ways with a pure and holy heart.

DLB