Femme Friday- Eve

    Is there any person more famous than our Femme Friday heroine today? You may know her as the temptress, the destruction of all man-kind or even the mother of all children. She is also the help-mate of Adam. The first woman to give birth. Our portrayal is of a woman much maligned thru the arts, history and story-telling. However, this woman is also the one given the promise of her tempters demise. The first one to hear of a coming Savior that will make right what went wrong in that first Garden. By submitting Himself in a second Garden. 

    As you may have guessed, we are talking about Eve. The first recorded woman in the Christian and Jewish Bibles. 

Eve is historically known best for being the first one to take a bite of the forbidden fruit. Her story begins a while before that. In the traditional story, God creates the world in six days, at the end of those days He creates a man. This is Adam (meaning from the ground). After Adam is given dominion over the earth, he names all the animals. God notices that Adam is lonely. Desiring to bring community to earth, God puts Adam to sleep and then takes a rib from Adam's side. Out of this rib, some dirt and a little holy elbow grease Eve is created. Adam and Eve wake up. They begin their life in Eden together. Walking with God each morning and evening. Spending time with both lions and lambs. Delighting in the evergreen and beautiful forest that is their wonderland. 

Then things fall apart. 

God has an enemy named Satan (the Accuser). Satan desires to separate God from His creation. To destroy all the good and beautiful gifts God has given to Adam and Eve. Further, he continues to want to destroy us still. However, in the Garden narrative Satan becomes a snake. As Adam and Eve are going thru the Garden they come to a tree in the middle. This tree was different than the others. This tree had fruit Adam and Eve could not eat. It was forbidden to eat the fruit because it contained knowledge of both good and evil. Eve and Adam were forbidden from eating this fruit not because God wanted to deny them it's fruit, but because eating of it would cause the couple to lose their innocence in the world. It would cause them to gain knowledge of how to be evil. Of doubt in God's provision and love for them. 

This is exactly what Satan does. He convinces Eve and Adam that God DOESN'T have their best interests at heart. Eve takes a bite of the fruit. Then Adam does. Both heard the arguments and both fell to the temptation. The idyllic Garden can no longer be Adam and Eve's home. There is no more direct communion with God. No more sunset walks amid the trees. Work, pain, suffering and disease enter the world. The first two humans on earth now have to exit the safest and most beautiful place ever known. Adam will have to toil on the earth, against weed, drought and the elements. Eve will have pain in childbirth and desire to have Adam's approval instead of working together as equals. All these curses fall on the rest of humanity as well. 

Just as Adam cursed all of humanity with the knowledge of sin, so also a deliverer would be sent to redeem all of mankind. As Adam and Eve are exiting the garden, a promise is given among the consequences for eating from the tree. To the serpent, Satan, God says

"Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust
all the days of your life! 
And I will put enmity between you and the woman
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head and you will strike his heel."

    Do you see it? Those last two lines? THIS is the hope of Eve, through her line the serpent will be crushed by the offspring of the woman. This coming overcomer is Jesus. Without Eve, we wouldn't have Jesus. Without the Garden of Eden, we wouldn't need the Garden of Gethsemane. Without the fall from grace, we wouldn't be in need of a gracious savior. For that, we say thank-you Eve. Thank-you for being the one who made the way for our Savior to come.