09) Identity and Eve

Identity and Eve (click the arrow to listen)

Following on from Identity and Angels, we can look at how these events affected Adam and Eve, the bible’s first human couple. The first chapters of Genesis explain what happened to them. I am drawing out principles and teaching from these early bible chapters and linking them with the New Testament. As mentioned elsewhere [see Romans 5 part 2], when Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God’s clear command, they fell from their state of innocence into a state of curse and death. This is known as The Fall.

deception

Both the man and the woman sinned and fell. Both were responsible for their actions and for not believing the truth revealed to them by God. However, the New Testament does make an important point by dissecting the process of how this occurred:

For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. (1 Timothy 2:13-14)

This did not absolve Adam of any responsibility as they were one flesh in marriage and he knew the command which God had given him. However, it does enlighten us as to the process. Paul enlarges on this in another letter:

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the snake’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3)

In order to dig into our subject, these observations of Paul are essential. I appreciate that these verses do provoke the ire of some Christians. I will firmly defend Paul as one who was not motivated by misogyny; rather he was one who greatly respected women and worked closely with them. In these passages he is analysing the process of deception and these are necessary observations if we are to learn how to combat the threat. The deception was a strategy employed by the devil (in these chapters in the representation or form of the snake or more exactly, serpent). It is now necessary to apply what we looked at in the previous section, on angels, to Adam and specifically, Eve.

intermediary

In order to make a comparison, I shall compare Eve and Mary, the mother of Jesus. There are spiritual parallels here. Eve was the mother of the human race. Mary was the mother of Jesus from whom the new ‘Chosen Race’ would be born (1 Peter 2:9 ESV). Both had angelic visitations (the devil and Gabriel). Both were informed of God’s will through intermediaries (Adam and Gabriel). Both had to make choices based on faith. One failed and the other succeeded. Their decisions were based on different personal responses to what they heard. Let’s look into the details:

Now the snake was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ The woman said to the snake, ‘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 3:1-3)

First of all, the devil decided to work on Eve. He asked a question to put a doubt in her mind: “Did God really say”. She responded by recounting what her husband had told her about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil:

And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’ (Genesis 2:16-17)

The woman must have heard this from Adam as she had not been created when God spoke this command to him.

We can now raise the question as to whether or not Adam had emphasised this prohibition enough because Eve seemed susceptible to having the initial doubt strengthened:

‘You will not certainly die,’ the snake said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ 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. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. (Genesis 3:4-7)

She allowed God’s command to be modified by her doubts and thought God’s reasons for not allowing them to eat such attractive fruit were just restrictions on her freedom.

servant

Mary, of course, did not receive an angelic visitor bent on deceiving her. His words to her were startling:

The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. (Luke 1:28-29)

Mary does appear to be far more watchful than Eve was. Mary was on her guard, but kept her heart open. The angel continued:

‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants for ever; his kingdom will never end.’ (Luke 1:30-33)

Her response is open-hearted. Earlier in this chapter we read how Zacharias was struck dumb because he doubted that the promise given him could ever happen. Mary was not doubting that this promise would happen but wondered how it might happen: was this a promise to be fulfilled once she was married? In this frame of thought she asked a question and was answered:

‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’ The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:34-35)

She then made that resonating response of obedience and faith:

‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled.’ Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:38)

And here is the difference: Eve responding thinking to serve herself; Mary responded thinking to serve the Lord. Mary embraced her identity as a servant of the will and purpose of God.

individualism

Eve was offered a new identity by the serpent which was different to the one which God had planned for her. With her husband she was to serve humanity as its mother. She was to serve her husband as his wife. She was to serve the earth by caring for it and all the creation. But she chose a new deceived identity, foolishly imagining that through eating the fruit she would become like God. She was dissatisfied with her given identity and sought to create a new one. This is the pitfall of identity-seeking: it becomes a self-serving and self-seeking obsession. It diverts us from seeking to fulfil the plan which the Lord has for each one of us.