Women in the Word Pt. 4: Eve
We continue our Woman in the Word series by taking a look at the life of the first woman, Eve. Interestingly, not much is really known about Eve–her name is mentioned only 4 times in all of scripture, and we have no idea of what she looked like, how many children she had, or even where or how she died. She is a mystery; and yet, she is extremely important to know because, as we will see, her story is our story..
If we stop and think about Eve's story, three things should immediately stand out to us–creation, fall, and redemption. Those three massively important theological terms truly capture the Bible's portrayal of Adam's wife, but because we don't usually associate them with Eve's life, I'll use a helpful alliteration instead: rib, ruin, and redemption.
Rib
The creation story begins with an incredible statement, “In the beginning God.” Everything in the creation account flows from that declaration. This God creates and brings order out of chaos. And each time (day) he forms and fills, he calls the work of his hands "good." That is, until we get to Genesis 2. We come to Genesis 2:18 and find out that something was amiss, something was not "good."
“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” God called his creation of man good, but what he did not call good was man being alone. Because, as Puritan Matthew Henry articulates out so well, “Perfect solitude would turn a paradise into a desert, and a palace into a dungeon.” So, God created a helper for Adam–a companion, a wife.
The last living thing to be created was actually the first female. God created Adam from a handful of dirt, but Eve was created from a handful of Adam.
This all goes down through sovereign surgery:
"The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man" (Gen. 2:20-22).
Adam gives names to all the animals, and what’s implied here is that Adam had plenty of friends and helpers. But God knew that none of these friends and helpers of Adam were fit for him–the man needed something more like him. So God puts Adam under anesthesia and cuts him open, hence, sovereign surgery. While Adam is asleep, God takes a rib out of him, closes him back up, and out of that rib creates Eve. Adam may have lost a rib, but he gained a loving companion, a wife.
By now we should be asking, why not create Eve from the dust like Adam, why use his rib?
Good question. The reason why I believe God used Adam’s rib to create Eve was to send us all a message about marriage. Matthew Henry is helpful to us again, "That the woman was made from the rib he had taken out of man; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled on by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved."
A perfect relationship in perfect harmony, in a perfect place. But then it all goes south, really badly really quickly.
Ruin
We know all too well what happens next. Satan, disguised as a serpent, makes his way around the Garden of Eden all the way to where Eve is hanging out. He finds her and then the two engage in a deadly dialogue (How Eve is not disturbed by a talking snake is wild to me).
Satan sells Eve on the fact that God does not want her eating from the tree because if she does her eyes will be opened and she will be like God. Consider how scripture describes what is going on with Eve, "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, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate" (Gen. 3:6).
Yes, Satan sold her on eating from the tree. Yes, the serpent deceived her, but was that really what caused her to eat of the tree?
Let's be honest, we all suffer from wandering eyes. Your eyes can and do get you into trouble, and you can even argue that is what got Eve into trouble, but that’s not entirely the case. Eve’s problem and our problem are not the eyes but the heart Once Eve gave into the dark desires of her heart it ruined her, Adam, and the rest of the human race. She invested her life savings and got practically nothing in return.
Eve sacrificed the security, joy, and peace she had in the garden with God and her husband for a momentary pleasure that earned nothing but headache and heartache. She fell for what the senior demon in The Screwtape Letters had planned for humanity, “an ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure.” This is what we fall for time and again. We scrap the pleasure of God himself for some cheap substitute. And like Eve we feel the guilt and shame of our sin and instead of running to God, we run from him and sew fig leaves to cover up the fact that our sin has left us naked.
But this is not how Eve's story ends.
Redemption
The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:14-15).
This is not only God's pronouncement of judgment on the serpent and Satan, it’s also the Bible’s first gospel proclamation. Genesis 3:15 is God’s promise to Adam, Eve, and us that he will repair what we have broken. God would restore, reconcile, and redeem. Adam had faith that God would do this. How do we know that he did? Up until this point Adam has only called his wife woman. She had no proper name yet. But when God promises to destroy the serpent and his seed by the offspring of the woman, Adam trusts this with all his heart and in Genesis 3:20 he names the woman, Eve, which means mother of all living.
Through the woman death came into the world, even though Adam is the one held primarily responsible. But God promises that through that same woman will come life, making her mother of all living.
Have you ever wondered why Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves to cover themselves?
Of all the things they could have used to cover themselves from their nakedness, they chose fig leaves. Fig leaves? That’s hilarious! A closer look at the story reveals that Adam and Eve actually chose the best thing known to them. Consider Genesis 3:21, “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” Adam would have never done what God did, which was sacrifice an animal, likely a lamb, to cover himself because Adam associated death with punishment. That’s why he chose fig leaves.
But God chooses a lamb to sacrifice to show Adam that one day the True :amb, the Lamb of God, will be punished and put to death for the sins of his people. God clothing Adam and Eve with animal skins was pointing to something greater, it was pointing them to Christ and his clothing them with mercy, righteousness, and grace. That was true for Adam and Eve as it is for us today.
You know the story of Abraham right? God made a covenant with Abraham and told him that his offspring will be the number of the stars. Remember that? Well, Jesus is the promised offspring, the promised seed to Eve so that we can be the stars promised to Abraham. His grace is our hope, his love is our gift, and his redemption all sufficient.
If we stop and think about Eve's story, three things should immediately stand out to us–creation, fall, and redemption. Those three massively important theological terms truly capture the Bible's portrayal of Adam's wife, but because we don't usually associate them with Eve's life, I'll use a helpful alliteration instead: rib, ruin, and redemption.
Rib
The creation story begins with an incredible statement, “In the beginning God.” Everything in the creation account flows from that declaration. This God creates and brings order out of chaos. And each time (day) he forms and fills, he calls the work of his hands "good." That is, until we get to Genesis 2. We come to Genesis 2:18 and find out that something was amiss, something was not "good."
“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” God called his creation of man good, but what he did not call good was man being alone. Because, as Puritan Matthew Henry articulates out so well, “Perfect solitude would turn a paradise into a desert, and a palace into a dungeon.” So, God created a helper for Adam–a companion, a wife.
The last living thing to be created was actually the first female. God created Adam from a handful of dirt, but Eve was created from a handful of Adam.
This all goes down through sovereign surgery:
"The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man" (Gen. 2:20-22).
Adam gives names to all the animals, and what’s implied here is that Adam had plenty of friends and helpers. But God knew that none of these friends and helpers of Adam were fit for him–the man needed something more like him. So God puts Adam under anesthesia and cuts him open, hence, sovereign surgery. While Adam is asleep, God takes a rib out of him, closes him back up, and out of that rib creates Eve. Adam may have lost a rib, but he gained a loving companion, a wife.
By now we should be asking, why not create Eve from the dust like Adam, why use his rib?
Good question. The reason why I believe God used Adam’s rib to create Eve was to send us all a message about marriage. Matthew Henry is helpful to us again, "That the woman was made from the rib he had taken out of man; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled on by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved."
A perfect relationship in perfect harmony, in a perfect place. But then it all goes south, really badly really quickly.
Ruin
We know all too well what happens next. Satan, disguised as a serpent, makes his way around the Garden of Eden all the way to where Eve is hanging out. He finds her and then the two engage in a deadly dialogue (How Eve is not disturbed by a talking snake is wild to me).
Satan sells Eve on the fact that God does not want her eating from the tree because if she does her eyes will be opened and she will be like God. Consider how scripture describes what is going on with Eve, "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, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate" (Gen. 3:6).
Yes, Satan sold her on eating from the tree. Yes, the serpent deceived her, but was that really what caused her to eat of the tree?
Let's be honest, we all suffer from wandering eyes. Your eyes can and do get you into trouble, and you can even argue that is what got Eve into trouble, but that’s not entirely the case. Eve’s problem and our problem are not the eyes but the heart Once Eve gave into the dark desires of her heart it ruined her, Adam, and the rest of the human race. She invested her life savings and got practically nothing in return.
Eve sacrificed the security, joy, and peace she had in the garden with God and her husband for a momentary pleasure that earned nothing but headache and heartache. She fell for what the senior demon in The Screwtape Letters had planned for humanity, “an ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure.” This is what we fall for time and again. We scrap the pleasure of God himself for some cheap substitute. And like Eve we feel the guilt and shame of our sin and instead of running to God, we run from him and sew fig leaves to cover up the fact that our sin has left us naked.
But this is not how Eve's story ends.
Redemption
The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:14-15).
This is not only God's pronouncement of judgment on the serpent and Satan, it’s also the Bible’s first gospel proclamation. Genesis 3:15 is God’s promise to Adam, Eve, and us that he will repair what we have broken. God would restore, reconcile, and redeem. Adam had faith that God would do this. How do we know that he did? Up until this point Adam has only called his wife woman. She had no proper name yet. But when God promises to destroy the serpent and his seed by the offspring of the woman, Adam trusts this with all his heart and in Genesis 3:20 he names the woman, Eve, which means mother of all living.
Through the woman death came into the world, even though Adam is the one held primarily responsible. But God promises that through that same woman will come life, making her mother of all living.
Have you ever wondered why Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves to cover themselves?
Of all the things they could have used to cover themselves from their nakedness, they chose fig leaves. Fig leaves? That’s hilarious! A closer look at the story reveals that Adam and Eve actually chose the best thing known to them. Consider Genesis 3:21, “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” Adam would have never done what God did, which was sacrifice an animal, likely a lamb, to cover himself because Adam associated death with punishment. That’s why he chose fig leaves.
But God chooses a lamb to sacrifice to show Adam that one day the True :amb, the Lamb of God, will be punished and put to death for the sins of his people. God clothing Adam and Eve with animal skins was pointing to something greater, it was pointing them to Christ and his clothing them with mercy, righteousness, and grace. That was true for Adam and Eve as it is for us today.
You know the story of Abraham right? God made a covenant with Abraham and told him that his offspring will be the number of the stars. Remember that? Well, Jesus is the promised offspring, the promised seed to Eve so that we can be the stars promised to Abraham. His grace is our hope, his love is our gift, and his redemption all sufficient.
Rev. Mike Hernández serves as the senior pastor of Crossroads Presbyterian Church. He is a graduate of Trinity International University (B.A.), Knox Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) at Reformed Theological Seminary Orlando. He writes regularly for Gospel-Centered Discipleship and is a member of the National Association of Scholars.
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