Eve: A Command, Her Choice, The Consequences

In today’s episode of All God’s Women we look at Eve, a woman with a simple command who made a bad choice that led to eternal consequences.

Her Story

Eve had a choice to make. It wasn’t a choice she agonized over. It wasn’t anything she gave much thought to. At the time of the choice, it likely didn’t seem like a big deal at all, but the consequences? They weren’t just life changing for her, but for every life after her.

The Bible opens with the story of creation. In chapter 1 verse 27 we’re told that God Created man and woman in His image. Chapter 2 gives us a more detailed account of Eve’s creation. Up to this point, everything else was created from nothingness. Eve, however, was created from Adam’s rib. She was beauty personified and absolute perfection in appearance. She was Comparable to Adam, and was Created to be a Companion for him.

God’s commands to Adam and Eve were simple – be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over all the other creatures, and don’t eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Seems simple enough, doesn’t it? Yet we go straight from the creation of woman at the end of Genesis 2 to the temptation and fall in Genesis 3.

The serpent takes what Eve knows, that aren’t to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and then questions it. Eve responds by adding to the command. God said not to eat from the tree. She adds that they can’t even touch it. He piques her interest by telling her that God is keeping them from something that’s good for them. She believes the serpent. She gives in to the temptation and shares with Adam.

The serpent presented Eve with a choice. Trust God’s command or see for yourself if what God said was true. Go have some fruit, he said. It will be good for you, he said.

And just like that, Eve made a choice. She ate a piece of fruit. And then, to make matters worse, she shared the fruit with Adam.

Isn’t that the way it is? We don’t want to be alone in our sin. We want to drag others down with us. It makes us feel better about ourselves to have companions in sin.

But God is a just God. If He tells us there will be consequences, there will be consequences. Maybe not immediately. Maybe a long time later. The Bible doesn’t tell us when Eve died, but we know she was 130 when she had Seth. We know that she and Adam had many more sons and daughters and that Adam died when he was 930 years old. It took awhile, but Eve died, just as God said she would. Furthermore, so did everyone else born after her.

Your Story

Eve made a bad choice and it forever changed the trajectory of human life.

Perhaps you, too, have made poor decisions. Maybe you’re at the point where you wish you could die because you don’t see a way out of the mess you’ve made of your life.

If so, I’ve got good news for you.

Eve was kicked out of Eden. She had two sons, and one of them killed the other one. Life was spiraling downward for Eve. But God had not forgotten her and he’d not given up on her.

God gave her another son and she named him Seth. She said, “God has appointed me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” With Seth, she received renewed hope. Seth grew up and he had a son. And in Genesis 26 we’re told, “At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.”

Eve may have had a 130 year old pity party. We don’t know. But we do know that God still loved Eve and he gave her another son. And she praised God for that son and she taught him about God. And she was able to witness a revival of people turning to God.

Despite the sorrow that Eve faced as a result of her sin, she didn’t grow bitter. When she bore her first child, she was thankful to have “acquired a man from the Lord.” When her one son killed her other son, she bravely continued on with life. When Seth was born, she proclaimed, “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.”

Eve could have given up on life. She certainly had plenty of reason to feel that life was hopeless. Instead, she pushed forward, focusing on her blessings instead of her fears.

What about you? Have you made life altering destructive decisions? Are you living in fear because of sin that is standing between you and God? It’s easy to give into those fears, calling them holy fears. But that’s not God’s intention. Yes, He wants us to address our sin. But once we admit them and bring them to Him, He wants us to move on and focus not on our failures but on His grace.

Choices have consequences. But whatever choices you’ve made, there’s still hope. We serve a merciful God who loves you and wants you to be fruitful again. All you have to do is to choose God. Reject your past. Live for the future.

Prayer

Lord God, we come to you humbled by the many times we’ve fallen short, times we chose the world over your wisdom. We know that you’re a merciful God so we come to you begging for your mercy. Forgive us from our sins. Thank you for sending your son to die on the cross for our sins. Give us new life. In Christ name we pray. Amen.

Eve: A Command, Her Choice, The Consequences

Thank you for listening to the first episode of All God’s Women. Tune in next week when we take a look at Mrs. Noah, a woman who spent a year confined in a boat with her family and a whole bunch of wild animals.