EVE
The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone.
Genesis 2:18
"When the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul, He said, "It is not good that the man should be alone." (Gen 2:18)
It was God's own thought that man should not be alone; He said: "I will make him an help meet for
him." (Gen 2:18, or R. V. "answering to him.") God saw the need, and God created the supply.
It was a type of death and resurrection. Adam suffered loss in order to gain what was better. It was a true picture of the death of Christ, in order that the Church, His Bride, might be taken from His pierced side, blood‐bought, living out of His death. Just as man proceeded from God, and was made alive with His very breath, so woman proceeded from man, and we understand the depth of that word of Paul's, "He that loveth his wife loveth himself." (Eph 5:28)
There was no jar in the union of Adam and Eve until the serpent made his appearance. He approached the weaker vessel, saying to the woman,
Her answer was a true one, but she ought never to have answered at all. It gave ground to the serpent to continue his temptation. The serpent had already found out that it was more easy to draw the woman into conversation than the man; and her first answer gave him ground to speak again:
Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Gen 3:4-5)
Eve's ambition was stirred. Could there be anything wrong in desiring to be like God? But Eve, in entertaining such thoughts without reference to her God, failed in her position of helpmeet to Adam. She acted without respect to him, and without considering either God's authority or her husband's good. It was
No sooner had the enemy laid hold of Eve on this point than he could appeal to her on lower ground.
It was an awful moment when the man and the woman made in God's image found within them an impulse to flee from Him, as though their Father and their Creator were their enemy.
Eve became a mother, and named her first son Cain, saying,
a man from the Lord." (Gen 4:1) The selfish wife becomes a selfish mother. "I have gotten" expresses her thoughts regarding her boy. If the first idea in the possession of a child is the selfish one, what we have got, and what the child is to be to us-how can we be fit to train him for heaven? It is only as we count our children to be the Lord's possession that we can bring them up in His nurture and admonition.
Eve became a mother a second time, and had the bitterness of seeing her child's blood shed by the very son whom her selfish heart had named Cain; and, perhaps, it was only when she learnt the lesson of sacrifice from Abel's altar that God could trust her with her son Seth."
Mary Elizabeth Baxter
In order that a helpmeet should be created who should respond to the necessities of man, who should be the complement of himself and his representative, Adam must suffer loss. "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." (Gen 2:21-22)
It was a type of death and resurrection. Adam suffered loss in order to gain what was better. It was a true picture of the death of Christ, in order that the Church, His Bride, might be taken from His pierced side, blood‐bought, living out of His death. Just as man proceeded from God, and was made alive with His very breath, so woman proceeded from man, and we understand the depth of that word of Paul's, "He that loveth his wife loveth himself." (Eph 5:28)
After man had sinned, he no longer trusted God to prepare a help meet for him. "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of
ALL WHOM THEY CHOSE.
(Gen 6:1-2)
Their object was a selfish one. They sought in their wives what should please them, and, doubtless, the wives sought in their husbands what should please them. Selfishness is a plant that produces sour fruit, and sows discord wherever it grows.
"Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" (Gen 3:1)
How should Eve act? Created to be Adam's helpmeet, her duty was to sustain her position and dominion over the lower creation. How could she consistently listen to a serpent, and how could she, who shared Adam's dominion over all but God, endure that her God should be called in question? The very listening to the reptile was a departure from God and a treachery against her husband.
Her answer was a true one, but she ought never to have answered at all. It gave ground to the serpent to continue his temptation. The serpent had already found out that it was more easy to draw the woman into conversation than the man; and her first answer gave him ground to speak again:
Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Gen 3:4-5)
Eve's ambition was stirred. Could there be anything wrong in desiring to be like God? But Eve, in entertaining such thoughts without reference to her God, failed in her position of helpmeet to Adam. She acted without respect to him, and without considering either God's authority or her husband's good. It was
THE FIRST MANIFESTATION OF SELF
in God's creation.
No sooner had the enemy laid hold of Eve on this point than he could appeal to her on lower ground.
"The woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food," and "the lust of the flesh" began to work within her; "and that it was pleasant to the eyes;" "the lust of the eyes" was awakened too; "and a tree to be desired to make one wise," "the pride of life" (1Jo 2:16) was working, and acting upon her own judgment,-a judgment biased by the serpent-"she took of the fruit thereof and did eat." With this fatal act, every unselfish instinct seemed to die within her; "she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat." (Gen 3:6) Adam's helpmeet had become Satan's instrument of temptation!
It was an awful moment when the man and the woman made in God's image found within them an impulse to flee from Him, as though their Father and their Creator were their enemy.
Eve became a mother, and named her first son Cain, saying,
"I HAVE GOTTEN
a man from the Lord." (Gen 4:1) The selfish wife becomes a selfish mother. "I have gotten" expresses her thoughts regarding her boy. If the first idea in the possession of a child is the selfish one, what we have got, and what the child is to be to us-how can we be fit to train him for heaven? It is only as we count our children to be the Lord's possession that we can bring them up in His nurture and admonition. Eve became a mother a second time, and had the bitterness of seeing her child's blood shed by the very son whom her selfish heart had named Cain; and, perhaps, it was only when she learnt the lesson of sacrifice from Abel's altar that God could trust her with her son Seth."
Mary Elizabeth Baxter