Genesis 2-3
I feel like Eve really gets an unfair judgement. Throughout history, I think people have judged her because of what she did instead of why she did it.
Growing up, I had always heard people say that Eve brought sin into the world. That it was the “woman’s fault” (as if her husband wasn’t standing right beside her when it happened, but that’s beside the point). We blame poor Eve for suffering & a fallen world when really she was just a victim of Satan’s lies like we all have been before. Her heart was even in a good place, which to me, turns Eve’s story into a warning for women, not a condemnation for them.
One of the most profound things I ever heard someone teach about Eve was from Pastor Chris Hodges in the Freedom Curriculum that we have at Church of the Highlands. See, Eve didn’t want to eat from the forbidden tree to spite God, rebel, get revenge, or anything like that. She wanted to eat from it because Satan said, “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:4). She just wanted to be more like her Father.
It was innocent. It was pure. It was a well devised trap.
Here’s where the warning comes in, Women of God: you have to know what God said & never compromise on it.
Satan is not that original. He has been using the same lie since the garden: “Did God really say?” (3:1). If you don’t know who God says you are, if you don’t know what God says is good, if you don’t know how God says to live, you will be vulnerable to the seed of doubt.
Where do we find out what God said? His Word.
I began this study on the Women in the Bible because I became desperate to know everything God’s Word said about women: how He used them, what He saw in them, where He sent them, what He said about them.
Here’s what I’ve found in this story: Eve was not targeted by Satan because she was weaker, less than, or loved any less by her Father. Eve was targeted because she was hungry for God. Satan only attacks what he feels threatened by, & the first person he attacked was a woman walking closely with her Heavenly Father, longing to be more like Him.
I wonder what scared him the most about Eve. I wonder what scares him the most about you.
If Satan doesn’t disqualify you as a threat because you’re a woman, why would you disqualify yourself?
Here’s what I’ll leave you with. Although Eve fell for the lie and sinned, God did not take away who He called her to be. It was after her sin that she was named Eve, which means “to give life” because God called her to be the mother of all who live (3:20). It would’ve been very easy for God to create a different woman for the world to be born from, one who didn’t mess up, but that was not our Father’s heart.
Maybe you’ve messed up & feel like your calling will be given to someone else.
Daughter of the King, that is not our Father’s heart. You are still called.
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