AND GOD CREATED EVE

• Genesis 2:18 (NKJV): “And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.’”
• Genesis 2:22 (NKJV): “Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.”
• Genesis 3:16 (ESV): “To the woman he said, ‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.’”

GOD’S MOST GLORIOUS CREATION

WHEN GOD CREATED MANKIND, his first image was Adam. Adam was a man, a male, the first human being. Adam knew this: that the God who created him  was superior to him in every way. 

Then God brought the Parade of Critters before Adam to see what Adam would name them. God did so to make the point that they were inferior to Adam.

Then God told Adam He would make yet another creature. This one would be “comparable” to him, meaning “similar to,” or “equal to,” or “on the same level as,” but not “identical to.”

God placed Adam into a deep sleep and removed a rib bone and from that bone created Eve. She was the first woman, a female, the second human being.

Eve was created to be Adam’s companion, love interest, and helper. She was designed to complement Adam, not to duplicate him. 

Therefore, God gave her traits and characteristics that He denied Adam, while giving Adam traits and characteristics He denied Eve.

Now, here comes the interesting part: What does it mean that God created Eve second and Adam first, and what significance, if any, does that have for us today?

EVE IS PROTECTED

IF EVERY ONE OF GOD’S creations, except light, was superior to and dependent on a prior creation, then certainly Eve would be counted superior to, and dependent on, a prior creation.

That would be Adam.

All of God’s creations prior to Adam were fashioned from nothing. Adam was fashioned from dirt. Eve was  the lone creation fashioned from living tissue. 

She also was the only creation afforded a protector and provider. No other creation — from birds to wild animals to small animals to fish — was greeted by something similar to it that also was designed to care for it and keep it safe.

Only Eve was.

She was greeted by a husband who loved and adored her. 

She was never alone in creation the way Adam was. She began life with a home and a husband. Moreover, to make her life even sweeter, she was told she could bear children.

GOD’S HURTFUL CURSE

FAST-FORWARD TO SIN, and God is reprimanding Satan, Adam, and Eve for their conspiracy to deny  His truth regarding the “special tree” that God told them to avoid.

Satan and Adam were given their curses, and Eve was given hers. Although fewer words in Genesis were used to describe her curse than the other two, her curse might have hurt the most.

God told her that her punishment for defying Him was to suffer hardship in childbirth and estrangement from her husband. God placed Adam as a protective covering for her, but she would chaff under his headship.

The two greatest joys in any woman’s life — her husband and her children — would be associated with physical or emotional pain.

ENTER TODAY’S WOMAN

THAT BRINGS US to the modern era and today’s woman. She’s a self-confident college-educated take-no-prisoners hard-edged overachiever who doesn’t  want to waste her life — her life being a woman.

Her highest calling today is not marriage and family but earning her stripes on the partner track or landing a high-paying STEM job or shouldering arms and patrolling crime-infested neighborhoods during the day’s darkest hours.

Today, she is not a “woman” but a non-gendered “person.” She wants preferential hiring and promotion status at work while sanitizing the environment from male crudeness and sexual innuendo.

When she arrives home, she is thrust back to the traditional female role of homemaker — the pivotal centerpiece of the family — and, sadly, many find the  transition difficult and painful.

This is the most tragic part of the curse for Eve — her vulnerable heart, that sweet, lovely, nurturing, caring, beautiful heart — is broken, hurting, and suffering through life.

Meanwhile, the Adam in her life stands by her side, longing to help and protect her, without having any more clue on how to do that than the first Adam had.

Only Jesus, the perfect God-man, got it right. 

Yes, the curse against Adam and Eve lingers, but God promises us abundant life with Him to those who believe in Jesus, repent of their sin and seek forgiveness, and turn their lives over to His control.

PRAYER

OUR LORD AND CREATOR, thank You for creating us in Your image, as Your  most precious creatures in all of creation. We revel in being latter day Adams and Eves and feel Your glorious touch in making us husband and wife, to love and cherish one another. We pray grace on today’s Eves, that their vulnerable emotions, which make them so special, will be protected and cared for by today’s Adams, and that they will be the helpers, the companions, and the soulmates that God created them to be. In Jesus’ name we lift this prayer, giving thanks and praise to God Almighty. AMEN