6 January 2013
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to Genesis 2:18-25
Genesis 2:18-25 (NIV)
18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be
alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh.
22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man."
24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
-- yesterday
we had a celebration for my parent's 50th wedding anniversary and we invited in
friends and family to join us at a reception at their church in Adel -- it was
a big surprise for them and it was great to see so many people turn out to wish
them well and congratulate them on this momentous day -- 50 years together is a
long time and it's become rarer and rarer to see couples make it that long --
and this was certainly a milestone in their lives that we wanted to celebrate
-- but in
the midst of the party, I couldn't help but think of Charles Dickens' book,
"A Tale of Two Cities," because looking at what was going on in that
room and knowing how it was pulled together, I realized that this wasn't just a
story of one couple celebrating their fiftieth anniversary -- but the story of
another couple just beginning their journey to 50 years together-- my niece is getting married this summer -- and as I was watching her and her fiancee working behind the scenes to decorate and set up before party and then interacting with the guests and with each other, I couldn't help but think of the journey that lay ahead of them
-- all marriages begin with a promise fueled by hope -- and every couple begins their lives together painting a portrait of the paradise they plan for each other
-- and I know that when my niece was planning this party for my parent's 50th anniversary, she was thinking ahead to the day when her children and her grandchildren would be doing the same -- when it would be her and her husband who were celebrating a lifetime of love and joy and happiness together
-- and I pray this is exactly what happens -- but all of us who are married know that story-book weddings are rarely followed by picture-perfect marriages -- there are always road-bumps -- there are always curves and potholes and detours around our plans -- and while some couples can navigate their way and continue on together for fifty years, others find themselves taking separate roads as their plans of paradise evaporate like a mist -- it takes a special couple to persevere through life's challenges and stay together through a lifetime
-- this
morning I want us to think about one such couple -- they faced the worse trial
that any couple could ever face in their marriage, but they stayed married for
over 50 years -- in fact, they stay married for over 800 years -- so let's take
a moment to look at the marriage of Adam and Eve in this message I've entitled,
"The Many Faces of Eve"
II. The Face of Happiness
-- look
back at Genesis 2:18-20
18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be
alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the
beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to
see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature,
that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
-- now
everybody here is familiar with the story of Creation -- the Bible begins with
these words, "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"
-- and from there we are given the story of God's creation over a six-day
period -- over this time, God created everything there is
-- He
created the sun and the stars -- He created the water and the land -- He created
the plants and the fish and the animals -- and He created us -- and at the end
of each creative act, the Bible tells us that God looked over what He created
and saw that it was good -- until you get to verse 18-- for the very first time God looked at His creation and said, "This is not good -- it is not good for the man to be alone" -- God knew that we needed companionship -- He knew that we needed someone we could be with -- someone like us -- someone we could share this life with
-- so God set out to find a companion for Adam -- He had all the animals come to Adam to be named -- and after Adam had looked over all the animals and given them their name, we read that no suitable helper was found for him
-- if you're like me, you probably have to ask yourself why God would even bother with this little exercise in futility -- of course none of the animals would be suitable mates for Adam -- none of them would be suitable helpers -- so why did God go through this exercise?
-- I think there was something He wanted Adam -- and us -- to understand -- God was about to create woman -- He was about to create that special person designed just for Adam and He was going to bring them together -- and I think God was trying to stress to Adam to not let his eyes stray elsewhere -- to not search for a substitute, because no one else would be suitable and nothing else could replace this person God chose for him
-- if a few more men and women would learn this principle and stop searching for substitutes, then more marriages would go the distance and 50th anniversaries would become just another common milestone in everyone's life
-- verse 21-25
21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep;
and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the
place with flesh.
22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken
out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man."
24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
-- in these
verses we are told of the first marriage -- unlike everything else God had
created, God didn't create the woman out of the dust of the ground -- He took
her from Adam's own side
-- I've
heard it said before -- and I'm sure you've heard it, too -- that woman was
created from man's rib -- not from his head to rule over him -- not from his
foot to be trodden by him -- but from his rib to be protected by his arms -- to
be close to his heart -- and to be part of his very breath and life-- thus, the perfect plan for marriage with the perfect couple in the perfection of paradise -- the Garden of Eden
-- well, we
all know what comes next, and we usually rush forward to the story of the fall
of man and the sin of Adam and his wife -- but I want you to take a moment and
linger here in these verses at the end of Chapter 2
-- think
about what Adam and his new bride were experiencing at that moment -- think
about what they talked about as they walked through the garden together, hand
in hand -- as they went through their day sharing the joy of all God's creation
-- as they looked to the future of unending bliss in the relationship they
shared with God and with each other-- this is where every couple lives before their wedding day -- they're walking through Eden -- their lives are full of hope and promise -- they are entwined in each other's love -- and they see nothing ahead but brighter and brighter days of happiness
-- this is the first face of Eve -- the face of innocence -- the face of purity -- the face of utter bliss and happiness
III. The Face of Temptation
-- but,
unfortunately, things didn't stay in that state for long
-- Chapter
3, verse 1-7
Genesis 3:1-7 (NIV)
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild
animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say,
'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.
5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
-- here we
see the second face of Eve -- the face of temptation
-- into the
midst of this perfect marriage, darkness invaded -- the serpent, who we later
come to know in the Bible was none other than Satan himself, found the woman in
the garden one day and tempted her to disobey God
-- Satan
twisted the words of God and forced the woman to defend her faith and trust in
God -- "Did God really say you can't eat from any tree in the
garden?" -- and Eve replied, "No, only the tree in the middle of the
garden -- that's the only tree we can't eat from" -- she went on to say that they couldn't even touch it or they would die -- if you look over in Genesis 2:16-17, you'll see God didn't say anything about touching the tree -- I don't think the woman was making this up -- I think Adam told her this because he loved so much he didn't even want her to get close to the tree, much less eat from it
-- what we're seeing here is the birth of legalism -- the first man-made religious law ever made up -- but it gave a foot-hold to Satan and led to the woman's temptation
-- the serpent convinced the woman that God was withholding the fruit from the tree from them because it would make them like Him -- and what could be wrong with being like God? -- so she reached out her hand and ate of the fruit and sinned -- and then passed the sin on to Adam, never knowing what consequences she had wrought
-- but perhaps the worst curse of all was the effect of sin on their relationship with each other -- with that first bite of the fruit, their marriage was irrevocably marred -- never again would they have the perfect marriage in the perfect place -- never again would their relationship with each other be characterized by selflessness and altruism
-- when God questioned Adam about eating the fruit, what was the first thing he did? -- he blamed his wife -- the face of temptation brought discord and curses to their lives
-- but the story doesn't end there
IV. The Face of Life
-- Genesis
3:20
-- if
you've noticed, thus far in my message I've tried to call Adam's companion the
"woman," or "his wife" -- until you get to this verse, she
doesn't have a name -- she is only called "the woman"
-- but now
the time has come for Adam to name his wife as he once named all of creation --
what would he call her? -- after the debacle with the fruit and the whole face of temptation and sin, what names for the woman came to his mind? -- temptress? -- sinner? -- disobeyer?
-- isn't that the way we fight in relationships when we're angry and have been hurt? -- we call each hurtful names -- we label each other -- we say, "You're nothing but a -- fill in the blank"
-- what would you have called her? -- think about it -- this was not a minor trespass -- in one fell swoop, the woman has resulted in a break in their relationship, not only with themselves, but also with God and all of creation -- and she got them thrown out of their home -- and she got them fired from their job -- she has literally killed their future
-- I think it's amazing that Adam didn't just lash out at her here when he was called on to name his wife -- but he didn't -- and when he went to pronounce her name, he didn't call her anything hurtful -- he didn't name her out of vengeance or spite or hurt -- he named her with the face of life -- Adam named her Eve
-- as best we can tell, the original Hebrew word, "Eve," means living -- instead of looking back at the chaos and consequence of sin, Adam looked forward to the grace of God and called his wife "Life" and we read here that Eve would be the mother of all the living
-- now this
verse stopped me this week during our daily readings -- I asked you to read the
Bible with me this year in our 2013 Exalt the Word challenge -- and I hope you
got the point that it's not so much about completing the readings as it is getting
new things out of Scripture and hearing God's message to you in your daily time
with Him
-- I can't
tell you how many times I've read this verse -- I've done an intensive Bible
study on the book of Genesis -- but when I read this verse this week, it jumped
out at me and God showed me something I had never seen before-- Adam named his wife Eve because she would be the mother of all the living -- notice that word, "all" -- Eve was not just the mother of humanity -- we know that all of us trace back our ancestry to her -- we all owe her our life because she was the first mother -- the first woman to ever bear a child
-- but this verse says more than that -- it says she is the mother of all the living -- that includes more than just people
-- how is that possible? -- how could Eve be the mother of all the living?
-- in order
to know what's going on here, you need to what the Bible means when it talks
about life and death -- so, let's walk through what the Bible means here in
this part of Genesis when it talks about these concepts
-- flip
over to Genesis 2 and let's read verses 16-17
Genesis 2:16-17 (NIV)
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to
eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
-- okay, if
Adam eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what's going to
happen to him? -- he's going to die, right?
-- now,
Genesis 3, verse 6
Genesis 3:6 (NIV)
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for
food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took
some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he
ate it.
-- look at
verse 7
Genesis 3:7 (NIV)
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they
realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings
for themselves.
-- what
happened? -- they didn't die
-- did God
lie? -- no, of course not -- so the definition of death that God promised as a
result of sin over in Chapter 2 was not physical death -- it had to have been
spiritual death, right? -- and what we see in verse 7 is the spiritual death of
Adam and his wife as they sinned through disobedience and separated themselves
from God-- everybody's with me, right? -- in these verses here in the start of Genesis, when God talks about death, He's referring to spiritual death and not physical death -- or, as the Book of Revelation puts it, the second death
-- don't take my word for it -- turn over real quick to Revelation chapter 20 and let's look at it together
--
Revelation 20:4-6
Revelation 20:4-6 (NIV)
4 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been
given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded
because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had
not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their
foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand
years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.
6 Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
-- now skip
over to verse 14
Revelation 20:14 (NIV)
14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
The lake of fire is the second death.
-- okay, so
there's two kinds of death in the Bible
--
the first death is physical death -- when you stop breathing -- the death of
the body -- the second death is spiritual death -- when your soul is separated from God and thrown into the lake of fire -- this only happens to those who have not received forgiveness from their sins by trusting and believing in Jesus as Lord and Savior
-- flip
back to Genesis 3:20
Genesis 3:20 (NIV)
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the
mother of all the living.
-- Eve is
the mother of all the living -- now, stick with me -- if it is true in the
Bible there are two kinds of death -- physical and spiritual -- is it not true
there are two kinds of life -- physical and spiritual?
-- what did
Jesus tell Nicodemus in John Chapter 3? -- you must be born again -- it's not
enough to be physically alive -- you must be spiritually alive as well -- two
kinds of life
-- when
Adam named his wife Eve and said she would be the mother of all the living, he
wasn't talking about physical life -- he wasn't referring to her ability to
bear children -- he was referring to the promise God gave her in verse 15 that
she would be bring forth salvation for all of creation
-- in verse
15, God is speaking to the serpent, but He makes a promise to Eve and to the
world in this curse
-- look at
verse 15 with me
Genesis 3:15 (NIV)
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike
his heel."
-- this
verse is the first messianic prophecy in the Bible -- it foretells the coming
of a Savior -- it foretells the coming of the seed of the woman who will crush
the head of Satan -- who will overcome the effects of sin on creation -- and
who will restore creation to its original perfect splendor
-- when
Adam went to name his wife, he recognized two things:
-- first,
he recognized that she had given birth to death -- because of her, sin had come
into the world and the race of man would forever be tainted through original
sin -- because of Adam and Eve, we are all born sinners -- we're not sinners because we sin -- we sin because we are sinners -- it's who we are and we are simply acting out of the nature we inherited from Adam and Eve
-- but, secondly, Adam recognized that Eve would be the mother of salvation -- the mother who would bring forth spiritual life for all creation -- it's obvious that neither he nor Eve fully understood how or when it would happen, but Adam knew the need for salvation and restoration and he knew it would come through her
-- so in this naming of Eve by Adam, we see another of the many faces of Eve, the face of life
V. Closing
-- In
October, 2011, the Associated Press ran a deeply moving story about a
name-changing ceremony for girls in -- this name is widely given to girls across India where families often value sons much more than daughters -- as a result, female babies have been aborted or neglected at an alarming rate.
-- But the renaming ceremony was an attempt to give the girls a new identity -- the article reported, "The 285 girls—wearing their best outfits with barrettes, braids and bows in their hair—lined up to receive certificates with their new names along with small flower bouquets."
-- Some of the girls chose new names that mean prosperous, beautiful, and good -- one girl who had been named Nakusa by a grandfather who was disappointed in her birth said, "Now in school, my classmates and friends will be calling me by this new name, and that makes me very happy." [Source: Chaya Babu, "285 Indian girls shed 'unwanted' names," Associated Press (10-22-11)]
-- in the Bible we see people being named as a reflection of the faces they wear and the character they display -- Abram was changed to Abraham -- Jacob to
-- I wish
we had more time this morning to go deeper into the character of Eve and talk
about the many faces and names she bore in her life
-- we could
talk about the face of joy as she bore her first son Cain -- we could talk
about the face of tears as she witnessed the murder of Abel -- we could talk
about the face of hope as God provides her with another son, Seth-- but I'm going to leave that up to you and trust that you will go back and look at the story of Eve and her life through new eyes this week
-- and as I close, let's thank God for the many faces of Eve and for the promise of life we have in Jesus that came through a woman named life
-- let's
pray
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