Every Woman's Bible Genesis sampler - Flipbook - Page 18
GENESIS 3
8
Perspective
Why would God
punish Eve like that?
SCRIPTURE CONNECTION: GENESIS 3:1-19
Why would God impose such consequences for
Eve’s one wayward choice? After all, when she
decided to take and eat, she did not yet know good
and evil. Though adult in form, Eve was young in
creation and unwise to the serpent’s shrewdness.
When a toddler plays with fire, will the parent
discipline for spite? Or to protect? Banning Adam
and Eve was God’s rescue. In their fallen state,
eating of the tree of life would tragically seal them
in sin’s aftermath.
Eve bore some of God’s own torment. Her pain
in bringing forth life would compel her toward the
Creator, and she would begin to understand how
a loving parent chooses pain to give life. Eve’s
love for Adam would also bear pain, requiring a
lifetime of learning what it means to partner in
the mystery of marriage.
Our pain compels our outreach for God, and
therein lies the gift.
Eve’s consequences led to another sacred tree,
the Cross, from which we now partake. This time,
the body and blood of Christ and the pain he
bore delivers us into life everlasting, restoring our
perfect communion with God. As Paul says,
Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for
everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness
brings a right relationship with God and new life
for everyone. (Romans 5:18)
VIEWPOINTS
HERS: Perhaps unaware of what her choice
would mean, how was Eve’s perspective limited?
How did Eve’s understanding grow?
MINE: “We do not get to choose results, only our
actions. We can practice choosing wisely and
entrusting results to God.”
YOURS: Even in pain, how might we trust God as
a loving parent?
MISTY ARTERBURN is an author and speaker, contributing to Bible projects, devotionals, and recovery
materials for over twenty years. Wife and mom to
five, Misty is the founder of Recovery Girls and the
general editor of The One Year Bible for Women.
was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she
wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took
some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to
her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7At
that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed
fig leaves together to cover themselves.
8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing,
the man* and his wife heard the Lord God walking
about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God
among the trees. 9 Then the Lord God called to the
man, “Where are you?”
10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden,
so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord
God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose
fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me
who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What
have you done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s
why I ate it.”
14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent,
15
16
“Because you have done this, you are cursed
more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
groveling in the dust as long as you live.
And I will cause hostility between you and the
woman,
and between your offspring and her
offspring.
He will strike* your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
Then he said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
but he will rule over you.*”
3:8 Or Adam, and so throughout the chapter. 3:15 Or bruise;
also in 3:15b. 3:16 Or And though you will have desire for your
husband, / he will rule over you.
3:11-13 Rather than confessing, the man blamed the woman
for giving him the fruit and God for giving him the woman. The
woman followed suit, accusing the serpent. The serpent played
a role and would be punished (3:14), but that did not release the
woman or the man from their guilt.
3:16-19 The consequences of human rebellion complicated
human vocation. Pain in childbirth would make it more difficult to fill the earth. The partnership God intended between
man and woman would become antagonistic, so that rather
than ruling the earth, they would seek to dominate each other.
Fruitful cultivation of the land would prove difficult. Although
humans do far more than have babies and plant crops, these
activities bear the brunt of the consequences of sin because
they are essential to the fulfillment of the creation blessing
(1:26-28).
