In the third chapter of Genesis, a tempter came which the Bible later teaches us was Satan. Satan spoke to the woman and made her think that God was depriving them of something desirable.
3:1 “Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”
“No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
He tempted her to disobey God and to strive instead to be equal to God, saying it would not cause death. The woman ate the forbidden fruit, and gave it also to her husband. What follows that decision is the terrible entrance of sin and death into the human story. If you read the rest of Genesis, chapter 3, you will see that the man and the woman did not drop physically dead on the spot, but they were suddenly changed from blissfully naked and unashamed to a fearful and guilty couple, covering their bodies with leaves, hiding from God and blaming someone else for what happened. Their relationships became filled with rivalry and anger, including the relationship they had with the God who made them and gave them every green plant for food. Their work – childbirth and farming – was cursed with pain and difficulty. Future death became a reality for each one of them. God kept his word about the consequence of eating from the forbidden tree.
Some think this story is a myth, rather than about real people. I believe this first man and first woman – Adam and Eve – really lived and made a choice that brought disobedience and guilt and death into all of our lives as their descendants. But even if one takes it as a myth, it is the way the Bible explains how life was supposed to be and how it came to be what it is now. Humans made the choice to disregard and disobey God, to make themselves the gods of their own lives..
This story is vaguely familiar to many people. Many may wonder what the big deal was about eating the fruit from this particular tree. Isn’t that rather arbitrary of God? In a way, yes. As I wrote in the previous post, I think the tree was a specifically about how Adam and Eve would choose to relate to God, whether as trusting followers or as rebels against him. They could obey and enjoy life as humans resembling God, in a happy garden of life, or they could try to be equals with God, making their own decision about good and evil rather than the one he taught them. They chose to distrust and to disobey God.
Each of us makes this decision daily in many ways small and great. In the words of the Bible, God tells us how to live. Will we follow those words and obey him? Or will we decide for ourselves what is the definition of good and evil? Will we keep following Adam and Eve in the way of eating forbidden fruit? Or will we be content with enjoying the tree of life? The choice has life or death importance.
Eve is our mother. In fact, she is the mother of all the living according to Genesis 3:20. God gave Eve and Adam hopeful news – that one of their offspring would crush Satan. Jesus was that offspring who crushed evil and death, and gave us again the choice to be renewed to life. Many pages later, we learn that Jesus is that tree of life, and we are invited to be renewed by “eating” life from him. Obedience is involved. Eternal life is promised. Which tree will we choose?
We have chosen our name – Renewing Eve – because the Bible continually gives us hope as her daughters. Eve, like Adam, was created in God’s “image and likeness” and given the wonderful work of ruling and filling the Earth. Women and men are invited to find life in Jesus: born-again, renewed life. We want to write about Eve – who she was created to be and who she can be renewed to be because Jesus has come and rescued us.