Eve, We've Done You Wrong

Eve.

Our first thoughts about our first mother are generally not kind. Google-search images of Adam's wife and you're assaulted with scenes of her giving into the serpent's lies...

or her shameful expulsion from Eden, along with the man she "done wrong" ...

We define her by her sin, not by who and what she was created to be, or the complete restoration that is hers now in heaven. But focusing on the post-fall Eve leads to a faulty -- and skewed view -- of who God created us to be as women.

And that is detrimental to us, and to all that God wants to do in and through us!

Thanks to Suzanne Burden, Carla Sunberg and Jamie Wright, the three women responsible for Reclaiming Eve, we can find our way back to the truth of what God intended when He made Adam a helper.

More about that word in just a minute.

Since I read Reclaiming Eve and interviewed Suzanne and Jame on Mid-Morning, I've thought a lot about Eve and the aftermath of her choice. But one question has captured my attention:

Why do we unwittingly live under the burden of the consequences of Eve's sin when, as forgiven new creatures, we are restored -- and are being restored -- to our Creator Father's beautifully formed plan for us: Image bearers of God?

We wrongly assume that the consequences of sin are God's plan for men and women. In our relationship with our husbands, that means we assume that God wants them to rule over us, to control us -- which, by the way, is not the meaning of the word submission. The only one God wants to rule over any of us is Himself. If that's true, then why this consequence? I believe there are two reasons.  One, our misery (both husbands and wives) in trying to find wholeness through another human will send us on a hunt for the true answer for our emptiness, God Himself. And two, our ongoing frustrations with each others failings -- in spite of our love for each other --  will prompt us to look for something bigger than ourselves to help us truly love each other. That answer, again, is the One Who created us and marriage: God. Isn't that so like our loving Father, bent on redeeming all that was lost in the fall, to tuck such a gift within the after Eden gloom?

When we become God's daughters through Christ, the power of sin is broken. We are new creatures. As Scot McKnight says, "The implications of the fall are being undone for those who are in Christ." 

Now back to the word helper.

Our 21st-century minds inform the word, and not in a beneficial way! For us it conjures up images of a combination housekeeper, personal assistant, and second-tier human. We'd have Eve wearing an apron but for the fact that clothes weren't yet invented -- or needed. But the word helper (ezer in Hebrew), is used sixteen times in the Old Testament to describe God Himself and how He comes through for His people in times of great difficulty. Why did God create Eve, and all women, for that matter? First, as His image bearer. Before Eve was a wife, she was an image bearer. That is true for all women, at every age, and in every situation. Young or old. Married or single. We are created to bear the image of God. Let that sink into the depths of your soul!

God also created Eve to relieve Adam's loneliness on every level. The words of the authors of Reclaiming Eve, a larger rendering of Genesis 2:18, capture the fullness of her role:

It is not good for man to be alone. I (God) will make a helper (ezer) suitable for him to end the loneliness of the single human. I will make another strong power, corresponding to it, facing it, equal to it. And the humans will be both male and female.

Whoa! This is a game-changing truth for wives, husbands and the party that is marriage. But it doesn't end there. Women aren't just ezers in marriage. We carry that same strong power into our relationships with all the men in our lives, especially our brothers in the Lord. And we do so with humility and love.

Again, from Reclaiming Eve:

Every woman is a strong power created to join with men, advancing God's kingdom, no matter your station in life.

This isn't "Christianized" women's lib talk. This is biblical truth designed to bring healing to us as men and women, as married couples, and as brothers and sisters in Christ, showing the world how God intended for us to relate to each other.

I pray that God will give me continued understanding as I reread Reclaiming Eve, sorting any faulty personal conclusions I may have come to from His truth. I'll be sure to let you know what happens!

Until then, live this day as God's image-bearer. That's who the King says that you are.