Mom’s Week (Part 1: Eve)

By John MacArthur @ http://www.sfpulpit.com

In honor of Mother’s Day (coming this Sunday), we will be running articles adapted from John’s new book The Extraordinary Mother, a beautiful giftbook that highlights the lives of thirteen different Bible moms.

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Eve (the mother of all living) must have been a creature of unsurpassed beauty. She was the crown and the pinnacle of God’s amazing creative work, the last living thing to be called into existence — actually fashioned directly by the Creator’s own hand in a way that showed particular care and attention to detail. Adam was refined dirt; Eve was a glorious refinement of humanity itself. She was Adam’s necessary partner who finally made his existence complete — and whose own existence finally signaled the completion of all creation.

Eve’s creation reminds us of several crucial truths about womanhood in general. It speaks of Eve’s fundamental equality with Adam. The woman was “taken out of man” (Genesis 2:23). She was of exactly the same essence as Adam. She was in no way an inferior character, but she was his spiritual counterpart, his intellectual coequal, and in every sense his perfect mate and companion. Her creation also reminds us of the essential unity that is ideal in every marriage relationship, and it illustrates how deep and meaningful the marriage of husband and wife is to be. It is not merely a physical union, but a union of heart and soul as well. The intimacy of her relationship with her husband is rooted in the fact that she was literally taken from his side.

Eve’s creation also contains some important biblical lessons about the divinely designed role of women. Although Eve was spiritually and intellectually Adam’s peer; although they were both of one essence and therefore equals in their standing before God and in their rank above the other creatures; there was nonetheless a clear distinction in their earthly roles. Adam was designed to be a father, provider, protector, and leader. Eve was designed to be a mother, comforter, nurturer, and helper.

After creation and before the fall, Adam and Eve were partners and companions, fellow-laboeres in the garden. God dealt with Adam as head of the human race, and Eve was accountable to her husband. This was true paradise, and they constituted a perfect microcosm of the human race as God designed it to be.

But then it was all ruined by sin. Genesis 3 records the temptation and fall of both Eve and her husband, and the subsequent curse they received. The severity of the curse must have shattered Eve’s heart, but God’s judgment was not entirely harsh and hopeless. There was a good deal of grace, even in the curse. Although their relationship would now have tensions that did not exist in Eden, Eve remained Adam’s partner. She retained her role as a wife, and she would still be the mother of all living (Gen. 3:20).

The promise that Eve would still bear children mitigated every other aspect of the curse. That one simple expectation contained a ray of hope for the whole human race. There was a hint in the curse itself that one of Eve’s own offspring would ultimately overthrow evil and dispel all the darkness of sin (Gen. 3:15).

Christ, who was uniquely “born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4) – being born of a virgin, and God in human form — literally fulfilled God’s promise: that the Seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. As a result, heaven will be eternally filled with Eve’s redeemed offspring, and they will be forever occupied in celebrating the work of her victorious Seed.

(To learn more about The Extraordinary Mother, click here.)