We LOVE that God includes the lives of real broken women in the bible and reveals how he interacts with and redeems them. Women need other women. You don’t have to remain alone in your faith even when no one is around. We are excited to surround ourselves with this community of women and be encouraged as we lean into Jesus.
This year in 2023, we highlight one woman in the bible each month in our Women of the Bible Series and talk about her real life as a woman, a mom, and a child of God [for the introduction, click here]. With each woman we highlight, we will ask, “Who is she” and answer with 3-4 adjectives.
Our first woman is EVE.
Most of us know her story. She often gets a bad rap for being the one who took that bite and broke our world. Although that is true, she is so much more than her mistakes. Because even in her most significant life-altering decision to sin, God redeemed her and wove hope, redemption, and life into her story. Jamy and I were surprised about how much we didn’t know about Eve. A real tenderness grew in our hearts for her.
Who is she? What can we learn about her?
Unashamed
Eve lived unashamed in who she was, at least at first.
Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Genesis 2:25
Can you imagine being naked and not being ashamed of…any of it? Oh, man. And not just physically naked but also emotionally and relationally naked: no comparison, no standard, fully exposed, yet confident. She knew who she was:
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- a “helper” to Adam, meaning that she was his balance and complement (2:18)
- “one flesh” with Adam (2:25)
- “very good” (1:31). She lived in God’s very good.
What would that look like for you? What if the King of kings showed up in your living room tonight, put your face in his big strong hands, and said, “My daughter, I have created you very good.” Eve stood in the truth of who she was, believing God fully loved her. Shame cannot live there.
But once sin entered the world, she too felt shame.
Then the eyes both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Genesis 3:7
Vulnerable
Even in her very goodness, she was vulnerable to doubting God. She was open to attack or damage. If Eve was vulnerable to doubting God in her sinLESSness, how much more are we in our sinFULness?
Don’t be surprised if there are seasons in your life when you doubt God with things like:
Is God done working?
Does He even care?
Is He really good?
Does He see me and what I’m going through?
Is God’s truth the absolute truth?
You are never beyond the temptation to doubt. It is no coincidence that Satan targeted discontentment and doubt in Eve with “Did God really say?” He knows where we are most vulnerable. So when your internal narrative begins to ask questions of God like these, quickly run to Jesus, identify your doubts, and dive into his truth.
Responsible yet redeemed
Eve was responsible. Her choice opened the door for all sin and brokenness and shattered all of humanity. What a tragic consequence of a bite! It was her and Adam’s choice that broke the world.
Oh, it gets even worse: her choice opened the door to the sin that impacted her son Cain to murder her other son Abel. Her choice led to her son’s murder. Ugh. I wonder how the weight of responsibility felt. So heavy.
Listen, let’s be clear on where her responsibility began and ended. Yes, she was responsible for her choice, but she was not responsible for Cain’s choice. His sin was not her responsibility. He had a choice, and he chose to sin.
In ministry, we can take too much responsibility for what is not ours to own. Have you ever felt the weight and burden of someone else’s choices?
When a church friend can’t move beyond the same habitual sin even after your 2-hour heartfelt conversation, it’s not on you.
When your husband is criticized, and you feel the responsibility to explain all the good things he is doing, it’s not your responsibility to squash the nay-sayers and change their hearts.
You can only control your own choices. You are only responsible for yourself. We must follow the Lord in stepping into those conversations when he leads. But just be careful not to walk away carrying the weight of someone else’s twitty attitude.
Eve is also redeemed. Her name means LIFE.
Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all the living. Genesis 3:20
Isn’t it interesting that we don’t see her name until after the fall? Even though her choice brought death, God named her life because of His redemption.
I wonder how she lived moving forward. Did she wrestle with feeling responsible? What was her grief like? She must have learned to live redeemed because God gives us a glimmer of how the rest of her story goes.
Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, God has granted me another child in place of Abel since Cain killed him. At that time, people began to call on the name of the Lord. Genesis 4:25-26
Listen, my friend. Your sin is never beyond the reach and restoration of Jesus. Yes, we need to make choices to follow Jesus, but also we can live in the reality that God has redeemed us, and we don’t need to live under the burden of bad decisions. You are much more than your mistakes. If Eve can live beyond hers, we can live beyond ours’.
Breathe. You are in good company, my sister. We pray that you live in your purpose unashamed. That you will acknowledge your vulnerabilities and not live subject to them. And when you break things that, you will live redeemed, believing God is bigger than that.
We love you,
Amy & Jamy
