Hanningfield Green
Lawshall
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk
IP29 4QD
The First Woman
Chapter 2:21 - 3:24
What better way of sharing this special day that we call Mother’s Day than to look at the very first mother in the Bible, and in fact, in all of history.
Eve was a woman of many firsts. As well as being the first woman, she was the first woman to be named as we will see. She was also the first wife, as well as being the very first mother, and she is the only woman who has ever been made without a mother or a father and furthermore she did not have to endure the scrutiny of either a mother or a father-in-law as I’m sure some of us have or still do.
Adam and Eve were also the first to pass on their DNA to their children. What a fascinating subject DNA is, especially when you watch those forensic investigation programmes and see how they help to solve crimes or even reunite families. I have read a little about DNA recently because one of our nieces studied this for her GCSE and it left me thinking, but if I’m honest as interesting as it is, I’m still non-the wiser.
Nonetheless, do you know that there are two types of DNA. One is called Nuclear which is made up of 46 chromosomes which are divided into 23 pairs. 22 of these pairs are called Autosomal and from this cell daughters receive one X chromosome from their father and one from their mother. The 23rd pair is called the sex chromosome from which Males and Females receive an X chromosome from their mother and either an X or a Y chromosome from their father and as I’m sure you all already know, if it is an X it will be born a female and if a Y it will be a boy.
The other type of DNA however is Mitochondrial DNA (or mtDNA) which is passed from the mother to both her sons and daughters, but it’s only the daughters who pass the mtDNA on to their sons and daughters and furthermore it is only their daughters who pass it on to their children! Isn’t that interesting.
The Bible tells us that Eve was created with Adam in the image of God, she was commanded with Adam to rule over the world, she was commissioned with Adam to be fruitful and multiply, and she was created from Adam to be a partner for him. As Matthew Henry the renowned minister and author so beautifully wrote: “The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”
Eve also had an unwanted first to her name as she was the first to meet and be confronted by Satan who was in the form of that serpent, and she lost. She was deceived by Satan into disobeying God, and then she convinced Adam to join her in her sin. And furthermore, when God confronted her, she blamed the serpent, refusing at first to take responsibility for her sin.
Eve was also a woman who came to know and understand loss. She experienced the loss of innocence when she disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. She experienced the loss of paradise when God removed her and Adam from that garden. She experienced the loss of her son Abel when he was murdered by his brother Cain.
And worst of all she experienced the loss of an unhindered relationship with God which she and Adam had enjoyed in that garden. But Eve’s and indeed Adam’s loss was more than just a personal loss, as it was our loss as well, for we all descended from them and our DNA goes right back to them. And because they sinned we are therefore all born into this world as sinners, separated from God and in need of a Saviour to restore that unhindered relationship with Him, which we in ourselves cannot do.
Our text today is however a bold proclamation of hope in the face of such terrible loss. Genesis 3:20 records the naming of Eve by Adam after the fall. “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.” The name “Eve” actually means “life or living,” and so every time someone spoke Eve’s name, it would signify life.
And this is important, because Adam’s name is related to the Hebrew word for “ground.” Adam was formed from the ground and when God judged Adam for his sin, God told him in Genesis 3:19 “You will … return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” And so, Adam whose name is a grim reminder that we are destined to return to the ground as dust, in faith named his wife “Eve,” a name which means life instead of death. And he did this because “she would become the mother of all the living.”
There are three ways in which we can speak of Eve as the mother of all the living, three things that Adam spoke by faith when he gave her the name Eve. So, let’s take a look at each of these in turn.
First of all, Eve is the mother of all the physically living. God’s first recorded command to Adam and Eve is found in Genesis 1:28: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.’” Now remember, this was before the fall and before she was named by Adam. This was back in Genesis1 when God created, and after each act of creation God pronounced that what he had created was good. In fact, after creating Adam and the woman we read in V31 that “God saw all that he had made, and indeed it was very good.”
So, this was part of God’s good plan for his creation. He created the first man and woman and from them would come all other human beings. They would come together as husband and wife, they would bear children, and their children would bear children, and so they would fill the earth with men and women created in the image of God to the glory of God. That was the plan.
But then sin intervened. Adam and the woman who still had not been named at this point, disobeyed God, and suddenly for the first time they experienced shame, guilt and fear. When God came looking for them in the garden, they hid from him for fear that their sin would be exposed. When God confronted them, Adam blamed the woman, and the woman blamed the serpent. And then God judged all three of them. He pronounced a curse upon the serpent in Genesis 3:14-15, and to the woman in Verse16 he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing.” And he told the man in Verses 17-19 that he would return to the ground from which he was taken.
Now these were strong judgements for sin! How must have Adam felt, after-all he was Adam the representative of all mankind was he not. But now all men and women were under a death sentence because of him and his sin and furthermore just like him they would all die and return to the ground as dust. But in the midst of God’s curse to them, Adam heard a word of hope
Yes, his wife would experience pain in childbearing, but surely that meant she would still bear children. God had pronounced judgement for sin, but in his mercy he had not abandoned the human race. And he had not abandoned Adam or Adam’s wife. God was not going to start all over again with someone else. Adam’s wife would still bear children, and so he named her Eve, because she would become the mother of all the physically living.
Now of course Eve was not the mother of Adam as God created him, but she would be the mother of all the physically living to come. She would therefore be the mother of the whole human race, because in God’s grace the human race would continue through Eve, and in that sense she is the mother of us all. So, Eve is first of all the mother of all the physically living.
Secondly, she is the mother of all the spiritually living. There was a second word of hope that Adam heard that day, and we find it in God’s words to the serpent in Genesis 3:15: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.” This was part of God’s curse on the serpent, and it was a prophesy predicting that there was a spiritual battle to come. There would be enmity (meaning hatred and hostility) between the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman.
Now I know a lot of you women out there don’t like snakes, and quite frankly a bunch of us men don’t either, but that is not what this passage is talking about. It’s not talking about women and snakes, because the Bible identifies the serpent as none other than Satan himself. The word Satan means “adversary” (meaning an enemy) and that is exactly who Satan is. He is an adversary. He is opposed to God, and he is opposed to God’s good creation. John 8:44 calls him “a murderer from the beginning … a liar and the father of lies.” Satan hates God, and he hates God’s people. So, the offspring of the serpent are not snakes. And as Satan himself has no natural offspring like the woman, his offspring are the offspring of the woman who follow in his footsteps, those who are also opposed to God and his ways.
So, if that is who the serpent’s offspring are, then just who are the woman’s offspring that is spoken of?
Well, it can’t mean all her physical offspring, because that would include all humans, and we’ve already seen that many of the woman’s physical offspring would follow Satan rather than God. So, we must take it in the spiritual sense that these are only those people who love and follow God. The Bible often speaks of the righteous and the wicked. The righteous are those who love and follow God, and the wicked are those who do not.
And so, we have these two groups of people pictured here in Genesis 3:15: the offspring of Satan, and the offspring of the woman. And there is a great spiritual battle that goes on between the two. And this battle which continues to this present day, began back in Genesis 3.
Then in Genesis 4 Eve gives birth to her sons Cain and Abel and in so doing, gives birth to the first murder and murderer! Cain murders his brother Abel because Abel’s heart is right with God, but Cain’s is not right with God. In fact, his heart is opposed to God, and he is therefore an offspring of Satan, and this is only a sign of things to come, because as we continue through Genesis Cain’s line produces further violence and rebellion against God.
Meanwhile Adam and Eve have another son. We read in Genesis 4:25 “Adam lay with 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.’” That word “child” in verse 25 is the same word as “seed” or “offspring” that we have been following from Genesis 3:15. The promise of the seed of the woman had not been fulfilled through Cain. Perhaps it would be fulfilled through Seth?
Verse 26 answers with a resounding “Yes!” “Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD.” And so, the book of Genesis presents us with the godly seed of the woman represented by Seth and his offspring as opposed to the ungodly seed of the serpent represented by Cain and his offspring.
We find a dramatic picture of this battle in the vision given to the apostle John in Revelation 12. In his vision John sees Satan pictured as a dragon and we read: “The dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring – those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
God said to the serpent in Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.” Adam heard God’s words and named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the spiritually living, as she is the mother of those who follow God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
And that brings us to the third reason why Adam named his wife Eve. She would become the mother of Christ our Saviour. This was the third word of hope Adam heard that day, and we find it in the second half of Genesis 3:15 when God said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” It’s a promise that God gives when he is cursing the serpent and therefore before He puts a curse on Adam. This is the earliest prophesy we have of Christ in the Old Testament. It is an amazing testimony to God’s grace. No sooner had mankind sinned than God promised to send a Saviour.
The Bible says in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” And God had told Adam in Genesis 2:16-17 “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” When Adam ate from the tree, he did not immediately die physically that day, but he did spiritually.
He became separated from God by his sins.
He needed a Saviour.
His wife needed a Saviour.
Therefore, the whole human race needed a Saviour.
And God promised that the Saviour would come through the offspring of the woman.
So Adam, hearing God’s promise of a Saviour calls Eve the mother of all the living. Furthermore, he called his wife Eve because the promised Saviour who would crush Satan’s head would come through her.
We are approaching Easter, a time to be reminded that two thousand years ago Jesus came into our world. The eternal Son of God became flesh. He was born into our world as a human being and Satan struck at Jesus’ heel, tempting and attacking him in his humanity. But Jesus crushed Satan’s head, dying for our sins on the cross, and freeing us from Satan, sin and death, so that we could live with God forever.
So why did Adam name his wife Eve, the mother of all the living? Because she is the mother of all the physically living. She is the mother of all the spiritually living. And she is the mother of Christ our Saviour.
Let me leave you with three words of application from our study on Eve this morning.
1) First of all, we are all part of one human race. This is an important truth to grasp, because we tend to divide people into different races, and historically people have been mistreated or discriminated against because of their so-called race. But God’s word shows us that we are all one human race. We all have one common mother, and so we are all related to each other. There is therefore no room for racial prejudice or discrimination in the Christian faith.
2) Secondly, we are all sinners by nature and need a Saviour. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, their sin became part of their DNA and was passed on to all their children, and to all their children’s children. Therefore, we are all sinners, and the just punishment for our sin is death. The apostle Paul puts it this way in Romans 5:12: “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” When we say that we are all sinners by nature, we simply mean that we have this element in our DNA which means we are all born with a nature that naturally sins. No one has to teach a child to be naughty because as soon as we are old enough to sin, we sin. In other words, we are born as an offspring of Satan not of God, so we all are in need of a Saviour.
3) Thirdly, Jesus is that Saviour. Jesus is the promised offspring of the woman who crushed the serpent’s head. He is the Saviour that God promised to send, and it is only through him and his death on the cross that we may be forgiven for our sins. (Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Yes, Adam’s sin brought death to all, but in faith Adam named his wife Eve, meaning life and the mother of all the living. And the gift of God is not just life, but eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Mums, how would you like to receive the greatest Mother’s Day gift of all? I’m not talking about a box of chocolates or a bunch of flowers, as lovely as they are. This is a gift that has cost so much and is given with a love which is to incomprehensible to understand.
There is no greater gift than the gift of that eternal life with God that comes from knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
Of course, this invitation isn’t just for mums.
Dads, you don’t need to wait for Father’s Day because it is an invitation given to you, and not just to you, but to everyone, and furthermore, the Bible tells us that “today is the day of salvation”.
Will you seek Christ today, because as the words of one hymn reminds us, “there is no love like the love of Jesus.”
