I remember hearing about a preacher who announced his sermon topic for the day and of course it was about women. The ladies of his congregation steeled themselves for yet another attack on their character, behavior and femininity. I do not recall the end result of that service but rest assured ladies, this post has no intention of attacking women.
Instead it wants to use Eve as an example of what she teaches women about themselves. I turn to Genesis 3
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from [a]any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
There is an old sales adage that governs the behavior of most salesmen in any field salesmen are employed, ‘if you get the wife, you get the husband.’ And here you see that Satan knows that trick and employs it to his advantage. he knew he could not directly convince Adam to sin so he took the circuitous route and went through his wife.
Now this fact does not mean that women are inferior or more prone to temptation than men are. It means that Eve was not as prepared or wary as Adam was or that she was caught in a weak moment. But what does this situation tell women?
First, women can and will be tempted. They do not have any special immunity that will keep them from being lured to sin.
Second, The temptation will not always be a lie. As you can see in that account, Satan used the truth to lure eve into doing what he wanted. Read verse 5 and then compare it with verse 7 below:
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves [b]loin coverings.
As I have told others before, a good con always contains some element of the truth to deceive people. Cons will not work if their entire content is a fabrication. If they are their house of cards falls flat and the con artist will not be successful. Truth van be used to manipulate others so we need to be careful that we are honest in our use of it.
Third, this situation tells us that women need to be educated in spiritual matters and be able to recognize the difference between a sinful temptation and the clear call of God. We hear many women telling their audience that they felt the ‘call to ministry’ yet God does not call people to disobey his word thus that call was either misunderstood as to the format of that ministry or it was a deception to get a woman to sin against God and lead others to sin.
If it was the latter, then many women are ruining the church and fulfilling Satan’s goal of hurting God and his creation. They are in positions they should not be and they should take the proper and correct steps to redirect their spiritual work so that they get back inline with God’s will.
Fourth, It tells us that women need to be prepared and wary. As you can see by verse 6 that Adam took the fruit and on Eve’s encouragement, he ate it. This tells women that men will do many things to please them and keep them happy, even sin against God. leading their husbands and families to sin against God is not what God intended when he created the woman.
They are to help their husbands be strong spiritually, not help destroy them.
Fifth, Eve’s experience tells women that they need to be strong when faced with sinful temptation. Saying ‘God will understand…’ is not justification for disobeying God’s teaching. God will not understand in the way you want him to. He will be displeased and angry because you decided to disobey him, though he will not withhold his grace when you ask forgiveness.
Just as you want a man to be strong to protect you, you need to be strong in order to protect your spiritual life and by extension your husband and family. Your husband cannot be with you 100% of the time thus you need to learn how to withstand evil temptation and make the right decisions in order to not lose your spiritual standing.
If you want, we can put it into military terms: You protect the blind flank of your husband. He can’t see everything and needs to rely upon you to help him catch what evil throws at your marriage, your family and your spiritual decision to follow Jesus.
Finally, you need to learn what is right, wrong and moral.Many women open themselves up to temptation by doing what they think are harmless acts, for example flirting, yet covertly open a door for evil to step in and cause problems for you. Not only spiritually but physically as well.
I mention flirting because so many people think it is okay to do that but they do not know the ramifications of that act and the distrust that it sows in your mate.
Basically what Eve told us about her and her feminine offspring is that they are human and not perfect. They will make mistakes and men it is up to you to gently, spiritually, wisely lead your wives back to where they should be with God. You will notice that Adam did not ‘rake his wife over the coals’ for her error and if he did it was not recorded. What is recorded is Adam taking the blame for Eve’s error
8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the [c]cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”
Notice he did not say Eve was tempted and ate the fruit first. Instead, he just told the truth, she gave him some of the fruit and he ate it. So men, when your women error, be wise in how you respond to it for you will have to give an account of your actions towards your wife later on at the final judgment.
But women, this admonition does not give you permission to go out and do as you please. In fact, Jesus usually gave a warning to people he let off the hook and told them to go and sin no more and that is good advice to you as well. If you are sinning right now, stop and get back to obeying God.
You will be happier for it and your family will thank you for doing so when they realize the difference in your behavior towards them and others. Women need to be as spiritually strong as men even though their roles for carrying out their spiritual duties are different from each other.
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