Life Lessons from Biblical Wives: Eve Part 4

The basis for today is Genesis chapter 3 (a little long for me to type out).

God created Adam first and then created Eve because it was not good for him to be alone. However, before God created Eve, God gave Adam some specific instructions about the garden. "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die." Genesis 2: 16b-17.

Because God created Adam to be the leader of the home, He gave the instructions directly to Adam and it was Adam's responsibility to relay those instructions to his family that God would give him eventually.

Satan approached Eve one day, which is where the lesson for us is (there are lessons in there for the husband, but I am only dealing with the lessons that apply to wives). "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 from any tree of the garden?"'" Genesis 3:1.

There are several lessons for us in just this verse alone.

• There are some conversations that should never be entered into. Okay, is it just me or does anyone else find it strange that Eve just stood there and talked to a snake! I am not ashamed to admit that I would probably have run off screaming at the top of my lungs if a snake came up to me, let alone started talking to me. This passage either shows that animals at one time could speak, or that Eve was incredibly naive. Ladies, there are some conversations that we should never enter into. We need to ask God for a spirit of discernment to know which conversations are worthy of our time and which we need to step away from. Verse two would never have happened if Eve had just turned and walked away.
• Don't talk to Satan, just quote scripture and let God handle it. Eve's second problem was that she tried to reason with Satan. She entered into a conversation about the directions that God had given rather than just quoting what God had said. On our own, we are not crafty enough to win that kind of conversation. But the Word of God is powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. When we quote scripture we pull out a weapon that Satan cannot fight against. When Satan tried to tempt Jesus, God incarnate, Jesus never spoke with Satan although He could have "won" a debate on His own. Jesus quoted scripture for each of the three times that Satan tempted Him. He began with, "It is written" and then quoted the passage from scripture. After three rounds of that, Satan could not take it any more and left Jesus alone. If Jesus Himself used scripture to defeat Satan, how much more should we!
• Be so grounded in God's Word that Satan cannot cast doubt or twist what the Word says. Notice, Eve let Satan twist her around so much that she misquotes what God said, And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden God has said, 'You shal not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.'" Genesis 3:2-3. Look back at the passage from chapter 2. Did God ever say they couldn't touch it? Never! Eve added to the instructions that God gave. When she did touch the fruit and nothing happened to her, could that have caused doubt in her mind that the rest of what God said might not be true? Absolutely! Where did she get the idea that she couldn't touch the fruit? I don't know. Could Adam have added that in to "help" Eve stay away from the fruit? Could Eve have added that in on her own (you know we women are great at adding "extras" to everything)? I don't know. What I do know is that adding or taking away from God's Word changes the message of the Words that God originally spoke and causes confusion to others. As women who are or one day will be mothers, it is so important that we teach our children exactly what God's Word says. We cannot change the Message or add to it. It can cause irreversable harm to them if we do.

If we are going to have conversations with anyone, it should be with God, our Heavenly Father.  Talking to and with Him will give us a better focus for our day, keep us grounded in His will for us, and will not give Satan room to tempt us.