IMG_0666(Transcribed from the Words of Life Radio Program)

 

It is great to be together again as we look into the Word of God and as we can share the principles and the promises of God with others.  The title for the lesson, “Mother of all the Living,” and the text is taken from the very first book of the Bible, of the Old Testament, Genesis chapter four and verses one through two as an introduction to our lesson. Listen to the Word of God.

Adam lay with his wife Eve and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said:  With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.  Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil.  This is the Word of God.

Food for thought. Think of all of the names and persons in human history that have been diabolically, really evil, violent, that took human life, that were especially murderous. For example, Genghis Kahn, the Roman Emperor Nero, Adolf Hitler, Stalin and more recently Saddam Hussein. What is the pattern here?  They were all males, all men.  Actually, if you think about it, in human history there have been very, very few really evil, violent women or mothers that took life. Mothers by definition give life.  Women generally God created as those who help, not hurt, who promote life, not death.

In Genesis chapter two and verse 18 it says: The Lord God said: It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for him.  So it is in the woman’s God given DNA. Women usually help. They are helpers. They assist. They aid. They don’t attack.  Interestingly, according to Scripture regarding the first woman, God created her out of man. In Genesis chapter two and verse 23 it say: The man said: This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.  The Hebrew for woman sounds like the Hebrew for man, because the first woman was taken out of man. However, every man since then has been taken out of woman. God has ordained that mothers carry the next generation of all humankind. Even today in the 21st century even though uncommon, there are still mothers that bare many children. I know of one lady who had nine children, which is still quite a feat and helping to generate the next generation.

In Genesis chapter three and verse 20 it says: Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all the living. Notice the first mother was, of course, also a wife.  Eve in Hebrew means life.  Her name indicates Adam’s faith in that he believed God’s promise that she would, as according to Genesis chapter three and verse 16, which says, in part: You will give birth to children. And God’s promise that woman would produce an offspring or seed as revealed in Genesis chapter three and verse 15, which is an allusion to the coming redeemer, the redeemer of the human race because of sin, ultimately, not just for life, but for eternal life with God in our Redeemer whom we know today as Jesus Christ.

Even as Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit, God’s grace was still evident in that she would be abundantly fruitful in the growth of human kind. Without motherhood there would be no fatherhood. Without mothers none of us would be here. Of course, there is also a need for a father, but it is the mother who carries the child for many months before they are born and goes through most of the pain and the aggravation and the suffering to bring about a child.

Now you guys don’t need to get aggravated, because Father’s Day is coming also for you and for us.

In Genesis chapter four and verses one and two it says, in part: She became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said: With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man. Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now the name Cain sounds like the Hebrew for brought forth or acquired. Notice that a repentant, humbled Eve gave the Lord his due credit and his grace for helping her to give birth after sin entered the world. It reveals in Genesis chapter three and verse 16, in part: With pain you will give birth to children. And this is still true today through the entire birthing experience. In spite of modern medical technology, there is often sickness and pain of some type even with all of the medical procedures and helps that we have in our modern time.

It is also, on a personal note, interesting to me that in my own family case I have one father, one mother and two sons.  And therefore, I have a totally scriptural family.  Note that in Genesis chapter four and verse eight it says, in part, that Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Now usually we study this very sad situation from the viewpoint of God and Cain. But think about mother Eve’s reaction.  What a family disaster.  Her firstborn became a murderer and he was a male child. And her second born was a victim. Talk about family problems.  So did mother Eve just give up? Did God just start over?

Genesis chapter four and verse 25 says: 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. Surely, mother Eve mourned, grieved. But she did not give up. And, more importantly, the Lord did not give up on the human race either.  In his great grace, to which we today should all be thankful, he did not give up on Adam and Eve or on the human race. Adam and  Eve stayed together and with God’s help granted another son.  Cain was the first offspring or seed of Satan the evil one. Abel was the first seed of the Lord’s faithful ones. In fact, in the faith chapter, usually regarded as in the book of Hebrews and the 11th chapter, Abel is the very first hero of the faith that is listed. And Seth continued the godly line. The name Seth probably means granted. And God granted Eve a tremendous number of sons and daughters, which, of course, are anonymous to us.  But, of course, it was Adam and Eve that started the human race according to the Scripture.  Eve is the mother that continued all the living of the human race.

All this is implied because in Genesis chapter five and verse five it says: All together Adam lived 930 years and that it died. It is very interesting that Eve’s age is not recorded in Scripture, nor is Eve’s death recorded. Of course, she eventually died. It is just not recorded, revealed. And today most women prefer not to give their age and so this also is scriptural. Usually men are quick to point out that it was the woman that sinned first. Technically that is actually a false wrap, because it was Lucifer, God’s angel that fell and sinned first.  Satan started sin.

So why did the serpent in which the evil one’s spirit entered, tempt Eve and not Adam?  First, is it because the woman is the weaker vessel? No.  And the woman is not the weaker vessel spiritually. She is usually the weaker vessel physically, but not spiritually.  Before sin, according to Genesis chapter one and verse 31 it says in part: All that he had made was very good. All includes Eve.  She was not weak, but she was very good.

So why did the evil one within the serpent tempt Eve?  The answer is in Genesis chapter two and verses 16 and 17, which says, in part: God commanded the man: 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.  Now notice, according to Genesis chapter two and verse 18, it says, in part: It is not good for the man to be alone.  Therefore, woman was not even created yet when God gave man this direct, one prohibition as a test of obedience.  So does that mean that Eve did not know about this one prohibition from God? Well, no.  She did know about it. According to Genesis chapter three and verse three Eve said: God did say: You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden.  So evidently, putting it all together, Adam told her, the man told the woman, what God had commanded him directly. So Eve, she received the command indirectly from Adam. And the serpent was much more crafty than any of the other animals.   And so the serpent went to Eve, the woman, first, not because she was weaker, not because she was a woman, but because she had received the command indirectly from Adam as God had commanded originally to the man.

But note Genesis chapter three and verse six which says, in part: She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it.  Eve was deceived. Adam was not directly deceived.  In 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 22, however, it says, in part: For as in Adam all die. It doesn’t say for as in Eve all die.  And also in Romans chapter five and verse 12 it says, in part: Sin entered the world through one man. It does not say sin entered the world through one woman. Well, why is that? Because Adam, not Eve, was the first human being created. Woman was taken out of man.  And Adam, therefore, the man is the head of the human race.  And so he is the one in which it is determined in Scripture that held the guilt.

Of course they were both guilty. They both sinned.  They were both disobedient.  But it was the liar that lied to a lady, the evil one to Eve. And so we have, once again, as we fondly remember all of our mothers, whether they are alive or not, with great love and tenderness, we remember usually our loving mothers who bring life, who are those who are great helpers, who are those that seek to sustain life, not take life.

 

David Johnson is minister of the Sellersburg Church of Christ, Sellersburg, IN.