Hello and welcome to the Women’s Weekly Bible Challenge! I’m Lisa Ann Spencer.
Today is Part Two in the series titled, When God speaks to Women.
When I am reading and studying Scripture, the method of study that I use most often is word study. Those of you that have been following along have joined me in using this technique.
When I first began the Women’s Weekly Bible Challenge, my intention was to cover EVERY WOMAN in scripture. Lord willing, I will eventually get through that.
I began my study with Eve, the very first woman. Since we are going to be dealing with Eve this week, I would like to show you a demonstration of my search using two concordances which are available online. In the video below, you can join me as I demonstrate how I do a simple word study.
Using Bible Gateway, when I typed in Eve, I found 2,878 verses! That’s a bit overwhelming! The reason for this is because that search catches many more words than just Eve. The search gives us results including; evening, every, ever, etc. When we added quotation marks and searched for “Eve”, it gave us the same number of results. That was not helpful.
However, when we use Blue Letter Bible, we got results for the name Eve only four times in four verses. Much better!
- Genesis 3:20
- Genesis 4:1
- 2 Corinthians 11:3
- 1 Timothy 2:13
I mentioned last week that prior to the first mention of the name Eve, she was called, “the woman” in the Genesis account and elsewhere scripture.
It was at this point in my personal study that I got derailed and a little overwhelmed by a study of “the woman”.
As I was studying “the woman”, I noticed how rarely God actually spoke to women. I then decided to focus my study on finding out what God actually had to say when He addressed a woman directly.
I explained all that just to give you an idea of how my personal bible study thought process works. I have been using the “word study” method of Bible study for over 20 years. I have learned so much, and I highly recommend it it as a method for your own personal study.
Last week we began this study by noting the first woman that God spoke to in recorded scripture, and we laid a bit of groundwork to help us keep in mind that God had a purpose in doing things His way.
Today we are going to look at that first conversation between God and Eve.
But, before we do, we should take notice that it was the serpent who first spoke to the woman!
We know that the serpent is a reference to the Devil and Satan because of later revelation given in the book of Revelation (Revelation 12:9 and 20:2). We also know him as ‘Lucifer’ from the clear description given of him in Isaiah chapter 14.
Let’s think about Eve in the garden and that passage we looked at last week in 1 Timothy 2:13. If we use that as the standard, that Eve was expected to learn in silence from her husband who was her head, how flattered would she have been by this beautiful Cherub addressing her and asking her opinion on God’s word? Consider that conversation in light of his description in Ezekiel 28:12-16, as a creature that was full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
Ladies can you see the temptation?
Can you see Satan playing to Eve’s weakness?
Satan said to her, “Yea hath God said?” (Genesis 3:1).
God has recorded this conversation for our learning (Romans 15:4), and we will gain wisdom by it. Satan, transformed into an angel, or a messenger of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), still tries to deceive women today, by causing us to question if what God has said is true.
For example, 1 Timothy 5:15 For some [young women, widows and unmarried women] are already turned aside after Satan. Women, having no head over them, are prone to be deceived by Satan.
We all know very well the results of that conversation between the serpent and the woman. That is so heavy. When we consider the apostle Paul’s admonition in Titus 2:3-5, for women to be sober and grave, we can understand why. Satan’s temptation of the woman did not end in the garden. It continues to this very day.
Let’s look at God’s first conversation with “the woman” after the fall. It is really more of an interrogation. After Adam pointed the finger at her and said to God,
Genesis 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
There are a couple of verses from Proverbs that come to mind here.
Proverbs 31:14 She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
Compare Eve, who was hanging out with the Devil right there in sight of the tree, to the virtuous woman of Proverbs, who we see far away, busily fulfilling her role as help meet that God created her for.
Proverbs 11:13 says that A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.
Adam could have interposed himself between God and his wife, taking the blame and the responsibility, but as a sinner and a lover of his own flesh, instead Adam was a talebearer; he told on her like a child.
Then God turns to the woman.
Genesis 3:13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou has done?…
She answers
…And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
She spoke the truth. That is exactly what happened. But, was she blaming Satan? Or was she admitting her weakness? Was she admitting that she allowed the serpent to beguile her?
God, being the JUDGE of the Earth (1 Chronicles 16:33 and Psalm 94:2 are two of many verses on that subject), pronounces a sentence on all three guilty sinners: the serpent, the woman, and Adam.
Let’s look at what He speaks to the Woman.
Genesis 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Let’s break this verse down.
The first woman, the first wife, was given a purpose by God to help the first man be fruitful and multiply, to replenish the earth, to subdue the earth and have dominion over the living creatures (Gen. 1:28). Instead, one of the living creatures beguiled her, thereby subduing and having dominion over them.
And for this, God said He would multiply her sorrow. I believe this is the sorrow she was currently experiencing anew; that is, the knowledge of her nakedness (v.7) and being afraid for the first time (v. 10).
God also said to Eve that He would multiply her conception.
Conception is the conceiving of children. There are a quite a few TWINS mentioned in the Bible that seem to be very significant to God’s purpose. We find them in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Twins would certainly describe a multiplying of thy conception. I may not fully understand what God means in this passage, but I do believe what He says.
Next God says to the woman, “thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee”. If we compare that to another passage of scripture that is very similar, it will help us to understand the meaning.
Genesis 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Cain and Abel are possibly the first set of TWINS. Cain was a tiller of the soil; a farmer. He had no sheep to offer God. In order to be accepted by God, he would have to humble himself and go to his younger brother to get a sheep to offer God to cover his sins. Remember, Cain was the firstborn, which is an exalted position in scripture. When the scripture says, “And unto thee [Cain] shall be his [Abel’s] desire, and thou [Cain] shalt rule over him [Abel]”, we should see the connection with Eve. Cain was the head as firstborn, and he would take Adam’s place as head or King of the human race, possibly becoming that promised seed that would defeat Satan. As such, Abel would have to submit to and serve Cain.
This is also very similar to what we see with another set of TWINS; Esau [the elder] and Jacob. God made a choice and said, “the elder will serve the younger”.
(I’m getting a bit ahead of the story here, as this was spoken to Rebeka when she went to inquire of God. I believe God is trying to show us something when He speaks to Eve about multiplying her conception, a.k.a., TWINS, considering that God also speaks to Rebeka about the trouble in her womb, a.k.a., TWINS. We’ll get to that later in our study.)
You can see that when God said to Eve, “thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee”, He is saying that whatsoever Eve desired, would be controlled and determined by her husband. Adam would have rule over her desires, just as Cain would have had rule over Abel’s desires.
It is my personal opinion that Satan had only sinned in his heart up to this point in time as described in Isaiah chapter 14. Satan had a plan to usurp God, perhaps he had even spoken of his plan to the angels, but in such a way as not to arouse suspicion. We see this scenario played out in the life of Absalom, who is a type of Antichrist. But God, who knows all things, even what is in someone’s heart, knew about Satan’s plan. God, in His wisdom, allowed Satan to defeat himself with his own plan. God kept His plan to reconcile the Heaven secret until he revealed it to the apostle Paul (Romans 16:25). We’ll talk more about this later in the series.
Soon after God pronounced judgment on Satan, Adam and Eve; Adam names the woman.
Genesis 3:20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
This naming is an act of faith in God’s word regarding “her seed” bruising Satan’s head.
Next week we’ll take a look at those other scriptures where Eve is mentioned by name, then we’ll move on to the next woman that God spoke to. I look forward to seeing you for PART 3 of WHEN GOD SPEAKS TO WOMEN!
You will find the material covered in this Blog here:
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