Eve's Obedience

Adam lived over 900 years. The Bible doesn't specify that Eve lived any longer or less than Adam. The last we hear about Eve was in her redemptive delivery of Seth. But I imagine that she lived long enough to want to throw herself back in time and change that one moment forever. I am sure she felt regret in its truest, starkest form, especially as she watched her sin grow and multiply in the lives of her children, and their children, and her children's children. If we divide up Adam's years into generations, he could have seen 12 generations; which would have been a whole lotta sin. 

That’s the truth about sin, it never just affects you and me. It always outworks itself in the lives of those we cherish. Eve lost her own son Abel to sin. She watched it fester in Cain and mourned the loss of not just one, but two of her sons, as Cain wandered, cursed and alone. Oh how her heart must have known trouble. The more I look at Eve’s life, the more I see that Adam was right to call her the mother of all living—because she was also the mother of every living sorrow. She knew loss and brokenness and sin and because she knew what had been between the gates of Eden, her grief must have been that much more poignant. 

Can’t you see her, rocking her children, humming the world’s first lullabyes and whispering in their ears the secrets of Eden? Didn't she long to give her children that gift of walking with God? The story in Genesis 4 about Cain and Abel shows us that somewhere along the line, Adam and Eve developed the tithe. Somewhere between the gap of silence in Genesis chapter 3 and Genesis chapter 4, God initiated with Adam and Eve and they now had ways to meet with Him again. Abel and Cain were offering portions of their labor, and Abel knew to give God the best of it. I like to think that Abel's obedience was a byproduct of a loving Momma who would instruct him when he was little in the ways of getting to know this wonderful God who aided her in childbirth, and walked with her in the Garden. 

"Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock, and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering." (Genesis 4:4) 

We see throughout the rest of the chapter God lovingly talking to Cain and warning him against sin- because God knew what Cain was capable of and He wanted to spare him from that life. We see God's kindness even in that respect, and the fact that God desperately wanted to draw His children home, even from that first family. 

 God cares for her children more than she does. God was pleased with Abel. God warned Cain, out of love, to not give into the sin that was crouching at his door because its desire was for him. God gave Eve another son, Seth, who, in the next few generations, would have Enoch, who would walk so closely with God that He would be taken up to heaven. Just because he walked with God. Like Eve did. Like she had, in the cool of the day. 

I have been stuck lately in John chapter 15. It's a good place to get stuck I guess. But this morning a verse was just screaming to me: "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." John 15:10 When I first read that verse I got really overwhelmed, like, what are all the commandments exactly?? But Jesus answers that question two verses later, "This is my commandment, that you love one another." 

And I thought about Eve, when she decided to leave the land of God's love and she reached out in self-assertiveness and self-protection to bite that fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And I'm just going to guess here, but probably for the rest of her life she carried a pretty healthy fear of disobedience because she understood every sin has a hefty price tag. So I think that how she mothered Abel, how she must have mothered Seth, who eventually had Enoch, who eventually actually was just taken to Heaven, that Eve was obeying God by loving her children well. 

Every sin we are tempted by is actually a violation of love. If we love others well, and if we love God well, we don't want to be selfish. We don't want to be so self-obsessed that we are littered with self-hatred or pride or jealousy or comparison. When we love others well, we abide in God's love. Anytime we feel condemned and shamed into addressing sin, we know its not God's heart. Romans 7 verse 1 tells us we don't carry any condemnation in Jesus!! But there is always, always an invitation from the Father to let the searchlight of His Spirit examine our hearts in His kind and gentle way, and point out what is keeping us from abiding in love. Disobedience is only the result of us not feeling the love of God. 

Just like kids who are loved well actually act better, same with big people- we obey better when we understand how well God loves us. His boundary lines are pleasant places, right? (Psalm 16) Let's abide in love today, and love others well, and let Jesus bring us to a place of healthy hatred for sin because we know it absents us from the precious and life-giving flow of love that goes straight from the heart of God to our hearts.