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Text:God's Word to Women:Lesson 9

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==EVE'S CHOICE, AND ADAM'S.==

65. In a helpful course of lectures on "The Spiritual Criticism of the Bible," Dr. A. T. Pierson said: "In the intellectual sphere man believes a thing because it is true; in the spiritual, a man knows a thing to be true because he believes it." If, having the Spirit with you to convict you of the truth, you believe what is said in our Lesson today, then accept the truth and live by it, and teach it to others, though it may completely overturn previous instruction which you have received, and preconceptions which you may have imbibed.

66. Let us repudiate, once for all, in our Lessons, any desire to discuss, "Which is the greater in the kingdom of heaven, man or woman?" as an unworthy question to raise. But, as women, we are interested, and should be, in woman's destiny. It was fixed in the Garden of Eden. What is it?

67. Please read Genesis 2:17, 18. Just previous to the separation of the sexes, when Adam had reached maturity, and was accountable for his conduct, God forbade him to eat of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Eve had not been "builded" yet, as shown by verse 18; the command was given in the second person singular. Precisely what this "tree" was, we are not told. It is allowable to think the expression "good and evil" is practically equivalent to "pain and pleasure," as it is in such passages as 2 Samuel 19:35, Job 2:10, Isaiah 7:15, 16, Jeremiah 42:6, etc. The result of Adam's disobedience of such a law would be, first, the discovering of a marked contrast between "pain" and "pleasure;" and, second, a strong temptation, as to the future, to seek pleasure, and to avoid even wholesome "pain." Perhaps God wished to fix Adam's attention on higher motives and principles of conduct than mere "pain and pleasure." This prohibition, if we so interpret it, had peculiar significance, as just preceding God's providing Adam with a wife. Above all things, the avoidance of the pains of responsibility in the relation of the sexes is to be discountenanced. It means the deterioration of the individual, and eventual deterioration of the race; and it must inevitably entail suffering and undue burden bearing, on the part of the mother-sex.

68. Eve was not "builded" until after this prohibition was uttered, and we are not informed whether she heard it afterwards from the Almighty, or merely heard of it through Adam. So far as the testimony goes, it is to the effect that she had only heard of it through Adam, when Satan beguiled her into disobeying the commandment; for in repeating the story she elaborates the language, making the statement of the law stronger at one point and weaker at another,—and these are the characteristics of a repeated story, not a first-hand account. Eventually they both ate of the tree, and God came in the cool of the evening to deal with them. He asked Adam: "Hast thou eaten of the tree?" and the reply was, "The woman that THOU gavest to be with me, SHE gave me of the tree, and I did eat." God then questioned the woman, and she replied: "The SERPENT beguiled me, and I did eat." Please note the words we have put in capital letters.

69. I think we are warranted in drawing a contrast between these two answers, for in them we find a clue to what follows. Both confess, "I did eat," and both tell truthfully the immediate influence that led to the eating. So far they are equal. But Adam is led on to say more. There was a remote cause for his downfall, through Eve,—Satan. But Adam does not, like Eve, mention Satan; and yet he does not remain silent as to a remote cause; he accuses God to His face of being Himself that remote cause,—in giving the woman to be with him. And the worst feature of the case consists in the fact that Satan was present, or near-by, at the interview, and could not have been overlooked, excepting wilfully, if a remote cause was to be mentioned at all. Satan must have rejoiced as much in Adam's attitude towards God in charging Him with folly, as in Adam's attitude towards himself, the tempter, in shielding him from blame. Is it not this scene, this conduct on the part of Adam, to which Job refers (3133) when he complains, "If, like Adam, I covered my transgressions by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom?" Dr. Lange says (see par. 36), "Adam must watch and protect" the garden from an "existing power of evil." Is not this the reason why Adam does not mention Satan, who has been let inside?

70. Destiny is an awful word. One's fate may become fixed for a lifetime by the choice of a moment, and that choice, unless Divine interference be invoked, may become the natural bent of one's progeny, through succeeding generations. This is the lesson of the Israelites and the Edomites of Scripture. Esau's life seemed more creditable than Jacob's up to a certain advanced point in Jacob's history. But when Esau stood at the parting of two ways, he chose physical refreshment at the cost of his birthright (Genesis 25:29-34). Much later, Jacob came to the parting of two ways, and at the risk of a murderous attack from his brother finding him alone and unprepared, he wrestled all night for the Divine blessing (Genesis 32:24-32), and secured it. God saw, even before the birth of these two, the sort of choices they would make, and made His "selection" according to this foreknowledge. God is now about to make a "selection," the same one as when, later in history, he chose Jacob as the progenitor of the coming Messiah,—this time on the basis of the choices of Adam and Eve.

71. Adam made an evil choice. Adam advanced to the side of the serpent, in becoming a false accuser of God. But Eve, by her exposure of the character of Satan before his very face, created an enmity between herself and him. What followed was the natural outcome of Eve's better choice. God proposed to draw the woman yet farther away from Satan. He said to Satan, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman (3:15). In effect, he said: "She has chosen to make the breach; I will widen it."

Much is made of the glorious promise which follows, but let us pause and consider this one, in which the expositors, for the most part, find no more depth of meaning than that there will be always a natural animosity between men and the lower animal, the snake!

72. We must not forget that at this time God put enmity between Satan and the woman. This will account largely for a whole train of evils prophesied in the following verse (3:16), which tradition says is the result of Eve's having introduced sin into the world by eating the forbidden fruit, and giving of it to her husband. Satan's enmity is the cause of woman's sufferings. More light on this point follows later in the Lessons.

73. "And between thy seed and her seed," God adds, in these words addressed to Satan, and concerning woman. Despite the popular cry regarding the "universal Fatherhood of God, and the universal brotherhood of man," which is in part true, we who accept the Scriptures as authority must not forget that Satan, as well as God, has his children--moral and spiritual delinquents—among men. "The good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one." John 6:70 reads, "Have I not chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil?" When the Jews declared, "We have one Father, even God," Jesus replied, "If God were your Father, ye would love Me. . . . Ye are of your father the devil" (John 8:41-43). Even the Apostle of love, John, will not admit that all men are children of God, but warns: "Little children, let no man deceive you; he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil. . . . In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil" (1 John 3:7-8, 10). God does not receive, or acknowledge as His, the unregenerated "bastard" children (Hebrew 12:8) of a fallen Church.

74. "It [woman's seed] shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel." The "shall," in both places, here should have been rendered "will," for the sake of clearness. They are future tenses, not imperatives. God does not command Satan to bruise the heel of the woman's seed; He only prophesies that these things will come to pass. The prophecy has special reference to the great enemy of Satan, Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary; but it also refers to all believers, for St. Paul says, "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly," in his letter to the Romans (16:20). We will continue this subject in our next Lesson.

==See Also==
[[God's Word to Women]] |
[[Table of Contents]] |
[[Foreword to the 1943 edition published by Ray Munson]] |
[[Foreword to the 2005 edition published by God's Word to Women]] |
[[Author's Note]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 1 | Lesson 1]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 2 | Lesson 2]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 3 | Lesson 3]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 4 | Lesson 4]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 5 | Lesson 5]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 6 | Lesson 6]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 7 | Lesson 7]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 8 | Lesson 8]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 9 | Lesson 9]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 10 | Lesson 10]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 11 | Lesson 11]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 12 | Lesson 12]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 13 | Lesson 13]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 14 | Lesson 14]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 15 | Lesson 15]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 16 | Lesson 16]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 17 | Lesson 17]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 18 | Lesson 18]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 19 | Lesson 19]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 20 | Lesson 20]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 21 | Lesson 21]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 22 | Lesson 22]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 23 | Lesson 23]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 24 | Lesson 24]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 25 | Lesson 25]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 26 | Lesson 26]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 27 | Lesson 27]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 28 | Lesson 28]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 29 | Lesson 29]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 30 | Lesson 30]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 31 | Lesson 31]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 32 | Lesson 32]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 33 | Lesson 33]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 34 | Lesson 34]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 35 | Lesson 35]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 36 | Lesson 36]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 37 | Lesson 37]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 38 | Lesson 38]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 39 | Lesson 39]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 40 | Lesson 40]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 41 | Lesson 41]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 42 | Lesson 42]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 43 | Lesson 43]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 44 | Lesson 44]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 45 | Lesson 45]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 46 | Lesson 46]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 47 | Lesson 47]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 48 | Lesson 48]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 49 | Lesson 49]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 50 | Lesson 50]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 51 | Lesson 51]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 52 | Lesson 52]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 53 | Lesson 53]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 54 | Lesson 54]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 55 | Lesson 55]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 56 | Lesson 56]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 57 | Lesson 57]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 58 | Lesson 58]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 59 | Lesson 59]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 60 | Lesson 60]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 61 | Lesson 61]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 62 | Lesson 62]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 63 | Lesson 63]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 64 | Lesson 64]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 65 | Lesson 65]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 66 | Lesson 66]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 67 | Lesson 67]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 68 | Lesson 68]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 69 | Lesson 69]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 70 | Lesson 70]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 71 | Lesson 71]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 72 | Lesson 72]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 73 | Lesson 73]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 74 | Lesson 74]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 75 | Lesson 75]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 76 | Lesson 76]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 77 | Lesson 77]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 78 | Lesson 78]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 79 | Lesson 79]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 80 | Lesson 80]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 81 | Lesson 81]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 82 | Lesson 82]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 83 | Lesson 83]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 84 | Lesson 84]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 85 | Lesson 85]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 86 | Lesson 86]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 87 | Lesson 87]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 88 | Lesson 88]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 89 | Lesson 89]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 90 | Lesson 90]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 91 | Lesson 91]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 92 | Lesson 92]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 93 | Lesson 93]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 94 | Lesson 94]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 95 | Lesson 95]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 96 | Lesson 96]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 97 | Lesson 97]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 98 | Lesson 98]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 99 | Lesson 99]] |
[[God's Word to Women Lesson 100 | Lesson 100]] |
[[Index of Scripture Texts]] |
[[Dictionary]]
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