"The Woman YOU Gave Me..."

Funny, funny truth!  Bear with me.  Before you're through reading you'll be shaking your head!

In church last evening they used some scripture (that I hadn't thought about in awhile) as a springboard for discussion:

Genesis 1  (That's right.  Wa-a-a-a-y back in the beginning of the beginning.  Nothing is new under the sun - which is why the Bible might be a good resource for figuring out where today's problems come from...)

Genesis 1, Verse 27:  God created man in His own image...

Genesis 2

Verse 9:  Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Hello.  Think about that...  Think, think, think.

So God created man, and then He caused the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to grow.

Verse 16-17:  The Lord God commanded the man, saying, "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."
God laid down one law.  I know, we have THOUSANDS of laws we have to obey now, but God gave MAN (not woman, man) one, uno, 1 law - and he's gonna blow it!

Verse 21-22:  So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.  The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

Ok, folks, this is where the phrase, "God's gift to man," comes from.  Did you get that?  WOMEN are a gift from God.  (Yea-a-a-a-a-a!)

God gave man and woman only one responsibility:

Genesis 1: 28:  Be fruitful and multiply...

I can just hear all the men saying, "YES!!"  (So why aren't they stampeding through the church doors saying, this is MY kinda God!  I wanna follow HIM!)

So, anyway, on to Genesis 3.

Here we have mankind adding to God's Word in verse 3 about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil when she told the serpent that God said, "You shall not eat from it or touch it..."  

God didn't say not to touch it! 

It's not a good idea to add to or take away from God's Word... not a good idea at all!

So, the serpent and Eve are chatting, with Adam standing right there listening.  Now we come to the first lie ever recorded (which is why Satan is known as the father of all lies...)

Verse 4-5:

"The serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die!  (Lie!  Go back up to Genesis 2: 16-17.)  

For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Now, stop right there.  Knowing good?  They already know that, for heaven's sake!  They're in the Garden of Eden!  Knowing evil?  WHO, in their right mind, would want to know EVIL!  Eve mistakenly equated knowing good and evil with becoming "wise."  If you ask me, I don't have to be bitten by an alligator to know it hurts!  I don't need to "know" evil!!

But, no-o-o-o!  Eve let her appetite and the beauty of the fruit and desire to be as wise as God get the better of her.

Verse 6:

...she took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

Mighty nice of her to share.  Have you ever noticed how "friends" who are getting into mischef are always trying to talk others into joining them in trouble?  I've always said, a dog by himself is just a dog; put 2 or more dogs together and you've got a pack of trouble!  So anyway, she gave Adam a bite.   Back to Genesis 2:16-17.  God told ADAM that from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.  There he is, munching away on the beautiful fruit.

B A M !!

Like a bolt of lightening ...

Verse 7:

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked...

Verse 8 - 11:

They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"

God does not ask a question for information.  God KNOWS where you are; He just wants to get your attention, help you focus.

He said, "I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself."

And He said, "Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"

HERE we go!  This is the foundation of all of man's trouble.  Instead of saying, "Yes, sir, I ate it,"  what did Adam do??  He dodged responsibility!  In FACT, he blamed it on GOD and Eve!

Verse 12:

The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate."

O-o-o-h!  And what did Eve say about that?

Verse 13:

"...the serpent deceived me, and I ate."

Verses 14 - 17 describes what God did to the serpent.

Verses 17 - 19 describes what God's punishment to man would be. 

I especially like what God said in Verse 17: 

"...because you have listened to the voice of your wife..."

But guess what God did to Eve?  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip. Well, except for that pain during childbirth thing... but that only lasts for a little while and then it's forgotten (or we wouldn't keep havin' em!)

Why didn't He mete out more punishment to Eve?!   SHE was apparently the one who struck up a conversation with the serpent!  SHE bit the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil first!  SHE gave it to Adam!

God did almost nothing to Eve (except for throwing both Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden forever and posting "cherubim and flaming sword which turned every direction" to stand guard - verse 24) because God made MAN the head of the family, the spiritual leader of the household, the chief-chicken-in-charge, as we say in Texas. 

"The woman YOU gave me..."  What a hoot!  HEY!  Cowboy-up there, Adam.  Be a man.  Accept responsibility.  God says the buck stops with you, Adam.