Did you know that our Northside Writers’ Group writes devotions for Table Groups? What’s a Table Group, you ask? Head back over to the Northside Women main page and click the link at the bottom of the page to find out! (You’ll be glad you did.) This year, all of our devotions will be exploring God’s faithfulness to women in the Old Testament. The following is adapted from our February devotion:

God is Faithful: Eve

Can you imagine? A perfect marriage to a perfect man in a perfect garden? What would a perfect man even look like? What would a world with zero pollution look like? Blue skies and water like glass. Plants that are lush and green. No withered leaves, invasive weeds, uncomfortable temperatures, or plastic water bottles. God gave Adam and Eve paradise and only one rule: “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.” (Gen. 2:16-17, CSB)

God created a pristine world. It stayed pristine for only 2 chapters. Unbeknownst to Eve, there was an enemy in the garden actively working against her. He’s the

same enemy who works against us today. Since his methods are effective, he hasn’t altered them much since Genesis chapter 3. How did he convince Eve to stray from God’s one rule and mess things up for all the generations to come?

“Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?

“The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’” (Gen. 3:1-3, CSB)

Can you hear the serpent’s disdain when he asks, “Did God really say...?” How could a loving God hold back anything that looked this beautiful from his children? God wants you to be happy, right? He wants you to follow your heart and satisfy your desires. Isn’t this the “wisdom” the world still proffers today?

Eve was quick to tell the serpent that, yes, God did tell them not to eat from that one tree. Our best defense against the lies of the world is to simply repeat God’s words. Yes, God will “grant us the desires of our heart,” but only after we’ve learned to “take delight in the LORD” (Ps. 37:4). No, God wouldn’t want me to “follow my heart” because “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9)

Some will take issue with Eve’s addition to not touch the fruit of the forbidden tree. But we should also remember that no sin has been committed at this point in the story. It was likely that Eve did not hear God’s one rule directly from God, but, rather, from Adam. If something is dangerous, we put a boundary around it, don’t we? We know not to drive our car off the side of mountain, but we drive with more confidence if there’s a guardrail. Eve was precious to Adam, so he put a “guardrail” around the one thing in the garden that was dangerous. (Most likely.)

“No! You will certainly not die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (Gen. 3: 4-5, CSB)

You can hear the chiding laughter in the serpent’s voice before he goes straight to the lie that has plagued humanity from Eve until now: “God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be open and you will be like God.” Eve, God is holding out on you. There’s something better out there for you, something where you are in control and where you can be happier and more fulfilled than anything God can offer you. This God, this garden, this paradise isn’t enough.

Whenever we hear the whisper in our heart that God isn’t enough, that’s the Enemy talking. Too often, we forget how much God loves us. We forget his faithfulness in spite of our faithlessness. We don’t remember all of the times He comes through for us or that when we stray from His ways things usually go badly. Perhaps that is why we regularly come across the words “I am with you” over and over again in Scripture like the chorus to a song. God knows we’re forgetful.

“The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” (Gen. 3: 6-7, CSB)

Instead of ending the conversation, Eve looked at what was forbidden. It must have been a lingering look since she “saw that it was delightful to look at.” Instead of shutting out the lies, she let them into her heart and consumed what was forbidden. Where was Adam in all of this? He “was with her, and he ate it.” He doesn’t say anything until he begins looking for someone to blame. (Gen. 3:12)

Later in Genesis 3, we read that Adam and Eve tried to hide from God. God asked where they were, but not because He needed help. He knew where they were. He knew what had happened. Before He’d formed Adam from the dust of the ground, before He spoke light into being, way back when “the earth was formless and empty,” God knew what would happen in the garden that day. He also knew this wasn’t the end, but the beginning of a story He would write across time. As we read in story after story in the Bible—and experience in our own lives— God is faithful in spite of our faithlessness.

There are consequences to Adam and Eve’s sin, but there is also mercy. Death came to the garden for the first time in the form of an animal that was killed for clothing (Gen. 3:21). Something innocent had to die to cover humanity’s shame. Sin is serious and shouldn’t be minimized. Death eventually comes for Adam and Eve as well, but God also allows them to have life, a family, and a future. And, as God pronounces His curse on the serpent, we also hear the first promise of a Savior who will come and redeem the sin of Adam and Eve: “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen. 3:15, CSB) Jesus would come as a second Adam who would resist temptation, live a sinless life, and ultimately lay down his life as payment for humanity’s sin.

“The LORD God said, ‘Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat and live forever.’ So the LORD God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

“The man was intimate with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, ‘I have had a male child with the LORD’s help.’” (Gen. 3:22 -4:1, CSB)

We see God’s mercy again in these verses, though it may not be obvious. What’s bad about living forever? Because an eternity in our sin separated from God isn’t paradise. It’s Hell. That’s what an eternity in our broken and fallen world would amount to for Adam and Eve. Since God knew Adam and Eve had a proclivity for eating things they shouldn’t, God banished them from Eden, and, out of love, He has kept humanity from bringing further destruction upon itself.

In the next chapter, when all seems hopeless, we read that Eve had a child. A baby boy. I wonder if Eve thought “maybe this is the one who will redeem us. The one the Lord promised.” If you’ve read the rest of chapter 4, you know this child is a far cry from the Messiah, but Eve didn’t know that. What she did know, however, is that God is faithful and always keeps His promises.