 |  |
(2)
She mishandled the word of God, adding to it and minimizing its terms (3: 2, 3),
and then eventually turned from it to her own judgment (3: 6). She preferred
intuition to inspiration.
Upon these two aspects of the failure of Eve, Paul bases truth for all women. (It might
be added at this point that the writer of these articles is not responsible for what the Holy
Spirit inspired Paul to record on this or any other matter, but he is responsible to
faithfully deliver it.)
It would be a logical sequence to what has been seen of the failure of Eve in Eden, to
go on now and consider what has been said in I Tim. 2: concerning the teaching of
women, but that subject is reserved of a separate article. Hence it seems a good point to
notice how the punishments meted out to Adam and Eve, because of their respective
failures in Eden, were to remind them constantly of their failures, and God's intended
places for them in His economy.
The reckoning.
It is a wonderful commentary on the nature of God, that He came seeking Adam after
the fall; and then, not in the heat of the moment, but "in the cool of the day" (3: 8).
He came also not to vent his spite upon his creatures, but in love, and with the promise
that the Devil and his works would one day be destroyed (Gen. 3: 15; Heb. 2: 14, 15;
I John 3: 8 cp. John 3: 17). But it was not possible that things could remain exactly as
they had been before the entrance of sin (Gen. 3: 22-24); there must be a reckoning.
Yet even in this reckoning the mercy of God shines through, for the punishments
meted out to Adam and his wife were not arbitrarily chosen, but gave promise of life and
taught man and woman that in future they should consider God's order, and their
respective places in it.
Unto the woman God said,
"I will greatly multiplied thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring
forth children; and thy desire shall be subject to thy husband, and he shall rule over
thee" (Gen. 3: 16 margin).
The first words recorded in Scripture said to the man and woman together were:
"Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it . . . . ." (Gen. 1: 28).
We have no reason to suppose that the first three terms of this command could be
fulfilled in any other way than is now the experience of man and woman; an experience
in which the woman plays the major part, insofar that she conceives, carries, brings forth
and nourishes a child. That the production of a seed was of prime importance as far as
God's earthly economy was concerned will be shown later in more detail, but here in
Gen. 1: 28 is the first suggestion of it. Upon the woman divulged the main part of this
responsibility, and it was in keeping with this that the woman (when the reckoning was