What has happened in the Garden of Eden and what does it mean to us?
I see a massive assault on women from the very beginning. It does not stop, and in recent times it even gets stronger. Let's look at what Satan has done on that subject.
First we will look at what was going on in the Garden of Eden, but let's look at the word, not anything else, no philosophies, no assumptions, simply at the whole word. And then at the last part we will try to review how Satan works at this time.
Why is he so attacking a woman? He hates God, therefore, and His created man. Married man and woman is like one body in God’s eyes. What is the easiest way to make harm? The easiest way is to attack the weaker part. A woman is a weaker part of the one body, Scripture makes clear that it is the weaker vessel; it would be vain effort to deny this:
1Peter 3, 7:
Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
The "weaker vessel", here it is not about the fact that a woman has less muscle mass or less IQ. She is weaker because she is more vulnerable. Probably everyone will agree that men are much simpler creations of God, less complicated. But the woman was created a little differently - everything in our minds and emotions is more complicated and we have a lot of thoughts every moment. It is OK, it would be uninteresting if we were equal, but at the same time it causes some trouble. The more sophisticated the mechanism, the easier it is to damage it. Satan knows this very well, he has checked in the Garden of Eden that woman easily accepts some thoughts from him and he works with this tried out tool. Well, I can not speak for everyone, but I can tell that it is not so hard for the evil one to work with me. He simply gives me some thought and the other thoughts I develop myself. Therefore, I thank to the Lord for Nerijus, who is nearby and who always cares about me.
Harming a woman, the evil one actually affects both of them. For a man needs a woman, he is satisfied if the woman next to him is happy. Have you noticed, even the man who does not do anything to make his woman happy wants that she at least would look satisfied. No man, even in the world, does not like to see the sad face and tears of his wife, unless he's completely obsessed, so Satan will do everything to cause a woman to be angry and sad. After all, the woman is created as a help meet, so Satan seeks to deceive her. When the help meet is deceived and taken out of order, then she does not help, but makes harm and both are weak.
Thus let us go to the Garden of Eden and look what has happened to Adam and Eve.
Genesis 3, 1-8:
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
We see that the woman wanted all the good things - wisdom, cognition and ... to be like God. What is so bad, there is a nice, even great, desire. In all of these "good things," people are still tempted today. The thoughts form Satan are alive in our minds to this day: God prevents you from luck, you yourself are like God, you can reach everything you want by yourself, God is not Almighty, He is lying to you, and after all, are you really His creation? The woman admitted the thoughts from the enemy, accepted a word from the enemy, so she had already eaten not only from the tree of life.
But God wants a man to be happy, so He said to the woman after sin:
Genesis 3, 16:
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
You could say that this sounds like a curse. We can call it a curse, but it is a plan for saving ours, even all humanity.
How many times have you heard the women from the world speaking against her husband: "You ruined my life and why I got married to you?" Women often complain about this, but they still live with men, marry, and give birth to children. It happens, because God said so. That they are unhappy in doing this it is another question, they do not know God, do not know Scripture, and do not understand what is happening to them and why. The similar thing was with me, I already talked about it. But this is the inevitable consequence of the disobedience to God's command.
Imagine a woman to whom childbirth is a simple thing like sneezing. Imagine that she not only does not love but even does not desire her husband, and she does not see the reason to be with him at all.
She looks beautiful to herself, wise in her own eyes and does not need anyone else. Would the humankind exist in such way, if such perfect and self-content creatures, free from responsibilities and very proud, would lead? And what would happen to men in such case? Would they survive at all?
That women would lead I have no doubt. We begin to rise and tutor our children and would not like to stop even when our children are fully grown-up. We often think that we now better, don’t we?
I cannot speak for all the women, but I find these things in myself and I know that I must exterminate them in my heart. We were created to help not to lead. Do we like it or not that is another question, but if we are Christians we should listen to word of God. Apostle Paul said:
1Timothy 2, 11-15:
Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
In the last line we see that singularity has changed to plurality, from “she” to “they”. It happens in the New Testament’s texts. And it does not mean that this line 15 speaks about saving of women through faith and holiness of their children as it may be understood form the translation into Lithuanian.
We cannot be responsible for holiness of our children. Yes, we are responsible for their upbringing, but the holiness of our children is not in our power and it is not the guarantor of our salvation. We, as well as men, should keep our faith, charity and holiness with sobriety.
Yet we are not equal as men and cannot be, because god did not want this equality. While we live in our bodies we are not equal. God's curse, promising us pain and sufferings, works, but at the same time, this curse is salvation for us, distracting from the unnecessary things, selfishness and friendship with the world. It teaches us to sacrifice for others - for our husbands and children and it teaches us to love; this sacrifice and suffering makes us better. We can give thanks for the Lord God that he has given us this hard road to holiness. Our road is aggravated, that harmful philosophies and unnecessary thoughts would not even be able to germinate in our minds. But this line 15 does not mean that Jesus Christ died only for men, and women will be saved by their deeds. Paul here speaks of salvation from Satan's temptations. Jesus Christ died for the sins of women, as for men, and both women and men received the Holy Spirit during the Pentecost. There is no difference between the man and woman in the Holy Spirit, as we have already read.
Galatians 3, 28:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
And we know that God has not special respect for some persons over others.
Ephesians 6, 9:
And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.
Thus what does the Holy Spirit say to us through Paul’s letter to Timothy? It is said that a woman will be saved from Satan's trap and many temptation if she remains obedient to her husband and will live according God's plan for her - to be a suitable helper for the husband and to give birth to children. I'm not saying that woman can do nothing more, just rise children and make meal to her husband, but I say that the family should be a priority to her, if a woman wants to live in the way that God likes and to be happy.
Subordination to a man is a prerequisite of woman's happiness, no matter how strange it sounds in this age of feminism. A man, a loving man, I'm talking about a Christian man, will help his wife not to be lost, to find the truth and follow it. I'm talking about a loving husband because it is said for men to love their wives.
Ef 5, 28-29:
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church
I think everyone of us wants to have such care; we really need it from our men, to know that they love us and care for us. God has made everything right, yet it is not easy for us to accept, because we were taught the opposite from the very beginning of our lives. Television, magazines, all information media of the world says that women are equal to their husbands, and in fact there are even tendencies to put women above men. The headlines scream "love yourself" or "ten reasons why a woman should better not have a husband". And I grew up with that imagination of equal rights. And it was very difficult for me to accept the word about subordination. Well, why can not we be equal? But the Word of God says no, you are subordinate to your husband and you are a weaker vessel. And you can not reject the word if the Spirit of God is in your heart. But this is a fight and you have to die for yourself, for your imagination and your ambitions. For me it cost a lot of tears at night, it was somehow hard for me to understand, whoever I am. Who is the woman in God's word, what should she be? I guess that God took pity to me, so one summer night when I was again crying with the question "Who am I?" Who am I? "He finally answered me clearly and simply to my heart “You are the suitable help meet”. And my tears ended at once. I got the answer and I was happy. And I said, "Thank you God very much, I'm going to sleep now." Crying is very tiring thing, you know.
Such strange creatures we are, ready to cry and to smile at the same minute, very different from the men, but that is why they like us so much, otherwise God would have created two identical Adam.
But Satan hates us. Therefore, a massive assault on Satan is planned against a woman. For example the teaching, very old teaching, very popular in the Middle Ages, and periodically renewed, with which, unfortunately, I also had to encounter. This is the teaching about Satan's seed.
It is said that the first sin was sexual intercourse. It is said that the words "eat fruit" symbolize sexual intercourse, and that the words “she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Genesis 3, 6) symbolise the sexual intercourse.
It is even described (and such false teachers say that it is according to the Word of God) that there was an orgy in the Garden of Eden, that Adam and Eve had sex, but not real sexual intercourse and Adam's seed was spilled on the ground; that Eve actually had sex with Satan and that Satan was Cain's father and that since that time, Satan's children and children of God live on earth. Hitler used this theory of Satan's seed to destroy people. For centuries and till this day using such theories woman is called “the best weapon of Satan”. The Word of God says that a woman is created help meet for a man, but Satan wants to make mess in our minds and to pervert everything. As a result a woman who listens to such theories feels herself guilty in being a woman, but the problem is not in woman’s sexuality, but in perverted theories that misrepresent God’s Word.
What does it mean eating this fruit with bad seed? We know that Bible is a spiritual book. The first (and the biggest) sin is far deeper than a sexual act. It is first of all a thought that you should better have relationship with someone else, but not God. It is an attitude that you should better seek for happiness by yourself, get immortality by yourself, get lots of knowledge and wisdom by yourself. It is a thought that God is hiding something great from you that most probably He does not love you enough and does not give everything you deserve. It is the human greed, spiritual and material greed that is idolatry, which God hates so much.
1Timothy 6, 9-11:
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Colossians 3, 5:
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry
The problem was a decision to go their own way of satisfying the whims rather than keep and obedience to God. There was no orgy in the Garden of Eden. Word of God does not say that Satan is a father of Cain. It is very clearly written in the Bible:
Genesis 4, 1-2:
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
If Adam knew Eve earlier, that would be written in the Bible. If Satan knew Eve in flesh, that fact would also have been written in the Bible.
And the Word of God speaks of spiritual seed, not of a fleshly nature:
1Peter 1, 23-25:
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
The Word of God sows this spiritual seed, and a word from the enemy sows the evil seed, it is not about action.
This theory also appeals to the place in the Scriptures where Adam and Eve made aprons and covered their sexual organs. It is supposed that they hid the places where they sinned, and if they had eaten fruit, they would have covered their lips from God. Is this argument serious? Let us look at the place in Genesis book.
Genesis 2, 25:
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Genesis 3, 7-8:
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
Eve and Adam got cognition. Until this moment, Adam and Eve did not know they were naked and of course were not ashamed, because they just did not know what the shame is. When they found out about good and evil, they started to cover from each other, because their nakedness began to disturb them. It is very similar to what happens to our children as they grow up. The baby is not ashamed of his genitals because he does not have knowledge, what they are meant for, but you know if you have children, that the day comes when your son or daughter tells you: “Mom (or daddy) please do not look, I will wash myself, I will dress myself.” Thus, they begin to cover themselves because they start to feel a shame. Does this mean that the child has sinned? No, just one day the child acquires knowledge. It does not mean that he has sinned; he just somehow realizes that some things are shameful, even though he does not understand why. Perhaps someone tells him something or he sees something. Simply the child grows and starts to understand his sexuality and the feeling of shame comes.
While from God Adam and Eve were covering not lips and not sexual organs, they totally hid form God. They were corrupted in their minds and could no longer communicate with God as before. Look at people today in the world; do not they do the same thing? People try to hide from God, flee from the Word of God, and say: “Do not speak to me, I do not need it, I do not want to know anything, and I do not want to meet Him, let Him be for Himself, and I for myself.”
You understand what Satan does with this teaching that sexual intercourse between Adam and Eve was sinful - he makes sexual intercourse fundamentally sinful and shameful. And this gift of God to both husband and wife to receive and give pleasure, to comfort their souls and bodies, that is given to man and woman as God's intended way to procreate, this natural and good thing is presented as something shameful and only inevitably necessary. Such misled Christians say that woman is the best weapon of Satan. In fact, the real problem is in people's minds and hearts, not in the body of a woman. Look at the Genesis book again: Eve considered everything, appreciated the words of Satan, and she made a decision - God is not God Almighty, I can also be like God and I myself want to be god. Moreover, Adam listened to her, and he accepted these false ideas and endorsed them. Here is the first sin.
I write so much about these things to avoid such wrong teaching. In the letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul warns us all that we do not distort the truth in the Word of God:
2 Corinthians 11, 2-3:
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Here it is clearly said that human thoughts can be corrupted and this is first of all spiritual unchasteness not fleshly. And another place says in the same way:
1 Corinthians 4, 6:
And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.
Therefore, let us put all the fictional theories aside and stay with the word to God. I desire that the Word of God will not be distorted; if we accept the whole word, then accept it all, not only some certain places of it.
Harlotry and fornication, sexual relationship with wrong person in a wrong way is among all the other sins and it is the result of disobedience. Yes, Paul emphasizes that fornication is an abominable sin in God's eyes, because our bodies (he speaks of believers) are the vessels of the Holy Spirit, so this sin is the disgrace of the God’s vessel.
1 Corinthians 6, 18-20:
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
Thus, fornication and adultery is greatly condemned in the Word of God, but fornication in flesh it is not the greatest misery, the spiritual fornication is worse. Look at the Old Testament by yourselves, and see comparisons that God uses to call those who deny Him, who follow other gods.
Here is the letter of James taking about sin, about the essential sin of man, and this is not really just sex:
James 4, 1-5:
From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
That's where led the first people's determination to want everything that is not assigned to us by God. And now people just want to have - a lot of knowledge, money, other woman or man, a career, another pair of trendy shoes, another piece of creamy cake, good meditative practice, or a spiritual ritual. Worshiping of other gods and the pursuit of glitter of the world – these are things that God condemns. God loves us jealousy, and his anger falls on us for such behaviour.
When God created man in the body, He foresaw that the bodies will be adapted for sexual intercourse and that children in flesh will be born. And it was said when Adam and Eve where created that "shall a man leave his father and his mother" – in flesh, and "shall cleave unto his wife: and they be one flesh" (Genesis 2, 24).
Take a look at the Song of Solomon, read it and say if God condemns sexual intercourse or not. I read, compared the languages and translations, and I noticed that the Lithuanian translators did not even dare to translate some of the expressions that are quite unambiguous and even very open and very poetic. In Lithuanian translation you will not find "A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts” (Song of Solomon 1, 13), the English translators were more brave. And this is not just about the love of a man and a woman; this is about the love of Christ to his bride, the Church. Listen to the words that God speaks to you.
Song of Solomon 7, 6-12:
How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!
This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.
I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples;
And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.
I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me.
Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages.
Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.
This is God's Word. We hear here talking a man who desires his hotly loved woman, and at the same time almighty God speaks here to his beloved bride, to all of us. And the bride promises her love. If sexual relationship between man and woman were essentially shameful, would God used such images in His Word?
And the apostle Paul, who was unmarried and was not women admirer, we can see it from his letters, even he says seeing this parallel of relationship between man and woman, Christ and the Church, that this is a great mystery.
Ephesians 5, 25-33:
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Sexual relations between man and woman is given by God for us, as long as we live in the flesh, only they must be in accordance with God's will. Of course, you do not need to emphasize it, but you do not need to put it down. And without them, children would not be born.
John 16, 21:
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
As you can see, there is a great gift for women to give birth to children, and this brings not only pain but also joy. Women who do not want to give birth deny the Word of God and themselves.
I have my only son because I obeyed my husband. I did not want to give birth, I was young, I was studying and I wanted to wait with a baby, but Nerijus asked me very much and I agreed; I obeyed my husband. It was not wise in the eyes of the world because I did not receive any allowances, because I was unemployed, still a student, and really had a lot of troubles, it was harder to finish my studies. Doctors told me later to rejoice that I was so lucky. If I had been "wise" and postponed childbirth for later time after my carrier, I could pay thousands in fertility clinics, but it would be still a question of succeeding.
It is sad that now many young women are afraid of childbirth, afraid of responsibility, afraid to be what God has appointed them to be. Deceiving themselves they say that "this children's project is unrewarding." It is unrewarding in the eyes of the world, but it is good in the sight of God, and it is bringing not only pain but also happiness. Without children, women do not feel fullness of life, they can deceive themselves, engage in careers or pleasures, but they do not feel the whole fullness, for they do not fulfil God's Word. Everything is simple - if you want to be happy, follow what God has commanded.
As soon as I believed, I was very sad about the fact that woman had sinned the first, but now I do not think it should be emphasized. Jesus came to save us, not to condemn. It is encouraging to me that, where there is abundance of sin, grace is even more abundant:
Romans 5, 16-21:
And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
What big grace we have and what happiness in Jesus Christ, who has perfectly obeyed his Father while lived in the flesh and has committed no sin. Jesus Christ did not follow the world. We have Jesus Christ as an example, thus listen to Him, obey the whole word, and follow Him.
The Scripture tells us how to live.
Titus 2, 1-5:
But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:
That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.
The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
Wives are told not only to love their husbands and children, but also to respect and listen to their husbands. Husband is told to love and respect his wife, his own body, his help-meet and the desire of his eyes (Ezekiel 24, 16).
Everything is very correctly and beautifully arranged, the only problem is to obey the Word and keep to it. So we have to resist evil and strive to live as the Word of God says. Let's look again at the line from the letter to the Ephesians:
Ephesians 5, 33:
Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
This line is a great way of simple describing the relationship between husband and wife, a "recipe" for the happy Christian family given by God, so if you consider yourself to be followers of Christ, do not deny it.
To be continued in the next part.
