From Inferior to Extraordinary Pt. 3

Now that we've addressed creation of woman and God's original intent for her, we’ll explore the event in Genesis that still effects every one of us today: The Fall of Man.

 The Fall of Man is described in it's entirety in Genesis chapter 3:

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” ² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³ but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” ⁴  But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷  Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

⁸ And 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. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?^{] 10} And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”         

¹⁴ The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
 cursed are you above all livestock
 and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
    and dust you shall eat
    all the days of your life.
¹⁵ I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel.”

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
     in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband,
    and he shall rule over you.”

¹⁷ And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
    and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
    ‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
     in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
¹⁸ thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
    and you shall eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹ By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.”

²⁰ The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. ²¹ And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

²² Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” ²³ therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”

In this chapter we’re able to see just how much influence woman actually had on man: it was so much that it would cause both of them to disobey the only commandment given to them by God. But we also see that no sin goes without consequence, and the penalty for woman wielding her influence so poorly was severe, not only for her, but for Adam and the rest of humanity.  In Gen 3:16 we see that God specifically tells woman that, as a consequence for her sin, her husband will now rule over her. This wasn’t because man is superior (remember they were both created equally). This consequence came about because woman gave up her equality by listening to the serpent. Her disobedience forfeited her equality. This is an incredible concept, especially in the light of the fact that most of us consider the roles of men and women to be God ordained: that God created woman to be under the authority of man. But it’s obvious from Genesis 3:16 that the roles of men and women are God ordained, but they are not God’s original intent. The role of men having authority over woman is purely consequential of sin. Eve gave up her equality by her disobedience, and form that point on, submission to her husband was a reality; and that reality remains with us today. 

Now that we can view the roles of men and women from the perspective of The Fall, it becomes very easy for us to see how we now have a long history of women being oppressed and taken advantage of. Man, in his humanness, has corrupted the consequence instead choosing to honor God inside of that consequence. Man has taken advantage of the fact that woman must now submit under him, abused that authority, and started a chain reaction of the mistreatment of women that translated into society and the rest of culture, deeming women the weaker and inferior sex. This mindset has only recently started to lift in the west. We are very fortunate. For many around the world, it is still extremely prevalent. This now leads us to ask the question, if we’re aware of her role because of The Fall, what do we know about her value? Is her value still in tact, even though her role is not? Very much so. God did not say that woman became second best after The Fall. We know from looking throughout scripture that although there is oppression of women, there are also women handpicked from God himself to be honored, uplifted and exalted. From Deborah[1] to Ruth[2] to Esther[3] we see that he has used women as leaders and as women of great influence, even using a prostitute, Rahab[4], to expand Israel’s territory. This display of God’s value of women doesn’t stop in the Old Testament, but extends to the New Testament as well. While Christ was on earth, his treatment of women was absolutely astounding and counter-cultural; Jesus included them when no one else would, noticed them and honored them when others in their culture thought it better to be dead than to be a woman. God’s value of women is apparent. We also see in Galatians 3:28-29 a beautiful proclamation of our value in Christ: ²⁸  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.” 

Knowing what we do now about woman's original intent, and the consequences of The Fall, how does this truth affect the way we live now? 

More to come!

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[1] Judges 4-5

[2] The Book of Ruth

[3] The Book of Esther

[4] Joshua 2, 6