Seed of the Woman –Genesis 3

 

            God formed Adam out of the dust of the earth mixed with water. Adam was a full-grown man with seed when the Godhead shaped and formed him. Male and female were “in” Adam as his seed. God put Man/Adam into a deep sleep and formed woman out of a blood-soaked rib from Adam’s body. As Adam’s bride, she was called Woman. Because she was shaped and formed out of a part of a holy Man’s body, she too is holy until she disobeyed God. Adam and the Woman were covered in God’s glory and standing on holy ground in the presence of God. God gave dominion to Adam after the woman was shaped and formed out of his body. As the holy Woman, she would share in her husband’s exalted position of ruler over God’s holy place. God saw the incompleteness of Man/Adam standing alone without a bride to produce offspring. So, God created a helpmate for Adam --Woman.

           God painted the picture of His holy Son Jesus and His Bride in the beginning of scripture. Jesus is the Second and Last Adam who took on the flesh of mankind and remained holy to reverse the curse of the original and subsequent sin of fallen humanity throughout the ages. Jesus is now shaping and forming His Bride out of His Body of believers. As the Woman was shaped and formed out of the blood-soaked rib of Adam, Christ’s Bride is shaped and formed out of the blood and water that flowed out of the side of Jesus. Christ will send the Helper (Holy Spirit of God) to His Body/Bride to teach and help us walk in God’s ways and be shaped and formed into a holy Body to the glory of His Name. This, of course, is an ongoing process while we walk the earth. By the shed blood of Jesus and the water of His Anointed Word, the Godhead will shape and form a holy Bride for Jesus out of His body. As Adam and the Woman were connected spiritually as one body, Christ’s Bride is connected to Him spiritually in His Body. The more we allow the Godhead to shape and form us into His image and likeness through obedience to God’s Word, the more fruitful for His Kingdom we will be. It is in doing His Word that we are spiritually shaped and formed. God will use this Bride to draw others to His Son, so we are fruitful and multiply. Humanity was created for God’s glory, just as the original Man and Woman were. We have been chosen by God and Jesus to bear the fruit of God’s love and glory to bring forth new, spiritual life.

           For the Man and Woman in Genesis to be all that God intended them to be, they must be joined together as one. If they were not joined together as one, they could not be fruitful and multiply as God told Adam in Genesis 1:22. As a mother labors in pain to give birth to a child, we are to labor to birth new converts to the Body of Christ. Our labor is to be a labor of love for both God and mankind. As an earthly father shares in the woman’s suffering by her side, our Heavenly Father shares in the labor and suffering of the Body of Christ through every pain and every victory. Romans 8:22: We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Christ is being birthed in us and through us.

The holy Woman in Genesis was the crowning glory of Adam who would rule and reign over all with Adam, as the Bride of Christ is to be His crowning glory and will rule and reign with Him at the end of the age.

Disobedience Had to be Removed from God’s Perfect Place

        God spoke His word to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil directly to Adam before the Woman was shaped and formed. The Woman heard the command secondhand from her husband Adam. This made the woman more susceptible to the devil’s trickery.

           Before sin entered God’s perfect place, the man and woman walked in perfect openness and with no sin or shame. They shared a close bond and were one in two persons – holy, open, and unashamed. Nothing was hidden. They were naked and without shoes because they were standing in the presence of God and on holy ground.

Another voice enters God’s Garden in the form of a serpent. The serpent lied to Eve to get her to disobey God. The serpent put doubt in the woman’s mind about what God said by twisting it. “Did God really say ‘you must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 3:1 God didn’t say this. He said Adam could eat from every tree in the garden except one – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (see Genesis 2:16) The devil through the serpent put doubt in the woman’s mind about what God really said. Next the serpent wanted to take away the penalty for disobeying God’s Word. “You will not surely die! For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 3:4 The serpent said some truth here. Until now, Adam and the Woman only knew the good. But, when she disobeys God’s instruction, she will know both good and evil. God already knew about evil because it began in the spiritual realm. God wanted the Man and Woman to only know the good. Unfortunately, the woman listened to the wrong voice! God will never tell us to do something against His Word. Therefore, we should know His Word, so we too will not disobey God. The woman was tricked into going against God’s will and Word. When Adam and the woman sinned against God, their “spiritual” sight and hearing was affected. They began so see in the natural. They didn’t hear God’s voice with clarity anymore. They got mixed messages! Now there was another voice. The voice of lies, confusion and chaos.

         Because the Woman listened to the voice of deception and evil, eventual destruction and death will be the result. When you know the Word of God, you will not follow a liar because you understand the result of doing so. God not only revealed His character and ways in His Word, but also the ways of the serpent and the result of following him instead of God. Knowing this result should encourage you to follow Truth – Jesus -- the Word of God from beginning to the end. God will never ask you to do something contrary to His Word. To do so would make Him a liar. Numbers 23:19: God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? God is pure Truth, as Jesus is pure Truth and the Holy Spirit is the pure revealer of Truth. We are to listen to only the Word of God -- rightly-dividing it and then doing it. If we follow a liar, destruction will be the result.

           Satan through the serpent wants the woman to believe that God was withholding something good from her. The serpent put doubt in the Woman’s mind about God’s goodness making it seem that God was withholding a lot from her. When the woman ate of the forbidden tree, God’s beauty and glory in the Woman were marred. Instead of continuing in God’s righteousness, she took the path of the serpent independent of God. The serpent twisted God’s simple command to Adam. The Woman will complicate God’s command by adding to it and subtracting from it. God warns us not to do this in Revelation 22:18-19.

            The progression of the serpent’s seduction of the Woman is as follows:

·         She listened to the serpent.

·         She misunderstood God’s Word.

·         She saw that the tree was good for food.

·         She desired it to make her wise.

·         She yielded her will to the will of the serpent.

·         She took instead of resisting.

·         She ate the forbidden fruit that opened her eyes to evil.

 

Now Adam is in a dilemma. Because the woman disobeyed God, she must be removed from God’s holy Garden and will be separated from Adam who is still holy and in God’s presence. If they are separated, Adam and the Woman will not be able to be fruitful and multiply as God had commanded. So, Adam joined in the transgression of His bride to remain with the Woman and multiply. Had they remained holy, they would have reproduced holy seed. Unfortunately, their seed will now be both good and evil as all humans are. God, however, has His plan in place. He will send His Son to earth to take on our transgressions and shed His pure, sinless blood to restore us to God’s holy place. This one act of the original Man and Woman changed the world forever, but God has the remedy. The one act of Jesus dying on the cross also changed the world forever. His act reversed the cruse of sin and death brought on through the original sin. Jesus the Word and the Holy Spirit will rebirth us spiritually progressively as we seek His ways and will, so we love and obey God and love others. God wants to establish Jesus and His ways in us making us new creations. He wants to put our fleshly, sinful ways to death and establish Jesus and His ways in us so others will see Jesus in and through us and be drawn to His eternal life also.

       The Woman has a name change. A change of name in scripture represents a change of character. As Woman she is holy but as Eve, she will birth those who are a combination of good and evil. She went from a higher name to a lower one. As Woman, she is holy. As Eve, she is a sinner. Prior to the sin against God, Adam and the Woman walked naked before God. Now they are exposed and are shamed by their nakedness. They no longer have God’s glory covering. Their sight has changed from “spiritual sight” to “natural sight.” As we study God’s Truth in Christ who is the whole Truth, He and the power of the Holy Spirit will open our spiritual eyes once again.  Love for mankind is God’s motivation. Love is the very substance of God. God wants us to understand the breadth, length, height and depth of His love and ways.

      It was Christ’s love for His Heavenly Father that compelled His righteousness. Jesus said three times in John 14, “If you love Me, you will obey My commandments.” Obeying His Word, shows Jesus our love for Him and others.