At church one morning, a Sunday School teacher was about to start her 4-year-olds' class when a little boy showed up at the last minute without any identification. The teacher managed to get his first name, but couldn't find out his last name.
"Brian, what's your daddy's name?" she asked.
"Daddy," he replied.
She tried again, "Well, Brian, what's your mommy's name?"
"Mommy," he answered.
She was getting a little frustrated when she suddenly realized how she might get the answer she needed. "Brian, what does your daddy call your mommy?"
His face lit up and with the deepest voice he could manage, he replied, "Hey, Babe."
(Susan Boatright, Savannah, GA. Today's Christian Woman, "Heart to Heart.")
Obviously, that little boy’s daddy loved his mommy. One very prominent theologian noted that: “The most important thing a father can do for his children is love their mother.” (Henry Ward Beecher) With that thought in our minds I want to talk about Eve this morning. Eve was the ultimate mother. In fact: “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the MOTHER of all the living.” Genesis 3:20
Now, what I found odd was that - when I went looking for other sermons on the internet about Eve - I found didn’t many that talked about her being a “mother”. Out of all the sermons I saw, there only 2 or 3 that addressed that part of her life. And that makes sense when you think about it. I mean, let’s face it, the only part of the Bible story remember about Eve is the day she made a poor choice and ruined things for mankind. And I think that’s a real shame, because I believe there’s so much to be learned from this first mother of mankind.
For example - the 1st thing we need to realize is that she was the perfect woman. I mean she had to be. She was created by God to be what Adam needed in his life. The LORD God said, "It is NOT GOOD for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."… So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Genesis 2:18, 20-23
The reason Eve was created by God was because - in all of God’s creation - there was one thing was NOT GOOD. Throughout the first chapter of Genesis it’s like a drumbeat: God declared this was “good” and that was “good”, over and over again. But the only time in the creation account where God said something was “not good” was when it came to creating the first woman because it was not good that the man should be alone. Eve made all the difference. It was like she completed God’s perfect masterpiece and until He created her, things weren’t completely “good.” And so Eve was the perfect creation of God. Don’t ever forget that.
And her marriage to Adam was the basis of every PERFECT marriage to this day. Jesus said “Haven’t you read, that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” Matthew 19:4-6
So, in spite of all their imperfections, Adam and Eve’s marriage to one another is our model for what marriage need to be like.
(PAUSE)
But was she a perfect mother? Well… no. She wasn’t perfect. But then she wasn’t all that bad either. I mean, bear in mind - she didn’t have an earthly mother to learn from. Everything she did as a mom… she had to learn from scratch. Dave Barry observed: “A perfect parent is a person with excellent child-rearing theories and no actual children.”
There’s no denying the fact that Eve was not the perfect parent. In fact, her 1st time out of the gate… she (and Adam) didn’t do so well. Their 1st born – Cain - was a rotten kid. He didn’t offer a proper sacrifice to God. And he couldn’t control his temper. And he blamed his brother for his own failures. And then… of course… he killed his brother and tried to cover it up. Cain was a loser
But by contrast - Abel was a great son. In fact Hebrews says “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.” Hebrews 11:4
And then there was Seth… Eve’s 3rd son. Genesis 4:26 tells us “To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD.” There was something about Seth… that created an environment where people felt driven to call on the name of the LORD. And apparently Seth was valuable enough that God included him in the linage of Jesus. We’re told that in the beginning of Jesus’ ancestors was “…Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.” Luke 3:38
So my point is this: YES - Cain was a loser. He was an embarrassment. He was the black sheep. But Eve’s next 2 boys turned out to be pretty good kids. Abel and Seth would have made any woman proud.
So what can we learn from the story of Eve? Well first - Eve was a woman (PAUSE)
I know, that seems obvious, but she was a woman just like all the other women that are here. And - she was a SINNER just like all the other women (and men) here. And EVE made bad choices, and those choices hurt her family just like everyone else here has done.
Bear in mind, for the longest time Eve was a model child of God, and everything went smoothly for her until she started listening to a “new friend”. Someone she shouldn’t have listened to. Someone who began telling her that she was missing out on life, that she’d been robbed of true contentment in her life, that God had lied to her and implied that God didn’t really want what was best for her.
And She BIT into the lie. And she touched what she shouldn’t have touched. And she ate what she shouldn’t have eaten. And because she ignored God… she lost big time. She lost her home. She lost her closeness to her husband and her closeness to God. And she lost the joy she’d once known.
And her sin didn’t just hurt her and her husband – it has plagued her children for centuries to come. Many parents experience the same problems Eve did. They’ve done things they shouldn’t have done too. Maybe they tried drugs or alcohol or “slept around” … or they’ve NOT been nice Godly women all their lives. How do they justify telling their children “Do as I say, not as I’ve done.” It’s not easy.
ILLUS: Adam Sandler (a crude comedian) once confessed on MTV that he expected that the choices he’d made would someday undermine his authority as a parent:
"I think I curse more on (his most recent) record than ever before. Yeah, the album's not too tame. In real life… though, I'm a little tamer at home. (My wife) yells at me for that 'cause we're gonna have a kid and I guess I can't curse. I'm in trouble when my kids grows up and one of his friends goes, 'Hey, listen to your dad's album.' I'm dead. There's no way I could win a fight with that kid. 'You did this! And you did that!' And I'd be like, 'eh… eh… you win.'".
(MTV.com 7/12/04 via PluggedIn Magazine 10/04)
As parents, our bad decisions will tend to catch up with us… sooner or later.
So, the 1st thing we learn about Eve is - she was a woman just like all the rest of the women here, and she was a sinner just like every person in this congregation, and she faced many of the conflicts and the same bad choices that you and I have.
A 2nd thing we can learn from Eve’s story is that God didn’t design the family so that a mother would have to raise her kids by herself. Being a momma is hard work.
ILLUS: I once heard the story of a woman named Mary. She’d had a hard, tiring day and she was stressed out from spending all day trying to corral her two boys. One of her friend had come over for a visit and they were looking out into yard where Mary’s 2 boys were quarreling and yelling and fighting. And Mary’s friend said “Mary, if you had to do over again… would you have kids.”
Mary looked out into the yard for really long time. And she finally said “Well yeah, probably… but maybe not these two.”
Being a momma is hard work and God never meant for a woman to raise kids all by herself. That’s what Adam was there for. God expected Adam to work alongside his wife to raise the kids.
One of the sad truths of our society is that men often don’t step up like they should. Studies have been made that have shown that in neighborhoods marked with a high degree of juvenile delinquency and crime, the root cause of that crime is the absence of fathers in the home. A good father is the kind who is there to help his wife raise the children, and a good father backs up his wife (and vice versa) so they can build a solid/secure home for kids.
ILLUS: Adrian Rogers tells the story a young man who lipped off to his mother one day. When his dad found out about it, he set his son down for a little talk.
“Son, I’m going to tell you something. When you talked back to your mother, you sinned against God. And God says you are to honor her. You’re going to have to answer to Him for that. And not only that, but you sinned against your mother. She went down into the valley of the shadow of death to give you life. How ungrateful you’ve been to speak to your mother as you have. And you’re going to have to answer to your mother for that.' But I’m going to tell you something else. Not only is she your mother –she’s my wife. And you are not going to talk that way to my wife. Now - not only do you have God and your mother to deal with, but you’ve got to me to deal with because you have shown disrespect to my wife
(Ten Secrets for a Successful Family, p. 96)
You know, at that moment…I wouldn’t have been that boy for all the money in the world. He’d really ticked his dad off.
But that is the way a godly husband/father ought to step up for his wife. That is the way a good man should discipline their children, and that (hopefully) was the way Adam stepped up for Eve. God didn’t expect Eve to do all the parenting by herself. Because being a momma is hard work.
But now, what if a woman doesn’t have a godly husband to help her? What if there’s no husband in the house? Or what if her husband isn’t being the kind of father he should be? How DOES she handle things then?
Well God has a backup plan for that. Titus 2:3-5 says “Older women … are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”
There’s a statement in proverbs that says “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17). But is also true that as iron sharpens iron, God means for the older women in a congregation to be there to for the younger women to comfort, encourage, and give advice and resources. You see, God never intended for women to do all the mothering all by themselves. And God didn’t expect Eve, or any other mother, to have to go it alone.
Now, there’s one more part of this story that I found interesting. Did you know that even after Eve had sinned… (PAUSE) God still loved her? Even after she’d messed up her family, even after she’d damaged her marriage, even after she’d willfully disobeyed HIM… God still loved her. And do you know how I know that God still loved her? Genesis 3:21 tells us that “the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”
Now, at first you might say: (PAUSE) … BIG deal! That doesn’t sound all that impressive. After all, they were naked and they needed something to cover their nakedness. But it was a big deal. You see, Adam and Eve had a problem. They were naked, and they’re ashamed of their nakedness.
Now, this is where it gets interesting. When God asks Adam “Where are you?” do you remember how Adam responded to God? He said “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Genesis 3:10
Eve’s sin… and Adam’s sin… made them ashamed. It made them avoid God. And the symbol of their sin was their nakedness. Now granted, they’d made clothes for themselves but they were still conscious of that nakedness. But in spite of her sin God still loved Eve… and He still loved Adam. She was the crown of His creation. She mattered to Him. So He made garments of skin to cover her (and Adam’s) nakedness.
Now, this is important for another reason. These are garments of skin. What generally happens to the animals who supply the skin for garments? That’s right – they die. Something had to die to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness. And their nakedness was the symbol… of their sin. Literally, God made the FIRST SACRIFICE to cover the sins of man. In making that 1st sacrifice God made a way for Adam and Eve to be at peace around Him - to be comfortable in His presence.
And of course, God not only offered the first sacrifice to cover sin, He also offered the last sacrifice to cover sin – when Jesus died on the cross. And He offered that last sacrifice because He loves us… just as He loved Eve (and Adam) and made the first sacrifice for them.
CLOSE: Today we celebrate Mother’s Day. It’s a day we’ve set aside to honor our mothers. And it’s worthwhile to realize that the FIRST mother – Eve wasn’t all the different from our mothers. Just like our mothers… Eve sinned and didn’t do everything right.
But she DID do one thing right. She tried to build her children’s lives around God. In Genesis 4:1 we’re told “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.” And then later… do you remember first thing we’re told that Cain and Abel when they became men? The offered a sacrifice to God. How did they know to do that? I’m convinced it was because Eve told them all about what God meant to her and tried to teach them to honor God in their lives.
And the reason I believe that is… that’s what my momma did for me. As I grew up, every Sunday my mom would make sure I was in Sunday School and Church. And every night she’d read Bible stories to me till I knew the names of the Bible characters by heart. And every day she’d me tell me all about what God had done in her life… and in mine. It was because my mother loved God that I came to love Jesus the same way she did.
It should be the dream of every Godly mother (and all the rest of us) to be so in love in Jesus that the children we come in contact with can sense how much He means to us… and that they want Him in their lives too.
INVITATION
