Mother’s Day: Eve
Scott Bayles, pastor
Scripture: Genesis 3-4
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 5/14/2017
Good morning, welcome to the Grove and Happy Mother’s Day!
If anyone deserves a celebration, it’s Mom! And today at the Grove we’re happy to celebrate all the special women in our lives. So whether you are a mom or hope to someday be a mom or just have a mom, we’re glad you’re here and my prayer is that worshipping here at the Grove this morning will not only encourage Mom’s heart, but inspire the rest of the family as well.
My wife told me several days ago that all she wanted for Mother’s Day was a nice long nap. I think there are a lot of moms that can sympathize with that request. Mother’s Day should be a day for Mom to rest and recuperate from all her motherly duties.
ILL. I’m reminded of two kids who told mother that they would handle all the cooking on Mother's Day. Well three pots, two skillets, four mixing bowls, eleven spoons, five measuring cups and one whole roll of paper towels later Mom said, “That was the best Jell-O I ever had!”
Let’s face it...without our Moms, we'd be a disaster! When you scraped your knee, had a rough day at school, or needed advice, she was always there to give you a hug and listen with love. Moms play an important role in our lives and they also play an important role in the Bible. The Canon of Scripture is a roll call of great (and some not-so-great) moms.
It all begins in the book of Genesis with the very first mom—Eve. The very name, Eve, means mother. The Bible says, “Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live” (Genesis 3:20 NLT). Eve’s not just a mom; she’s the mom. She’s your mom and my mom. She’s the mother of whole human race. But her story is not too dissimilar from most of yours. It is a story of love and loss, failure and forgiveness. A story of a fragmented family and a mom struggling to figure this whole parenting thing out.
So, if you have a Bible or an app on your phone, I’d like to invite you to open up to the book of Genesis. We’ll look at parts of chapter three and four as I highlight three relatable and relevant pieces of Eve’s story.
The first piece of her story I’d like to touch on—and probably the part she’s known best for—is her sin.
• HER SIN
I’m sure you know the story. Adam and Eve lived in this perfect paradise that God built for them—the Garden of Eden. They enjoyed a uniquely profound communion and connection with God. Everything was wonderful. God gave them only one rule: Don’t eat the fruit from the tree in the middle of the Garden. But then came the serpent.
Satan—either possessing a serpent or posing as one—targeted Eve. He persuaded her that God wouldn’t really punish her for eating the fruit and that in eating it, she would become like God himself, knowing good and evil.
The Bible says, “The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it” (Genesis 3:6 NLT).
Eve has gone down in history as the woman who made THE monumental, mind-blowing, affects-everybody forever mistake. And she’s never lived it down.
ILL. I’m pretty sure this story’s not in the Bible, but… One day Adam was out hunting with his two boys and came up to the Garden of Eden where he and Eve had been kicked out for eating the forbidden fruit. Adam stared at the Garden and one of his boys said, “Daddy, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” Adam chocked back a tear and said, “Boys, that is the Garden of Eden right there…that’s where we used to live until Mommy ate us out of house and home!”
ILL. Someone once asked, “If Eve sacrificed the future of the whole human race for an apple, what would she do for a Klondike Bar?”
The truth is—Eve’s sin was serious. The lies of the serpent and the promise of momentary gratification caused her to throw everything away and defy the God who created her and cared for her. Her sin changed everything. It set off a chain reaction that affected her children, her children’s children and every generation since.
But let’s be honest. Would you or I have done any better? Have we done better? First of all, throughout Scripture it’s really Adam who’s held responsible for Eve’s sin. But we’ll get to his side of the story on Father’s Day. The reality is—all of us make mistakes. The Bible reminds us, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 NIV).
None of us are perfect. None of us are even close. Unfortunately, a lot of moms feel like they should be. It’s called Perfect Mom Syndrome. The symptoms include comparison with other moms, a sense of failure, judgmental attitudes, fearfulness, joyless performance of duties, incessant chasing of new activities, and a weary and worn heart. Perfect Mom Syndrome consists of moments of elation: I’m a good mom because I cook healthier meals than she does! It also consists of moments of despair: I’m such a failure. How does she get her children to two sports and violin practice? You vacillate between judging others and judging yourselves, the pressure to perform builds like a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode.
If you have ever forgotten to pick up your kids from soccer practice, accidentally worn two different shoes to the grocery store, or lost your cool over a messy house, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Eve was as close to perfect as any mom will ever be—and she still fell short. The good new is—when we are at our worst, God is at his best! Yes, Eve experienced the consequences for her sin, but she also experienced God’s matchless grace. God made a sacrifice on Eve’s behalf and made clothes for her and Adam from animal skins. He also promised to someday send a Savior who would not only put Satan in his place, but right every wrong.
So the best thing mom (or any of us) can do when we blow it big time is confess our faults and failures to God, embrace his wonderful forgiveness, and keep moving forward. I think that’s what Eve would tell us.
The next chapter in Eve’s story highlights her struggles.
• HER STRUGGLES
After leaving the garden, life got hard and Eve got pregnant. She eventually gave birth to two bouncing baby boys—Cain and his younger brother Abel.
Don’t forget Adam and Eve had other kids too. God commanded them to “be fruitful and multiply,” so Adam and Eve had lots of kids and likely had a few girls in between Cain and Abel. These were just the first two boys.
When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain became a farmer. One day when they went to worship the Lord, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to God and Abel presented the best portion of the firstborn lambs from his flock. God accepted Abel and his gift, but he didn’t accept Cain and his gift. Cain became angry and jealous. And it was written all over his face.
So God pulled Cain aside and said, “Why are you so angry? Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master” (Genesis 4:6-7 NLT).
God’s warning went unheeded and, the Bible says, “One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Let’s go out into the fields.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him” (Genesis 4:8 NLT).
This story highlights two struggles that Eve faced as a mother.
First, she had two boys who didn’t get along. I think a lot of moms can relate.
ILL. One little boy, after hearing the story of Cain and Abel in Sunday school, said, “Maybe Cain wouldn’t kill Abel so much if they had their own rooms. It worked for me and my brother!”
Eve may have been the first mom whose kids didn’t get along, but she certainly wasn’t the last. I can tell you, there are times when it seems like my kids are constantly bickering and arguing amongst themselves. Sometimes our home feels like a battle zone. Anybody else been there?
Sibling rivalry (whether emotional, physical, or verbal) is universal and as old as time. While we don’t want our kids turning out like Cain and Abel, conflict is a normal part of life. The most important thing we can do when our kids are arguing and angry is stay calm and cool ourselves. It’s easier said than done, but to best help your family with sibling squabbles, you must teach your children to communicate their complaints, gripes, and grumps about each other appropriately. You may have to help them self-regulate, or manage their emotions.
Second, and even more seriously, Eve was the first mom to have to bury her child. Sadly, she’s not the only one. The loss of a child is the most devastating experience a parent can face and missing the child never goes away. A piece of yourself is lost and your future is forever changed. It feels completely unnatural for a child to die before his or her parents. Many grieving parents question whether life will hold any meaning for them and wonder how they will survive the pain of their loss. Parents describe the feeling as having a hole in their heart that will never heal.
There’s no quick fix or simple solution for these kinds of struggles. But in his letter to the Corinthians, Paul emphasizes that even in the midst of the great trials in our lives we can and should lean on God. He writes, “We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9 NLT).
Every parent—every person—experiences struggles, stress and sorrow. Eve teaches us to hang in there, stand firm, fight the good fight and fully rely on God. Our children are too precious to do anything less.
Finally, in addition to her sin and her struggles, the last piece of Eve’s story highlights her salvation.
• HER SALVATION
In the midst of her heartache God gave Eve renewed hope. The Bible says that Eve became pregnant yet again shortly after Abel’s death. She gave birth to a son and, the Bible says, “She named him Seth, for she said, “God has granted me another son in place of Abel, whom Cain killed” (Genesis 4:25 NLT).
While no one could take the place of Abel, Eve experienced love and joy again in her new baby boy. And she praised God for him.
The Bible says, “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him” (Psalm 127:3 NLT). Eve may never have read this verse, but she knew it by heart. Moms, rejoice in your kids! They grow up so fast, don’t they? No matter what stage of life your kids are in—toddlers, teens or twenties—we ought to rejoice and savor each moment of it.
Eve had even more reason to rejoice than most. Remember God promised to send a Savior through one of Eve’s offspring. Even though Seth wasn’t the promised one, he did bring Eve and the whole world one generation closer to Jesus. It was through Seth’s lineage that Jesus would eventually be born. And not only that, but Seth brought his whole family closer to God.
In the very next verse Seth is all grown up, and the Bible says something intriguing: “At that time people first began to worship the Lord by name” (Genesis 4:26 NLT). Back in the Garden, God never told Adam and Eve his name, but he told Seth. Seth knew God—Yahweh—even better than his parents. Moms, isn’t this our highest aim for our children? For them to know God even better than we do? To walk in warm fellowship with him and worship him with a radiant face?
Conclusion
Eve had a lot of ups and downs. She went from paradise to punishment to parent to pallbearer to praise-filled. Life—especially motherhood—is full of similar ups and down.
Like Eve we all sin—and sometimes have to live with the consequences of those sins. We all struggle—parenthood is fraught with headaches and heartaches. But thankfully we can all experience salvation—because of Jesus, Eve’s long awaited promised son, we can know God personally and worship him by name.
Invitation
I’d like to close with a special prayer for the moms here today. Pray with me.
Heavenly Father,
We want to lift up the mothers of our church, our community and country before you today. We pray for new mothers, coming to terms with new responsibility; for expectant mothers, wondering and waiting; for mothers who are tired, stressed or depressed; for mothers who struggle to balance the tasks of work and family; for mothers whose children have physical, mental or emotional disabilities; for mothers who raise children on their own; for mothers who have lost a child; for foster moms and adoptive moms; for mothers whose children have left home; and for those whose desire to be a mother has not been fulfilled. Bless all mothers, that their love may be deep and tender, and that they may lead their children to know and love you. Help each one of them, Lord, to overcome the sin and struggles in their lives and to experience your wonderful salvation.
In the name of your precious Son,
Amen.
