Eve's Redemption

Tuesday, January 5, 2010


Eve was created to be Adam's helpmeet, his ezer kenegdo, his strong helper, his life saver. But it was Eve who was deceived by Satan, who took of the fruit, who offered it to Adam.

Adam's life saver offered him death instead of life.

And she is blamed for this, for the entrance of sin and death into the world, and her daughters are blamed for this. She is abused and rejected and dominated and subjected and devalued by Adam.

But where Adam blames Eve, the woman God gave him to be his help, God held Adam responsible for his own choice, and in Adam, all man is under sin. All who are born of his seed are born into his death.

How devastated Eve must have been! She had betrayed Adam, succumbed to Satan's deception, failed at the thing for which she had been created. She was a life saver who had invited death for her husband. I live with this sense of inadequacy every day.

This Christmas season, as I was preparing to give birth to my son, as I visited and revisited Mary's experience, I discovered something more than Eve's failure. It was in Mary that Eve finally met her full potential, finally realized the reason for which she had been created.

In Mary, Eve delivered the Son of the Holy Spirit, slain before the foundation of the world for Adam's sin. She birthed Jesus, the second Adam, God-in-the-flesh who would not only save her, but who would be her husband's salvation.

Through the pain-filled birth of a baby, by the sword of death that pierced her heart as she watched her God-Son die in Adam's stead, Eve found her redemption.

Eve had failed, and miserably - but God... Ezer kenegdo indeed...

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Tomorrow: Related thoughts on Adam... (Because Pete and I got to talking, and I wanted this to be a short post... Maybe I'll make Pete guest post - or at least take the credit for his train of thought here!)

And you just must forgive the continued use of baby pictures here. I've got a one-track mind behind the camera right now.





(Image © Informal Moments Photography)

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Kelly-

This is beautiful. If you don't mind, I'd love to link to this on my blog...the feelings you say you struggle with are what I feel so strongly often!

Kelly Sauer said...

Sure, mandigirl - that's fine! So glad it spoke to you!

Emily said...

Kelly,
You should read "The Lies Women Believe and The Truth That Set Them Free." (I know you probably don't have a lot of time for that, considering you just had an adorable baby boy!), But it's a very powerful book, and makes many references to Eve and her sin struggle, and how we all relate to her with our sin struggle. Lot's of Truth in it!

Lyla Lindquist said...

I love those little toes. Keep posting all of those wee ones of yours you want. Can't see where anybody here would mind.

Eve...I don't like to see her as experiencing redemption. I really don't. That's part me being flat out graceless, and part me wanting a shot at her. I blame her for far too much, and I plan to take her out back one day. :)

But seriously for a second, you've lit something up here, and I think you're right on the mark. Eve did fail miserably at the only thing she was here to do. (But when I'm honest I know I'd have done no less a bang-up job had I gone nose to nose with a wily serpent.) And yet God saw fit to still work His plan through her, generations later, head crushing and heel striking while Mary experienced that pain we know so well, yet cannot imagine.

That was a ramble. My apologies. As a friend tells me often, "it made sense in my head." I look forward to the Adam side of this.

L.L. Barkat said...

What always struck me about the passage was that they were *both* there. "She gave some to her husband who was with her."

Who offered who death?

My dad has this interesting thought that it was also the opposite... that Adam in fact was involved in a little experimentation... will she die if she eats the fruit? If so I won't eat it. If not...

Hmmmm....

Anonymous said...

Great insights! This has never crossed my mind before but is so true. Thank you for sharing!

Corinne Cunningham said...

I actually just read through the first parts of Genesis the other night, and Eve has stayed in my mind. How can she not?
Thank you for posting this, and for the interesting thoughts.

Emily said...

I think what the story of The Fall helps us to realize, is our need for our Savior. That we, can not, save ourselves. And that when left up to our own fleshly desires, we will ultimately choose death....sin death. But, like Eve, we are all given a choice of redemption. Thankfully through a virgin birth, and a painful death, Christ chose to redeem us. Yes, there are consequences for our sin...for Eve's sin. Her own son killed her other son...b/c of sin. The enemy is set out to kill, steal, and destroy. And he is very successful at it. As a woman, I cannot look at where Adam failed, blaming him for not stopping Eve. I have to look at my own sinful heart, and daily lay down myself, my desires at the cross....where they are washed away with the cleansing blood. I must become less....and HE must become more.

Anne Lang Bundy said...

Beautiful tie in between Eve and Mary. I loved this post. I'm not the least bit disappointed that I have to wait longer to hear about Adam, since I'm late to read about Eve.

And as profound as your photos are, you needn't apologize for a one of them.

Carrie said...

Wow, this is beautiful - I never thought of that connection! Thanks for sharing!

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