Where to begin?

Okay so I was thinking about where to being with this blog. I thought about starting in Proverbs 31 were we get out first juicy information about Godly femininity, or Titus 2 about our womenly mandate, or even with big "submission" word. I thought about it and talked to my husband and I think I am going to start at the very beginning with Eve. Make since right, we are starting, so let's start at the beginning.

To understand what we are as women we need to understand who we are as human beings ans as sinners. So we will start in Genesis Chapter 3. I am going to work from the ESV translation of the bible because I like it the most. It tends to be easier to read, and it is a good translation of the greek bible. I am going to skip the parts that are relevate to our discussion. Here is what it says,

" ...He (the serpent) said to the woman, "Did God actually say, "You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?" and the woman said to the serpent "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, "You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither sall you touch it, lest you die" But the serpent said to the woman, "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. 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. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked..." Vs 1a-7a

First let's deal with this. We have all heard this story. When we think of this fruit we usually think of a nice shiny apple right? I kind of do at least. Because of this we usually see the apple as a sysmbol of danger or evil in literature. It isn't really a bad thing. We sometimes can miss the point of the tree because we see a piece of fruit. There was noting magical about the fruit. There was absolutly nothing specail about it, except the fact that God told them not to eat it. Do you see? The "magical" part of the fruit that changed Adam and Eve, was the fact that they disobeied God and ate it. The two first human beings were made in God's image. Sinless! When He presented a choice to them, to eat or not to eat, they then did wrong, and then knew what sin was. Another thing that we hear all the time about this story is that men say, "It was Eve's fault that we are the way we are, because she ate the fruit first." Gentelmen, look up again, it says, "and ate, and also gave some to her husband who was WITH HER.." Adam was beside her. He was there, do we ever hear of him jumping in and saying, "Hey snake, we aren't doing that?". He wasn't decieved by Eve and didn't know what he was eating. He was with her and took part of the fruit himself. Sorry guys, not our fault. It's both genders fault!

Okay here is the next section we will deal with, the punishment from God for their sin, the one that affects us all,

"...Because you (the serpent) have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beast of the fields; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 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.
To the women 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."

Okay this is our punishment in so many different ways. One we can all say that they were now sinners because they went against God's rules. We all now are born into sin, becuase Adam and Eve gave birth to all of us. So we don't get to be born without sin, and know oh it feels to never sin. Oh but that's not all of our punishment. First, we see that we are going to have some problems with snakes. Right? Well that's what God says. Yes not all women have issues with snakes and yes some women even work with snakes, but are we still caution with them more than any beast of the fields, or livestock? I am! This snake was not just a snake. It was satin. He came to change God's plan. However, we know that God is all knowing and in control of all things. He knew what would happen. Satin didn't change a thing. So when the curse says that the offspring of the women and the snake with bruise each other, it is because we as humans will battle with Satin all the time, and we will win sometimes, and we will fail sometimes. Also we were punished with pain in childbirth. Okay so I have no idea how that feels, not looking forward to it either, but we also have another after effect of this, we have menstrations. That hurts! That sucks, and we have to deal with it most of our lives. We are constantly reminded of the pain to come! Now this next thing is important. "your desire shall be for you husband, and he shall rule over you." The desire that we see here is not a sexual one, but one of control and sin. According to John MacArthur's study bible he says, "Just as the women and her seed will engagein a war with the serpent, i.e,., Satin and his seed (vs 15), because of sin and the cruse, the man and the woman will face struggles in their own relationship. Sin has turned th harmonious system of God-ordained roles into distateful struggles of self-will. Lifelong companions, husband and wives, will need God's help in getting along as a result. The woman's desire will be to lord it over her husband, but the husband will rule by DIVINE design (Ephsians 5:22-25). This interpretation of the curse is based upon the identical Hebrew words and grammar being used in 4:7 (If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you don't not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.)to show the conflict man will have with sin as it seeks to rule him."

Women, we are called to fall under the decisions of our husbands, but God made us to not want to do that. Do you see now why the world has it wrong? Because the world doesn't know God, then they don't understand that that frustration that we get, and the "Godgiven" right to be able to be in charge, is from Him. That's why it is so important that we choose the right man to marry, because we HAVE to follow his leadership. Now, in marriage they are one flesh so there is not a disrespect factor here, or one ruling over the other, they are one person. (I will talk about this later).

I hope this has been insightful. I really enjoyed studying it!