May 4 I Wednesday

1 Kings 16-18

Luke 22:47-71

“To the woman He said,‘…Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’”    —Genesis 3:16

The first man and woman were given one command: “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:17). Determined to destroy God’s work, Satan appeared to Eve and mocked this command. He said to Eve that eating the fruit would make them wise, knowing good and evil like God, so Eve took it and ate it. Scripture says, “She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it” (Genesis 3:6).

      God then asked Adam if he had eaten from the forbidden tree, to which Adam responded, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it” (Genesis 3:12). In other words, “Don’t ask me! This is her fault, and if not hers, then Yours, since You gave her to me.” This was an unjustifiable response for two reasons. Firstly, God gave the command not to eat the forbidden fruit to Adam, not to Eve though Adam did tell her. It was his role to protect and provide for her. Yet, he neither intervened nor resisted, but became an active participant by eating the fruit.

      Secondly, Eve had been deceived. The devil spoke with half-truths, casting doubt, which were convincing enough to make Eve choose Satan’s falsehood over God’s truth. Adam refused to take responsibility, passing the blame to Eve. About this moment, Pastor John Piper preaches, “There you have the beginning of all domestic violence, all wife abuse, all rape, all sexual slurs, all the ways of belittling woman whom God created in His own image.”

      God did not impose the judgment of Genesis 3:16 on marriage as a corrective action, nor was it part of His original created order. Rather, the judgment exposes sin’s consequence in marriage. Because of this first act of disobedience, wives will be vulnerable to their husbands, which has become the pattern of fallen humanity where the law of the jungle operates, and in their sin, men have come to dominate women.

      The devil’s goal is to destroy every good work of God, including marriage, but the purpose of the Son of God is to destroy the works of the devil. The fall broke gender relationships, but being in Christ restores unity and equality between men and women both in marriage and in other personal relationships. Christ does this by first reconciling us to God and then to each other through the process of sanctification, which enables us to live rightly before God. Much was broken in the fall, but in Christ the brokenness of all relationships now has the possibility of being restored.

Prayer: Gracious God, thank You for Jesus Christ who came to restore broken relationships. Forgive me for the times I have caused strain in my relationships, and grant me the humility to seek reconciliation with those whom I have hurt. In Jesus’s name, amen!