Word of Salvation – Vol.12 No.46 – November 1966

 

Adam Who Changes The Name Of His Wife

Sermon by Rev. K. Kramer on Genesis 3:20

Scripture Readings: 1Cor.11:3-12; Gen. 3:8-20

Text: Gen.3:20

Suggested Hymns:

Psalter Hymnal: 200, 397, 344:2, 342:1,2,3.

 

Beloved Congregation,

Considering the Old Testament stories we should be guided by what we are told by the New Testament about revelation of God’s grace in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Of course, this does not mean that such stories do not count, or that it is not important to know what those people experienced whose names are mentioned in the Old Testament.   On the contrary!  But we should realize that by what they experienced the Lord revealed the power and the greatness of His grace in some way or another.  Even in the Old Testament stories there is a revelation of Jesus Christ, though it is often hidden among the experiences of those about whom we read in the Old Testament.  Keeping this in mind, and preparing ourselves for a God-glorifying Christmas celebration we want to listen this morning to the message of the Word of God about Adam, who changed the Name of his wife.

We consider that by it he gave evidence that he humbled : himself before the Lord, and that he put his trust in the promise of the Lord,

It will be clear, brethren and sisters, that the name Eve, which means mother of all living, is closely connected with the promise of the Lord, the so-called maternal promise, that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the seed of the serpent.

The fact however that Adam gave this name to his wife… immediately after God’s promise that He himself would bring salvation, makes it necessary first to consider what preceded the fall into sin and what followed it.  In order to understand why Adam changed his wife’s name we have to start with her first name.

Well, her first name was Woman, for we read: 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.

So why was it that Adam called his wife Woman?  Well because she was created out of man.  Man and Woman.

In this name-giving Adam himself played a big part.  Just as we usually call our children after the name of one of our relatives so Adam called his wife after himself.  Not of course because he felt himself that important or something like that, but because he fully realized that she was created by the Lord in order to be his partner.

You know that Adam first was called to give names to all cattle, to the birds and to every beast of the field.  By it he discovered that they had been created two by two, male and female.

And it was exactly this that Adam realized when the Lord God brought Eve unto him.  She was his better half, in every respect his equal, spiritually as well as physically.  He immediately understood that both of them expressly had been created that way that they, who were two, would become one.

The fact however that Adam called his wife Woman because she had been taken out of Man also implies that he fully realized that the Lord wanted him to be the head of his wife, the head of the whole human race, from which it follows that we do not but have to do here with a name-giving without more, but with a clear evidence that it is according to the will of God that the head of a woman is her husband, as the head of every man is Christ.  By giving his wife the name Woman, Adam expressed his sure known ledge that it was God’s will that a woman should be subject to her husband,

In this name-giving we see the high position Adam possessed in Paradise even in relation to his wife.  He the elder, she the younger!  He the image and glory of God, she the glory of man!  He, not created for her, but she created for him!  He made by God, she flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones!

Thus it was in the beginning, and thus it was according to the will of God.

It will be clear, brethren and sisters that this situation did not have any unfavourable effect on the relationship between Adam and Eve.  No, Eve did not have any trouble in recognizing Adam as her legal head, either in accepting his authority over her, or in taking the second place for herself.  Such foolish thought can only come into the head of sinful people!

Be sure the authority Adan had over Eve was rather a blessing than a burden, for their relationship towards each other was entirely determined by the perfect love of the one to the other and by their strong desire to be obedient to the Lord in all things.

But then the fall into sin took place, by which this happy state suddenly came to an end.  Mutual love turned into sinful egoism.  Self-interest came in the place of love.  The authority that Adam was given by the Lord was misused by blaming his wife for his own sin: the woman whom Thou hast given me to be with me she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate.

And what about Eve?

Without the knowledge of her husband she went and talked with the serpent.  That was open revolt against the authority of her husband.  She no longer wanted to recognize the relation between husband and wife as the Lord wanted it to be.  She wanted to stand on her own feet, to decide by herself, even to such an extent that she did not mind to pull her husband after herself into the abyss of rebellion against the most High.

As if they were strangers to each other they tried to hide themselves behind each other.  They no longer spoke up for each other, they no longer stepped into the breach for each other, which would have been quite normal, but they resorted to criminations and recriminations.  The uniting power of being one flesh was severed for ever.  They became strangers to each other, both of them going their own way. 

But then the Lord said to the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head and you shall bruise its heel.”

This was, brethren and sisters the first Gospel-preaching in a sinful world, the joyful message of grace and mercy for a world that was lost.  In the darkness of sin and misery the Lord Himself put on the Light of His mercy, the Light of His saving grace: a Saviour would come and He would conquer the power of sin.  He would restore everything that had been broken by sin.

However in this well-known maternal promise not only the promise of the Lord, that sin and misery would not have the last say in this world, stands to the fore, but also in what way this promise would be fulfilled.  Eve was appointed to be the woman, who would bear the promised seed, while, – and this is very important, while Adam’s name was not even mentioned.  Does that imply that Adam was rejected by God more than Eve?  By no means, for we surely do not owe this promise to Adam or Eve; or to Eve alone.  On the contrary.  They themselves had no act or part in it whatsoever.  We owe this promise only to God’s sovereign pleasure to interfere in this sinful world by Himself.  Adam and Eve did not even repent, or ask for forgiveness.  They did not even ask whether there was a way out by which they might escape from the punishment of sin.  They themselves were completely ruled out.  It was the Lord Himself Who in His free pleasure took the floor and said, as if it were a proclamation: I will, I and no one else, I will put enmity between you and her, and your head shall be bruised by her seed, for I the Lord have spoken it.

The fact that Eve was involved indeed, in the coming work of salvation did not have anything to do with Eve herself.  We should say, rather that behind God’s decision to save the world by Himself God’s justice lies not to punish somebody else for the sin man committed, than that we should think of a more or less compromising attitude towards Eve.  By saying that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the seed of the woman, the Lord maintained His justice in promising the victory over sin through the power of His grace, to be realized by the Son of Man, because man himself” was to restore his relationship with God.  In this maternal promise there is a full revelation of the love of God, but also of His justice.  Indeed the Lord is merciful and full of compassion, but He is also just and holy.

Already in Paradise, immediately after the fall into sin, the Lord revealed Himself as being not only merciful but also just and it is most important to see this.  For otherwise we shall never understand why the name of Eve was mentioned and not the name of Adam.  Already in Paradise the secret of the incarnation that the Word would become flesh: conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, was revealed.  As Joseph was ruled out when Jesus was born and Mary accepted by the Lord, not because she was better than Joseph, but only because the Lord Himself elected her to be the mother of Jesus, so in Paradise already Adam was neglected and Eve adopted to be the mother of the promised seed.

This does involve however, that the Lord wanted to make use of the marriage of Adam and Eve, and of the many marriages after that to realize the work of redemption and to fulfil the promise about the coming Saviour.  And that means that the Lord immediately restored the broken unity of the marriage between Adam and Eve by what He promised them.  Both of them were about to sever the unity of their marriage completely.  The one blamed the other for his own faults, and both of them wished to go their own way.  The Lord however brought them together again by promising that from them would come forth One Who would be ruler in Israel.  The promised child in Paradise appeared already to be the Restorer of a marriage of which the unity between husband and wife was in danger of being ruptured completely.  They who were about to become strangers to each other were reunited by the promise of the Lord about the seed of the woman.

Then Adam called his wife’s name Eve, mother of all living, by which he clearly proved to realize what was at stake.  Only by the Lord Himself, only by an act of mercy could be restored what he and his wife had broken in pieces.  Only when the Lord Himself interfered sin and the result of sin would be brought to an end.  He, who knew himself to be the head of creation, the first one and the elder, he who had been called to give guidance to this world, he now entirely depended on some one else.  He who had been allowed to have dominion over all the earth, and to reign in this world like a king, must now rely on what someone else wanted to do.  Suddenly he realized that by his disobedience he had become a beggar who but could hold up his hand.  Suddenly he realized that the glory he possessed had ceased and that in future he was to eat the bread of charity.

That was why he could no longer call his wife Woman.  He himself did not count anymore.  He himself was a good-for-nothing-fellow, who by his wilful disobedience deprived himself and all his posterity of any good.  He therefore did not longer call his wife after himself, but grasped God’s promise with both hands.  He realized that his wife had been elected by God to co-operate in the fulfilment of God’s promise that the Lord Himself would come and take away every sin.  He himself was no longer the man on whom his wife depended; he was nothing, and he could not do anything for her.  He fully realized that he was not able to prevent her from perishing everlastingly, for he himself also forfeited everything.  He could not reconcile her to God, for he himself was guilty of having transgressed the Lord’s commandment,

In this way Adam humbled himself, calling his wife Eve, a name which was based upon the promise of the Lord, in which he put his steadfast trust.  “Eve, for she was the mother of all living!”  She was the woman by whom the Lord Himself would save him.  Honestly he admitted that no good was to be expected from him.  It was but the promised child, of whom his wife would be the mother, from whom salvation was to be expected.  Convinced of his own condemnation, he took refuge with a believing heart in the child to come, He, he should have been the father of all living, the father of all mankind, but he honestly confessed that eternal life was only secured by the Lord Himself, Who would make use of his wife in the line of many generations.  With firm confidence he put his trust in the promise of the Lord Who had clearly shown himself willing to hear the needy when they cry and save their souls when death drats nigh.

“Eve, mother of all living”, for it is out of thee that shall be born the true Mediator between God and Man, Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man.

By this story we are clearly told, brethren and sisters how to prepare ourselves for Christmas.  We should give full attention to the Child itself, for this whole story is centred round this one fact that the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the seed of the serpent.

Christmas!  It is and remains the feast of the fulfilment of the promise the Lord has given to our first parents in Paradise.  It is the feast of the coming of the seed of the woman, about which the Lord already has spoken to Adam and Eve at the beginning of the history of this world.

What do we think of this child?  That is the question we have to answer at Christmas.  Do we accept it as the visible sign and seal of the fulfilment of God’s promise that He Himself would bring salvation?

Do we truly believe that in the night of Bethlehem the Almighty God came down from heaven to save us?

Do we truly believe that by this child the Lord has taken away from us all our sins, and delivered us from the power of the devil?  But how can I know this?

By humbling ourselves before the Lord, by confessing our sins and by putting our trust in the promise of the Gospel that this child has been given us as a gift of grace and as a sure pledge of the forgiveness of our sins,

To Adam there was no other way to be saved but by humbling himself before God and by relying upon His promise.  But after so many centuries there is still no other solution to the problem of sin and salvation but by accepting the gift of grace by true faith in deep humility and with firm confidence

And everyone who goes to Bethlehem that way, he surely shall find peace and happiness, joy and gladness, and eternal life, for He who promises is faithful and He will do it!

Amen.