BOOK STUDY: Twelve Extraordinary Women / Chapter 1, Part 2

I got pretty lengthy on Monday with the first post about Chapter 1.  From now on, I'll choose TWO topics from each chapter and write a couple of paragraphs for each post.  I will probably still divide each chapter into two sections every week since they are about 20 pages long. The intent is for you to read with me and discover what is mostly impressed upon you as you read.  I am just emphasizing what is interesting or special to me.  There is quite a bit of content in each chapter and since a thorough study and workbook have been written by John MacArthur himself, there's no need to duplicate.

Chapter 1, pages 15-27

Sometime that stood out to me that I had not noticed in reading Genesis, that there was a good deal of grace given by God, even in the curse.  John MacArthur comments:

...Eve might have been made subject to the serpent to whom she had foolishly acquiesced.  But instead, she remained under the headship of her husband, who loved her.  She might have been utterly destroyed, or made to wander alone in a world where survival would have been difficult.  Instead, she was permitted to remain with Adam who would continue to care for her and provide for her.  Although their relationship would now have tensions that did not exist in Eden, she remained Adam's partner.  Even though she might have justly been made an outcast and a pariah, she retained her role as a wife.  In the worst case, Eve might have even been forbidden to bear children.  Instead, although the experience would be painful and accompanied by sorrow, Eve would still be the mother of all living...the promise that Eve would still bear children mitigated every other aspect of the curse...a ray of hope for the whole human race.

Wow.  I had never really considered what might have become of Eve.  It was always just a "given" that she would continue living with Adam and life would go on.  I suppose God could have made another wife for Adam just as easily as he did the first one. The story of Adam and Eve is so familiar that it  would sound strange being Adam and Elizabeth or Adam and Rebecca, etc.     Eve would have been the first example of a "throw-away" relationship instead of the mother of all the living.  Thankfully, we do not have that as a role model from the beginning.  Instead, we have a couple whom God kept together through thick and thin.

Our daily choices...how much they affect others in ways we sometimes do not realize. We  can't second guess ourselves in every situation.  I'm sure Eve wasn't even thinking that eating an apple might affect her children for generations.  What she didn't see was that eating the apple was actually disobeying  and doubting God.  What apples / choices are we eating today that we have not pondered and prayed about the future consequences, good or bad?  Even if we make a bad choice, God still gives grace to those who love Him and continues to work things our for our good as He did for Eve.  A little foresight, wise counsel and submission to authority, however, might avoid some of the bad choices we might make.  For me, I prefer to be cautious and careful before making a decision.  Some decisions can be changed and/or the consequences are brief; some, you (and others) live with for a lifetime.

NEXT WEEK:  Sarah--Hoping Against Hope