Let
us first look at the story of Adam.
Well we know the cause of the downfall of Adam’s firstborn. “Ye shall be as gods”, had been then
Tempter’s promise to Eve, and Eve and her husband had both fallen. And just what was the cause of their fall? Disobedience. Disobedience to the clear Word of God. Deliberate disobedience to the clear Word of God that they well
knew, and thoroughly understood. And we may be assured that disobedience to
that Word, even though it may seem to ease our path here, will bring sorrow,
not only to ourselves, but sorrow, and perhaps ruin, to our children.
Perhaps
DISOBEDIENCE, the first cause of ruin brought before us, still holds the first
place as the most general cause of the wreckage of Christian homes. May I beseech you, as you love your Master,
as you love your children, to render a full, a hearty obedience, a loving and
an instant obedience, to the Word of God.
It is our only safe pathway down here.
But
what was the cause of the disobedience of our first parents? I suppose the first cause was the doubt cast
by the serpent on that Word. “Yea, Hath
God said?” May the Lord Himself keep you, in these days when it is fashionable
to doubt His Word, may He keep you with such an unshakable confidence in it,
that nothing may ever in the smallest way disturb that faith.
How firm a foundation, Ye saints of the
Lord
Is laid for your faith in His excellent
word!
There
are certain things we are to flee from.
“Flee also youthful lusts.”
(II Timothy 2:22.) “Flee from
idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10:14). “Flee fornication” (I Corinthians 6:18).
“Thou, O man of God, flee these things” (I Timothy 6:11). But, as far as I know, we are never told to
flee from the devil. On the contrary we
read: “Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you.” (James 4:7). I believe there is never a doubt cast on the
Word of God that does not have the devil for its author. Resist him, and he
will flee from you.
But
as we saw, there was a special bait offered to Eve to make her disobey. “Ye shall be as gods”. He offers to Eve a higher place than the one
God had given. Do we not see exactly the
same effort being made by parents on every hand? Are not most people seeking to obtain a higher place in the world,
if not for themselves, at least for their children?
Sad
to say, Christian parents are not free from this same device of the enemy to
cast us down and our families. On every hand we see it. Our parents were
contented with a cottage; we must have a fine house. Our parents were contented to travel on foot; we must have a
motorcar. Our parents were content with rag mats; we must have beautiful and
costly rugs and carpets. You tell me
times have changed. True, they
have. “There were giants in the earth” in
our parents’ day, in the things of God; but in our day, weaklings.
It
is the same complaint that Adam had. It
has even been caricatured in the daily press: who has not seen or heard of “keeping up with our neighbors”? It amused us when it should have warned us,
for we, too, often are tempted to “keep up” with our neighbors, and
acquaintances. We cannot bear to be
thought different; and yet God in His mercy has made a difference, we are
different. I believe that the failure
to remember this difference, this desire on the part of Cain’s parents to be in
a higher station than the one in which God had placed them was one of the
causes of Cain’s ruin, and Abel’s death.
The
New Testament gives us a little more light on this subject: “Wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil and his
brother’s righteous.” (1 John
3:12.) He was jealous of his brother,
and “who is able to stand before envy?” (Proverbs 27:4). Envy has brought down many a saint of
God. It would well repay you to take
your Bibles, and a good concordance, and see just what the Lord has to say
about envy; but look not at one passage only, “Where envying and strife is,
there is confusion and every evil work” (James 3:16). Yes, it was envy at the root of Cain’s murder. It is envy that makes us seek a higher place
in the world than the one God gave us.
So, my dear ones, earnestly take heed to lay aside all envies. (1 Peter 2:1).
As
Eve plucked that forbidden fruit, how little did she think of the
unspeakably bitter fruit she was preparing for herself, fruit that was
to take two sons from her in one blow. And how lightly and carelessly we may
indulge in some known sin that may bring years of sorrow and anguish to
ourselves and to our children. So take
heed!
But
there is another hint given us that all was not as it should have been in
Adam’s household. We gather from
Genesis 4:1 that it was Eve who gave Cain his name. This may be quite in accord with modern practice, but we fear it
is quite contrary to God’s order. It seems
like a straw which tells which way the wind blew in Adam’s house. You remember
it was Eve who led the way to Adam’s fall, and apparently Eve continued to lead
in that first household. But when we
come to Seth in Genesis 5:3 we find things had changed. “And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years
and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name
Seth.” Adam and Eve had learned their
lesson and we find Adam in his right place.
And
what was that place? What was Eve’s
right place in that first “home”? I
suppose that on the one hand 1 Peter 3:4-6 answers this question for us, “the
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great
price. For after this manner in the old
time the holy women who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection
to their own husbands: even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.” And on the other hand it is the young women,
the young wives and mothers, you dear ones to whom I am writing, who are “to
guide the house.” (1 Timothy
5:14.) The Greek word is especially
interesting. It is the only place in
the New Testament where it is used, and literally translated, I suppose, would
read, “Be the house-mistress.” It is
one single word, a verb. The
corresponding noun is used twelve times (all in the first three Gospels, and
always of the father) and is translated “House-master”, “Goodman of the house”, etc.
The thought in the verse in Timothy has been beautifully paraphrased
this: “It implies a queenly
sovereignty, and would not put aside the kingly sovereignty of the house-master
himself.” Rather as king and queen do
they rule together in the little domain God has entrusted to their care.
And
perhaps we see something of this unity of mind and action in connection with
the baby Seth: for in Genesis 4:25, it would appear to be Eve who again took
the lead in naming the child, while in chapter 5:3 we find the same words used
of Adam.
The
Book of Proverbs demands more than a passing reference, but this delightful harmony
of Father and Mother is well illustrated there by the fact that out of fourteen
times in which the mother is mentioned, twelve times the father and
mother are linked together.
Apparently this lovely unity was absent from Adam’s household for many long years, and the contrast between Genesis 4:1 and 5:3 forms a serious lesson for us. Eve “guided the house” truly, but she seems to have neglected the balancing admonition of 1 Peter 3. But it is refreshing to see that the lesson was learned at last, and Seth, the fruit and the evidence of this hardly-learned lesson, is the first in the long line of the Seed of the woman, which culminated in that Glorious Seed, who has bruised the serpent’s head.