Consolation Prize

Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD.” Genesis 4:1  NASB

Have Gotten – One more look at Eve’s declaration is even more frightening.  Here’s the crucial question: Why doesn’t Eve mention Adam in her statement?  Would you and I say that we got a child through God without even mentioning the spouse?  Did Adam have nothing to do with all this except to provide the sperm?  There is something else going on in Eve’s announcement; something that reflects the catastrophe of the Fall.

Eve is ‘ezer to Adam.  If you don’t know what that means, you need to read this.  God engineered Eve to be Adam’s ‘ezer.  That is the core of who she is, the undeniable center of her existence and the final purpose for her life.  That’s the way God planned it.  Once we truly grasp the enormity of this deliberate design, we begin to comprehend just how much human beings are bound to relationship identity.  In fact, Genesis 2:24 suggests that marriage is in some fundamental way the re-union of what was once a single being.  The “two shall become one” is not simply sexual.  It is about lost harmony recovered.

But the Fall changed everything!  Eve failed in her role as ‘ezer.  Adam denied his complicity and blamed her.  Trust was destroyed.  Harmony lost.  Adam took control, refusing to acknowledge the God-designed role of the ‘ezer.  Nevertheless, Adam’s assertion of power did not erase Eve’s engineering.  She is still ‘ezer.  The only question now is for whom?  Eve’s answer:  “I have acquired a manchild.”  Eve takes back her lost identity with her child.  If Adam will not let her be ‘ezer, Cain will.  He has no choice in the matter for Eve has acquired him.

The Hebrew verb qanah says it all.  “To buy, to purchase, to acquire, to possess,” is not the kind of description that we would expect when speaking of the birth of a child.  But it is symptomatic of revenge for those who assert their power to circumvent what they have been denied.  “You refuse to let me be what I was made to be?  I’ll show you.  I’ll take what you won’t give.”  That’s the spirit of it.  Eve decided to make a deal with God to get what Adam refused to give her – a man who would let her be the ‘ezer she was designed to be.  We see the same results every day.  The husband rejects the role of the wife as ‘ezer, so she turns that attention to her children.  She will not be denied.  It is who she is.  But the tragedy is that her role results from a purchase instead of a gift.  It is teshukah crafted to her own ends.  And it leads to disaster.

Why is Adam not a part of Eve’s declaration?  Because Adam is now the obstacle to her fulfillment.  The Fall brought separation, not union.  Now Eve decides to take matters into her own hands.  She has the power to create and she uses that power to bring to life a substitute for her lost charge.  She produces a replacement man named Cain.  Oh, yes, by the way, Kayin (Cain) is not named by Adam (did you notice that?), and the word kayin means weapon.  Isn’t that interesting?  We will be what we are, one way or another, but one way leads to producing weapons to fight for ourselves, while the other way produces grace and forgiveness.  Which one are you birthing?

Topical Index:  Sin