Eve led her husband into rebellion against God, and he allowed her to do so.  So now what?  Well we do know the first thing they did was hide.  From each other and then from God.  They sewed themselves clothing the best they could from fig leaves.  And they waited. 

Genesis 3:8-11 says:

"And they heard the voice of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden.  And the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, 'Where are you?'  And he said 'I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.'  And He said, 'Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten of the tree where I commanded you that you should not eat.'"

We see some interesting things here.  First we see that God comes to us individually giving us an invitation to repent.  He asks Adam "Where are you?"  knowing quite well where Adam is.  He wanted Adam to know where Adam was.  In sin.  That's where Adam was.  He's asking us that same question today.  "Where are you?"  He comes to us personally and calls us by name when He does.

He came to them in the cool of the day.  This, most likely, would be at the end of the day, when the sun was about to set.  We see they had time to fashion themselves some sort of makeshift clothing in the meantime.  It looks like God was giving them time to stew over their sin.  Stew and sew.  "What have we done now?"  They noticed a difference as they looked at each other and quickly hid. 

It's interesting but during this whole scene there is no mention of sin.  What we see though is the effects of sin.  We see ruined relationships here between man and wife, and between man and God.  Later that spreads to man and animals and then to man and earth.  Sin spreads quickly and takes us alot further than we were willing to go. 

It's also noticed here that God comes with accountability.  He does not let them succeed in hiding.  He calls them out.  According to endtimes scripture it says that man will try to hide in caves and under rocks to flee from God's wrath.  It won't work.  God sees them anyway.   Who can hide from God? 

God, by calling out to Adam, holds Adam more accountable than Eve even though she was the first to eat of the fruit.  Failing to lead rightly is sin. 

Next comes the blame game.  We know that Adam's response is to shift the blame for his sin to both Eve and God because he points to his wife and says "that woman that you gave me, she gave me of the tree and I ate."   

She takes the lead and shifts the blame on the serpent sayng "the serpent deceived me."  Our tendency is to blame another instead of taking responsibility for our sins.  It's called pride.  Humility acknowledges sin.  Pride does not. 

Paul wrote later about the OT characters in his letter to the Corinthians:

"Now these things happened to them as an example and they were written for our instruction."   1 Cor 10:11

So not only what we read here is a matter of history but also for our instruction.  Her life makes demands on our lives as we ask ourselves how does this apply to me today? 

Eve was created to help Adam fulfill God's purpose for mankind.  She was to be his helpmate for life and together they would reflect the image of God and reproduce that image by filling the earth with their children.  They were to rule over the created realm being a team effort. 

Satan was successful in getting Eve to doubt the truthfulness of God's word and the goodness of His motives.  Don't we still do that today?  Does God really love me?  Is He really faithful?  Is He really coming back? 

If we stray from the truth of God's Word there are always consequences.  It's not just about those consequences though.  It's also about how we deal with our sin.  Do we deal with it our way or God's way?  Do we run and hide or do we turn and confess? 

So we've looked at Eve's failure in doing what she was created to do.  She messed up.  We all do.  But now what? 

Well we know they were banished from the Garden.  They had it alot tougher.  No easy road to hoe now.  They have their first child and named him Cain.  Genesis 4:1 says:

"And Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bare Cain and said 'I have gotten a man from the Lord.'"

At first impression this seems positive as she mentions the help of God.  But when you examine it closer especially in liew of a later verse you see there's a bit of a boast here.  She seems to be saying "just as the Lord created man, so too did I." 

The recurring theme in Genesis is the attempt and failure of human effort to obtain blessing only God can give.  I think of Sarah who tried to bring forth the child of blessing thru her maiden Hagar.  I think of those who built the Tower of Babal even though God told them to scatter and repopulate the earth.  Human effort gone awry. 

Eve may be thinking like we did when we first left the nest going against our parent's wishes.  It's not so bad.  We have each other and we have love.  It may not be Paradise.  It may not be as nice as my Father's place but this little hut is ok because we have each other.  We'll make due.  Sin isn't that bad.  See, now I have a son.   We're ok. 

Then real life sets in.  Trials and tribulations of everyday life come into play.  We grow up.  We mature.  We see more clearly. We know that later her firstborn whom she seemed to be putting alot of stock in kills his younger brother Abel. 

Now, the sin that seemed so pleasant at first has reared its ugly head.  If sin wasn't pleasurable, there would be no appeal.  It takes a while to come to fruition and now the time has come.  As some say, eventually the piper has to be paid.  We do pick what we plant. 

We notice the difference in her when she gives birth to Seth.  We see a contrast in her statements which is quite striking and revealing.  She says in 4:25:

"And Adam knew his wife again and she bare a son and called his name Seth.  For God, said she, has appointed me another seed (zera) instead of Abel whom Cain slew."

This time she calls him "seed" instead of "man" as she did Cain.  I think she finally got it.  It's here that I see her faith.  She's going back to the promise of a "seed" in 3:15 that God promised before he banished them from the Garden.  She understands now. 

Somewhere along the way she stopped placing her hope in Cain as she did when he was born.  Now she sees that Seth will replace Abel, not Cain.   It's only after Seth's birth do we see that with Seth and his son Enoch that men began to call upon the name of the Lord (v26). 

I believe she told Seth and then her grandson about the promise of the seed that the Lord had told her about in the Garden.  She instructed her children and grandchildren then and they began to follow God.  We know Seth's line goes forward all the way to Noah while Cain's line is destroyed. 

Eve's story is truly one of faith after failure.  Yes, Eve messed up.  We all do.  But in looking at her, our great, great, great, many times great grandmother we can have hope that no matter how far and fast we fall into sin there's always hope.  We only have to have faith in the "seed" which we know today is Christ to believe that it's through Him that there is redemption.  We look back at the cross as Eve looked forward.  No human effort on our part can give us what we so desparately need.  Salvation.  It's only through Him we come.  Everything else leads to destruction. 

As a runner I like to say, it's not about how you start the race that matters.  It's all in the finish. 

"And Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living."  Gen 3:20