#Nesha's Bible Study

[neshatriumphs]

The Patriarchy Ain’t Never Been Shhh

I don’t think that I have ever posted my Full Armor of God Devotionals on Tumblr before...  I think I got on Tumblr after I stopped doing them regularly.  Well. at any rate...

Helmet Of Salvation:  Radical Discipleship

SWORD OF THE SPIRIT:

Genesis, Chapter 3

Blessing to enjoy:   So far, I don’t know that these particular accounts are basked in blessings, but rather in mercy.  So, I will go with that.  Mercy, even when messing up.

Example to follow:  Not Adam, I tell you that.  Maybe not Eve, either.  But, definitely not Adam.

Thoughts to carry:  Whether or not you are a Christian, this information can be dissected.  If you believe in the Bible, it should be looked at from a believer’s perspective.  If you don’t, it can also be looked at from the perspective of analyzing a tale.  At any rate:

Breastplate of Righteousness

The Patriarchy Ain’t Never Been Shhh

Man has been a letdown since the Garden and today we still make excuses for them, but we need to gain a whole view of the picture and do whatever is necessary to bring about the change that we want to see in the world.  We can’t hold on to the problems that have been created and continue to expect God to show up and rescue us from systems that we keep erected.  God was not a misogynist.  His people were/are.  

Remember in the Garden, when Eve had a full conversation with the serpent?  Adam, the one that God had sent to be in charge was there, but did not step up as Eve was making a deal that could possibly ruin her life.  What they thought - that they would surely die when they ate the fruit.  What the serpent said - that they would not surely die, if they ate it.  That they would become LIKE God.  What Eve did - decided to trust the serpent and take the risk of dying to try that fruit and some of that sweet godlikeness.  What Adam did - stood by and watched, waited to see how the fruit affected her, then ate it too.  What happened - Sin was born into the world and punishments were handed down.  What does that lead ME to believe? - That it was Adam’s mess up that caused the fall of humanity.  What is taught - That it was Eve’s fault.

Why do we do this?  Adam tried to blame her and she tried to blame the serpent, but if we are to faithfully believe these accounts and model our lives after them and learn from them, we have to see these things with eyes that do not hold our prejudices and our privileges.  We don’t always get to do that because for so long, men have been the ones sharing and teaching these stories.  Men have been the ones giving the instructions and spreading the interpretations.  It was a man who first said, “This was the woman’s fault!”  (And to some degree, God’s fault because she was called “the woman you gave me,” instead of her name.)   It must have been a man who first said, “Look at how this woman ruined the entire world for everyone,” and since then, too many of us have accepted that as good interpretation of Genesis, Chapter 3.

I remember the first time that I heard this story, and maybe it was because I identified with a woman in it, I immediately thought that this wasn’t her fault.  I thought that surely if she was in the wrong, God was going to step in and punish her and give Adam a new wife.  So, I spent years simply being quiet about these thoughts, because I felt like if I didn’t take the lesson that I was being taught away from it, I had to be wrong.  Years later, something that I had not realized before… Adam was there.  She gave the fruit to her husband who was with her.  He was there, all along!  

Let’s not be coy.  We know “how men are.”  Victims, scapegoats, and supporting friends get speeches all of the time to defend their bum behavior by setting up the archetype of “just a man.”  The toxic masculinity and misogyny attached to that are another few conversations, at least.  But for the sake of this one - “how men are” includes:  Being strong, being brave, being fearless, being in charge, being…  You get it.  But, what we see here is a man, standing by while a woman that we are expected to believe is someone who is under his control makes a decision that goes against what God has told him and held him to, even before she was ever pulled from his rib.

So, why when it was time for him to be that dude with dominion.  To be “the man,” as so many of us put emphasis on right now; he simply stood by and then did what he knew he wasn’t supposed to do?  I mean, he claims that it was Eve’s fault.  He didn’t just tell her, “I don’t recommend that you eat that fruit.  God told me not to and if we’re going to be together, you can’t either.”  He didn’t say, “I told you not to do it and now that you’ve done this thing and disobeyed God, you’re going to have to deal with whatever happens, now.”  He didn’t look around and wonder why God wasn’t there to do something about this.  He didn’t even ask HER any questions!  He didn’t ask, ‘Well… did it work?  Are you like God?  What does He know?  What does He see?”  The most reference that we know of that he received from her was that it tasted good.

And he ate.  THEN, the eyes of both of them were opened.  (And the discussion of why God didn’t prevent the free will etc is also a different conversation, BUT)  God showed up.  When he showed up, He started questioning them to get their confessions.  Their confessions were to place the blame elsewhere; but everyone was punished, on a personal level and through all the generations.

With Adam’s punishment - To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.  It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your brow  you will eat your food until you return to the ground,    since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”  With ADAM’S punishment, came strife, death and the end of the world.

But, to this day, we associate all of the bad with Eve’s portion.  I even have heard men say that they don’t listen to their wives/women because, “Adam listened to Eve, and look what happened!  Lol”  But, all he really had to do was step up.  When she went to eat it, I don’t know what thoughts she had.  Maybe she had been wanting to taste it anyway.  Maybe they both were curious and the serpent just nudged where he noticed that desire was already budding.  Maybe he had tried to talk to Adam and got turned down and went through Eve because she was a weakness for Adam…  But, in that instance, if she was a weakness for him and he thought that they might die...  Why wasn’t he willing to protect her from that?  Why didn’t he raise questions and voice concerns?  I don’t buy it.

Adam was the world’s not only first man in the biblical account of Creation, but he was the world’s first…  You know the word.  Starts with “F” and ends with “boy.”  Cursed was the ground, because of him, but people are still blaming Eve.  Thorns and thistles because of him, but people are still blaming Eve.  (That man has to work to provide for himself and his family - a LOADED conversation with today’s F boy excepting a wifey, but not expecting to toil #GoodLawdIHaveSoMuchToSayAboutThatConversation), but people are still blaming Eve.

Let’s not be coy, again.  I’m in no way saying that Eve is an innocent precious flower and that she deserves all amnesty and all protection.  But, I am saying that in this story about humanity and how we are flesh and how we can mess up and have to face consequences, sometimes consequences bigger than ourselves… Eve is a HUMAN in this story.  This is a story about how they messed up and what happened.  This is a story in which, she is actually a protagonist to the the serpent’s crafts and a catalyst to Adam giving up his dominion.  Adam gets to be human in society.  He gets empathy.  He gets to be a tragic figure who lost it all…  but people are still blaming Eve.

  Girdle of Truth:  We don’t have to demonize women to love and follow God.  Sometimes, we need to see that we are all in the battle together.

Shield of Faith:  Men will hold on to problematic behavior and let women take the fall for many things that they both engaged in.  We need to communicate better, so that things won’t come between those who we have missions with.

Sandals of Peace:

Heavenly Father, Father of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

I pray that these words that I have asked you to give to me be examined with an open heart and mind.  We have people in this world who think of you as a misogynist because there are those who claim to follow you who hold true prejudices and hatred for the women that you have created.  We are not evil.  We are not enemies.  But, we are also not here to be the punching bags and patsies for these men.  I pray for radical change in the dynamics of sexual oppression and gender specific antagonism.  In Jesus’ Holy Name, Amen.

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