Becoming wise women

Some of the most chilling words in the Bible are found in Proverbs 14:1: "The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down" (NIV). This is what Eve did when she reached out, plucked the fruit, ate it as it lay in her palm, and then handed it to her husband. This is also what Achan did when he took the plunder at Jericho and buried it inside his tent (Joshua 7). His whole family was taken, stoned, and burned.

Eve's sin and Achan's sin are very similar, the Bible tells us. They both saw something beautiful, good, and desirable and took it after God told them not to. What caught Achan's eye was no ordinary piece of clothing, but an exceptionally beautiful robe of Shinar. Shinar (or Sumer) was an Ancient Near East cultural center. This robe may even have been an official's robe, a visiting dignitary's sign of high office. But with it was also a treasure trove of silver and gold. It was too much for Achan to pass up.

Eve also saw an exceptionally good thing. All the trees in the garden were beautiful and delicious, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was one of the two especially good trees, the trees of wisdom and of life that God set in the middle of the garden (Genesis 2:9). When Eve saw the tree, she saw not just a tasty meal but a way to get wisdom with just one bite. But that's not how we get wisdom, Proverbs says. Getting wisdom is hard work. It comes through time and maturity, experience and observation and study, and listening to our Creator and Lord.

Perhaps like me you find Achan's story troubling and unsettling. How could it be fair to stone his family, his sons and daughters, for their father's sin? Maybe they had helped him cover up his crime, some say, so they were also guilty. But what about the cattle and sheep. They couldn't have had any part in his guilt! Yet all are put to death immediately, without appeal.

In this, Achan is like Adam. Adam's sin put his whole family--us!--under a death sentence. Innocent animals died for him and for our mother Eve in the garden (Genesis 3:21). Thus began the centuries of sacrifices that stood in for the Lamb of God, the one who came and willingly sacrificed himself for us, the innocent for the guilty. Jesus died to give life to us, to redeem his sons and daughters from the death sentence that has hung over us since our father Adam ate the fruit from Eve's hand and God said "to dust you will return."

Because of Jesus, there is hope for us. Hope that we will not destroy our families with our own hands but become "Eve's," life-givers (Genesis 3:20). The Valley of Achor where Achan and his family perished and lay under a stone cairn "to this day" (Joshua 7) has become the Door of Hope (Hosea 2:14-23), because our Husband, the second Adam, has given himself up for us, that he might sanctify us (Ephesians 5:25-27).

Do you like your body?

Psychologist Mary Pipher has been asking young women this question for years. "When I speak to classes, I ask any woman in the audience who feels good about her body to come up afterward.... I have yet to have a woman come up" (Reviving Ophelia). The dissatisfaction, she says, comes from the culture we live in. We see the billboards and magazine ads and movie images, and feel that we don't measure up. But it goes back a lot further than the existence of modern media. It goes back to Eve.

Eve was created, body and soul, in the image of God. As John Calvin said, sparks of God's glory shine in our bodies (Institutes). Now "God is a spirit and doesn't have a body like men" (Catechism for Young Children). He doesn't need actual eyes to see or a mouth to speak, or arms and fingers to do his work, or legs to get about, but we need our bodies. We do need physical eyes to see and a mouth, lips, and tongue to speak and bones, muscles, and tendons, arms and legs, fingers and toes. We need every part of the body God has given us "to exercise the faculties of the soul," as Louis Berkhof put it. Our bodies are necessary to the image of God in us and part of the "very good" creation God made (Genesis 1:31).

So why is that we don't like our bodies very much? Well, the short answer is sin. When Eve took the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and ate it, she no longer felt comfortable with her own body. She wanted to cover it up, so she and Adam sewed fig leaves together and hid from God (Genesis 3:7-8). But Eve didn't just have a psychological problem now. On that day something also went wrong with her body. She began to die. From their sin in the garden has come all the subsequent pain and disease and problems of aging and death we face (Genesis 3:16-19). But happily for them and for us, God didn't leave them there. He came down and sought them and clothed them and redeemed them (Genesis 3:7-8, 15, 21).

He does the same for us. The Puritans called it "the glorious exchange." Our Savior Jesus Christ took our sins and gave us his righteousness. He took our death and gave us life. The redemption Jesus provides includes even our bodies! The Christian's goal is not to get rid of the body. On the last day, Jesus will transform these bodies to be like his glorious body (1 Corinthians 15:42-49). This is good news indeed!

In the meantime, we live in imperfect bodies, and "in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling" (2 Corinthians 5:2). We see our imperfections; we see our bodies changing and aging and "wasting away" (2 Corinthians 4:16). But that's not the whole story. The "inner man is being renewed day by day." So, as Paul says, "do not lose heart" (verse 16). Like your body! Thank God for this amazing and good gift! Just don't make it the most important part of you.