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Today, I was again reading about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and I wondered why the sssssserpent only talked to Eve and never talked to Adam. Why? And then, I remembered that Jesus said that he spoke in parables so that everyone would not understand unless they searched for the underlying meanings...Matt.13:13, Mark 4:13. However, God doesn't change. So there must have been parables in the OT as well...and this is mentioned in Ezekiel 20:49..."Then said I, Ah lord God! they say of me, Doth he not speak PARABLES.?"

The OT is filled with parables if we only search for them. I looked for this in many places, and I found the PARABLE of what the Adam, Eve, and the Garden of Eden is all about spiritually. There is probably more, but I haven't found any more yet.

I admire and love to read J.Preston Eby. I don't agree with everything he writes, but there are a LOT of things he points out that I never saw before, and this is one of them. What a treasure of hidden meaning!!!



Piece of a very long article:


YOUR WOMAN JEZEBEL

“I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel…to teach.” (Rev. 2:20).

While the King James Version calls Jezebel “that woman,” translated directly from the Greek, the phrase would read, “Your woman Jezebel,” or, “Your wife Jezebel.” The term “your woman” and “your wife” have the same connotation in Greek. The Emphatic Diaglott shows the literal word for word (interlinear) rendering from the Greek as follows: “But I have against thee, because thou lettest alone the wife of thee, Jezebel, the one calling herself a prophetess, and she teaches and seduces the my bond-servants…” “Your woman” is your soul! Every one of us has a “woman” in us, just as psychologists tell us that every one of us has a “child” in us, and she wants to take the throne and rule. Soul wants to mingle with spirit, not in subjection to spirit, but as an independent, domineering, controlling woman, bringing duality and mixture.

On a day in the long ago an apostle by the name of Paul penned these telling words: “For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds (souls) should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (II Cor. 11:2-3). In this significant passage Eve in the garden of Eden is contrasted with two things: the bride of Christ and the mind or soul (psuche). The mind is a function of the soul. The vision of the bride of Christ pervades the whole of scripture, from Eden onward, with ever-increasing clearness. Eve, the mother of the human race, is the first type of this great mystery! Let us not underestimate this remarkable woman from whom the whole human race has sprung!

In that ancient shadow Adam stands as a type of the spirit, Eve is a type of the soul, and the garden of Eden is a type of the body, which Adam was to “dress and keep.” Thus we see our tri-partite being symbolically portrayed in the Adam-Eve-Garden story. The Garden was the earth, the land, the habitation; and Adam and Eve were the inhabitants, in the same way that our spirit and soul are the inhabitants of the physical body. It is through our “Eve,” our soulical mind, desires, will, and emotions, that we who have been espoused to Christ the bridegroom in our spirit, can be “beguiled” and turned from our single and pure devotion to Christ, entering instead into intimate associations with things of the earth realm, the flesh, the world, and the devil. When the soul-bride is turned from the spirit-husband to fornicate with the flesh and fleshly things, we become disqualified from being presented to Christ as a chaste virgin! Paul shows that just as Eve was beguiled from her singleness to Christ, so those espoused to Christ can be corrupted IN OUR MINDS from singleness to Christ.

I would now draw your reverent attention to a very significant point in the garden of Eden experience. The serpent can only speak to the woman! The serpent never spoke to Adam. The serpent cannot tempt the spirit, for the spirit speaks of the pureness of Christ. Let me state that again. The serpent can only speak to the woman! It was Eve who was “beguiled” (II Cor. 11:2-3). It was Eve who was “deceived” and was “in the transgression” (I Tim. 2:14). Can you not see the mystery? The serpent cannot deceive the spiritual man! The serpent can only deceive that which is less than the spiritual man — that which comes out of a man — the woman, the soul. The spirit of a man cannot be deceived, that is why scripture declares that the woman was deceived. The serpent cannot be where the spirit dwells! There is war in heaven, and Michael and his angels, Christ and His many brethren, cast him out! The serpent can only speak to, prophesy to, teach and control those who settle for less than the spirit!

Thus, the woman, the soul, who hearkens unto the serpent, is deceived in all facets possible. The spiritual person is above the fray, but the woman is totally immersed into it. When the serpent spoke, the woman could have asked direction of the spirit, but she did not. The woman had not experienced God, was not conscious of God, did not know the life of God, as the man had. The woman needed to depend on the man, to consult with the man, to walk in union with the man, just as the soul needs to depend on the spirit! The woman, the soul, can hear two voices. It can hear the call of the spirit, but can also hear the call of the serpent. The woman, the soul, can rule over the flesh (Ahab), but cannot rule over the spirit (Elijah)! So the serpent seeks to make the soul , the woman, a priestess and a queen over the flesh through carnal religious doctrines and activities. The soulish person must have a kingdom even if it is not truly real. So the serpent deceives the woman with the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — religion! That is the mystery.

When we can recognize what kind of person is soulish, it is not difficult to realize what kind of person is spiritual. Since a soulish person lives by the mind, emotion, will, and desire, a spiritual person is one who does not live by any of these! A spiritual person must live in the spirit, act by the spirit, speak out of the spirit and not the soul. He allows the spirit to be the master and source of all his action and behavior. The spirit in him occupies the preeminent position; it is the source of his behavior and the starting point of his action. The soul in this person is in the position of submission, under the government of the spirit, dominated by the spirit, and in loving union with the spirit. Thus he allows the spirit to be LORD in him! He allows the spirit to direct his whole being so that he becomes the expression of the spirit. Whenever he encounters a situation he does not consult his mind nor draw from his mind, desire, will, or emotion to deal with it; rather he draws from his spirit to comprehend and understand it, seeking first in the spirit for the Lord’s wisdom and purpose in the matter. This is the spiritual man, living by the life of the spirit, and the soul is but a vehicle of expression for the spirit. Isn’t it wonderful! It is the one spirit, our spirit joined to His Spirit, that ultimately is joined to the soul — receives the soul unto itself — the marriage of the Lamb within ourselves!

Jezebel, like Delilah in the book of Judges, was a harlot. The name Jezebel means “one without a husband” or “one that can’t be touched.” Jezebel is that soul that will not allow the Spirit of God in our spirit to touch her, or to be a husband unto her. She will not enter into union with the spirit! She spurns the purposes of God and rejects the living word of the Lord, and will stone literally or figuratively any prophet who would speak the word of the Lord. She has multitudes of lovers, she follows after men and man’s way, man’s methods, man’s programs, man’s promotions, and man’s organizations; but she seeks no intimacy with the Christ of God, nor does she submit to the spirit’s lordship.

Furthermore, Jezebel relates to the “strange woman” of the book of Proverbs, which speaks of a soul or a mind that is perverted and twisted and needs to change. Jezebel is your soul before it is transformed! Let me talk to you about an attitude. Let us explore that attitude, that mind-set, that soulish condition in your life that would seduce you away from the headship of Christ. This seduction is carried out by Jezebel! Jezebel speaks of the soul-life and ever since Eve she is a woman who wants to do her own thing. She will not allow the spirit to touch her. She cannot enter into a mature relationship with the Christ within. She cannot be subject to One as her head. She cannot love and be faithful to one husband. She cannot walk only in the Spirit of God, for she is lusting after carnal, fleshly, man-centered, need-oriented, religious ways, involvements, and activities. She has roving eyes and a lustful, flirtatious, wild, rebellious nature. She wants blessings, chills, and thrills — a religious good time — not a marriage.

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So, it's ultimately NOT a man vs woman thing. It's a lesson about the "war" inside himself that Paul told us about in Romans chapter 7. We all go through that and have to "overcome"...

Arlene