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Why Didn't Adam and Eve Divorce?
Let's face it, all the elements of a divorce were there, weren't they?
Adam lost his cushy job tending the
Garden of Eden, one of their first two sons murdered the other in cold
blood, and then turned into a vagabond.
They had no money and were forced to
barely scrape by for years, hand-to-mouth, from one harvest to the
next, doubtless hungry and wearing increasingly tattered old clothing,
and they were forced to make their own from then on, for there was
no place they could buy more.
Despite his relative youth and
strength, Adam was basically unemployable (there were no employers and
no customers for his produce, no government assistance, no
retirement savings, no welfare, and no income other than what he could
produce with his own hands), and he and Eve had a growing family with lots of mouths to feed, clothe, shelter, educate and rear over the years.
There were no schools, baby-sitters
or restaurants to give them a break from the daily grind, and their
children fought and argued a lot, separated and went their separate
ways, raising their families in their own far-flung regions of the
world, and almost never communicated or kept in close touch with each
other over the years (they had no phones or computers, televisions or
movies, at first).
Probably the only thing that
prevented a divorce between Adam and Eve, it seems, was the fact that
Eve was similarly unemployable, had no educational degree, no income,
and let's face it, no other male to latch onto if she dumped Adam.
Likewise, there were no divorce or
other kinds of courts, no lawyers, counselors or "support" groups, and
neither did they have any close friends, of either the same or opposite
sex, to commiserate with them or encourage them to "get rid of that
problem spouse" and "go it alone" for awhile.
Wait... in some ways they were blessed, after all.
In a very real sense Adam and Eve
believed strongly in family values because, other than the lonely time
Adam had spent before Eve came into his life, neither of them had ever
known any other form of family; because both of them were "only children" from
a single parent home (and they both had the same parent).
There were no stores, no restaurants,
no fast "food" joints, and no forms of transportation, other than
perhaps horse or donkey-powered, and anything they needed they were forced to invent or
build themselves, with no ready-built homes (retirement or otherwise)
for them to buy, and nobody to buy anything from anyway.
They had no cameras, newspapers,
magazines or books to read, no tools to use or weapons to protect them
from wildlife, other than what they could make with their own two
hands, and no materials to use other than those readily at hand in a
very frontier-type environment.
In short, for a good many years, life
for Adam and Eve was a daily struggle, and a fight for survival and
subsistence.
Adam and Eve's children had to rely
solely on
their parents and their own abilities to feed and clothe themselves.
Also, there were no entertainments -- no movies, television,
radio or
even stage plays -- and no recreational sports, dances, or other social
events, no games unless they invented them from scratch, and no
paper, pens, pencils, scissors, tape, glue, batteries, metals or
plastics.
Eve, just the same, had been spending
some of her free time listening to somebody else, which her husband Adam
allowed to his great regret later, when as a result of following bad advice their entire world
collapsed around them, to their great consternation, fear and humility,
They both turned to crime, became
thieves, liars, rebels and renegades, trying to run and hide from their
responsibilities and just deserts.
They blamed others, and each other,
for the problems they themselves had created through disobedience and
rebellion to the law, when they listened to that rabble-rousing
revolutionary instigator, liar and pushy salesman snake-in-the-grass.
As a result, Adam and Eve lost their
comfortable home and all its amenities, such as a ready food
supply, with no savings and nowhere to turn for relief, emergency
assistance, or welfare, when they were unceremoniously thrown off the
property and denied any further access by an armed guard.
Adam and Eve had none of the
"options" so many people today take for granted and think are
their rights, so they either had to stick together and make a go
of it -- if
they hoped to survive -- or else the human race could have ended right
then and there.
But contrary to some false teachers
today, Adam was not forced by these circumstances to consort with an
adulteress who gave birth to any children other than his own.
Eve didn't have parents she could run
home to, didn't have her own income, or anything else over which her
husband Adam did not have complete control and total authority to allow
or deny -- and after that experience with the forbidden fruit he was
probably a lot more wary of what he agreed to allow Eve in the way of
freedom of action thereafter.
And who could blame him?
Sure, she may have resented him for this,
or secretly blamed him for not stopping her from the lawless act that
had such onerous consequences for both them and all their descendants.
In fact, after egging Adam on in joining
her commission of the first crime, Eve may have thereafter felt a
certain disrespect for Adam, and his thoughts, ideas, opinions, or
efforts.
This disrespect was probably mutually felt
by Adam, who doubtless resented Eve to a certain degree for having
nagged or cajoled him into it.
Nevertheless, the first couple -- who had
every reason to turn their backs on each other, but at the same time
every pressure and problem that made this impossible -- were forced to
stick it out long enough for their relationship to survive the utter
fiasco of their first big "fight."
What they doubtless learned, in the
process, was how much they truly needed each other, and how they
couldn't survive without joining hands, and working unitedly together
for a common purpose while ironing out their difficulties and problems
with each other.
Besides, what would their children have
done (and where would their siblings and future mates have come from),
had Adam and Eve called it quits and divorced?
What kind of example would this have set for their immediate offspring and future progeny?
If Adam and Eve had divorced, it might have been a short-lived human race for sure.
As one of their descendants you should be
eternally thankful Adam and Eve made their relationship work out, and
didn't divorce.
We can all be thankful, today, that divorce wasn't even considered an option by our first great-grandparents.
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