Eve, the Natural Woman
As God had created all animals, He looked for a helper suitable for Adam. But after naming all the animals, there was not one found suitable to help him (Genesis 2:18-20). This is when God put Adam to sleep by causing a deep sleep to fall upon Him. He took a rib from Adam, closed up his side, and built the rib into a Woman (Genesis 2:21-22).
He then brought the Woman to the Man, and the Man exclaimed at the wonder of what God had done; Yahweh had made one just like Man out of the Man's body, which is why he called her Woman. She was flesh from his flesh and bone from his bone (Genesis 2:23).
Because of this, Man was now to leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, that they might become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). In this we see a new return to oneness or wholeness. His rib is not returning to his side; rather something completely new, built from his rib, is coming unto him, with which he might join in relationship and yet still become one flesh.
The other animals were not right for him, nor was it right for him to be alone, nor was his answer one just like himself, another man; the answer was a woman, built from his own body.
Woman, for the Man
Paul reiterates this truth of the order of creation. Woman came from man; she was created for the man, not the other way around (1 Corinthians 11:7-8). This immediately intimates that the Woman will tend to have a greater desire for union, since her very creation was to satisfy the Man's need for a counterpart. She is his fulfillment (in the natural creation), therefore she herself will only find fulfillment in him.
This is also why we, humankind, have gone in search of many substitutes for what is right (Ecclesiastes 7:29). We imitate the natural type of Eve, and vice-versa, that just as the woman continually looks for emotional and physical intimacy, often in the wrong places (rather than in one, godly husband), so we all continually look for spiritual intimacy, often in the wrong places (rather than in God's Son).
Just as Adam was natural, born of the earth, so is Eve of that same nature, being taken from his body. She doesn't come directly from the earth, like Adam, but she still shares his nature as being from the dust. Because of this, she has the same needs as does he—God's Life.
We have seen that Eve could not refute Satan's lies because she did not have the real thing. Temptations and substitutes have appeal when they are just that: a replacement for something you do not have. Eve had not eaten of the Tree of Life, so the prospect of being wise and like God still had appeal. Not believing the Tree of Life was the path to that goal, she fell for Satan's lie, that the other forbidden Tree was a substitute.
1Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’” 2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, 3but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it. You shall not touch it, lest you die.’” 4The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t really die, 5for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:1-5
Adam should have stood up to Satan for her. Eve should have sought counsel from Adam. But alas, both were unprepared to meet the Devil's false accusations against God. Neither were obedient to His Word. Instead of being protected by her husband, Eve caused him to fall as well. This is the fruit of being out of order.
The Head & the Body
God has revealed that the Man was to be the head of the Woman (1 Corinthians 11:3): the head directs the body, makes the decisions. The body carries out those desires and gains pleasure from doing what is good for itself.
But in this case, the head followed the body. The body told the head what to do. It is unnatural, and its result is clearly seen: death, which killed not only Adam and Eve, but spread to all of their progeny.
We have the warning, then, that we must not let the body do as it pleases, drawing the head into danger. The woman should not teach or lead the man (1 Timothy 2:12), as it destroys the type God intended to use to teach us spiritual things (namely, that Christ guides His Body, not the other way around).
If, as individuals, we view ourselves as another type of Adam and Eve, we can use this spiritual truth to live in peace. We must not let our body tell our head what to do, as Paul found is often the case (Romans 7:14-23). It will only lead to sin, missing the mark, just as Eve did.
Natural logic also refutes such a lifestyle. Paul says elsewhere (Romans 9:20-21), how can the clay say to the potter, "what are you doing?" Is not the one logically in control also practically in control? Should the clay tell the potter what to do? No!
Rather, our head, redeemed by the Lord, should guide our body—choosing to use our bodily members as instruments of righteousness (Romans 6:12-13). Sin, the agent of Satan, must be rejected, as it leads the body astray to what is not good.
In following the command to Eve, to obey her husband under God, we can find peace by rightly directing our bodies to obey the Lord.
Eve as Mother
Continuing this truth, that the body should serve the head, for the good of the entire person, we gain new insight into how this happens for followers of the Lord Jesus.
How is sin committed? By the body. How is righteousness accomplished? By the body.
How is work done? With the body. How is something conceived and born? With the body.
Notice all the works of the flesh, they deal with actions that only are expressed through our body (Galatians 5:19-21). In the same way, the fruit of the spirit is born through things only doable in a body (Galatians 5:22-23). How does this connect to this idea of Adam and Eve, and the head directing the body?
Eve was to be, among other things, the mother of all living things (Genesis 3:20). She would receive the seed of Adam, and within her a new human would begin to grow. It would be born, and continue the species. She would “house” and “bring to term” new life.
Mirroring this, our body (as counterpart of Eve) was created to bring to term new life, things of God, what is good. What is the seed we receive? It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Word of God, Love Incarnate:
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1
12For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. 14Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold tightly to our confession. Hebrews 4:12-14
21Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. James 1:21
That seed sown within our natural bodies causes something new to grow: the fruit of the Spirit. We, like Eve, bring it to term, housing it as it grows within us. In a similar way to Eve (and all mothers), we cannot make it grow. But, rather, it is God who forms the new creation as it grows within the woman (Psalms 139:13) (Ecclesiastes 11:5).
We do not do anything in particular to cause the new baby to form its organs and limbs; we simply cooperate with what was started by God. As mothers eat good food, get plenty of rest, stay active, but do not overdo or strain themselves, so we imitate that as believers in God.
Jesus is within us; we must simply cooperate by eating the Word, resting in His grace by the Spirit, exercising our senses to learn what is good, and being careful not to stress over anything. God promises that what He has brought to term He will also surely bring forth (Isaiah 66:9); Yahweh formed us in the womb and He will help us (Isaiah 44:1-2). What a blessing!
But what is the alternative? It is what Paul describes as the works of the flesh. And it is what Eve did with Satan. Rather than receiving from Adam and becoming a mother, she attempted to do her own thing, to try to do it another way.
Rather than let something be born through her, she chose to work for what was wrong: it is the fruit of the Spirit vs. works of the flesh.
One brings life, the other death; but both are accomplished by the body, which is typified by Eve.
We, as both human beings and believers in God through the Lord Jesus, have the choice to bring our body under dominion, and allow it to serve us for righteousness, rather than letting it lead us into sin.