The first couple had some time of living the dream - walking with God in a perfect environment (the garden), with perfect weather, perfect bodies (perfect health), and all the time in the world to enjoy each other (no kids yet!).
Satan came to discredit God and separate man and woman, God’s highest creation, from God. He used lies and deceptions to lure Eve. It worked; she took the bait.
Instead of having confidence in God’s Word and His character, she decided on her own whether she should eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Satan deceived her with words such as “Did God really say ...” (challenging God’s word) and “You will not surely die.” (you can sin and nothing will happen to you) and “You will be like God.” In the last statement, the original language does not have “like”, he is saying “you will be a god.”
From her perspective, she looked at the fruit and made her own judgment call, ignoring God’s warning. In her view, she saw a fruit that would taste good, satisfy her physical desires. She saw something that had beauty; she wanted to possess this beautiful object of her desires. And she concluded that it would make her wise, like God.
As she came to these conclusions, she might have even thought Adam agreed since he never said anything to Satan or to her.
After she ate, she shared her fruit with her husband who was with her. The world has never been the same. Those decisions profoundly affect marriage and every relationship, most of all, our relationship with God.
Satan tempts us with the same lies and deceptions today. (see below)
Even though most of us do not have the audacity to say that we can be like God or be our own God, we too decide that we can make up our own mind, that we can make our own decision about an action, regardless of what God says.
THE GREAT DECEPTION
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Genesis 3:13
And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 1 Timothy 2:14
But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3
Eve was tempted to sin by the deceptions of Satan. The enemy specializes in lies and deceptions. Satan uses the same methods with us today. He deceives us through challenging God’s word and His character.
Deceptions are usually harder to identify than blatant lies. Often a deception has an element of truth but is not the whole truth leading the listener to a false conclusion. Or in the case of Eve, Satan questioned the truth, God’s Word.
The questions and the lies led Eve to believe that God would not punish her and that she could make her own decisions apart from Him.
Satan deceives us in the same way - I can sin and get away with it. I can make my own decisions. I can decide on my own what is good or bad.
As Paul warned, we can be lead astray from our devotion to the Lord.
And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 1 Timothy 2:14
But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3
Eve was tempted to sin by the deceptions of Satan. The enemy specializes in lies and deceptions. Satan uses the same methods with us today. He deceives us through challenging God’s word and His character.
Deceptions are usually harder to identify than blatant lies. Often a deception has an element of truth but is not the whole truth leading the listener to a false conclusion. Or in the case of Eve, Satan questioned the truth, God’s Word.
The questions and the lies led Eve to believe that God would not punish her and that she could make her own decisions apart from Him.
Satan deceives us in the same way - I can sin and get away with it. I can make my own decisions. I can decide on my own what is good or bad.
As Paul warned, we can be lead astray from our devotion to the Lord.
More on the issue of control in marriage in the next post.
Related to this topic:
