Did He Really Say That?

As Christians are warned against the wiles of the devil (Ephesians 6:11), we must be vigilant in our daily walk. Satan does not have any new tricks up his sleeve nor has he devised any new ways of packaging his true time tested method to trick mankind and cause doubt in the mind causing him to fall into sin. In the very beginning, God had created Adam and his duty was to take care of the garden (Gen. 2:15). Adam was then told by God that he could eat of any tree in the garden. In the garden Adam had the run of the whole garden or orchard, as it is also translated, to eat from, except for one tree. In the garden there was a very special tree that God told Adam that it was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God also gave a strict warning of what would transpire if Adam would eat from it (Gen. 2:17). The severity of disobeying God’s command not to eat from the tree of knowledge would result in death.

After sometime, God had realized that Adam needed a helper and He saw that man was alone and that was not good (Gen 2:18). It was not that God made a mistake but for the first time in the Genesis or “beginning” of creation where God said something that was not good. All He had created up to that point He labeled as “good.” God had brought every living thing to Adam so he could name them. During this process, God realized that out of all the animals created none were suitable to be his helper, sorry dog owners (Gen. 2:20). So God created woman out of man to be his suitable helper. Eventually, he names her Eve. In the original language her name is really “hghawah” (חַוָּ֑ה), but Eve was possibly changed from the original since the ease of pronunciation.

In the time leading up to the fall, Adam and Eve roamed the garden as they pleased and ate from every tree in the garden, except the tree of knowledge. Although it is not written, we can deduce that Adam must have told Eve about the tree of knowledge and the seriousness of the consequences that would follow if they ate from the tree. Maybe even telling her if she even touched it she would die. Some scholars have said the time that passed from the creation of Adam and Eve is to have been about (2) years. I am nowhere smart enough to figure this out but there was sometime where they both cohabited in the garden, or orchard, leading up to the fall.

Now enter the serpent, the Satan possessed vehicle of choice, to carry out the one act that would impact the future of mankind. As Scripture depicts, this serpent as “crafty” as any of the other beasts of the field (Gen 3:1). The Hebrew adjective text that describes the serpent is “arum” which has meaning of subtle, shrewd, crafty, sly, and sensible. All the traits of a deceiver, a liar and a manipulator. Is Satan any different today? He still operates within these boundaries to achieve the same results. When the serpent approached Eve, he went to his old faithful trick of deception. He asks her; “indeed has God said you shall not eat from the tree?”(Gen. 3:1). Typical Satan Mode of Action, take something and twist it so that you may call it into question and “doubt” it. Oldest trick but it works. God never told Eve not to eat from the tree but He told Adam so Satan knew that so he uses that against her to cause doubt. She only heard it from Adam and not from God and that is what got her mind working to develop her own conclusion that “God never told me that..”

Satan contuse to cause doubt and confusion and even starts to entice her by asking doesn’t she want her eyes to be open and be like God, knowing good from evil (Gen. 3:4)? Where was Adam during all this? We always get the idea that Adam was nowhere to be found until she offered him the fruit as if she went out of way to find him. Well, Scripture tells us that Adam was right there with Eve. When the serpent said “you” in this passage, he was referring to more than one person. It is the use of the second person masculine plural having the meaning of more than one “you”. Since there were only (2) people created at this time and the serpent was addressing more than one person then we can deduce that Adam was there the whole time of the temptation right alongside with Eve buying into the lie. As Adam never intervened at any point to stop the serpent. She then ate of the fruit and gave it also to Adam and he was as guilty as her.

The rest as you know, lead to the judgement from God upon all the human race. But why didn’t Adam speak up? Why didn’t he put his foot down and say anything? Sadly, Adam wanted what the serpent was peddling. He wanted to be like God as well as Eve. It is the same exact way Satan draws people into the prosperity Gospel or any false heretical following today. These followers are buying into what these false preachers are peddling because they want what they are selling. They want their lie. These people are not poor ignorant fools but they have been misguided into a belief system that “their best life is now.” Satan knows the buttons to press to entice us into false beliefs which stem from our selfish and prideful desires.

So what do we learn from all of this? We see clearly that Satan is at war with God and is using souls to try to win this war. We must be vigilant all day all the time to keep focused on not falling for the temptations from Satan. He is a liar and a deceiver. He twists things ever so subtly that it can be missed and then you fall. The seeds of doubt cultivated like crops in a field quickly grow into transgressions. After these seeds of doubt have been planted in your mind, then we begin to justify it in our finite minds and enter into sin. We need to first, build hedges to protect us from the seeds being panted to begin with. Secondly, we need to identify when seeds of deception have been planted into our minds and root them out and rid them far from our minds. It is a progressive task that we should be keeping in the Word of God daily and in diligent prayer. The purity of our heart begins with the purity of our mind and what we are putting in it.

I would hope that you will not fall for the traps that Satan and his minions set out for us daily in all areas of our lives in the people we speak to and more so the social networks and other media outlets which Satan has cunningly managed to use for his agenda. This is where Satan is really putting his efforts in and is doing it with great success. Our society is operating on the basis of the platform of postmodernism which advocates tolerance, inclusivity and acceptance to everyone’s self-belief. Satan wants no more than for every person to not believe in an absolute truth. We must guard ourselves prudently and with conviction against the snares of the devil.

Please pray for other brothers and sisters that they may stay in the light of the truth written in Scripture of God’s Word.