Jump Start # 1242

Genesis 3:4-5 “The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”

  We continue our thoughts this week on trying to understand God. We’ve looked at several Biblical examples of people who thought God ought to do something a certain way, but He didn’t. Habakkuk couldn’t understand why God would use the wicked Babylonians to punish Israel. Job’s friends had never seen the righteous suffer. Naaman was certain that the prophet Elisha would come and wave his arms and heal him in a grand and dramatic fashion. He didn’t. He didn’t even show up. He sent a servant with a message.

Today, we go to the conversation between Eve and the serpent. Why she is engaging in a conversation with a serpent is beyond me. The serpent deceives Eve. He gets her looking at the one tree that she is not allowed to have. Instead of counting all the trees that she does have, she looks at the one tree she doesn’t have. Satan didn’t have a relationship with Eve. God did. It was God who created Eve. It was God who put her in a perfect world. It was God who walked with her in the garden. God had communicated with Adam and Eve. God had been there for them. Yet, through the dishonest words of Satan, Eve loses trust in God and goes with the serpent on a journey toward the forbidden tree. In Eve’s mind, God wasn’t right. The forbidden tree was good. The forbidden tree is something that she should have. She thought she knew better than God. The bottom line with Eve is that God said “do not eat the forbidden fruit,” but He really didn’t mean that. She thought she knew what was best.

There is a little bit of Eve in all of us. We try to out guess God, calculate what is really behind things and conclude that God doesn’t really mean what He says. Like Eve, the forbidden looks good. It’s something that we want. It’s something that we need. God doesn’t really know us nor does God really appreciate our situation. So we delve into the forbidden. We may even know it’s wrong, but in our case, it’s ok. That’s our thinking. An affair is justified because of the lack of attention at home. It’s innocent and no one will get hurt. That’s serpent talk. We need the affair, we believe. Technically, it’s forbidden, but in the long run it’s good. It’s better than a divorce. Our thinking by-passes God  and we find ways to make the forbidden acceptable.

The same goes for the guy at work who cooks the books to steal from his company. Technically it’s wrong. However, it’s been forever since he’s had a decent raise and they waste more than what he is taking just on lunch for the execs. His kids are soon to be in college and things are tight. His forbidden fruit becomes acceptable in his mind. God will understand, he thinks. He’s not doing anything real bad. Oh, the twisted and  conniving ways our minds try to out think God and find ways to make the wrong seem right!

Others do it with excuses. What they say is really weak and lame. However, it works for them. In their minds they can’t go to work, school or church services. That same day, they are out shopping, going to the gym, or the restaurant. They take advantage of others simply because they need some time for themselves. They have found ways to milk the system and take full advantage of others, trying their patience, all the while feeling justified because “I deserve the time off.”

Eve was convinced that God didn’t mean what He said. The serpent convinced her that she was not going to die. The forbidden was good. The forbidden was useful and even helpful. So Eve became the first to open the door to “really knowing” what God means. What He says isn’t it. One must understand what He means. He says, NO, don’t eat the forbidden fruit, but the enlightened Eve now knows that God didn’t mean that. He has to say things like that. There has been a flood of “enlightened” theologians coming out of universities that filled the pulpits in America and have authored zillions of books that have discredited what God said in the Bible. They seem to know what God really means. And, according to them, what God really means is not what’s in the Bible. These enlightened intellectuals know what no one else does. They are lifted up on pedestals and their words are quoted and often used to trump what the Bible says. They know because of their research, not into the word of God, but into secular culture and grasping the spirit of the times. For them, this new understanding changes what is said in the Bible. The Bible says this, but that’s not what it really means. These enlightened folks are simply dancing to the same song that Eve first danced to. If they took the time to read the rest of Genesis 3, which most do not believe really happened. They believe it was just a story, and nothing more than a story. The rest of Genesis 3 reveals that God DID mean what He said. The forbidden was forbidden. Adam and Eve suffered consequences for listening to that dumb serpent.

We must stop trying to figure God out, guess what He really meant and by faith trust Him, believe Him and understand He says things in a way for our good. He wants us to be righteous and holy. He knows us. Eve was convinced that God didn’t really know her. How wrong she was. How wrong others are today who feel that the Bible isn’t right for them. They’ve outgrown the Bible or they simply do not need to the Bible to be spiritual. What a huge mistake they are making. Like Eve, they will see, too late, that there are ugly consequences to out guessing God. The most serious is the loss of our souls eternally.

The word of God is intended to mean what it says. Sure there is some digging to be done but it’s within the book. The Psalmist loved the word of God. He declared that it was a lamp unto his feet.

Eve was wrong. She should have listened to what God said. God meant what He said. Where are you with all of this? Have you tried to find ways to cross the fence into the forbidden? Have you left what the word of God says?

God says what He does for a reason. Believe it. Trust it. Follow it. Obey it.

Roger