Friday, June 4, 2010

Believe God, Not Lies of Others

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made."

-- Genesis 3:1a

I'm sure everyone knows about Adam and Eve. They had it made, living in the Garden of Eden, where God met all their needs. But they were human. And the serpent knew that as humans, Adam and Eve wanted more than what they had. That hasn't changed much.

It's easy to blame it all on Eve. As women, we're accustomed to feeling the sting of criticism when something goes wrong. And, yes, Eve did accept the fruit from the serpent and eat it. And, yes, she did offer it to Adam. The little phrase that we tend to overlook says, "who was with her." That would be Adam, who was with her during her chat with the serpent. Adam could have stopped Eve from eating the fruit. He could have refused to eat what Eve offered. He could have condemned the serpent. Nope. He ate -- and then blamed Eve.

But I digress. Why did Eve eat the fruit in the first place? The serpent made it sound like a good idea. He twisted God's words -- knowingly -- in order to lead Eve where he wanted her to go. I've always thought of this as Satan (the serpent) tempting Eve. I heard someone recently refer to this as false teaching. I'd never heard it called that. But it really does fit.

The serpent told Eve some things that just weren't true. And instead of believing God, she chose to believe Satan. Don't we do the same thing? God tells us how to live our lives, He gives us a guide within the Bible, and we choose to ignore it and do what we want.

Now you're saying, "Wait a minute." You probably don't want to be lumped in with murderers and burglars and drunks. But sin is sin. Have you ever wished something awful for someone who wronged you? Have you ever wanted something someone else had? Have you ever had a little bit too much dessert? Sin is sin, no matter how many times we tell ourselves our sin is different.

Eve didn't sin when the serpent tempted her. She sinned when she fell for his lies rather than believing God. We should remember this so we don't make the same mistake in our own lives. When we trust God to lead us, we can resist temptation and miss an awful lot of heartache.