Wednesday 16 September, 2015

3 The serpent was more clever than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. The serpent said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat fruit from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But God did say, ‘You must not eat the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. Do not even touch it. If you do, you will die.’ ” 4 “You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “God knows that when you eat fruit from that tree, you will know things you have never known before. Like God, you will be able to tell the difference between good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree’s fruit was good to eat and pleasing to look at. She also saw that it would make a person wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. And he ate it. 7 Then both of them knew things they had never known before. They realized they were naked. So they sewed together fig leaves and made clothes for themselves.

Looking with fresh eyes today on the process that Adam and Eve go through in their journey from temptation to sin, I am confronted with how similar this process is when I face temptations in my own world!

First in verse 1, there is an idea that questions the truth. Here in this scripture it comes from the devil, but it doesn’t always. Our own fallen nature and the world can also come up with ideas that call God’s truth and authority into question.

Next there is some resistance to sin. Eve dialogues with the serpent, but Adam doesn’t support her even though we later find he was with her. We need to support one another and be accountable to one another, especially husbands and wives.

Then there is a lie that eve accepts, but not only that. The thing that was previously forbidden now looks very appealing. There even seems to be wisdom in taking of it. In order for me as a Christian to give in to temptation, I have to believe a lie. Innocently or not, if I held to the truth that God has given to me 100% of the time, temptation would be dealt with by truth. I’m not saying that I’ll ever be able to conquer sin in this life, but the fact is that I’m choosing it when I do fall.

After sin comes shame (fig leaves to try to hide the shame) and guilt and fear (hiding from God, avoiding the consequences of actions).

Lord, my sin is abhorrent to you. It is so bad that your Son had to die so that I could be right with you again. Thank you for today giving me an insight into the process of sin so that I can better resist temptation.

Written by Ps. Justin Ware