4 Lies the Enemy Uses against Us from Genesis
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“Human history is the long, terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.” - C.S. Lewis
There are so many lies we buy into in an effort to find joy outside of a surrendered relationship with God. Genesis introduces sin, and in Genesis 3 we read the account of an interaction between the deceiver and the woman. This conversation reveals the lies that started humanity's long stint of wandering.
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’’ ‘You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves” (Genesis 3:1-7, emphasis added).
In this passage of Scripture, we notice four lies the serpent uses to pull the first humans away from God’s best.
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Lie One: There Are No Consequences When We Go against God’s Word
The serpent approaches Eve with a question. The crafty being asks if God really said not to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden. He then follows this question with a lie, telling her if she disobeyed God and ate this pleasing fruit, she and the man would not certainly die.
The Evil One presents the idea that the consequences God warns of would not apply to Adam and Eve. He pushes her to follow what looked good to her eyes. He led her to believe she was exempt from the fall out that God warned of from pursuing her way rather than remaining faithful to God.
“There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12).
The serpent led Eve to consume his lie that death would not come when she followed what appeared to be right instead of what God told her was right. Sadly, the serpent’s lie and Adam and Eve’s actions were what ushered the power of death into this world. There are always consequences when we choose to go against God’s Word.
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Lie Two: God’s Is Withholding Goodness from Us
The devil told the women that if she ate this forbidden fruit, she would be like God! She would have knowledge of good and evil. Eve was sold the lie of discontentment. She believed that God was withholding his goodness from her and Adam, and she needed to take matters into her own hands to ensure that she was not missing out on a better life.
It’s so easy to believe that the “grass is greener” and that a sin-filled life is more fun, more satisfying, and will fill our souls better than the one who created us can. Eve began to envy a life she had never seen; it was an idea that something more, a greater power, a better life existed outside of God’s best plan for her. But we know that for God’s children, his goodness and mercy follows us all of our days (Psalm 23:6). When we stop trusting that he has a hope-filled future for us, we start searching for contentment in all the wrong places and we lose out on God’s best for our stories.
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Lie Three: God Is Not Trustworthy
The essence of this conversation is to undermine Adam and Eve’s trust in the character of God. All of this dialogue leads to the humans believing God is not trustworthy. This misguided belief led them to follow the advice of the serpent rather than remaining faithful to their Maker.
How many times in our lives do we fall into this trap? We believe we know best. We rail against God. We spend our time stuck questioning his ways, his goodness, his plan for our lives, and his rules. Our pride rises up, putting us in the place of God when we choose to follow our own way. Instead, we ought to live in the humble posture of surrender to God’s guidance and the guidelines his Word sets out for our lives.
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Lie Four: When We Fail We Must Run and Hide from God
In verses 9 and 10 we see God enter the picture. He is walking in the garden that he generously crafted for the man and woman and calls out to them. When he finally interacts with them, he asks why they are hiding, feeling naked and afraid. The knowledge that the serpent led them towards opened their eyes to a feeling of shame. They are no longer as God’s children, free and comfortable in their own skin. They hid away seeing their failure and imperfection as a reason to retreat from the communion that had known with God.
Yet the reality of this story is that God is patient and kind. He loved us so much that even while we were still sinners, he gave his life so that we might be able to live in the right relationship with him (Romans 5:8). When we draw near to him, he draws near to us (James 4:8).
Adam and Eve believed the lie that their knowledge and disobedience was greater than God’s love. They did not realize that their maker was, at his core, a being of love. We are never too far from God to reach out and experience the love of Christ, but the enemy of our souls wants us to remain stuck living in shame because this keeps us far from God and his perfect love.
As we study Genesis, we can learn from the demise of Adam and Eve and study how these same lies easily slip into our thoughts and separate us from God. Separation from God is the enemy's ultimate goal, and when we are far from Him we get stuck in the dark. We must stay near the light in order to find the narrow way that leads us towards everlasting life.
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