The first lie told in the Bible is recorded in Genesis Chap 3. It is such an effective lie that it succeeded in planting sufficient doubt in humanity of God's truth and His goodness. That lie is still effective today and I believe the most dangerous.
Here's the account of
the first lie as told in Genesis Chap 3:1-6 (NAS) broken down by verse with my
observations noted after each:
Vs 1: Now the serpent was
more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he
said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree
of the garden'?"
Notice that the serpent,
which represents Satan, was more cunning than any beast. This is important to note because Satan still operates that way today. The serpent wasn't after someone
who was ignorant of God and His
commands; he went for Eve who knew God and His commands. He didn’t come straight out with an attack that Eve would have seen coming easily. He simply asked a question. But he came with an agenda. You can see the agenda in the way he asked his question "Indeed, has God said?" Wow, we get that question in various forms still today too don't we?
Vs 2 & 3: The woman said to the
serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from
the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You
shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.' "
Eve
answers correctly. She quotes God’s command back to the serpent, so she
knew the command and knew it came from God. But did she believe that command or was she just repeating what she'd been told? There is a difference between knowing God's truth and living in it.
Vs 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."
The serpent
plants the seed of doubt into Eve's mind regarding
truth. He slanders God's character by calling Him a liar and tells Eve that His motives are not good. The truth about death was unknown to Adam and Eve at this point. There was no death in the garden. There was no sin there....yet. They didn't have the knowledge of good and evil at this point. Satan used that to his advantage. Knowing full well what death was, the serpent wrapped the truth of what God had told them in a lie. This tactic gets many believers today who aren't equipped with truth. If you only know enough of Scripture to pick up on some truth when you hear it, but can't discern when a lie is wrapped within it, you're in danger.
Think about how we're confronted with questions about the Bible and it's accuracy and relativity. Think of how we're told that many of the ideals written in the Bible are archaic or can't be trusted because it's been wrongly interpreted and rewritten through history by man. Or one that's really prevalent today - "did God really say (fill in the blank) is a sin?". Do you know how to answer those questions?
Let's read on.
Vs 6: When the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and
that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate;
and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
Here is another reason that Satan's lie was and
still is so effective. He appealed to Eve's flesh. Temptation comes to us first in a thought then moves into our other senses. Our mind is the enemy's
entry point. We're told so often in Scripture to be on guard against the devil's schemes. If we fail to take a tempting thought captive when it enters our mind and make it subject to Christ, then the enemy gains ground. If we allow ourselves to look upon, meditate on or fantasize about that thought, sin takes hold. Even more tempting than the physical fruit may have been the power that wisdom brings. The Bible doesn't tell us, but I wonder how long Eve hesitated before falling for the lie. And why didn't Adam intercede?
The
final point about this lie and Eve’s falling for it is that once she fell for
the lie and acted upon it, she wanted to take Adam down with her. That's usually the case with sin. When we fall into sin, it's not just us that gets hurt. It affects those around us; sometimes for generations. In Adam and Eve's case, it affected the entire world and still does.
Read a bit further on in Genesis Chap 3 and you see where finger pointing and blame shifting starts. It's interesting that the moment we have to give an account for the choices we make, we start shifting blame elsewhere. God held Adam accountable because Adam was
put in charge yet didn't stop Eve from eating the forbidden fruit even though he was standing right beside her during the exchange with the serpent. But Adam shifted blame first to Eve and then even implied maybe it was God's fault for giving "this woman" to him.
The enemy is still trying to use that first lie with God's people. Are you standing firm?
