Genesis 3:1-7 – Truth must be spiritually discerned

In Genesis 1-2, we discover that when God saw everything He had created, He said it was good. When God had created the first man, He was more than satisfied. He said that the creation of man was very good. And the scene would have been perfect had not for the entrance of evil. Had Adam and Eve, the woman God created to be his helper, obeyed the only instruction God gave them. Had they avoided eating the fruit of that tree of knowledge of good and evil, the world would still be the perfect place God had intended. But at last it was not to be! Adam and Eve, our first parents, chose to disobey God. They broke the very instruction God gave and ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It was at that point that sin entered into humanity and started a downward spiral for mankind until Calvary. Essentially, sin is disobedience. It is to fall short of the standard of God. It starts when God’s Word is contradicted.

In the perfect environment, sin came in through deception. The serpent became an instrument of Satan to deceive Eve. The serpent has since become the symbol of the devil. He twisted and distorted God’s instruction concerning eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The serpent began with a subtle insinuation to create the misconception that God would keep the best from man. He chose Eve’s unguarded moment and presented to her God’s instruction in negative light. We need to be careful with the subtle insinuation that would come to our mind. The devil cannot made us do his bidding when we are certain of what God has said. When we are able to detect and discern the devil’s subtle insinuation, we can then deal with it. The devil will always contort and distort the truth of God.

In the case of Eve, the devil gave the impression that God was keeping something good from them. The devil through the serpent had slandered God. He insinuated to Eve that God did not want her and Adam to be like God, when in reality they were made in the image and likeness of God. When God said that partaking of that forbidden fruit would bring death, the devil contradicted that and said the opposite. That cunning old devil even dared to insinuate that God lied about the effect of eating the forbidden fruit. He told Eve that eating the fruit would make one wise like God. That directly contradicted what God said would be the result of eating the fruit – death!   

Unfortunate for us, Eve took the bait. She chose to move by what she saw and not live by what God had said. She 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.” The moment they chose to partake of the fruit, they had changed their allegiance. They preferred the devil’s lies to God’s truth. Then it dawned on them the emptiness of the devil’s lie. Verse 7 describes their experience of nakedness. It was a devastating feeling of emptiness that always brings disappointment. Their natural reaction was to sew a garden of fig leaves to cover their nakedness. Isn’t this a very normal respond of fallen people? That is the tendency to camouflage flaws so that the condition would not be exposed. The first step to change is to confront reality of the situation and not to try to cover up.

From these seven verses, we know that we need to guard our thought life. Subtle and negative insinuation can always be traced to the evil one. He will twist the truth and make us feel as if God is keeping something good from us. Remember what seems pleasurable doesn’t always make it right. The evil one will make us feel as if we are missing out by being obedient to God’s word. We need to guard our thoughts. The surest way to identify lies is to know the liberating truth of God. Seek to know the truth. Be well versed with God’s Word and evaluate every doubt with the truth. If we abide in God’s Word, Jesus has promised that, we “…will know the truth and the truth will set us free!”