Some of you, seeing last week’s “Eve’s first mistake” heading, might have suspected that I think she made more mistakes. You’re right! But then, seldom do any of us make only one mistake in an encounter with evil, although even listening to the devil at all is always mistake enough by itself! But she made several more....
Her second mistake lay in not choosing either of two reactions: ignoring the devil, or terminating the conversation, using the italicized words above. The only safe ‘reply’ to temptation—however it approaches—is the Word of God. Although he can twist and use it for his purposes, the devil cannot withstand it—and he knows that better than we humans do, apparently. God’s forbiddance was sufficient for Eve to know or use.
Then Eve immediately made a third, always dangerous mistake: adding to what God said (it is equally dangerous to “take from” His words). Note that the portion of the verse I’ve put in brackets above is nowhere mentioned in Scripture.
It is possible that God did tell either Adam or Eve not to “touch” the fruit of the tree in question (though we have no record of God’s directly instructing Eve about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, at all). But it is always true that when we start ‘monkeying around’ with God’s words—twisting, omitting, reinterpreting, adding to, for any reason—we disobey His Word’s clear warning not to do so, and we place ourselves on shaky ground, for only what He says has saving and protecting power.
By apparently embellishing God’s warning, Eve put herself on that shaky ground. We can almost hear her beginning to ask herself, “Now, exactly what did God say, after all?”
You may wonder why I didn’t italicize the last clause of our verse (“lest you die”); and it’s because the penalty for disobedience should not be an essential part of why we obey!
The fear factor is good internal backup (it sure worked for me as child and teen!), but I believe obedience was originally, ideally meant to result from our awareness of God’s sovereignty—Who He is compared to us—and even more from His love for us and ours for Him—Who He is to us. Thus, what Eve’s Lord commanded—not what He warned—should have been both sufficient cause to obey Him and sufficient response to Satan.
Am I condemning Eve? Sadly, that would be extremely hypocritical. I know myself well enough to know that I would probably have done even worse.
I am simply—and sadly—reflecting that if Eve had used only God’s words and had loved Him enough to obey, she would have abruptly ended the conversation with Satan with something like, “God said it; He rules; end of conversation!” And maybe The Fall could have been avoided. Maybe you and I would not have to wrestle every day with Satan. Maybe we would not sicken, age, die...?
Eve stood on the eve of greatness... “Woman defeats enemy with Words!” the headlines might have screamed. And Eve might have been the first female warrior, like Deborah in later days, to drive a stake into the brain-scheme of the enemy of God and His people. Alas, she fumbled on her ‘eve of greatness.’
But what do you and I do, on our ‘eves of greatness’? For every encounter with Satan—with sin in any form or milieu, from any source or mouth—is a chance to show great godliness, to conquer evil with the Word of God.... And that is always godly greatness.
Have a good week!
Post a Comment
