Worship - Sunday at 10:30AM
Bible Study - Wednesday at 6:30PM
2007-02-11 Communion Dedication - Baldwin Christian Church
LESSONS FROM EVE
Genesis 3:1-5
1. Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
I can't say whether Eve was just hanging around the tree of knowledge asking for trouble, or whether the serpent sought her out, so she gets a pass on "Bad company corrupts good character" (1 Corinthians 15:33). All I can say is that she was within earshot of the serpent and responded when he started a conversation with her. That usually leads to trouble.
When the serpent asked her the question in verse 1, she didn't give a "yes" or "no" answer. Because of that I think she learned the commandment from her husband, not God (Adam received the commandment against this fruit back in chapter 2, verses 16 and 17, before Eve was on the scene). Instead of answering "no", Eve answered with a multitude of words...
Proverbs 10:19 In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.
Matthew 5:37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
The serpent's question was subtle. On the surface, he insinuated there is a different interpretation of God's commandment, and beneath the surface, "Hath God said?" (Wink, wink) he planted a seed of doubt about the actual existence of the commandment ("Did God really mean it exactly like that", and then "Did he really say that?"). Either way, the serpent was trying to harm Eve's relationship with God, and I think with her husband Adam, too.
In order of priority, the serpent wanted to harm their relationship with God, first and foremost. Second, he wanted to harm Adam and Eve's relationship with each other. This is the order of the devil's priority, but not always the order of his execution. Anything that comes along, questioning something that God said, or that your husband said, or your wife, your parents, your children, or your friends, watch out for the "Well, let me tell you what he said, or she said" coming right after the questions.
These seeds of doubt can be very subtle. The serpent is no slouch, and he is our enemy. He makes trouble even when there's not a third person involved. If you say something to me, but I hear it differently than you meant it, from that point on, unless we resolve the misunderstanding, our relationship starts having problems and breaking down from there. Our expectations of each other go unmet because we didn't communicate well just one time, because I didn't make sure that I understood you.
Who gets the glory when we begin to distrust each other, when a little bitterness creeps into our relationship? Who gets the glory when the resentment creeps into our minds as we sit here in worship? That old serpent gets it, that's who gets the glory. He disrupts our relationship with each other, and the hurt coming from that can eventually harm our relationship with God.
That's how the serpent went after Eve. He asked Eve if God really said what He said, insinuating that God didn't mean what He said, and then He convinced Eve that God was hiding something from her ("Well, God knows that you'll become like Him. That's why He doesn't want you to eat the fruit of this tree.").
The serpent is subtle and powerful, yes, but he uses the same old routine on us. The question is, why do we let him have his way with us? Why do we allow misunderstandings to go on in our marriages, in our families, with our friends, and in our church? How can we come to this table with any resentment in our hearts?
How can we partake of this table, knowing that we haven't made things right with someone we've hurt? Jesus paid a horrible price to reconcile us with our Father in heaven. Maybe I can motivate us to repentance with guilt now, to think about what Jesus went through, and make us see how foolish we've been, but we need to get beyond this. We have to begin seeing these things as they develop in real-time, as they are happening, not just in hindsight.
If the serpent can create any misunderstandings between us, get us to miscommunicate with each other, getting us to question one another in our minds, keeping things below the surface instead of out in the open, allowing things that are unclear to remain unclear, and then he has a foothold in us.
The serpent wants you to keep questioning in your mind what your husband said, and debating in yourself what he meant by that, instead of coming to him in love quickly, and resolving it. He wants you to question why your parents tell you to not do certain things, and start thinking that you know better.
These are not just stories in the Bible. It is given to us to know the truth, to use it, and not give the enemy any foothold.