January 12 Part two - Humanity is drawn to the chaos.

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 ganging 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 conversing for themselves. 

 

 

First let’s look at the serpent. It says that the serpent was more crafty. This word means sly, crafty, or subtle. The serpent represents a sneaky way to deceive someone. Which is a fitting descriptor, because the serpent is first seen trying to subtly trick Adam and Eve. Listen to the first question the serpent asks them - Did God really say, ‘You must not eat form any tree in the garden?”

 

This is an obviously absurd question. Of course God didn’t say they couldn’t eat from any tree in the garden. In fact, it is almost the exact opposite of what God did say. He said they could eat from EVERY tree in the garden except one. But the serpent is sowing a little chaos in the middle of truth. 

 

Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? 

 

The bigger deception here, is that God’s order was that the trees would be the ONLY source of nutrition for mankind. Genesis 1:29 - Then God Said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground - everything that has the breath of life in it - I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. 

 

So the created order was that the plants would produce food for all living creatures on the ground. This would have been true for the serpent as well! Yet the serpent asks - did God really say you can’t eat from any of the trees. 

 

So the serpent didn’t tell them a lie. He just questioned the created order of things. 

 

And by doing so, Eve was drawn in and began to spin her own confusion. Listen to what Eve did in her answer - “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.’”

 

She added to it. . . You must not touch it. 

 

See, the devil doesn’t have to get you to believe a lie, he just has to get you to question the truth. If the devil can get you to question truth, you will begin to build your own lie. 

 

And that is what Eve did. She questioned truth, and began to build her own lie. 

 

So then the devil said truth again and it caused Eve to have mistrust for God’s order. Listen to the devil’s next response. 

 

You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat form it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 

 

See I’ve heard a lot of people say that this was a lie. And the lie they think the serpent told was that he had them believing that they weren’t already like God when they really were. But the truth is, they weren’t like God in this way. They didn’t know good and evil. The word know means to experience something to the point of understanding it. At this point, they didn’t know evil because they hadn’t experienced it to the point of understanding it. And God didn’t want them to know it. 

 

This statement was actually completely true! But in the confusion of doubt, the woman is drawn into the disorder and chaos of ignoring God’s plans. She believes there is something better for her than to follow God’s perfect plan. We all get caught in this. We all believe there is something better than following God’s plan. The chaos that is around us, seems better than following the straight and narrow plan that God has for us. 

 

See, we are all one step away from being convinced that a lie is true and it would be better to do things our way instead of following God’s plan. 

 

And think about this, where were Adam and Eve? They were right next to the only tree in the garden that they weren’t supposed to eat from. Yet there they were. Looking at it and admiring it. Eve saw that it was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and even desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took it and ate it. 

 

We all have been in this same place. 

 

Every time we do things our way, it is because at some level, we believe we know better than God’s plan. And we have all done it at some point or another. It’s finding the easy way out or finding a shortcut to the way God desires things. Whatever it is, we have all rebelled against God’s plan at some point. And we all do it over and over again. 

 

In fact, this second piece to our meta narrative - that we are all drawn to the chaos - is the majority of the rest of humanity’s story. WE all continually chase after the chaos of the darkness instated of following God’s plan. 

 

But the good news, God has made a plan for this. He knew that we would ignore his plan and that we would be drawn into the chaos again. So he created a way for us to be brought back into his plan. That’s part three that we will talk about tomorrow. 

 

But for now, 

 

Know that we are all drawn to the chaos. WE all rebel against God’s order. This is what sin is. It’s missing the mark of doing things God’s way. This is allowing the darkness to rule instead the order of God. The problem with the chaos, we need a way to be rescued back into the order of creation. This isn’t something possible for us to do on our own. So God did it for us. Join us tomorrow and we will talk about this third part. 

 

But for now, that’s all the time we have left for today. I love you, and God bless.