Daily Devotional For Thursday, June 6, 2024

Well, it’s Thursday! Questions! We all have them. Every day our lives are inundated with questions. Either we ask them or someone is asking us. And that got me thinking to ask this question, “What are the top questions the Bible records that have been asked?” It doesn’t take long in reading the Bible to see when the first question appears. Let’s go to Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (ESV).

Not only is this the first question that is asked in the Bible, it is also the first time in the Bible anyone questioned God’s Word. When the serpent or satan posed this question to Eve, she responds with more than what God said. When God gave the prohibition from eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Eve was not around yet. This prohibition was given to Adam. Look at Genesis 2:15-17:

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (16) And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, `You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, (17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (ESV).

When the devil asked Eve the question, notice Eve’s response in Genesis 3:2-3:

“And the woman said to the serpent, `We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, (3 ) but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die’” (ESV).

Did you notice how Eve added more to God’s prohibition? God never said they could not touch the fruit. My thought is Adam added this to make sure Eve did nothing with that tree out of protection to her and obedience to God. Sort of like an older sibling warns a younger sibling of adhering to their parent’s restrictions.

Based on Genesis 2:15-17, Adam and Eve were given first a vocation by God. They were to care for and till the garden ((2:15). Second, they were given a permit to do virtually anything and everything pertaining to food (Genesis 2:16). And third, a prohibition. They were not allowed to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17). And what happens in chapter 3 overturns everything good and perfect God had created and brought chaos into this world. 

In other passages in the Old Testament (see. Deut. 1:39, 2 Samuel 14:17, Samuel 19:35, and 1 Kings 3:9) , the phrase “good and evil” refers to making moral choices. The temptation was more than just to eat fruit from that particular tree. It was the temptation that say, “I know what is best for me when it comes to good and evil.” Andrew Reid in his commentary says this:

“The opening chapters of the Bible make clear that God is the King over all the world. He made the world and humans to live in it, and he is the one who determines what is good and what is evil. By eating the fruit, Adam and Eve are saying that they don’t want God to be in that role. Rather, they want it for themselves. In taking the fruit, the man and the woman are grasping at being God. This is why God says humans have ‘become like one of us, knowing good and evil’ (3:22)—they put themselves in the role of God, becoming the determiners of their own good and evil” (Source: Andrew Reid, Genesis: Salvation Begins, p. 34).

And what we see here is the “craftiness” of the serpent. How so? First, the serpent does not totally controvert outright what God had said to Adam and Adam and said to Eve. Rather, he questions God’s motivation with the subtle addition “really say.” In the original Hebrew, the serpent not so much as asking a question but he is distorting the facts. The second way he gets them to question God’s prohibition is the serpent reworks the wording of God’s command slightly by (1) adding the negative “not” at the head of the clause, which with “any” expresses an absolute prohibition; (2) and he intentionally omitted the emphatic “freely.” 

And his craftiness is also seen in a third way in his question: he placed the clause “from any tree” at the end of the sentence rather than at the head as in Genesis 2:16. What this does is thereby robs God’s command of its distinction of liberality. In other words, he refashioned God’s prohibition so that it appeared as nothing more than a prohibition rather than having given them liberality in living in the garden. All of this is to say that the divine injunction in the mouth of the serpent was refashioned for its own interests.

And what the serpent or satan did then, he does now. He makes us question God’s love for us, God’s prohibitions to us, God’s commandments to us and God’s protection for us. To almost every temptation we experience, we can almost hear that old serpent, satan, whispering to us, “Did God actually say . . .?” The Hebrew text also gives the impression that when the serpent asked Eve the question, he did so as if in shock and surprise to God’s prohibition. 

He grossly exaggerates God’s prohibition, claiming that God did not allow them access to any of the orchard trees. Apart from this claim being a distortion, it is an attempt to create in the woman’s mind the impression that God is spiteful, mean, obsessively jealous, and self-protective. When we choose to sin that is how we feel as well. In addition, the serpent cleverly provides Eve with an opportunity to defend God and to clarify His position, which she failed to do. By this one statement of the snake God has moved from a loving benevolent provider to an evil cruel oppressor. 

Questions To Consider

1. For you personally, how does this old serpent, satan, pose the question to you about God’s loving prohibitions?
2. We are not told why Eve added to God’s loving prohibition, speculate for a moment. Why do you think she did?
3. The Hebrew text makes it clear that the serpent was the “craftiest” of all the animals in the Garden of Eden, not the wisest. The Hebrew used is [עָר֔וּם, arum]. It means “most shrewd, crafty, and clever.” You don’t have to be wise to be shrewd, crafty or manipulative. 
4. The Apostle Paul writes this in 2 Corinthians 2:11, “So that satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes” (NLT). What scheme of satan are you familiar with that he uses on you?
5. The devil is most dangerous when he uses the ruse of disguise as he did here in the Garden of Eden. Eve doesn’t seem shocked the serpent or snake talked to her. Maybe in the Garden of Eden they could talk to animals and they could talk to them. So, the devil used the disguise of a snake, and the woman failed to see it for what it was. Being subtle is one of the ruses of the devil. What subtleties does the devil use on you to disguise is trickery?

Scripture To Meditate On: James 4:7, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (ESV).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I pray You will help me see the craftiness of the devil. Please help me to resist him with Your Word and Your Holy Spirit. Help me not to take his bait, `Did God really say . . .’ I believe Your Word where You say `Greater is He — Jesus Christ — who is in me than he — the devil — who is in this world” (1 John 4:4b, ESV). I love You Jesus. I ask this in Your name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!—Pastor Kelly