Satan has a way of crafting his lies to seem as if they are only common sense, and my sin nature is only too quick to fall for it. I find that only through God-given reasoning and, of course, the renewed heart that God has given me am I able to see Satan’s lies for what they are. It is only by keeping the Lord at the forefront of my mind and constantly reminding myself of his nail-scared hands that I can rest in his truth and not fall for the lies of sin. This post was a much-needed reminder for me this morning. Thank you.
P.S. I would very much like to see that snake video!
Beautiful addition, Jacob, and I greatly appreciate you sharing those extra thoughts! It reminds me of an analogy my dad gave in a sermon a long time ago regarding counterfeit money. He said that people who are trained to spot counterfeit dollar bills don’t spend time studying the fake money but spend time investigating the look and feel of the real money. They’re then able to immediately spot a fake due to their intimate knowledge of the real. Precisely what you’re getting at in your comment about fighting deception by resting in Christ’s truth.
Powerful stuff, brother. This quote gave me chills: “ask him to show you the wounds on his palm from where he bore your suffering, or the scars on his back from where he carried your cross, or the bruises on his feet from where he blazed your trail.”
Also I respect you overcoming your disdain for snakes, I for one still have the Indiana Jones mentality towards them haha. But I say bring on the video all the same!
Means a great deal, Matty! I wrote those lines at around 1:30 yesterday, and I praised God for giving me the visual before I finally went to bed. Stirred my heart to write them for sure.
Haha, you need to have a Steve Irwin mentality, man; he was the TRUE Indiana Jones.
I've never thought that people actually think all animals were speaking in the Garden (no offense if anyone seeing this is/was of that belief). I always saw the serpent speaking as a "well of course he could speak because it's a disguise for Satan." He could blend into the Garden and deliver the lie a lot easier if he looks like he belongs there. Plus, if a talking creature tells you something like that, it can be perceived that they know something you don't, such as maybe it ate the fruit already and that's how it can speak (I obviously don't believe that to be the case, but believe that that could have been perceived by Eve as part of the lie's selling point. Anyway, that's a good idea. Also, waiting for it to say no is crazy but funny 😂 Definitely would like to see the snake video!
Thank you so much for the comment, Caitlyn--excellent thoughts here. I agree with you completely and I, too, have always grown up just assuming that Eve knew the devil was talking to her. However, the reasons some pastors give for considering ulterior options are these: first, that God puts a curse on snakes going forward, even though presumably it was Satan, not the snake, who sinned; and second, that Eve seems oddly comfortable with a snake speaking to her, perhaps implying that animal talk was a common occurrence in the Garden. Regardless, these theories, though intriguing, aren't convincing enough for me. Food for thought though.
I don't know if I believe that Eve specifically knew that it was Devil or not, but I do think that maybe she wasn't alarmed with this creature speaking to her because 1. What he said enticed her and 2. She didn't really have a reason to fear while in the Garden. It would explain her nonchalant reaction to a speaking animal, would make more logical sense with all animals not speaking, and could explain why she believed the lie anyway. It would be more enticing, curious, and maybe more believable for her for this creature to be speaking to her about some knowledge that she doesn't have because then it speaking is "proof" that it "knows" something.
Thank you for those thoughts, Caitlyn. This is where an inquiry into what life was like in Eden becomes too murky for us. From the moment of our birth, we’ve been thrust into a dog-eat-dog world full of fear and sickness and sorrow and a keen sense of the eroding impact of time. A place like Eden, where there’s no sin or death or war or sickness, etc., is beyond our ability to comprehend, in so far as none of us have ever experienced a world like that. Which is why your second statement that Eve didn’t have fear in the Garden makes sense on the one hand, but on the other hand it doesn’t account for the fact that God explicitly commanded her not to eat of the fruit lest she die. That is, God interrupted her perfect environment with a vision of death, which must’ve terrified her, even though we can’t explain what such a ‘terror’ means to a perfect, sinless human mind. We’re stuck in a muddle between two possibilities that each have a problem: one, that if Adam and Eve had no capacity for fear in Eden, then God’s threat of death had no meaning; and two, that if Adam and Eve did become afraid once God made them aware of death, then fear was crucial to their flourishing. And neither position is easy to reconcile with other biblical passages.
That’s why, for me, I try not to get too caught up in the nuances of the wording, because each word is its own infinite rabbit hole as it were. It helps my soul best to simply recognize the devil’s guise here, and to admit my own bent toward corrupting desire, and to learn from the tragedy of this ordeal so that I don’t continue to repeat The Fall of Man over and over and over again today.
Wow, I hope you arrived safely in Geneva! I’d love to visit Geneva someday with my wife. Marking that down on my bucket list haha. Thank you for the kinds word, Paul!
Satan has a way of crafting his lies to seem as if they are only common sense, and my sin nature is only too quick to fall for it. I find that only through God-given reasoning and, of course, the renewed heart that God has given me am I able to see Satan’s lies for what they are. It is only by keeping the Lord at the forefront of my mind and constantly reminding myself of his nail-scared hands that I can rest in his truth and not fall for the lies of sin. This post was a much-needed reminder for me this morning. Thank you.
P.S. I would very much like to see that snake video!
Beautiful addition, Jacob, and I greatly appreciate you sharing those extra thoughts! It reminds me of an analogy my dad gave in a sermon a long time ago regarding counterfeit money. He said that people who are trained to spot counterfeit dollar bills don’t spend time studying the fake money but spend time investigating the look and feel of the real money. They’re then able to immediately spot a fake due to their intimate knowledge of the real. Precisely what you’re getting at in your comment about fighting deception by resting in Christ’s truth.
Powerful stuff, brother. This quote gave me chills: “ask him to show you the wounds on his palm from where he bore your suffering, or the scars on his back from where he carried your cross, or the bruises on his feet from where he blazed your trail.”
Also I respect you overcoming your disdain for snakes, I for one still have the Indiana Jones mentality towards them haha. But I say bring on the video all the same!
Means a great deal, Matty! I wrote those lines at around 1:30 yesterday, and I praised God for giving me the visual before I finally went to bed. Stirred my heart to write them for sure.
Haha, you need to have a Steve Irwin mentality, man; he was the TRUE Indiana Jones.
I've never thought that people actually think all animals were speaking in the Garden (no offense if anyone seeing this is/was of that belief). I always saw the serpent speaking as a "well of course he could speak because it's a disguise for Satan." He could blend into the Garden and deliver the lie a lot easier if he looks like he belongs there. Plus, if a talking creature tells you something like that, it can be perceived that they know something you don't, such as maybe it ate the fruit already and that's how it can speak (I obviously don't believe that to be the case, but believe that that could have been perceived by Eve as part of the lie's selling point. Anyway, that's a good idea. Also, waiting for it to say no is crazy but funny 😂 Definitely would like to see the snake video!
Thank you so much for the comment, Caitlyn--excellent thoughts here. I agree with you completely and I, too, have always grown up just assuming that Eve knew the devil was talking to her. However, the reasons some pastors give for considering ulterior options are these: first, that God puts a curse on snakes going forward, even though presumably it was Satan, not the snake, who sinned; and second, that Eve seems oddly comfortable with a snake speaking to her, perhaps implying that animal talk was a common occurrence in the Garden. Regardless, these theories, though intriguing, aren't convincing enough for me. Food for thought though.
I don't know if I believe that Eve specifically knew that it was Devil or not, but I do think that maybe she wasn't alarmed with this creature speaking to her because 1. What he said enticed her and 2. She didn't really have a reason to fear while in the Garden. It would explain her nonchalant reaction to a speaking animal, would make more logical sense with all animals not speaking, and could explain why she believed the lie anyway. It would be more enticing, curious, and maybe more believable for her for this creature to be speaking to her about some knowledge that she doesn't have because then it speaking is "proof" that it "knows" something.
Thank you for those thoughts, Caitlyn. This is where an inquiry into what life was like in Eden becomes too murky for us. From the moment of our birth, we’ve been thrust into a dog-eat-dog world full of fear and sickness and sorrow and a keen sense of the eroding impact of time. A place like Eden, where there’s no sin or death or war or sickness, etc., is beyond our ability to comprehend, in so far as none of us have ever experienced a world like that. Which is why your second statement that Eve didn’t have fear in the Garden makes sense on the one hand, but on the other hand it doesn’t account for the fact that God explicitly commanded her not to eat of the fruit lest she die. That is, God interrupted her perfect environment with a vision of death, which must’ve terrified her, even though we can’t explain what such a ‘terror’ means to a perfect, sinless human mind. We’re stuck in a muddle between two possibilities that each have a problem: one, that if Adam and Eve had no capacity for fear in Eden, then God’s threat of death had no meaning; and two, that if Adam and Eve did become afraid once God made them aware of death, then fear was crucial to their flourishing. And neither position is easy to reconcile with other biblical passages.
That’s why, for me, I try not to get too caught up in the nuances of the wording, because each word is its own infinite rabbit hole as it were. It helps my soul best to simply recognize the devil’s guise here, and to admit my own bent toward corrupting desire, and to learn from the tragedy of this ordeal so that I don’t continue to repeat The Fall of Man over and over and over again today.
I love snakes! Please show us the rattlesnake video!
Haha oh Joe, now you’re starting to sound like a snake. I can spot your LIE a mile away ;)
I’d like to see that video ! Thx for your profound writings! Enjoying it in my trip in the train to Geneva
Wow, I hope you arrived safely in Geneva! I’d love to visit Geneva someday with my wife. Marking that down on my bucket list haha. Thank you for the kinds word, Paul!
It is indeed a beautiful city! We will welcome you here if you someday show up . Thx for inspiring us
Loved reading this, Seth.
That really means a lot, Josh! Thank you, brother.