Friday, October 29, 2010

Perception - Case study - Eve




"The serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:4,5

In the case study of Eve, we start with a different beginning point. Eve was not created with a sin nature. She didn't come out of the womb already tainted, affected and consumed by sin. She wasn't spiritually dead from day one. She was alive, whole, pure, holy and completely unencumbered.

She was perfect.

But let's get one thing straight. Even in her perfection, she was dependent on God. That was how she was created. She needed His guidance, His wisdom, His love and His counsel.

So what was the serpent's message to her? We are not given a lot of details of their meeting, just the basics. And basically, he called God a liar.

"God said you would die? Are you kidding me? You won't die. You see, He knows that as soon as you eat from the tree you'll be just like Him. You won't need Him anymore because you'll know everything you need to know! That's all that tree does - gives you understanding of good and evil."

One of my favorite women's books is Lies Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss and it's main point is that from day one, women have believed the lies Satan has whispered in our ears. It's a powerful book that hits us right between the eyes - gals, check it out.

But that's exactly what Eve did. She believed a lie.

So, what was her perception of God? She knew His instruction and she knew the consequence of disobedience. And yet there seemed to be another side to the story. Was God worried that she would become like Him and not need Him anymore? Was she doing Him a favor by eating it - then He wouldn't have to spend so much time instructing her? Why doesn't He want me to know good and evil? Why withhold something as wonderful as this fruit?

We don't know what she was thinking but we do know her choice. She chose to disregard God's instruction and follow another's. She believed Satan's lie, which means that she believed God had lied to her about the true affect of this fruit.

God. A liar.

Can you even imagine?

And that was in a perfect state.

Now put our lives into perspective. We are tainted by sin. We cannot process information without sin affecting it. That's how powerful sin is. And yet, we clearly have God's instructions and we clearly have a choice before us. Do we believe that what God says is true? Or is He a liar? When He tells us that He's given us the Holy Spirit to live within us and help us with our decisions, do we believe it? Or is He lying?

Of course God is not a liar, but unfortunately we act like He is when we don't believe that His ways are best for us. I'm going to let you mull that over for a while. I think each of us can apply this to our own lives in a myriad of ways, so I'll leave the personal application to you.

But keep in mind - Eve's actions revealed her perception of God. She knew Him, was in complete communion with Him, but still chose to believe that He was not being truthful with her. It had devastating consequences in her life as well as ours.

How do your perceptions of God affect your own life, positively or negatively?

Hmmm.....

3 comments:

  1. I think every one of us question God's direction in our lives and don't always listen to Him. We think we know whats better or just can't believe that God would allow certain circumstances to happen to us. Thats the sin nature in us all but.... ya but, God knows the whole picture and that is were faith comes in we need to remember that part is ours to walk in faith with Him and trust His judgement for us. I've said it before and I'll say it here we need to get God out of the box we keep Him in. Our minds can not perceive the greatness of God but we need to have faith to trust in Him

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  2. This is so timely, Kristin. In some ways it boils down to what role Scripture plays in your life. I'm learning that the more you're in the Word, the more you think in terms of God's truth. However, satan is on the prowl LOOKING for whom he can devour and we'd better be prepared for him or we'll fall for the many temptations and lies he puts in front of us. I guess that's why we need the Spirit so much and why we're instructed to "be on our guard." It implies activity...I haven't figured it all out yet, but daily am learning more. Thanks for sharing -- it's actually encouraging to realize that Eve was in a state of perfection when she fell for the lies. I'd never really thought of it like that before. Kind of takes the condemnation (another trick that satan often uses too effectively in my life) out of my many falls. Thanks!

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  3. We'll talk about this a bit on Tuesday, Jen, but even in a perfect state Jesus felt the pull of temptation. Eve gave into it and as for us, the temptation is only pulling on us to do what comes naturally. But I think my point is our view of God. We need to live with Him as a reality, not religion - even more than relationship. Reality is where I dwell, right? And we build our perceptions either on our experience or what makes sense in our own minds (both of which are sin tainted) or on the Word of God...big responsibility with great consequences...

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