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’?” 2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3but 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.’ ” 4But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
(Genesis 3:1-5 )
The serpent’s logic runs like this:
“Surely God didn’t actually forbid you to eat of any trees in the garden, did He?!
“Well if He did, it’s because He doesn't want you to become like Him; He just wants to keep you under His control.”
The fatal premise that Adam and Eve bought was that God was not good; God was not looking out for them. How could this be? How could Adam question the goodness and motives of God.? This is the God who made him, who created a garden for him, who gave him dominion over his creation, and who gave him Eve as his companion? In the final analysis questioning God’s motives is simply a ruse to cover his real motive: to be like God.This is more than just ancient history. We are exposed to the same logic today. It often takes the form of statements that begin like this:
- “If God were good, then why. . ?”
- “How could a loving God actually . . .?”
When we hear reasoning like that it should set off alarms and flares in our minds. Those questions are straight out of the devil’s playbook. Sometimes they come from sincere people who are ignorant of the actual character of God, but more often than not they are used by people who want to justify their determination to usurp God’s rightful place in their lives. Throughout the bible—beginning with Genesis and culminating in Revelation—we see time after time that God is unquestionably and even shockingly good to His creatures. So when we try to make sense of what’s happening in our lives and in the world around us, the right questions to ask should begin something like:
- “Since God is good. . .”
- “I know that God loves me, so. . .”
- “Because God is merciful and faithful, then . . .”
