Blue Tint Glasses

Genesis 3:6-8 – When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.  She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he at it.  Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and mad coverings for themselves.  Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

I think Genesis 3 gives us great insight into how Satan goes about tempting us everyday, it’s so important to understand.  We can also look at this chapter and derive an effective plan to refuse the temptation of sin.

Right off the bat, in the form of a serpent, Satan asks the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Satan knows dang well that God has only commanded that one tree in the middle of the garden not be eaten from but his question puts all the trees in the garden in that same blanket.  The way he asks the question totally disregards what God has given Adam and Eve and draws attention to what God has withheld from them.  Satan tempted Eve by simply getting her to doubt God’s goodness, implying that he was strict, stingy, and selfish for not wanting her to share in His knowledge of good and evil.

It’s a lot easier for me to be upset over what I don’t have rather than focusing on and thanking God for what I do have.  Liz and I are adopting two children from Poland and the process has lasted about a year now and we knew it would be a long haul but that hasn’t made it any easier to go through.  With seemingly everyone around me popping out babies, it was really easy for me to have some resentment and wonder why not us? But realized that I don’t want to think like that.  Through this adoption process God has been true with countless blessings such as parents, family and friends who are involved and just as excited as we are for the arrival of our children, financial support, a great adoption agent and Christian organization…and that’s just at the surface.  To even have the opportunity to adopt is a huge blessing.  I don’t want to doubt God or hold resentment because what I don’t have in my life.  He has blessed me abundantly and I need to take time to thank Him for those blessings every single day.

So after Satan’s question to Eve, in Verse 3 she responds with: 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.” Have you ever embellished a story or made your circumstances sound harder than they actually were?  I think that’s what Eve has done here when part of her response includes “…and you must not touch it.“  Did God really say you must not touch it?  God simply said you must not eat of it, but by adding the no touching part makes it sound much worse than it is.  Eve took God’s words and added to it, making it  sound much worse than it was.

How could Eve have resisted temptation?  The same way we can resist temptation, first, knowing that being tempted is not a sin.  I think it is huge to realize that it’s not a sin until we have given into the temptation.  Once we realize that we are being tempted and have not sinned, we must pray for strength to resist, run from the temptation (sometimes literally), and say no when confronted with what we know is wrong.

I think that there are times when I have the illusion that freedom is doing anything I want.  But really, God says that true freedom comes from obedience and knowing what not to do.  The restrictions He gives me are for my good and help me to avoid evil.  I think I’ve learned the hard way that I don’t have to do evil to gain more experience and learn more about life, God has given me true freedom.  God’s way is better than my way.

To close, in relation to the opening verse, the thought of two people covered with fig leaves trying to hide from the all-seeing, all-knowing God is humorous.  How could they be so silly as to think they could actually hide?  Yet I do the same thing.  I don’t want it to be that way, I want to share all I do and think with Him and let it be in His strength where I live my life.  God is walking through the garden and I know He wants to be with us.