
The bible tells us that when God created man, He placed him in the Garden of Eden. In this garden there was everything that man needed for himself and his wife. God also placed two trees of importance in the middle of the Garden namely, the tree of conscience (knowing good and evil) and the tree of life. The instruction given to man by God was that there were to eat anything available except the tree of conscience which was in the middle of the Garden. We learn that they had a relationship with God, because God visited the garden and interacted with them. Genesis 3 teaches that the evil one approached the woman in a form of a serpent referred to as the craftiest of all the creatures that the Lord God had made. The serpent confirms God’s command in a question form to probe for a respond from the woman. The woman reply that it is only the fruit from the tree at the centre of the Garden that they must not eat or even touch, for if they do, they will die. The serpent relied, that’s a lie, you will not die but your eyes will be opened and you will be able to distinguish good and evil.
This is every important to many of us today because the devil have not changed the mechanism to tempt us but just like during Adam and Eve’s time, he uses half-truth and omission to get us to go against the word of God. The lie in this scripture is on genesis Chapter 3:4, where the devil replies to a woman indicating that what God said was a lie; referring to God’s instruction that if they eat or touch the fruit they will die. The serpent flipped the script God gave to the man using God’s emphasis on the consequences to deceive the woman. However, God’s emphasis was due to His love for man and also future plans for him. On Verse 5, the serpent was telling the truth but emphasised the benefits much more than the consequences. In other words, the serpents did not want the woman to focus more about what will happen afterwards but to focus on the moment gains.
This is the same deception many of us have fallen for in many occasions. When we are faced with choices to make there are always many possibilities. Some of which promises much rewards in the interim but long-term difficulties, for example, a family man and woman who chooses to commit adultery for a moment of pleasure at the expense of his/her children and family; a man and woman who chooses power at the expense of values (morality and integrity), a young woman and man who chooses material gains at the expense of her/his body. The devil has mastered the art of deception and have been in this business for a long time but we can do well to see his lies, half-truth for what it is and allow God’s truth to guide us in all we do. The bible tells us that, what will it benefit a man to gain the whole world and yet loses his soul. When you make your decision today, ask yourself if you have done a truthful assessment of the gains and consequences that will come with your action. Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden and we are paying for the action today. But we have hope because of Christ that we will soon live as God intended, with Him forever, only if we refuse and not believe the lie and half-truth as we go by each day.