Monday, April 2
Though we cannot explain why evil arose (since no justification for it exists), Scripture reveals that it began in the heart of Lucifer in heaven. Besides the fascinating insights that we get from the writings of Ellen G. White (see, for instance, the chapter “The Origin of Evil” in The Great Controversy), Scripture doesn’t tell us much more about how it started in heaven. The Word of God is more explicit, though, in regard to how it arose on earth.
Read Genesis 3:1-7. What happened here that shows Adam and Eve’s culpability in what transpired?
What’s so sad here is that Eve knew what God’s words to them had been. She repeated them: “God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die’” (Genesis 3:3, NKJV). Though as far as the Scripture tells us, nothing had been said about touching the fruit, she knew the truth that eating from it would lead to death.
Satan, then, openly and blatantly contradicted those words. “The serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4, NKJV).
How much starker could the contrast be? However subtle Satan’s approach to her was at first, once he got her attention and saw that she was not resisting, he openly challenged the Lord’s command. And the tragic thing is Eve was not working from a position of ignorance. She couldn’t claim, “I didn’t know, I didn’t know”.
She did know.
Yet, despite this knowledge, she did wrong anyway. If even in the perfect environment of Eden, knowledge itself wasn’t enough to keep Eve (and then Adam, who also knew the truth) from sinning, we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that knowledge alone is enough to save us now. Yes, we need to know what the Word of God tells us. But along with knowing that, we need the kind of surrender in which we will obey what it tells us, as well.
God said one thing, Satan said another. Despite the knowledge that Adam and Eve had, they chose to listen to Satan. Think about how little has changed over the millennia. How can we avoid making the same kind of error?
