1Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3but 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.’ ”
4“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6When 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 ate it. (Genesis 2)
Thoughts; How do we know if something is good or not? For some people, it is good if it appears or seems good and doesn't seem to hurt anyone else. This was Adam and Eve's reasoning- recorded in Genesis. "The woman saw the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye." Eve might have said, "It looked good to me, it didn't seem to hurt anyone else, so I did it." The reality is that this sin hurt everyone else. Sin always has ripple effects even if we think it is just between me and God.
The first move out of the temptor's mouth was "Did God really say?" Doubting belief in God and in God's Word is the first step. If we cannot listen to what God tells us is good or not, we are on our own, without directions from the Maker. But the Maker has not left us alone. He has sent the Spirit and the Spirit speaks through the Word.
The woman's response was more strict than God said. God did not say to not "touch" the fruit. But to her the rules seemed tough, and so she exaggerated their toughness. Sometimes we may think that obeying God is impossible or only for very rare people. But God's directions have everyone in mind for their own good. We are made and created to listen to God.
Later Eve offered the fruit to Adam. It could have been said in this story that 100% of the human population, including the latest human experts, human scholars, the best of humanity all agreed that it was okay to eat the fruit. But simply because the majority agrees does not make a thing right. The majority's opinion that wrong is right can make doing right- resisting temptation very hard. We do not have to look back very far in history to see this plainly. Nazi majority and experts (holding to Nietzsche's theories) agreed to eliminate the Jews and those who were weak. The Soviets likewise agreed to the Gulags for those who disagreed with Stalin and his adherents. The Hutus thought it was fine to eliminate the Tutsis in Rwanda. During the Clinton administration a huge moral change occurred in our country driven by polls instead of scripture or reason. There is obvious danger in this (given by the above examples).
Good is not determined by how it feels, how it looks, if other people think it is okay. Good is determined by the Maker. He wants us to listen.
Prayer; Help, me , O Lord, to have ears to hear and heart to obey.
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