“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). We would do well to learn a lesson from the deception of Eve. While Satan is not appearing to us in the form of a serpent, he is still seeking to delude the minds of men from following the simple truth of God’s word (2 Cor. 4:4).

Eve was created from Adam’s rib as a companion for him (Gen. 2:20-24). She was in a beautiful paradise and with her husband who was given the work of tending to the garden (Gen. 2:15).  How perfect their situation must have been.  She and Adam were only given one simple restriction: do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17).

Satan came in the form of a serpent and said to Eve, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1).  The word “yea” in this question means truly or really.  Satan tempts people to ask whether clear spiritual truths are really so.  Is there really a God?  Will there really be a judgment?  Do heaven and hell really exist?  Many people skeptically ask these questions today.  Their denial of these facts displays their willingness to follow the father of lies (John 8:44).  Eve answered the serpent with the simple, plain rule God had mandated and then added, “neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die” (Gen. 3:3).  Perhaps she was highlighting how restrictive God was being in this whole ordeal; if so, Satan’s question was already working by impugning God’s goodness and motives.  The serpent immediately told Eve a lie, saying, “Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4-5).  Eve would die the day she ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree.  She and Adam were separated from God that day they ate, sinning and dying spiritually (Isa. 59:2; Rom. 5:12).  As a consequence they would no longer be among the tree of life, which would lead to their eventual physical death (Gen. 3:22).

Eve knew the clear rule of God.  The devil told her a lie.  So why did she eat?  She was not listening to reason when she ate.  She “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise” (Gen. 3:6).  Since God made such a perfect paradise for her, it would stand to reason that He loved her and wanted what was best for her; He did not want her to die.  But she abandoned reason and let her feelings take over.  Many today claim that Bible believers do not listen to the voice of reason, insinuating that they, instead, do listen to the voice of reason.  However, just as it was in the beginning of the world, so it is today – those who deny God and his plain laws are giving into their feelings and selfish desires rather than listening to reason (Rom. 1:22-28).  The fool has said in his heart there is no God (Psa. 14:1; 53:1).  Nature all around us testifies to God’s existence, power and goodness (Psa. 19:1-4; Mt. 5:45; Acts 14:17; Rom. 1:20).  It is Christians who listen to the voice of reason and embrace true and sober thinking when they follow God (Acts 26:25).

So the next time you are tempted to question plain truths clearly set forth in God’s word and creation all around, remember Eve.  Be honest and consider whether there is a selfish, sinful desire that is driving you to abandon clear thinking.

-Mark Day

Prayers of giving thanks to God will be uttered this week.  This is good; we do not want to be unthankful people who take God’s blessings for granted.  The United States is so blessed with material wealth that we should acknowledge the source of it all (Deut. 8:18).  Many fall into the same trap as the rich Israelites in the days of Amos who were “at ease in Zion” (Amos 6:1).  As long as they could enjoy themselves relaxing on their ivory couches, listening to music, eating the finest steak and drinking their wine, they could not have cared less for the affliction of God’s people (Amos 6:3-6).  Ingratitude leads to a whole host of other sins (Rom. 1:21ff).

This brings us to another component that should also be included in our prayers: confession of sin (Neh. 1:6; Jer. 14:20; Dan. 9:3-15).  Our founding fathers and some of our past presidents thought it necessary to set aside a day not merely for giving thanks, but for confessing the sins of the nation. While the threat of terrorist attacks and the mounting national debt are real concerns for the citizens of this nation, we must realize it is not the strength and cunning of our enemies nor the fiscal woes of our federal government that should be our chief concern. By far the sins of our nation pose the most serious threat to our peace and prosperity (Prov. 14:34).  The sins of murder and fornication are described in God’s word as defiling a land; when God dealt with the particular nation of Israel in the Old Testament, He gave these two sins as reasons for why that nations of Canaan were taken off the land and why Israel herself would lose the land if she allowed such (Lev. 18:24-28; Num. 35:31-34).  God hates the shedding of innocent blood (Prov. 6:17), and the 58 million children who have been slaughtered in their mothers’ wombs with the legal consent of our highest court since 1973 is a debt that is far more serious than the $20 trillion of national debt that has so many people talking.  Sooner or later the bill comes due.  When nations refuse to make murderers pay for their crimes, as our nation has since the legalization of abortion, God will require payment sooner or later (Gen. 9:6; 2 Kings 21:16; 24:2-4).  The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah stand as a testament to God’s judgment upon fornication and perversion (Jude 7; cf. Rom. 1:26-27; Heb. 13:4).  A land that is filled with fornication and remains impenitent should be most terrified by a coming judgment from God.

This brings us to a third component that should be in our prayers: requests for deliverance.  Faithful children of God who are troubled every day by the wickedness that surrounds them should pray to God for deliverance (Mt. 6:13; cf. 1 Cor. 10:13).  Just as God would have spared Sodom for the sake of ten righteous souls (Gen. 18:32), so He is mindful of the Christians who are living righteously in our nation.  We should recognize that God, “delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” (2 Pet. 2:7-9).  We should pray for our nation and its leaders so that we can lead a quiet and peaceable life of godliness and honesty (1 Tim. 2:2).

-Mark Day