Duper's Bait

The tale in the Garden of Eve reminds me of slavery. The duper in this case was a cunning beautiful creature, who wisely did not appear to Eve with horns or husky voice. It camelike any friend or new acquaintance would do on an ordinary day. Asked questions that sounded reasonable—one might be thinking, he just wanted to find out. Eve wasn’t stupid to have answered but she did not know she was beginning the journey of wagging after the duper’s bait. Here, I have described the journey to Satan’s slavery using Eve’s story in Genesis 3.

“Now the serpent was craftier 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’? ”2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,3 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” 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.” 6 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 ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”

The journey began with an attention. For me, curiosity was the bait—the devil knew so well I was a creative thinker who does well painting images. He would waive the bait—find more knowledge, remind me of what I saw or should see and I would come crawling quickly to him, until God found me out. The devil drew Eve’s attention with a question, knowing to well she would have to take it through her sense of reasoning. Some many things in our life are drawing our attention. It begins with questioning our original belief and taught. Do you think God exist? Did they say God answers prayer? Probably, at those moments, Eve was taking a look at the fruit and wondering why Adam said, God instructed them not to eat of the tree. He cunningly comes to us in our weakest moment. Probably, for us it is when we are at our low key points, times when we just lost something of worth, or asking for a healing for a loved one? Are you sure God really loves you?  

Listening was not the problem, but listening to something contrary to the instruction of God is. Constantly, we will get thoughts and questions but what do we do with them. Do we allow them to settle in, reason it, imagine it, try to clarify it, find a means to justify it? His word says, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” When Satan brings imperfection, you simply continue the scripture with, “I know it well”. Do you think, you are free after all you’ve done? Remind him, “Whoever the Son set free is free indeed.” The additional solution here is in Psalm 1:1-2 “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way those sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the LORD…” Stay away from areas that would bring questioning thought to you.

Listening is one step, allowing the words to settle is to make room. Ruminating the thought over and over is like weeding the grass around the seed, watering, fertilizing the soil and allowing quick germination. We remove the covering of truth and begin to cultivate contrary thought against God’s intended plan. After Satan’s first sales pitch, and realizing that’s settled. He continues by adding more combinations to the code, sowing half patterned truth. He has reaped the fruits of disobedience when he was casted out and he knew a soul that sin will surely die, but then decide to paint it half way—“you will not certain die”, he said. Here he has falsified the truth in cunning ways, after sowing the seeds of doubt. He has worn a garment of lies on a true consequence. In our present lives, there are many falsified truths, but the bible tells us to test all spirits. Not all that speaks to us all day is from the spirit of God, even when we think we know Gods voice. Not all friends speaks with the voice of God, some are induced against us. Because, they said things that were right yesterday does not make them the ultimate piece to our lives. Adam did not know this, I guess? Measure every thought or question against God’s word. Anything with a shadow of doubt about God’s words should be discarded. Finally, this prompted an action immediately when Eve believed the lie. It’s like the bait of a fish—throws, grab, follow the trail. Anything that is contrary to the word of God is a beautiful lie; a falsified truth. No matter how close or near it is to the truth, it is not truth. Only God’s word is truth and His ways are true.