Introduction. After reading the Bible carefully and assessing its demands and expectations, there is one thing God has made clear throughout all dispensations and all the different ways and manners that He has spoken to man. He expects His genuine servants to carefully evaluate His commands (love for the truth), and then, to the very best of their ability, follow them with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. “And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,” (Deut 11:13; also Deut. 11:1, 22). The true essence of our love, faith and respect comes down to our submission and obedience and desire to fully obey. No matter where we look, this distinction holds true without exception.
This is why God accepted Abel and rejected Cain and why God sent the flood to destroy the ancient world, but saved Noah. It is why God chose Moses to be His deliverer, why He rejected the entire generation Moses was seeking to deliver, yet chose Joshua and Caleb to enter the promised land. It is why Jesus was God’s Beloved Son and what will also make us beloved to Him: “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.” (Jn. 15:10)
Keeping God’s commands is the truest application of faith and trust. If we trust God, we will do what He says, and if we add to or take from what He says, we are no longer trusting in the Lord with all our heart, but truly are leaning upon our own understanding. Yet, in spite of all this, Satan and those who imitate him have found ways to make people believe they are faithfully serving God while setting aside His commands whenever they choose
This is why God accepted Abel and rejected Cain and why God sent the flood to destroy the ancient world, but saved Noah. It is why God chose Moses to be His deliverer, why He rejected the entire generation Moses was seeking to deliver, yet chose Joshua and Caleb to enter the promised land. It is why Jesus was God’s Beloved Son and what will also make us beloved to Him: “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.” (Jn. 15:10)
Keeping God’s commands is the truest application of faith and trust. If we trust God, we will do what He says, and if we add to or take from what He says, we are no longer trusting in the Lord with all our heart, but truly are leaning upon our own understanding. Yet, in spite of all this, Satan and those who imitate him have found ways to make people believe they are faithfully serving God while setting aside His commands whenever they choose
What Satan did in the Garden of Eden is the primary method and therefore something we must understand and be on our guard against. As Paul warned those in Corinth: “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2Cor. 11:3-4). Since this was Paul’s concern, we need to understand exactly what happened, so we can avoid the danger today. A command was given to Adam even before He created Eve. “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen. 2:16). The command was simple and easy to understand. There were many varieties of trees in the garden of Eden with fruits, nuts, and spices. They could freely eat from every one of them, as much as they wanted and as often as they wanted. This single fruit tree “in the midst of the garden” was designed by God to create fear, respect, trust and obedience (Gen. 3:1-7).
Each time they saw that tree, both its name, and the punishment for its violation, was to reverberate in their mind. They must always be aware: “We can’t eat from that tree because God commanded us not to.” “It is a tree that brings death.” Their proper response to that tree reflected their trust, fear and devotion to God. It was a simple command with such dire consequences that over time was designed to harden into a conviction that would lead them to avoid and fear it.
It could have been weeks, months or even years after the creation that Satan saw his opportunity. He waited, as a subtle serpent, for the right moment to attack. He took a direct attack, knowing that victory required a loss of trust or respect in God to succeed. “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden”? “Indeed” is translated from two Hebrew words and conveys either surprise or concern. It is translated “Did God actually say” in the ESV, “Did God really say” in the NIV, and “Can it really be that God has said” in the AMP. Satan was seeking an emotional response by wording it this way. He wanted to create an emotion of surprise or doubt in Eve’s mind that would make it easier to remove her conviction about God’s command and thus lead her to violate it.
It was at that moment Satan became both the “liar” and “murderer from the beginning” that Jesus later revealed. First, he directly contradicted God when he said, “you will not surely die,” which was a lie that would lead to her death if she acted upon it. Second, he led Eve to believe this command was a reflection that God did not fully love her and was keeping something from her that she deserved to have. “God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Jn. 8:44; Gen. 3:4-6). After his words, her attitude changed. Instead of seeing the tree as something bringing death, she now saw it as “a tree desirable to make one wise.” It only took this change of perspective to lead her to violate God’s warning and bring about her own destruction. This is what Satan and all who follow Satan are doing even in our own day. The only way they can harm God’s chosen people is to get them to see any of God’s commands as holding them back from something they deserve in order to be happy or fulfilled.
What we can easily see in Eve, we must learn to detect in ourselves and those we have the opportunity to help. Our gravest temptations will come when we have a need or desire that we have come to believe God’s commands are holding us back from attaining. What all God’s commands actually hold us back from is our own destruction! There is no command of God that holds us back from something good: “The Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive.” (Deut. 6:24). God’s commands only hold us back from something harmful and destructive. This is why we must “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding.” (Pr. 3:5).
Nothing has changed since the garden of Eden. Satan is still trying to convince us that we can have more if we add to or set aside God’s commands and God is still waiting for us to fully trust and obey Him. Only God can see all the future consequences, while we can only see the short-term blessings that will only last in this life. On the final day, God knows that all who set aside His commands, for whatever reason, will be weeping and gnashing their teeth in bitter sorrow. Only if we fully trust God and keep all His commandments Jesus has given to us, either directly or through His apostles, can we be safe. If we or someone we are listening to has added something that allows us to do what God has plainly warned us not to do, and we set it aside, there can only be one outcome: “Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.” (Pr. 30:6)
Multitudes are still setting aside God’s clear and easily understood commands because in one way or another they perceive they are keeping them back from something they desperately want. Some have set aside Jesus’ plain warnings about divorce, thinking God wants them to be happy (Mt. 19:1-9). Others set aside Paul’s warning about women not teaching or having dominion over a man because women have an ability they believe God wants them to use even though He has warned them not to use it (1Cor. 14:33; I Tim 2:8-15). Musicians have set aside Paul’s clear command to sing and make melody in our hearts because they have the ability to play and think God wants them to use it (Eph. 5:19). What about us? Everyone has something they want to set aside. Never forget Balak’s scathing and lying words to Balaam that clearly mirror Satan’s in the garden: “I said I would greatly honor you, but in fact, the Lord has kept you back from honor." (Num 24:11). God would never do that, but multitudes today who read the Scriptures have fallen for that lie.
Each time they saw that tree, both its name, and the punishment for its violation, was to reverberate in their mind. They must always be aware: “We can’t eat from that tree because God commanded us not to.” “It is a tree that brings death.” Their proper response to that tree reflected their trust, fear and devotion to God. It was a simple command with such dire consequences that over time was designed to harden into a conviction that would lead them to avoid and fear it.
It could have been weeks, months or even years after the creation that Satan saw his opportunity. He waited, as a subtle serpent, for the right moment to attack. He took a direct attack, knowing that victory required a loss of trust or respect in God to succeed. “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden”? “Indeed” is translated from two Hebrew words and conveys either surprise or concern. It is translated “Did God actually say” in the ESV, “Did God really say” in the NIV, and “Can it really be that God has said” in the AMP. Satan was seeking an emotional response by wording it this way. He wanted to create an emotion of surprise or doubt in Eve’s mind that would make it easier to remove her conviction about God’s command and thus lead her to violate it.
It was at that moment Satan became both the “liar” and “murderer from the beginning” that Jesus later revealed. First, he directly contradicted God when he said, “you will not surely die,” which was a lie that would lead to her death if she acted upon it. Second, he led Eve to believe this command was a reflection that God did not fully love her and was keeping something from her that she deserved to have. “God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Jn. 8:44; Gen. 3:4-6). After his words, her attitude changed. Instead of seeing the tree as something bringing death, she now saw it as “a tree desirable to make one wise.” It only took this change of perspective to lead her to violate God’s warning and bring about her own destruction. This is what Satan and all who follow Satan are doing even in our own day. The only way they can harm God’s chosen people is to get them to see any of God’s commands as holding them back from something they deserve in order to be happy or fulfilled.
What we can easily see in Eve, we must learn to detect in ourselves and those we have the opportunity to help. Our gravest temptations will come when we have a need or desire that we have come to believe God’s commands are holding us back from attaining. What all God’s commands actually hold us back from is our own destruction! There is no command of God that holds us back from something good: “The Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive.” (Deut. 6:24). God’s commands only hold us back from something harmful and destructive. This is why we must “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding.” (Pr. 3:5).
Nothing has changed since the garden of Eden. Satan is still trying to convince us that we can have more if we add to or set aside God’s commands and God is still waiting for us to fully trust and obey Him. Only God can see all the future consequences, while we can only see the short-term blessings that will only last in this life. On the final day, God knows that all who set aside His commands, for whatever reason, will be weeping and gnashing their teeth in bitter sorrow. Only if we fully trust God and keep all His commandments Jesus has given to us, either directly or through His apostles, can we be safe. If we or someone we are listening to has added something that allows us to do what God has plainly warned us not to do, and we set it aside, there can only be one outcome: “Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.” (Pr. 30:6)
Multitudes are still setting aside God’s clear and easily understood commands because in one way or another they perceive they are keeping them back from something they desperately want. Some have set aside Jesus’ plain warnings about divorce, thinking God wants them to be happy (Mt. 19:1-9). Others set aside Paul’s warning about women not teaching or having dominion over a man because women have an ability they believe God wants them to use even though He has warned them not to use it (1Cor. 14:33; I Tim 2:8-15). Musicians have set aside Paul’s clear command to sing and make melody in our hearts because they have the ability to play and think God wants them to use it (Eph. 5:19). What about us? Everyone has something they want to set aside. Never forget Balak’s scathing and lying words to Balaam that clearly mirror Satan’s in the garden: “I said I would greatly honor you, but in fact, the Lord has kept you back from honor." (Num 24:11). God would never do that, but multitudes today who read the Scriptures have fallen for that lie.