SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 01/30/2006
My Worship Time Focus: Satan begins his temptation
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Genesis 3:1
Message of the verse: “1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any
beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed,
has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?’”
Genesis
chapter three is one of the most important chapters in all of God’s Word, for
without it there would be no explanation of the fall of man, and there would be
no explanation of why man lives like he lives in his fallen state. Take this chapter out and what it explains
and the rest of Scripture would not have the meaning and understanding that it
has.
It can be
seen from other parts of Scripture that Satan is the one involved in the
tempting of Eve, and that temptation begins in verse one. The first part of the verse speaks of the
craftiness of Satan as he begins his conversation with Eve, for the verse does
indeed say that this serpent was crafty.
There has
been much debate as to whether of not Adam was around when Satan tempted Eve,
and if he was there he certainly did nothing to help out his wife, and that is
probably the reason that Adam is the one who is responsible for the fall of
man. Paul explains some of the details
of this when he writes to Timothy. One
of the supports for those who say that Adam was not there is that he was the
one who named all of the animals and surely would have known that none of them
could speak to humans by using their voice.
My conclusion is that Adam was there, and did nothing.
Looking at
the second part of this verse, the part where the serpent speaks, it can be
seen through out the rest of the Scriptures that Satan’s tactics have not
changed when tempting other, and why should they because they have worked many
times. He did use the same tactics when
tempting Jesus Christ, the second Adam in the wilderness, but they failed.
Satan
begins his temptation by quoting God’s Word and asking her if God really said
what He said. This is how the author of
the “Message” writes this verse, “Do I understand that God told you not to eat
from any tree in the garden?” Satan is
trying to get Eve to doubt God’s word and he is doing this by misquoting God’s
Word, or adding something that was not there, a favorite trick of his.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: There
are some things that I can take from this passage that will be helpful for me
as I live out my Christian life on this earth.
Satan is a liar and he loves to trick people by getting them to doubt
God and His Word. Satan is a very
powerful enemy of all believers and without the protection of God’s Holy Spirit
and God’s Word Satan would do to all men what he did to Job’s family. Another thing that I can take away from this
is that I need to study God’s Word so that when temptation comes I will be able
to stand against it in the same way that my Lord Jesus Christ did when He was
tempted by Satan.
The Word of God has been a challenge to my heart as I read
and studied it this morning.
My Steps of Faith
Today: Continue to trust the Lord to
direct my paths today, and also to continue my quest of contentment.
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