We’re still in the Garden. Adam and Eve have eaten the forbidden fruit. Mankind has fallen from sinless perfection and eternal life. All because these first two humans listened to the voice of a liar. They allowed Satan to plant a seed a doubt within their spirits.
Don’t miss this, y’all: that doubt had to grow into conviction before they had the nerve to act on it; and we know it did because the Bible tells us: “The woman was convinced” (Genesis 3:6a, NLT); and clearly, Adam, who was “with her” (Genesis 3:6b), was also “convinced” or he’d have stopped Eve and certainly wouldn’t have participated with her.
What helped Eve come to such a conclusion? Satan’s specialty: temptation. See, the serpent told Eve, “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). Satan dangled the carrot and Eve took the bait: “She wanted the wisdom it would give her” (Genesis 3:6b).
Adam and Eve lived as perfect people in a perfect world. God Himself came down and walked in the Garden with them – see Genesis 3:8. They had their every need supplied. They had beauty and wonder beyond anything we can imagine. They had Paradise. But Satan’s enticement took Eve’s mind off what she had and onto the one thing she didn’t have: “the wisdom [the forbidden fruit] would give her.”
When our son Mickey was a little fellow, Larry and I spent a lot of time at the ball park. Between tee ball, baseball and football, it seemed we practically lived at the park for a big portion of the year. One of the families who was also there was a lovely couple I’ll call Jan and Bart. They had four adorable doorsteps, the youngest less than one and oldest about six. They were regular churchgoers, active in Bible study and well-liked by all who knew them. Bart had a good-paying job and Jan was able to stay at home with the children.
The subtle changes happened over one ball season. Jan began to comment on how routine her life was “stuck at home with the kids.” She occasionally sniped about Bart wearing a suit and tie while she was more likely to be wearing spit-up. In a matter of months, Jan went from sweet-natured and pleasant to constant complaining. A short time later Bart and the kids showed up at the park without Jan.
We learned that Jan had left her family. She’d told Bart she no longer loved him and that she didn’t “feel fulfilled being a mother and wife.” Months after the divorce was final and Jan had severed all communication with Bart and her children, Bart learned that Jan had been having an affair with a man she’d met at one of the venues to which she’d often taken the children. He’d promised her love, marriage and the usual phony baloney and had then used her and eventually thrown her aside.
Jan wanted what she didn’t have. Jan got what she didn’t want.
It’s all about focus, dear people. When we look thankfully at what we have instead of enviously at what we don’t, we stay out of temptation’s way.
“Let us be thankful and please God” (Hebrews 12:28b).
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