One-Two Punch

             Now the serpent was more crafty 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’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 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.’”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5)

Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. (Romans 8:29)

 

Yesterday, I wrote about knowing the enemy, the Ally, and the battlefield. In today’s passage, we have good examples of all three. The enemy, the serpent, begins his attack with a question, “Did God really say…?” He followed up with an attack that was on at least two flanks by insinuating that there was something wrong with God (who was withholding something from them) and something wrong with them (the thing withheld makes them less than they could and should be.)

We often judge Adam and Eve for the sin of wanting to be like God, but what child doesn’t want to be like her parents? Man was created in the image of God. Jesus calls us to be perfect as our Father (God) is perfect. Jesus and the Father are one – and God predestined us to be conformed to the image of Christ. Of course, Adam and Eve didn’t know all of that, but intuitively, if they were not like God, that was a failing on their part, and God’s withholding was a failing on His part.

In Sunday school, we learn that Satan is the enemy, and God is the Ally, the Good Guy, the Savior, and the Protector. But in that imagery, we are also taught that “we’re in the Lord’s army.” There is a sense in which that is true, but there is an equal sense in which we are the battlefield. And as the battle has progressed through the ages, something has been made clear. While the battle is on the battlefield, and over the battlefield, the battlefield only matters to Satan because it matters to God. Satan is not fighting to have us as his own. He is only fighting to take us away from God and to then destroy us.

This is the tactic of an enemy that knows the battle is lost. If he cannot defeat, he will destroy. And all too often, the means of destruction is precisely what worked in Eden. “Did God really say…?” And the one-two punch of “God is withholding” and “You aren’t good enough.”

That reminder is why this passage from Genesis 3 is a good Battle Bible passage.