From the time of Adam, the devil has tried to deceive man by twisting and opposing what God has said.
Genesis 2:15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
God told Adam he could eat freely of every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, warning that if he ate of it, he would surely die. But the serpent twisted the commandment God had given, and then said that the consequence God warned of ... that if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would surely die ... would not happen. Directly contradicting what God had warned of.
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
We know that by going along with the serpent and not obeying the commandment God had given, death did result, for death entered the world by sin. Only by the obedience of Jesus Christ, going to the cross to pay for our sins with His blood, was a way made for us to have life.
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Romans 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
The devil continues to try to deceive us, trying to twist what God has said to us and even trying to make us doubt what God has said. One example is the way teachings in the Bible about divorce and remarriage have been twisted and even explained away. In churches today divorced women are remarrying, committing adultery (Romans 7:3) .... men are marrying divorced women, committing adultery (Matthew 5:32) ... men are divorcing faithful wives and remarrying, committing adultery and being the cause of the faithful wife's adultery if she remarries (Matthew 19:9, Matthew 5:32).
The devil also twists and brings doubt about seemingly "small" things we deal with each day in our own lives. This morning I was allowing my mind to go through a conversation that could happen at some point in the future (I don't remember what it was about now). I felt warned by the Holy Spirit not to allow my mind to do this ... Matthew 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. ... But another thought came saying that there really wasn't anything wrong with thinking about this. One would think it would easy to just obey God and restrain my thoughts, but it took effort to do this.
While thinking about these things, I was reminded of how important it is for us to fear God and to obey Him.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
(Comments by Joan Boney ... in Genesis 3, you will notice that Eve added to the instruction of God when she talked with the serpent ... Eve said to the serpent the following: God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die... But God didn't say, "Neither shall ye touch it." That was added by Eve. Eve spoke partial truths. If you speak partial truths about an issue and the devil comes along it will be much more difficult to stand against the devil because of those partial truths.)
(Comments by Renee Bonfield ...
When I read Eccles. 12:13 this reminded me of:
Micah 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and
what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do
justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy
God.
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