(We're getting closer to the end of the "Satan's Schemes" section, I promise. A few more to go, then we'll move on.)
Okay, so last post in this series we saw that Satan "planted" thoughts in Eve's mind, enticing her with new ideas.
But it wasn't against her will, for she was a willing listener - willingly engaging in conversation with him, willingly contemplating what he said, willingly entertaining things that she knew contradicted what God said.
“When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” (James 1:13-15)
[May I suggest praying right now that God shows you if there's something you're dabbling with that may lead you astray or if you're entertaining an idea that's contrary to what He commands? And if He does reveal something, pray for the wisdom and strength to obey Him, to do the right thing. And if necessary, you might need to command demons to leave in Jesus's name or speak some relevant verses to combat the temptation.
Luke 10:17: "The seventy-two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.’"
James 4:7-8: "Submit yourself, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you."
Eph. 6:17: "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the [spoken] word of God."
1 Cor. 10:13: "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."]
Satan got Eve to doubt God and triggered her desire to be like Him, to look out for herself, to pursue her own desires, and to gain knowledge of new (forbidden) things. She just didn't realize - until it was too late - that this new "knowledge" would be terrible, that learning about evil would be disastrous and heartbreaking, which is why God forbid it in the first place.
Curiosity can be good or bad. And it takes wisdom to know the difference. But no matter what, if God said "Don't" then the best thing we can do is "don't," even if we don't understand why He said it. It's part of trusting Him, of faith. He often won't tell us His reasons ahead of time. And sometimes, He won't tell us at all, not until eternity.
Do you trust Him enough to obey, even when you don't understand? If we want the best life and eternity possible - the most protection from Him we can get - we need to trust His boundaries, His laws, His guidance.
And if we know Him as a good, loving, faithful, gracious, merciful Father, it will be much easier to do this - to trust Him, to obey even when we don't understand and can't see where our obedience leads to.
So if you're afraid to trust Him, ask Him to help you figure out why. Spend time in prayer and His Word, asking Him to search your heart, to help you figure out why you don't really trust Him, what you're afraid of, and what you should do about it. Ask Him to root out and expose any wrong views or expectations you have of Him, of yourself, of faith, and to replace them with correct and biblical views and expectations.
Sometimes we feel like God hurt us, but it was really our expectations of Him that hurt us. Or other people that hurt us. Or ourselves that hurt us. Etc. Many times, we blame God for things that aren't His fault. And we put up a wall between us and Him, and it ends up hurting our faith and our ability to trust Him with our decisions, our lives, our futures.
Don't be afraid of being honest with Him about this. Of opening yourself fully up to Him. Of asking Him to search your heart and reveal what needs to be fixed. Of admitting what hurts and how you honestly feel about Him. He knows it all already. He's just waiting for you to be honest about it, to invite Him in to fix it, to heal it, to correct it. And He wants to give you what's best for you, to lead you in the best path. But you'll only get it if you let Him, if you follow where He leads.
Oftentimes a lack of trust in God has deep, painful roots that need to be addressed and healed. And it takes time. And God knows this. He knows we're human. So don't be ashamed of it or hide it from Him. Just open up your heart to Him, cry out honestly to Him, and let Him help you grow in faith and trust and in His Truth, no matter how slowly. Every step in His direction is the right step, no matter how small.
Okay, moving on, related to the idea of Satan planting thoughts in Eve's head...
Easy traps
Do you realize how easy this is to do, to let someone (or Satan) plant a thought in your head that takes hold and grows?
It happens when someone says something negative about you, and you absorb it and begin to live it.
It happens when someone tells you there's something you can't do, and suddenly you want to do it more (for good or bad), to prove them wrong.
It happens when someone tells you what they don't like about someone else, and suddenly you see it too, even if you never saw it before and even if it's not totally fair or accurate. And before you know it, you're sharing your bad stories about that person and seeing them in a different light.
It happens when society tells you that you're being oppressed or unfairly treated, and suddenly you notice all the ways you are being oppressed and unfairly treated, even when you're not. [How do you think Outrage Culture spreads like it does, along with all the other social/political movements where the powers-that-be manipulate us into feeling what they want us to feel by reporting what they want us to believe, often with carefully-chosen snippets and sound-bites and inflammatory words and skewed reports and biased studies, so that we react the way they wanted us to react all along (usually before we even get the whole story), for their political and social purposes? Oh, yes, that's been going on for years. We are an easily-manipulated bunch. And the powers-that-be laugh and pat each other on the back for a job well done.]
It happens when someone plants doubts/lies/half-truths in your head about God and His Word and His Truth (or when Satan whispers in your ear things like "No one loves you. You're a joke. You don't matter. God's not listening and doesn't care. Everything's hopeless. God could never forgive you. God won't help you. Did God really say...", etc.) - and instead of bringing it all to God and asking His help and searching the Word for what He says, you let the doubts/lies/half-truths lead you further away from God and from Truth, using them as an excuse to create a version of God and Truth that you like better.
Etc.
Satan got Eve to see herself as the victim, as someone who was being mistreated, uncared for, unreasonably oppressed. In his "Did God really say...", you can almost hear the "You poor thing! Oh, how sad. God doesn't really care about what happens to you, does He?"
Satan's "sympathy" gives her permission - an excuse - to feel sorry for herself, to see herself as a victim who must take care of herself and get what she "needs" because God won't do it or provide for her.
This is such an easy trap, a simple, effective scheme - because who doesn't like to feel sorry for themselves? Who doesn't enjoy a good old-fashioned "pity party"? Who doesn't want to sit in the "victim seat," claiming the right to point fingers at everyone else? That's a position of power, of control, of judgment, allowing you to feel justified in responding in whatever way you do to "the offender" because "they deserve it!"
Of course, I'm not talking about real victims here, but about those who want to be seen as victims (there is no shortage of that nowadays) so that they can get sympathy, get even, react however they want, get praised for how they retaliated, etc. They want to be seen as victims so that they can then be elevated to the victor, the overcomer, the survivor, the martyr, the revenge-seeker, the whatever.
[And society (the media, social media) facilitates this, with Satan's help, turning people on each other, pitting them against each other like some sort of dog fight, getting everyone to think everyone else is out to get them, out to insult or demean or hurt them. It's a dog-eat-dog world, and you've got to fight to survive.
I mean, seriously, just look at all the stupid things on the internet these days - especially all the "malicious compliance" stories or the "here's how my boss/friend/family/neighbor mistreated me" stories or the "here's what this Karen did and how I got back at them" stories or the "can you believe that people shamed me for such-and-such" stories (yeah, well, there are some things you should be ashamed about!), etc. - all of which just encourages other people to look for ways they're supposedly being mistreated too, or to even unconsciously create situations where they're mistreated, or to overexaggerate/overreact to something that can barely be considered mistreatment... all so that they can share their stories too, so that they can take their turn as "the victim." (Where do you think all these Snowflakes came from?)
Everyone wants to be a victim these days, to get their 15-minutes-of-fame, of attention, of revenge... because revenge is delicious. And they're willing to throw anyone under the bus to get it. I'm so sick of it. Shut up and stop whining, you cry-babies. Grow up. Mature a little. Life isn't always fair, life isn't always easy, and you can't always get what you want or force things to go your way... and whoever told you otherwise was lying.
Half-Truths
I want to look particularly at one scheme of Satan's: half-truths. Satan used half-truths to trick Eve. And Eve was too naive to notice, to fight it.
Half-truths are almost more dangerous than full lies. Full lies are more obvious, more alarming, and so we're more able to recognize them and fight them. But half-truths have enough truth in them to sound true (maybe even good and godly) but enough lies in them to poison us slowly and lead us astray.
Eve said that God warned them they would die if they ate the forbidden fruit. But Satan replied, "You will surely not die... For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
There are a few half-truths here (twisted truths).
First, "you will not die": Satan was right in that they didn't physically die the very moment they ate it, but he hid the fact that disobeying God would start the process of physical death (for them and the rest of creation) and that it would cause immediate spiritual death (separation from God). Satan will often only show us the part he wants us to see, the part that makes disobedience look good, but he will hide the part that destroys.
A half-truth is something like "One time - one small sin - won't hurt." Sure, it might not physically hurt you that first time, but the whole truth (the part Satan hides) is "it won't hurt immediately but it will open the door to evil, ensnare you, and put a wedge between you and God, and the ripple-effect it creates will eventually hurt you in ways you never expected."
But Satan doesn't want us to look down the road that far, at the long-term consequences. He doesn't want us to believe that God has good reasons for His rules and boundaries. And so Satan tries, instead, to make us focus only on our desires of the moment, on the immediate gratification we might get from disobeying God "just this once."
Just "follow your heart and you can't go wrong," right?
Wrong!
Second, "you will be like God": This was true in one sense, that they would see the difference between good and evil, like God does. But it was not true in any other sense, such as they wouldn't have God's ability to control things, to be all-powerful or all-knowing, to create whatever they needed, to be self-sufficient, to determine the consequences of actions, etc. Satan wanted them to think they would be just like God, but all they got was the awareness of evil, which leads us to...
Third, "your eyes will be opened... knowing good and evil": Satan was right that they would indeed learn about evil, but he hid the fact that they would wish they never did! He made it seem like it would be a good thing, something they would enjoy, something that would benefit them, something they were missing out on... when, in fact, knowing about evil would be disastrous, terrifying, and heart-breaking, bringing them enormous pain and hardship (something God was trying to spare them from by restricting that tree).
The interesting thing is that Adam and Eve had no idea what evil was at that time. And so they had no idea why they should want to know about it or not know about it or whatever. It would be like someone telling us "Oh, wow, you don't have ooblygoobly!?! What a shame. You're totally missing out. I mean, a life without ooblygoobly just isn't worth living. Surely you want some ooblygoobly, don't you?"
The thing is, I made up that word. There's no such thing as ooblygoobly (that I know of). But let it stand for something that we never heard of before - and so we have no idea if it's good or bad or why we should want it or not want it - but suddenly we want it and feel unfulfilled without it just because someone else made us feel like we should want it and that we'd be unfulfilled without it.
Satan may as well have offered Adam and Eve ooblygoobly. They had no idea what it (evil) was, no frame of reference regarding it, but suddenly they wanted it and felt like life was incomplete without it. They were apparently "missing out," tricked into believing that if they got it - whatever "evil" was - they'd be more happy, more fulfilled.
They didn't know what evil was or if they should even want it... but they did know that God said "Don't eat the fruit."
And that should have been enough for them. They should have said "Hey, serpent, I don't know what this 'evil' is that you say we're missing out on, but God said 'Don't'. And since I know He's a good, faithful, trustworthy Father, I'll stick with what He said."
But Adam and Eve let Satan trick them into thinking that they would benefit from eating the forbidden fruit, that it would make things better for them, even though they had no idea what they were missing out on. And it wasn't until it was too late that they realized that it was disastrous, that it would break their hearts (and so much more).
Don't we often do the same thing, tricking ourselves into thinking it'll be okay if we commit a little sin "just this once," not realizing the damage it does, the evil it unleashes, or the trap that ensnares us, until it's too late?
And aren't we always looking for something more to make us happy, to fulfill us, to complete our lives, even though we often have all we need right there already? Aren't we often tempted to trade in God's "good enough" for Satan's "more," unaware of the high cost of that "more"?
Our only defense against Satan's lies and half-truths and temptations is to know the Word well, to hide it in our hearts, and to live by it - and to throw ourselves on the Lord, asking for His help in keeping us on the right path.
Immerse yourself in the Word and in prayer. Bring all your concerns and needs to Him. Doublecheck the world against His Word, what others say against what He says. And when you have to choose, remember the right answer is always whatever God says.
This will help you choose rightly between what's good and what's harmful, between truth and lies, between what you really need (according to God) and what you only think you need (the ooblygoobly). It will help you avoid the disasters and heartaches that Satan hides under layers and layers of pretty wrapping paper.
If God "don't" then we shouldn't. And if we know Him to be a good, honest, faithful, loving, trustworthy Father, then we can trust Him, even when we don't understand and can't see the end results right now and aren't sure what we're missing out on.
Because if God said "don't," then what we're probably missing out on is a whole lot of trouble and heartache.
Now, on a practical note, what are some lies, deceptions, or half-truths Satan might use on us nowadays? How about on you personally? What are the ooblygooblies in your life - the things Satan's tempted (or tempting) you with, making you feel like you're missing out, like God is keeping something from you? What are the things he tempts you to fulfill/achieve on your own, apart from God's leading? Which "needs" are really just "wants" that you're demanding God fulfills - when you really should be learning to trust Him and be content with what He gives? What are the deepest longings or fears of your heart that you need to bring to Him and place in His hands and trust Him with?
Pray and talk to God about all this, asking Him to reveal to you if there's anything you need to face, admit, confess, change, resist, accept and/or deal with head-on. And ask God to help you search His Word to find Bible verses that give you answers for your dilemmas, that help you see things from His perspective.
1 Tim. 6:6: "But godliness with contentment is great gain."
Matt. 6:33: "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
Jer. 29:11: “'For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'”
1 Peter 5:6: "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time."
And once again, if you're not sure if you can trust God - if you don't know Him as a good, honest, faithful, loving, trustworthy Father - ask Him to help you figure out why. Pray and search the Word and listen for His answers. He wants to help heal whatever may be hurting your relationship with Him (and with yourself and others). If you want, maybe check out my "Through the Refining Fire: Your 'Sweetly Broken' Journey" workbook/website, to help you root out whatever might be hurting your heart, your faith, and your relationship with God.
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