The First Lie

Who told the first lie on planet earth?
What was that lie?

My Bible reading this morning, forced me to compare the first family, Adam and Eve, with The family of Joseph and Mary. The first family brought sin into the world by ther actions and the second family brought the Saviour, the Son of God, the cure for our sin, into the world.

Genesis 3
The Man and Woman Sin
1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “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.”
6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

It is interesting to note that in the first verse, the first method Satan uses to advance his cause is to appeal to our tendency to evaluate God's word. How much different human history would have been if Eve had responded, "I can't remember exactly what God said, so let's ask Him."
It is also interesting to note that Satan went after the woman. The Bible shows us that women are more susceptible to deception than men. Satan today still employs this tactic of first gaining access to women and then deceiving them. It is a testimony to his craftiness that most of the supporters of the right to abort the children of women are the women themselves.

Satan starts with a misquote in order to evoke an evaluative response. However, he does not wait too long to move into his preferred method of offering alternatives to truth that are much more appealing to hear and consider.

Today our whole fabric of life is comprised of attractive sounding lies which work to draw us further from God and inflate our sense of self-worth. From this distorted perspective we are like sheep to be led into indulgences, consumptions, and contentions for "rights".

In order to evaluate the forces around us for Satanic influence, we should ask the following questions;

1. Does it misquote God?

2. Does it refute God's word?

3. Does it appeal to self over God?

4. Does it malign God?

Therefore, it is also a sin to believe a lie.
Implicit in this is having a knowledge of God and His Word.