Questioning the Word of God
Genesis 3:1-4 The snake was the most clever of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. The snake spoke to the woman and said, “Woman, did God really tell you that you must not eat from any tree in the garden?” The woman answered the snake, “No, we can eat fruit from the trees in the garden. But there is one tree we must not eat from. God told us, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch that tree, or you will die.’” But the snake said to the woman, “You will not die. God knows that if you eat the fruit from that tree you will learn about good and evil, and then you will be like God!”
It’s so incredibly tempting these days to question the Word of God; to cross out the inconveniently yucky verses from your Bible so the whole thing is more agreeable, more relevant to our twenty-first century lives.
Does God really have a problem with a couple living together outside marriage? Surely not in this day and age! Is hell really an everlasting agony? That can’t be right! Does the devil actually exist? Come on, that’s just medieval hocus-pocus!
That’s how many who call themselves by Christ’s name are thinking. That’s how the power of God’s Word is being eroded in their lives. But there’s nothing new in any of that:
Genesis 3:1-4 The snake was the most clever of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. The snake spoke to the woman and said, “Woman, did God really tell you that you must not eat from any tree in the garden?” The woman answered the snake, “No, we can eat fruit from the trees in the garden. But there is one tree we must not eat from. God told us, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch that tree, or you will die.’” But the snake said to the woman, “You will not die. God knows that if you eat the fruit from that tree you will learn about good and evil, and then you will be like God!”
Do you see? The enemy didn’t tempt Adam and Eve to murder, steal or tell a lie. He tempted them to question the Word of God. That’s where the trouble began.
And that’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.