If you are like me, you have wondered many times how Adam was lead to sin in the middle of Paradise. How could he do what God told him not to do after walking and talking with his Creator in the Garden? I also wonder why the Bible calls it Adam’s sin. After all, it was Eve that was tempted by Satan and ate the apple, right?
While pondering that thought, the Lord brought a mixture of scriptures to my mind that began to answer those questions for me. Clearly Eve’s sin was disobedience. She did what God said not to do, but why? As it is with all of humanity, Satan knew her weakness. In Genesis 3:3-5 Eve told the serpent that God said, “You must not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die”. The serpent then said to Eve, “You will not surely die” (Satan brings confusion and places doubt in Eve’s mind). He goes on to say, “For God knows when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil”. (Satan entices Eve).
Let’s put ourselves in Eve’s shoes for a minute. We are standing in the middle of Paradise. Everything is beautiful. All the fruit from the other trees we have eaten has been delicious. We believe God said not to eat from that tree because Adam told us He did (God told Adam that before He created Eve). Now the serpent brings confusion into our mind. “You will not surely die.” Remember we are in Paradise. Nothing has ever died. We have no concept of what dying really means. The fruit looks delicious and knowing things God knows sounds appealing.
We know that she then decided to eat the fruit. She also gave some to Adam (3:6) “who was with her”, and he ate it. Therefore, Adam sinned by doing what God told him directly not to do. However, Satan confused Eve. She heard it from Adam, but it seems Adam did not coach her through the confusion. Also, he was told he was to be in charge of God’s creation, but he allowed Eve’s desire to eat the forbidden fruit to take precedence over God’s command. Adam put Eve above God. Adam’s sin was not following what God told him to do. Adam put Eve’s wishes, eating the fruit with her, before God’s command.
My point is the subtle way Satan seduced Eve; creating confusion and playing to her emotions. Once Satan can create a cloud of doubt around us, he can then begin to work on our emotions. If he can get us to focus on our emotions instead of the truth, then he can bring confusion and keep us from following God’s Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Think of the story of David and Bathsheba. We know about David’s sin with Bathsheba, but how did “A man after God’s own heart” end up in a place where Satan could entice him? 2 Samuel 11 starts out, “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab…but David remained in Jerusalem”.
The chapters before that talk about David’s great victories while leading his troops. However, this time David “remained in Jerusalem”. He left his God given focus of leadership and created “space” for Satan to work with his “idle hands”. The sin, and all the consequences, would not have happened if David would have been occupied with his responsibilities. He opened the door for temptation. Then when he saw Bathsheba’s beauty, instead of turning his focus away from Bathsheba, he watched her. Instead of seeing the snare of Satan’s trap, he allowed his flesh to control his focus.
Peter let his love for Jesus and his impulsiveness be used by Satan to try and derail Jesus when Jesus predicted His death in Matthew 16. Jesus turned to Peter and said (Matthew 16:23),” Get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” How many times have we lost our focus on God and allowed Satan to subtlety distract us from being effective in the Kingdom? Satan whispers and we let ourselves be lead away from the truth of scripture. We let the “things of men” take precedence over the “things of God”.
The common thread in these examples, and in the “sin that so easily ensnares us”, is doing things our way instead of God’s way, seeking to please ourselves instead of seeking to please God and focusing on our own desires instead of God’s purpose. When we turn our focus on our will, Satan has fertile soil to work with. If he can keep us focused on what we desire, we will not be effective in the Kingdom and can easily be led into sin.
The verse that was so strongly in my mind while thinking about this also involves Peter. In John 21, after Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him, He predicted the way Peter would die. After the prediction Jesus said, “Follow me”. Then Peter, with his focus on John instead of Jesus, looked at John and said, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus’ answer is the answer to our problems. How many times do we think to ourselves it’s unfair that others get something we want or they won’t do something we want them to do. With our focus on ourselves, we want what we want.
Jesus answered Peter, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow Me.” It is not our Kingdom. It is His. We don’t set the direction. He does. We cannot see the whole plan. He can. If we don’t follow Him, who are we following? There are only two directions; obedience and disobedience. If we are not following Jesus, we leaving the door open for Satan.
Jesus said, “Follow Me.” Don’t look around at what others have; follow Me. Don’t listen to the world’s message; follow Me. We don’t know how God may use our situations and experiences. We don’t know what the consequences of our choices will be, but if we follow Him, we know they will be good.
Here are a few verses with Jesus’ message:
Matthew 4:19 (to Peter and Andrew) “Come follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.”
Matthew 8:22 (to a follower) “Follow Me and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Matthew 9:9 (to Matthew) Jesus saw Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth and said, “Follow Me”.
Matthew 16:24 (to His disciples) “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.”
Matthew 19:21 (to a rich young ruler) “If you want to be perfect, sell your possessions, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow Me.”
John 1:43 (to Phillip) Finding Phillip Jesus said, “Follow Me.”
John 10:27 (to unbelieving Jews) “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow Me.”
John 12:26 (to His disciples) “Whoever serves Me must follow Me.”
John 21:19 (to Peter) “Follow Me.”
John 21:22 (to Peter) “You must follow Me.”
The message is clear “follow Me”, but we struggle with the definition of the message. What does it mean to follow Him? In the list above are many reasons why their situations get in the way of these individuals clearly focusing on the message. To some it is their job (fishermen, tax collector), to another family issues (burying his father), to another his wealth (rich man). The things Satan uses to keep us off track vary with each person’s focus, but Jesus’ message remains the same. “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow Me.” “Whoever serves Me must follow Me.” “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.”
Satan’s goal is to keep us ineffective. He is subtle. He knows each of our weaknesses and works on them to continually alter our focus. If we don’t deny ourselves the glittery distractions Satan throws at us, and instead we allow them to consume the focus of our lives, we are allowing him to reduce or eliminate our effectiveness in the Kingdom.
“If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.” Deny himself? Take up his cross? These thoughts are not the world’s thoughts. Satan whispers, “You don’t need to deny yourself that thing you want. You deserve it.” “You are saved. You don’t need to take up a cross. You have done enough to get into Heaven”. However, that is not what Jesus told His disciples. He said focus on My way and follow Me.
Christian Life Coach 