The Liar

Genesis 3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely 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. So when the woman saw that the tree WAS good for food, and that it WAS a delight to the eyes, and that the tree WAS to be desired to make one wise.....

And so it begins.

There is a sneaking suspicion in our hearts that God is not completely good. Not entirely trustworthy. Not always looking out for our best interest.

Doubt creeps into my mind in a thousand different ways, insidious in nature, quietly compelling to me hear. Did God really say...Would He really love....Does He really speak...to you? What could you really do, offer or accomplish...They are all waiting for you to fail....again....and again. Doubt is a powerful enemy. Full of deadly poison. No wonder Satan chose the serpent. Quiet. Seductive. Slithering into the garden speaking lies, destroying peace, choking joy. Making life just a little bit less. Bringing God down to our level. Giving Holy God human traits of deception and lying. Planting a seed that says He is a sneaky, selfish God who would deprive us of good things so that He can keep them for Himself and for His own pleasure.

There was some truth to what the serpent said. There usually is. We would know good from evil. And we would forever be destroyed by that knowledge. God did attempt to keep something back from us. Our own destruction. But we chose the lesser things of the world. We traded perfection for a lie. We traded our crown for death.

Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden....And He said, Who told you that you were naked?

Who deceived you into believing that God could never use you? Never love you? Never build a kingdom for you? Never return for you? Never keep you forever, no matter what?

And Jesus said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

John 8 You are of your father the devil and your will is to do your fathers desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Jesus said, I AM the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.

Psalm 119 The sum of Your Word is truth

Isaiah 45 I AM the Lord. There is no other. I the Lord speak the truth.

And to my shame, and after all He has done, I doubt, at times, the One who gave all He had for me.

Genesis 3 Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done...And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Isaiah 53 He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed...The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Genesis 3 Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like Us in knowing good and evil. Now lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever...He drove out the man and at the east of the garden of Eden He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Still, even when we doubt, He refuses to leave us in our sin. Still providing a way of escape, a way of eternal life. Still trying to protect us from the consequences of our sins. He honored our choice in the garden to take the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil but made an escape for us so that we would not have to live with that sin for eternity. So He protected us from the tree of life until after the shedding of the blood and until we were clothed in the skin of the sacrificial Lamb.

Revelation 22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city also on either side of the river the tree of Life with its twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nation. No longer will there be anything accursed.

So to protect us from living in our sin forever He shed Holy Blood, clothed us in the skin of the Lamb of God, took the tree of life to heaven to guard it until the time that we would be forever protected from the curse and be healed completely.

From Genesis to Revelation, Alpha to Omega, You are God alone. You are COMPLETELY good. ENTIRELY trustworthy. ALWAYS honest. AMEN. Come Lord Jesus!!