Genesis 3: 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
This verse reveals the third prong of the enemy’s strategy. He calls to question God’s character. He accuses the ‘why’ behind what God commands. The longer that Eve stayed in the conversation the further the serpent pushed his scheme. “God knows” that you will be like Him if you eat the fruit. In other words, God is keeping the full truth from you. He isn’t telling you everything.
The enemy convinces her that she is missing out on a part of life that God didn’t tell her about. The serpent persuades this innocent woman that God is actually hiding things from her that would help her. “You will be like God - knowing good and evil.”
But, there’s a problem.
When God created male and female He made them in His likeness. He created them in their image. They were already ‘like God’.
Nevertheless, if we are being fair we have to admit that satan was ‘telling the truth’. Once they ate the fruit they would gain what they were missing, the knowledge of good AND evil.
But here’s the issue.
God wasn’t keeping this ‘full likeness’ from mankind because he was afraid of them. He wasn’t being mean keeping mankind from opportunities or innocent pleasures. God’s intent was to protect us from what we didn’t know. We were already like God in the sense of a knowledge of good. Eating the fruit opened them up to the other side of the equation. The purity of life would now be overwhelmed by the pain of evil. God was trying to protect them from harm. Satan’s accusations - if we stay around to listen - will cause us to question our heavenly Father’s character. The enemy will convince us to believe a lie, the lie that God is keeping something ‘good’ from us.
COMMANDMENTS PROTECTS OUR BLESSINGS.
Commandments are always meant to protect our blessings. They are never designed to keep good things from us.
Do not commit adultery. This command protects the sanctity of marriage.
Do not lie. Truth protects your freedom.
Do not covet. Desiring what is others robs you of contentment in life and enjoying what is yours.
Do not get drunk but be filled with the Spirit. Drunkenness takes control away from Us. This requirement protects our power to live life to the full empowering us with readiness for every opportunity.
These ‘rules’ are meant to protect your ability to rule in life. You were not created to ‘know’ evil. God didn’t intend for you and I to experience shame, fear, blame, hurt, rejection, and on and on the list goes of ‘evil’ things from which He was protecting us.
Is there a command you have been ignoring? What blessing is it protecting in your life?
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