Did God say don’t eat?
It was an effective lie the first time, and over a few millennia, it’s become even more effective in seducing most of mankind whose view of God is colored as one who restricts pleasure.
Eve fell first and then Adam, after Eve convinced him to.
Question: Why didn’t anyone check in with God?
Why didn’t anyone look at His track record?
After all of that time in Eden, didn’t anyone think of God as above and beyond when it came to generous?
Plus Eve recognized the lie the first time and she sort of called it out when she told the snake that God didn’t actually ask them not to stay away from all of the fruits, but just those from a particular tree.1
The next bit was what caught Eve.
Here is a snake who starts with a partial truth and then goes on to state with authority that God doesn’t want Eve’s eyes to be open and that’s why He has restricted her from that tree… and somehow she believes the snake.
Oh the power of a half truth.
Or shall I say, the devastating power of a partial lie.
Jesus doesn’t have shades of grey when it comes to the truth.
In past and present generations, when people wanted you to believe what they were saying, they invoked God, or the temple or something else in an oath. When nothing was invoked, the person could be lying, but when an oath was invoked, it was expected that the truth was being told.
Enter Jesus with a standard higher than any the law could ever give.
Let your yes be yes and your no be no.
Sounds simple right?
It is. But like most simple things, it’s extremely difficult to do.
Let my yes be yes?
What if occasionally I want a maybe?
The thing with lying is that as subtle as it might seem, it can cause devastating ruin in the end.
Ask the husband who after years of supporting kids he believed were his, is blindsided by a DNA test.
Ask the wife who no longer trusts her husband’s I’ll be home soon, because soon almost always means hours.
Ask the kid whose heart sinks whenever mummy makes promises and consistently breaks those promises.
Lies hurt the human race and God knew it, which is why He would rather we tow a straight line without having to invoke anyone, thing or place.
Eve trusted the slick snake who came in with a half-truth as against the God who was always straight with her.
I would fault Eve but I am Eve.
I’ve fallen for the slick salesman as against the words of God that are clear in scripture and gone on paths that I regret.
If there is one thing I know, it is that God does not exist in tandem with a lie.
Think about it.
When we think God, cannot is a word that does not come to mind.
God means all powerful, all able and everything else that we cannot even begin to do.
But there is one thing that we can do that He cannot… and that is lie.
Today’s generation calls the airbrushed version misinformation.
God has a clear distinction between what is God and what is not.
Maybe you’re at a cross road.
Maybe you’re wondering which road has God and which does not.
One way to tell, is which one has a lie.
Even if the world calls it a small lie.
Don’t fall for the slick salesman.
Don’t sell out for a bite of a fruit.
Trust the hard road that’s covered with truth as against the smooth road that’s paved with a lie
God is sometimes found in the most unattractive of places.
Trust him to take you through.
And don’t be surprised if you’re in the minority.
It’s always going to be worth it.
1Gen 3v2