You’re in a War of Words and How Eve Lost

Posted by thedeaconscorner

Let me jump straight to the point. We’re in a war and this war is not fought with guns, knives or bats but with words. Satan’s entire agenda is to get you to doubt what God has said to you and derail you. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV) tells us:

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

From verse five I would like to define the following words: argument and pretension.

An argument is a discussion in which reasons are put forward in support of and against a proposition, proposal, or case; debate

 A pretension is the quality of being pretentious (behaving or speaking in such a manner as to create a false appearance of great importance or worth)

Please keep those definitions in mind. Those are tactics our adversary uses. As we move forward into Genesis 3:1-7 pay attention to how Eve lost this war.

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 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.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

I want to point one thing before I get going. The text doesn’t suggest that Eve was at all alarmed when the serpent spoke to her. So, what does that suggest about creatures at that time? Chew on it for a while. Moving on. The Lord told them previously “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”  Now look at how the devil twisted what God said, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” That is not at all what God told them. The devils first tactic is to cast doubt on what God told you. Remember this is a war of words and the devil’s goal is to win! Then in verse two and three Eve goes onto explain what God said about the tree and ends with “and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” The devil once again twist and cast doubt on what the Lord said. He even insinuated that God was withholding from her. That’s tactic number two. Look at verse four and five: “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  

As we can see the enemy’s first tactic is to twist and cast doubt on what God has said to you. Tactic number two is to dupe you into believing God is withholding from you. The last and final tactic is to get you to focused on self and take your eyes off the Lord and His promises. Let’s see what happened to Eve in verse 6: “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.”  So by this time Eve has been cunningly coerced by the devils “suggestions” (that she later came into agreement with) and now it was all about fulfilling her desires over obedience to God. Her mind is made up and she took the fruit and ate then turned to her husband and he ate. At that very moment Satan’s “suggestions” were seen for what they really were. It was a calculated plan to bring them out of a place of promise and rest into a place disobedience and hardship.  Look what happened as a result of their disobedience: shame and fear (vs. 7, 9), out of fellowship with the Lord (vs. 8, 21-24) and finally hardship and judgment (vs. 16-19).  Their single act of disobedience caused a ripple that affects all of us to this very day and its called “sin”. I thank the Lord for His plan of redemption through the son of God, Jesus! Who shed His blood which cleanses us from all sin and brings us back into fellowship with the Lord! 

In light of this, we need not be ignorant of Satan’s devices. Be aware of his pattern..it has never changed: 1) Casting doubt on God’s word(s) to you 2) Insinuations against God that He’s withholding and 3) A focus on selfish desires over obedience to God. This should be a lesson to us all of what the consequences are when we take our eyes of the Lord and His promises and get hoodwinked by the devil. Do some reflecting and see how the serpent has tried to slither his way in your life and cause you to fall prey like Eve. It is my hope this helps you in some way as you wage war against the devil everyday in the area of believing and holding firm to God’s promises for your life. 

“God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?”  - Numbers 23:19 Everything is in God’s time and the enemy will test you to see if you believe. Continue to stand firm until you see the deliverance of the Lord!

-The Deacon