The following is a revision of a post with the same title published in November 2021.
One of the most humiliating, frustrating and distressing experiences a person could have in this world is to realize that they have been deceived – scammed – the victim of a con (confidence) game or a swindle, wherein they are fraudulently persuaded to give up something of value to obtain something of alleged greater value, or to prevent something undesirable from taking place, and after doing so learn that they have been deceived, resulting in the total loss of their “investment”.
One local TV news program regularly issues “scam alerts”, wherein they describe the scam, interview victims of the scam, and then provide advice on how to avoid that particular scam. What is typically behind the success of the scam is the victim’s ignorance of the motives of the one deceiving them, and the level of pride and greed or degree of fear and anxiety that the deceiver is able to elicit in their victim. Admittedly, some scams do prey on people’s compassion or sense of duty to their fellow man, but these do not appear to be the norm.
Whatever the motivation behind believing the lies put forth in a scam or con, the outcome is always a significant loss for the one who believes and acts on the lie(s).
This is nowhere more true than what the Bible presents as the disastrous outcome of mankind’s first encounter with the one referred to by Jesus in John 8:44 as the devil. Here Jesus describes this nefarious being as a liar and the originator of all lies, through which He deceives the whole world, such that through our believing and acting on his lies, what the bible refers to as sin, mankind has lost the glorious life with God for which we were created (Revelation 12:9) (Romans 3:23).
We first encounter the devil, described as the serpent in Genesis Chapter 3. The Bible reveals that God in love created mankind in His image and likeness for His glory; that we would display the beauty and perfections of His being, experiencing our greatest joy and pleasure and satisfaction in knowing and loving and being loved by Him, under His fatherly authority (Genesis 1:26) (Isaiah 43:7) (Psalm 8:4-5) (Jeremiah 31:3). However, mankind, represented by Adam and Eve, would be tested as to our trust/faith in God’s love and willing obedience to His wise and gracious authority as our creator, and God in His sovereign wisdom would strategically use the devil to administer this test.
In Genesis 2:16-17, God gives Adam one command – to not eat of the fruit of one specific tree in the garden paradise in which they lived with God, referred to as “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. Failure to obey this command would result in death, the loss of the glorious life with God for which they were created, forever.
In Genesi 3:1-3 we see the serpent using lies, innuendo and deceit to create in their minds distrust regarding God’s love for them and doubt regarding His commitment and capacity to make them exceedingly and abundantly happy in Himself. He evokes in them dissatisfaction with what God has given them, which is everything but the fruit of this one stupid tree (1 Timothy 6:17) (Psalm 16:11).
Through these lies and dispersions against God’s character and purpose (which continue today), Satan presents God as a stingy God, a withholding and overly restrictive God, a God who is not to be trusted with their happiness and wellbeing. He goes on to convince them that their greatest joy, pleasure and satisfaction is to be found not in the Creator, but in the creation, represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and what he falsely alleges it offers them, which is the freedom and ability to pursue their joy, their pleasure, their satisfaction on their own terms and in their own way, accountable to no one, just like God, and that God’s threat of death was nothing more than a hollow attempt to keep them under His control and servitude (Romans 1:25).
Now Adam and Eve’s response to these lies should have been a no brainer. Everything around them and within them imaged the beauty, the magnificence and perfection of God and would have cried out loudly and unceasingly, “God loves you Adam!”, “God delights in you Eve!”, “and He is fully inclined, fully committed to and fully able to make you exceedingly and abundantly happy in Himself and in all that He has given you, as well as in all that He will give you throughout eternity – joys and pleasures and delights that have yet to enter your young minds”
Yet filled with pride and envy like their tempter, they would not hear the joyful cry of creation of God’s gracious and glorious purposes for them (and us) (Genesis 1:31) (Psalm 19:1-6). And thus, in foolishly believing the devil’s con, they partake of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6). And the consequence God had promised, death, their being cut off from the glorious life with Him for which they were created, is executed swiftly (Genesis 3:7-24). Immediately, the destructive power of sin begins to impact their bodies and souls so that the glorious image of God in them is marred and corrupted. Their now mortal bodies will at some point return to the dust from which it was created. They are cast from the glorious presence of God into a world that is now cursed by God, a world in which they and all who will proceed from them (us) will now be manipulated and ruled in our hearts by the one whose word they believed over God’s, the devil, who as the “god of this world” would continue to promote man’s willful disobedience to God, captivating our hearts and minds with his false promises and lies, which in our believing and acting upon lead to our death, wherein we are destined to join him and the other rebellious angels in God’s final judgment, in what is referred to in Revelation 20:10-15, as the “lake of fire” (Ephesians 2:1-3) (2 Corinthians 4:4) (2 Timothy 2:24-26).
In my next post I will begin to explore how the devil’s lies impact this present evil age/world and our individual lives in it and to look at how Jesus alone can deliver us from it (Galatians 1:1-4).
Grace and Peace ×