The Marvelous Message

Of all the ways the devil will tempt a person, catering to one's vanity is his favorite means to get them to fall. After all, before the inception of time, he also succumbed to pride. He believed he had an inward right to the heavenly throne, and through promulgating the potential of self exaltation to other angelic beings, he led a massive insurrection against the Almighty. There was absolutely no chance of a “successful rebellion”, but reason often dissipates when one is steeped in prideful bitterness. Simply put, the devil began to hate God, for being, God. This attitude of entitlement parades itself in every heart. We may be able to mask it for a while, but given enough hardships and displeasure, we often become the corrupted clay, vilifying the ways of God and distrusting the commands of His word (Isaiah 29:16). The apostle Paul's warning to believers at Ephesus was,  “Don't give the devil any opportunity to work  (Ephesians 4:27).” Yet, in the garden of Eden, we ...

As we go back to the first garden, where deception and iniquity was introduced, we find the manner in which mankind is plagued with temptation. The serpent first causes Eve to question the command of God (“Yea, hath God said...”) and then magnifies confusion by exaggerating the truth (“...you shall not eat of every tree?”). But her response to the devil’s prodding was an interesting one: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” (Genesis 3:2b-3) You can’t touch it? Somehow, Eve took the command of God much further. God told them simply to not consume the fruit, but she had to throw in an ethereal, made up preference of not touching it! Now, someone may think that this is even better because it is more like a safeguard, but if there is anything that I know about mankind and standards, it’s that we easily manage to ...