Eve lived in a perfect world:
* No evil
* No illness.
* No death.
Sadly, Eve made some bad choices that spoiled that perfect world, for her and for us.
First, Eve chose not to listen carefully.
* She listened to someone she should have ignored: Satan.
* She didn’t listen to the one to whom she should have listened: God.
Consequently, Eve misquoted God and exaggerated his commands.
Secondly, Eve chose to try to rationalize a lie. Eve’s attempt to analyze Satan’s words and correct his mistake caused her to change what God had said. That led to her next mistake: choosing not to trust God. Eve started doubting God and His promises.
Next, Eve chose to give in to selfish desire. Eve was tempted by the promise of knowledge that would make her more like God. Whether she simply wanted that extra knowledge for herself or she thought the knowledge would bring her closer to Him, Eve was thinking selfishly.
Then Eve chose to take her eyes off God. She let her eyes drift to the fruit. Maybe she wondered how fruit that looked so delicious and promised to give knowledge could be bad for her.
That look led to Eve’s sixth bad choice: she chose to let a dangerous thought lead to a dangerous action: Eve touched the fruit. Maybe she had a “one touch can’t hurt” attitude. Perhaps her confidence that nothing bad would happen was growing. (After all, nothing had happened when she looked at the fruit.)
Step by step, one bad choice at a time led Eve to her biggest, baddest choice of all: Eve chose to ignore God!
* Eve tasted the forbidden fruit.
* Eve’s bad choices didn’t affect only her.
* Eve gave the fruit to Adam and convinced him to eat it.
Like all women, Eve had a lot of influence over her husband, but she misused that influence.
What was the ultimate result of all of Eve’s bad choices?
Eve got the knowledge that Satan promised. She learned:
* She wasn’t perfect.
* She had disobeyed God.
* She had driven a wedge between herself and her husband.
* She had separated herself, her husband, and all future generations from God.
That knowledge didn’t bring Eve closer to God; it created a chasm between her and God that she could never cross. It also brought suffering, illness, and death to the world.
Satan didn’t force Eve to eat the fruit. He simply planted doubts about God’s love and honesty in her mind. Before you become too critical of Eve, look at your own life.
Television, radio, books, magazines, and music all plant ideas in your mind that can prick your curiosity and can cause you to doubt God.
Even so, you are the one who has to decide whether to buy into those ideas or to trust and obey God. Please, use today’s Digi-Journal drawing as a reminder that the final choice is yours.
Related Verses:
Genesis 2:18-25 – “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’ Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called “woman,” for she was taken out of man.’ That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”
Genesis 3:1-7, 13, & 16- – “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”?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 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.”’ ‘You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ 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. 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...Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’…To the woman he said, ‘I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’”