Yesterday, my staff team and I did a study of Genesis 2-3. We focused on sin and how it all came about, from the first man and woman. Some pretty interesting observations came out of our Bible study, and I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it all.
The one point that really stands out to me is how the serpent takes God's statement and twists it. God tells the groundling, or the man, that he is free to eat from any tree, except for one. The serpent turns around and asks the groundling's helper, the woman, whether God actually said that she couldn't eat from any tree.
The serpent turns God's complete abundance and provision into a restriction. The serpent never says that the woman should not eat from the tree. He just plants that thought into her head.
And that's what I've realized sin is all about. It's a deviation, a distorted picture of truth. Satan puts thoughts into our heads that are mostly true, but there is a part of it that isn't true, and that's what we tend to focus on. Most of the time, the sinful activities we engage in don't seem that bad since we're not committing adultery or murdering our neighbour.
Instead, we're harbouring negative thoughts about ourselves and our neighbours, we're grasping for something that God has given us all along, but we just don't recognize it, or we're just choosing to believe in lies.
It's given me a whole new perspective on how crafty the serpent is and harmful sin can be in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Yet, God brings redemption and is not too small to handle our sin. he offers grace, time and time again. That is really good news.
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