7-14-2016

       Good Morning All!!     

           Genesis 3:1; “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

    “A talking serpent?  Really??!!”  This is often the response.  Even at a young age, many question this event.  I remember a youngster telling me one time that if a snake started to talk to him he would run away.  I told him I probably would run away too.  We don’t have talking snakes in the world so we don’t listen to snakes.  Apparently, it wasn’t a big deal for Eve to hear a snake talk.  Perhaps she did it often.  We do not know what life was like in God’s perfect kingdom before the fall into sin so maybe talking snakes, cows, dogs and birds was common.  Perhaps, when Jesus returns and the creation is perfected and made whole again, we will talk to the animals.  But until then, we don’t hear animals talk and we certainly do not listen to snakes any more or, do we?

    The serpent was more crafty than any other beast.  He had a way about his ability to use language in order to confuse and mislead Eve and Adam.  The serpent twisted God’s Word and God’s design to confuse Eve and to lead her down the path of destruction.  Eve listened to a serpent and was deceived.  You and I may think we would never listen to something that slithers on the ground but neither did Eve.  The devil, in the guise of the serpent, led Eve astray.  The devil, in the guise of worldly wisdom, logic and “plain old common sense”, will often attempt the same thing.

    The world will tell us that in order to achieve our complete personhood; we should explore and push our “freedoms” to the limit.  What the world fails to tell you is that this kind of existence is full of problems.  I may be free to eat a whole pie every day but the resulting obesity and potential diabetes makes that freedom very expensive.  In the same way, a life of wanton sexual freedom can lead to health issues and diseases that lead to a horrible early death.  Yet the snake whispers “Go for it and grab everything you can from wherever you can.” 

    The snake whispers in an attempt to twist God’s Word and plan.  Whenever we think we know better than God, whenever we think we have a better solution than God or we just plain think we are smarter than God; we are listening to snakes in the garden.  We are being manipulated into a path or action that will harm us, our relationship with God and our relationship with each other.  Listening to snakes will do that and the only solution is to listen to God and his plan revealed to us in His Word.  Only by listening to God, hearing his words of forgiveness and hope, his words of salvation and peace can we truly be free from the slavery that the devil chains us in.  The devil whispers his lies while God speaks his truth through the open grave and the empty tomb.  Hear God’s Word today and live in his peace.

Father, you speak and the world is healed.  Keep me in your arms safe all the devil’s lies.  Be with those who suffer from his tricks and deceit.  In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret