The Voice of God (Part 1)

These are the first recorded words of Satan:

“Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

But these are the first recorded words of God:

“Let there be light.”

This is the message heard from the Lord Jesus and declared by His followers:

“God is light and in Him there is no darkness.  No.  No darkness.  At all.”

God’s first words created and declared light.  Clarity.  Reality. 

God is light. 

Clarity. 

Reality.

But the devil spoke words of doubt to the first woman.  He questioned God’s words, and more specifically God’s clarity.  Whether God was indeed trustworthy.  Good.  Good willed.  Satan assumed the authority to question reality:  God’s word.  He introduced to creation a doubt assumption:

Did God REALLY say…?

What did God REALLY say?

What did God REALLY mean?

Now assuming the authority of interpreter, Satan gave Eve an interpretation, a direct contradiction.

God said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Eve said, “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.’ ”

Satan said, “You will not certainly die.  For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Satan’s interpretation was a contradiction.  Who should Eve have believed?

God.

The voice of God was clear.   

THE VOICE OF GOD IS CLEAR! 

Satan could only go so far in his deception, in the introduction of the  doubt assumption:

• The devil assumed the existence of God.  He would have been foolish to ask Eve, “Does God exist?”   

• Satan also assumed that God did indeed say SOMETHING to Eve.   
• He assumed God speaks. 

But this was his only weapon:  To attempt to make God’s voice untrustworthy, lacking clarity.   

He introduced himself as God’s mediator and interpreter, one who had the authority to question what God REALLY said, and what God REALLY meant.  Eve could have (and should have) gone to God himself.  Neither the serpent nor any other creature served as God's mediator.  

There was, and is, only One Mediator between God, man, and woman.

The Lord Jesus.

The Word of God made flesh.