Genesis 3: The Devil's Tactic and The Blame Game

The devil has been using the same tactics on mankind since the creation of the world- Planting doubt and unbelief.

As believers, we go to church and receive our fill of the word of God and know in theory the principles of God that we must integrate in our lives. We take it down the road and read our Bibles and pray and have perceived piousness-only to fall when temptation comes. That's the trickery involved that has been used since Day 1-The shaking of our faith.

The first record of the devil trying to shake the faith of God's people is seen in Chapter 3 of Genesis where the devil says. DID GOD REALLY SAY? There is a saying from one of my favorite movies, "conviction is a luxury that's afforded by people watching from the sidelines." When things that are fleshly desirable come our way: (temptation, the need to escape trouble and trials, the need to get more money) we often compromise on the word of God because the immediate need is to good to resist. It gets to good to resist until a point where we often "justify" the guilt we face by squirming our way out through re-interpretation of God's word-something that the devil wants.


Reading further down this chapter, we find that when humans sin, the following thing that is naturally done is to blame someone else for the sin.

God: Adam. Why did you sin?
Adam: The woman you put here with me gave me the fruit.
God: Eve?
Eve: The serpent tricked me.
Serpent: *silence*

What we can deduce from the first ever blame game is as follows:

1) All sin starts from the devil. It always has.
2) Hence, there was no record of the serpent blaming anyone else
3) Both Adam and Eve knew well that they were not supposed to eat the fruit,
4) Despite knowing, they still did it anyway and blamed others for their sin when questioned..

It goes without saying that after the blame game, Adam, Eve and the serpent were reprimanded with toil and pain.

I have come across many people (myself included) who are stuck in sin and sorrow and they always have blamed the devil or other people but never themselves.

The devil can cause a cycle of sin to start but the only way out is to repent and acknowledge that we have sinned. and walk in the opposite Spirit. 

As the Bible says, we need to be aware of the devil's schemes. He is out to shake your faith. When your faith is shaken and you sin, it's always best to repent and not blame another.

Genesis 1 and 2.

Genesis 1

The chronology of the creation of the world.

Day 1: Let there be light. Day and night.
Day 2: Chasm to separate the waters above from below - Sky.
Day 3: Waters below gather together and dry land appears. Vegetation starts to grow.
Day 4: Sun, moon, stars.
Day 5: Birds of the air, creatures of the sea.
Day 6: Creatures of the land, Man.
Day 7. Rest

Genesis 2

A new chronology?

It seems erroneous and contradictory that Chapter 2 is ordered differently from the events of Chapter 1. This seeming debaucle has been a huge debate and point of attack for many atheists/non-believers to fault the authenticity and infallibility of the Bible.

The order of Chapter 2 is mentioned as follows:

The apparent chronology appears as follows:

1) No shrub yet. 

2) Man was formed

3) Man was placed into Eden

4) Man formed woman.

5) Birds and animals were named by Adam

Items 1 and 2 are the point of contradiction. 

Now vegetation and plants were created before Adam but it seems that there were no shrubs before Adam was created thus messing up the chronology in Chapter 1.  The key is to understanding what a shrub is. The word shrub is translated from the Hebrew - siach (שִׂ֫יחַ)  which denotes bush, while the other kinds of vegetation and plants mentioned in Chapter 1 come from the words deshe' (grass), 'eseb mazria zera (seed yielding herbs) and (ets pariy) fruit trees.

Now, get ready to be mindblown: Bushes have thorns and thorns did not exist - not until the fall of man in Chapter 3.

Therefore, plants have been created already but the bush at that point in time has not yet sprung-not until man sinned for the first time. Read Chapter 3.

Hence, Chapter 2 is pretty much a depiction of the events happening in Day 6 rather than a  mis-attempted chronological blunder. 

Why we live in the first place.

A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, 

Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil.

It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root.

Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 

Other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop-a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 

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Listen then to what the parable of the sower means:

When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.

The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But sine he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

It's not that complicated after all

The bible has many rules on what and what not to do. So one day, some smart guy wants to simplify things and comes up to Jesus and says. (from the Bible of course-true story)

What is the greatest commandment of the law?

Jesus Replies:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind

and he even had the courtesy to throw in an added guideline for us

And the second is: Love your neighbour as yourself.

Then Jesus immediately says this which many seem to take little notice of

All the LAW and the prophets hang on these two commandments.



There are some among us who zealously try to obey and follow each and every single line of the law. That is why the law seems burdensome to all of us. But remember, if you do it out of love for someone, the burdensome part is gone. And based on love, everything in the Bible will start to make sense. Therefore, do it out of love :)

Bethel

This blog shall be dedicated to serving the good word on your visual, mental and hopefully your emotional palette rather than cheesy loads of cliches available online. God given experience is of course a tasty side dish on the menu.

God Bless:)