Recently, I did a study through Genesis chapter 3 and found something that astounded me. As I dwelled on it, more truths came to life. Some things seeming to be almost paradox, others profound. And some things I found continue to remain an enigma. I have read through Genesis more than once, but one certain truth stood out to me that never really occurred to me before. I am talking about the subject of lying. For those who have read through Genesis, and particularly the fall of man, we know of the obvious lie that Satan told to Eve. But is there something deeper than just a "simple" lie? This was the question that peaked my curiosity and later on, I taught the same topic to our youth group.
Before we can go further and deeper into the subject of lying and lies, we need to look at God's perspective on lying. Today, we take lying as a norm. We are lied to in the news, in magazines, on TV, on the radio, at school, at work, and even with friends and family. Because of this, we often downplay the seriousness of lying. We rate is as much less serious than say, theft or abuse.
In Proverbs 6:16-17, God calls lying and abomination. He states that He hates lying not once, but twice in this passage. He even calls it an abomination. Abomination is translated from the Greek word "Toebah" which is translated literally into "dangerous, sinister, repulsive". We don't normally think of lying in this aspect, but we see clearly that God hates it as also seen in Proverbs 12:22.
When we read in Isaiah 32:7, "he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right", we see that God not only calls lying an abomination, but also calls it destructive. How often do we see the evidence of this? Abortion, evolution, gay marriage, relative truth, atheism. We see destruction come about because of a single lie. Currently we are undergoing the issues of the invasion of Islam. They are lied to, made to believe that if they go to war with non-Muslims, they will make it into Heaven. Look at the destruction, war, and death that lie has caused. That is ultimately the end result of lies: death. Revelation 21:8 says "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." Lying not only results in physical death, but God lists it specifically as a sin that leads to Hell. Let's look at the proof of this.
If you have never read Genesis chapter 3*, I recommend doing so. In this passage, we see the account of the fall of man. But this fall resulted from the first sin on this earth: a lie. We oftentimes agree that Satan lied to Eve, but when we compare this chapter with the previous, we see that Eve had lied as well. In chapter 2, verses 16 and 17, we see that God told them not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but in this account, He does not specifically say to not touch the fruit. Eve exaggerates by saying "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." Following this lie, Satan gave a cut and dried lie. He tells Eve that they will, in fact, not die. And from here, everything started. The result was destruction, ending in death. Even in this single chapter, we see and abundance of death.
The first death is apparent in verse 7 where we read "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." Here, we see the death of innocence. Before this, Adam and Eve had no understanding of sin, right and wrong, good and evil. The second they believed the lie and sinned, they were become sinners and no longer innocent.
We see the second death in the next verse: "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden." We actually see two deaths here, but the first one in this verse is the death of a relationship with God. We could also call this separation from God. Because of this death, humankind was (and is) doomed to an eternal death, resulting in the need for a propitiation (Christ). Adam and Eve walked every day with God and communed with Him just as you do with your friends, but now they no longer had that privilege.
The third death (and the second one in this verse) is the death of peace. Before the sin, they had no need to fear. They had an ingrained sense that God was with them and would take care of them. In fact, I'm led to believe that they weren't even conscious of the fact that God was taking care of them because they never knew the need for it in a perfect world. But now we see that they had no peace. They hid in the garden knowing they were naked, and knowing that they were no longer innocent. They walked with God up to this point and had never hid from God. But we see that they hid from Him because they were scared and no longer had peace. This death of peace goes beyond the personal in verse 15 where we see "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This is a promise of conflict, of wars. Not only will people not have an inner peace, but this world will no longer have peace.
The fourth death is closely related to the third and is found in verse 10: "And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." They had a death of security. Because God protected them and they lived in a perfect world, they had no fear. Can you imagine having no concept of fear, then within a split second, are scared for your life? I can guess this is what Adam and Eve had. They knew that they were separated from God and no longer would have His protection.
In verses 12-13, we see the fifth death. This is when Adam tries to escape his responsibility by blaming his wife. Then his wife tries to escape her responsibility by blaming Satan. This is the death of healthy marriage, or more generally, the death of a healthy relationship. This was Adam and Eve's first marital conflict. We don't know exactly how much time had passed between their creation and this event but they would have never had a fight or disagreement until now. Now we have drama, fights, divorce, hate, resentment, abuse, and conflict in relationships because Adam and Eve believed a lie.
The sixth death is seen in verses 16-19. This is proof of death of an easy life. We could also say the death of a perfect world. Now don't get me wrong, working is not a curse. God designed us to work. But after the fall, work became significantly harder. God sustained all plant life. Adam never had to water the garden, pull weeds, or fertilize. But now, work has become back-breaking. And before this sin, childbirth was not painful.
The seventh death is in verse 21 where we see God making clothes for Adam and Eve to hide their nakedness. We see God making these clothes out of skins. The skins were taken from a lamb where we have the first bloodshed: the first physical death. In addition, we see in verse 19, the phrase where we get "ashes to ashes, dust to dust". This is the death of life. This is our physical death here on earth, our growing old, our sickness and pain and diseases. This is restated in Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death..." and again in Romans 5:12 "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned". And this is the reason (along with the second death) why we have the final death.
The final death is actually seen in verse 15. With some reading into it, we see the prophecy of Christ's coming to die for us. Because of Adam and Eve believing a lie, God the Son had to come to earth to die not only physically, but to become our sins. We see the death of our LORD. This is proof, though, that we have a loving God. As soon as Adam and Eve sinned, God could have erased their existence and started over. But instead, He allowed them to continue, knowing that the world would reject him. He saw one of His creations (Satan) tear down another one of his creation that was actually made in His own image. The world, at one point, grew so much of a hate for God that He flooded the earth, only allowing Noah and his family to live. He gives chance after chance after chance for His creations to come to Him.
Jesus came to this earth with the purpose to die. He was born to die. As he hung on that cross, he cried "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" This was the first time Jesus ever referred to God as "My God" and that is because there was a separation of the Godhead. Jesus literally became sin which was completely contrary to his nature. He did all of this because he loves us.
On an ending note, I would like to share something I found interesting. Satan could have used any lie to drag Eve down, but he used the lie "you will not surely die." Don't you find it interesting that the very thing that Satan lied about was the exact result of Eve believing the lie? Because of that lie, we now have the world we live in: with death. Today, we see the world rampant with sin, atheism, blaspheme, and an absolute hate for God. These chances that God gives us will soon be up. When judgment comes, only those who have accepted Christ will enjoy God's presence. But that leads to a final point. The lies did not stop in the garden. We continue to face Satan's destructive lies today and we must decide whether we will believe him or God. Eve had a choice of whether to believe God (you will surely die) or believe Satan (you will not surely die). We are faced with the same predicament: who to believe. We Christians have calling to inform others of Satan's lie and offer the gospel and present Christ. What will you do?
*Genesis 3
1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
22 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
