“The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” (Gen. 3:13) Beguiled means deceived, the serpent, Satan, lied to Eve and Eve believed him, she knew what God had said, she even repeated it to him, (Gen. 3:2-3) but when Satan lied, it caused her to doubt the validity of what the Lord had said.
Lies will do that, they are meant to cause doubt within a person, that is their purpose. The strongest weapon that anyone can carry around in their personal arsenal, outside of the Word of God, is a convincing lie, it is how he coerced the angels that fell with him, it is how he deceived Eve. But that is not the context I would ask you to contemplate today, what I would ask of you is to look at Genesis 3:16, “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.” Even though she was deceived, confused about what exactly truth was at the moment, even though the majority of people on this planet would have given Eve a break, as it were, “Poor gal didn’t know any better, you can’t blame her,” she was still punished by God. “Who changed the truth of God into a lie.” (Romans 1:25)
She knew better, she had been given a commandment from God Himself, and by believing Satan, no matter how convincing he was, she turned the truth of the Word of God into a lie, she willingly made a free will choice. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20) No one, not one person who is alive today or who has ever lived will have one viable excuse on the day they stand before the Lord as to why they did not believe in Him, why they fell in the time of deceit.
Here we must bring up 2 Thessalonians 2:11, the strong delusion sent by God during, and I am beginning to believe, just prior to the beginning of the great and terrible day of the Lord. (Joel 2:31) I do not know if Satan asked first, I do not know if he needed to inform the Lord of his intentions before he entered into the garden of Eden, but I do know that he did not sneak in unawares of the Lord. “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” (Heb. 4:13)
When the Lord begins to send the delusion, it has a singular reason, so that these it is sent to will no longer be able to see the truth, why He has chosen to do so I will not question, His ways are higher than ours, (Isaiah 55:9) and no man can judge the Almighty, (1 Cor. 2:15) but this is not the same as being deceived, deceived is when we know the truth, and reject it as such, instead we have of our own free will decided to believe what we see as best.
Eve was punished, along with every woman born until this very day, because she knew the truth and cast it aside as worthless, she sought self above obedience to God. It is why the Scriptures speak of those that “crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” (Heb. 6:6) It is similar in a sense to the sin of David and Bathsheba, it is those who profess a faith in Christ, but only with their lips, Eve shamed God. The trust that we have and show to others by our unyielding faith in God honors God, and blessings, in whatever form that He chooses to bestow upon us, are the rewards for that trust, those who do not trust the Lord have already denied Him in their heart. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Heb. 11:6)
It is almost time for the curse to be over, those who will enjoy the presence of Christ in His eternal kingdom will never face another deceiving lie, we will never doubt, we will know peace and life everlasting, but for now, while we still draw breath, we can be deceived, and the lies and deceits of Satan are not going to get any weaker as time goes on my friends, each of us that serve Christ are well aware of these truths. The elect are the born-again believers, (Matt. 24:24) if we do not pray earnestly and without ceasing for hearts that can discern between good and evil, if we do not continue knocking, we will not be able to efficiently expound to others the truth of these days. Eve had a choice, but being deceived is no excuse when one has the truth at hand.
