Talkin' Snakes N' Stuff

I was listening to a pastor and gifted communicator speak on the parallels of life in the garden of Eden and life in the church. He focused his message on a specific principle that contrasted the tree of life vs. the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Super interesting stuff.

What really provoked my thought process was this observation he made about Eve and the serpent.

Conventionally, we hear the tale of the serpent tempting the woman, the woman committing the first ever recorded "sin" and bam - we're all naked and going to hell.

But what he pointed out was that the serpent didn't actually appeal to Eve's sin nature or her desire to do wrong. Technically, she was still perfect - the serpent had nothing to work with in that department and he knew it.

But, what he could do was appeal to Eve's desire to be more like God. And he did. He offered her a chance to recognize good and evil just as God did, to see life through divine eyes. Pretty attractive to the innocent woman, huh?

His final point? Let God be God. Let the tree of life be your source. Don't let the knowledge of good and evil strangle the purity of your faith. Simplify. Tune out all the legalistic, religious nonsense and regain your innocence. We busy ourselves in imitating the "real thing" and inadvertently find ourselves even farther from the original. Choose life.