Recruiting For The Rebellion - The One Year Unlocking the Bible Devotional

Now the serpent . . . said to the woman . . .   Genesis 3:1, NIV

Imagine life in Eden: Adam’s work is fulfilling and fascinating. He enjoys the companionship of his wife and the company of God. When he is hungry, he reaches up and picks his food from the trees. His whole life is one of blessing and joy. This is the picture at the end of Genesis 2.

By the end of Genesis 3, everything has changed, and the man and woman find themselves struggling to make a life in a very different world. They are now outside the place where God blessed them. They live out in the wilderness, where all kinds of wild animals threaten and where they must work to get their food. They experience pain and fear and guilt, and when evening comes, they no longer see God. Something has gone terribly wrong.

The Bible never fully explains the origin of evil, but it does tell us where it started. Alongside the visible world that we know, God created an invisible realm in heaven and filled it with angels. One of those angels, known as the devil or Satan, became inflated with pride and tried to usurp the position of God (see Isaiah 14:12-14).

Satan’s rebellion was unsuccessful and led to his being excluded from the presence of God and cast down to the earth. So right from the beginning of human history, there was an enemy bent on destroying the work of God. This enemy came to the woman in an attempt to recruit the human race into his rebellion.

As we will see, Satan successfully recruited Adam and Eve into his rebel cause, introducing a virus known as “sin” into the entire human race. Like sick people in need of a doctor, we need an accurate diagnosis and an appropriate prescription. But until we understand that sin is the source of our sickness, we won’t be ready to receive the cure God has provided for us in Jesus Christ.

For further reading, see Isaiah 14