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It’s so hard to believe we’re almost through this study of Genesis 3. I hope the Holy Spirit has shown you much treasure in the past few weeks. Here’s what he’s directing me to take from my work:

Last Week’s Work

LESSON(S) LEARNED
In my review of my study notes, I noted these main lessons:

• Through trickery, the serpent of old—the devil/Satan (Rev 12:9)—managed to separate mankind from God and direct our attention away from Him.
• Yet the serpent’s punishment rendered it lower than mankind, crawling on his belly and conquered by the woman’s offspring.
• That child of Eve, Jesus, covered all sin through His death once for all (Hebrews 9:26). In doing so, He defeated the devil, saving all who put their faith in Him for salvation.
• But the evil one can still tempt us to sin when we hide or otherwise willfully separate ourselves from God, using fear and clever manipulation against us.

CONVICTION

• Like Eve, I’m not always in God’s presence; I hide from Him or physically or mentally go where I know He doesn’t want me to be.
• When I’m separated from Him, I’m most vulnerable to the lies and deception that can make even paradise seem unsatisfactory.
• I need to better recognize the devil’s voice in my head and remember, he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44), he’s already beaten, and when I stay close to God he is powerless.

CORRECTION

• In my review, the Spirit drew me to Jesus battling Satan in the wilderness when he was tempted to turn stones into bread: particularly to His use of Scripture in Matthew 4:4, “… It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” I wondered where in Scripture Jesus would have gotten that saying, so I followed the cross-reference to Deuteronomy 8:3 (emphasis mine), “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”
• By this, I know God’s Word is life—the opposite of the result Adam and Eve acquired by eating the forbidden fruit. The devil will always try to trick me, but I believe the Spirit is equipping me to respond to his temptation by tuning out anything that doesn’t reflect God’s Word.

ACTION PLAN

Going forward, my action plan is to

• Practice recognizing the devil’s deception,
• Stay connected to God and his people, especially when I’m tempted to separate myself and/or give in to fear, and
• Increase my knowledge of God’s Word. The more I know it, the less I believe I’ll be hungry for things that don’t satisfy me!

Our Next Study

Next week we’ll start another “blast from the past” study from the Old Testament, Joshua 2. If you’ve been with me for a while, you probably know those web files were lost when my site went down in late 2023. By studying the same chapter again, I hope to refresh my mind about the earlier study, but also discover new treasure from the text: treasure the Spirit knows I need for today. I hope you’ll join me, my friend!