Recently, I was sitting in an excellent lecture entitled “Freedom to Live” by Dr. Stephen Um. During the course of the lecture, he began an exposition on Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:1-6). As he examined the text, through the lens of freedom versus the law, my mind wandered from his main point. I considered Satan’s statement generally, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden?’” Satan’s question was an attempt to cast doubt on the trustworthiness of God and His word: they would not really die (3:4); in fact, God’s words to Adam and Eve were not in their best interest at all (3:5).
From the day that the serpent came to Eve many millennia ago, to this very moment, the assault on faith has been the same. A nagging question in our minds whispers, “Can I really trust God?” A broken heart wails in despair, “God, are you really compassionate? Where were you when all this happened?” Weary hope, deferred for seeming eternity, begs an answer, “How long God? Where is your graciousness? Has my patience been for naught?” In tragedy and sickness and death, we indict God, “Where is Your justice? Where is Your goodness? Where is Your power?” Through all the troubles of life, we groan as our faith is tested—sometimes feeling like God is Darth Vader and we are the budding Jedi crying out, “Father please!,” in hope that the lightning bolts will stop. In these times, if we are reminded of God’s revelation to Moses, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin,” (Ex. 34:6-7) maybe we sarcastically respond, “Oh, really?!” Regardless of the exact nature of its manifestation, in the course of the Christian life we will all face the same question: Can I trust God? Does His word hold true? We come to that point when we are confronted with a declaration of God that contradicts our experience. Now what?
One approach is to become a moral deist of sorts: I’ll just try my best to be a good person. I’ll be kind to the poor and I won’t engage in any really egregious sins, but as far as serving and worshipping a personal God…maybe later. This is better for society than the other option of tacit rebellion. Perhaps a third option is to be “Christian,” but replace joy with bitterness and faith with duty. Unfortunately, all of these miss the mark. What does God require? He requires us to act justly and to love mercy, to which all the deists say amen, but also to walk humbly with God. (Mic. 6:8) Sorry, all of you deists, a walk is an intimate affair.
Because ultimately it is God who directs our paths, we cannot walk with Him without trusting Him. To trust Him, we must believe that He will be true to His word. In other words, when the time comes that we find ourselves being asked, “Did God really say…,” we can answer back, “Yes he did! And He will do it!” Two directives are implicit here. First, we must know what God said. Second, we must know Him in order to trust that He will deliver. I think that Jesus’ response to Satan, after being hungry for forty days in the desert, is remarkable. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4) It is a doubly intriguing statement because not only is Jesus saying it, but he is also citing God’s word in Duet. 8:3! In fact, all three of Jesus responses to Satan are citations of God’s word in the Old Testament. It is worth thinking about the difference between Adam and Eve’s response and Jesus’ response to Satan; it is precisely that Jesus knew what God said and knew God to be true, while Adam and Eve did not. Much more could flow from this line of thought, such as the fact that Jesus is referred to as the Word (John 1:1-14), but I hope this suffices to stir a little reflection.
