Satan Poses the Question

Indeed, has God said, “You shall not eat from any tree of the garden”? – Genesis 3:1

From the time God placed man on this planet, Satan has been determined to deceive man about the God’s nature and His words to us. In the Garden of Eden, Satan began his plan by talking to Eve. Satan raised a question about God’s command. Notice that he used the word not. He skipped over the first part of God’s statement and focused on the restriction. He didn’t want Eve to be thinking about God’s goodness. He wanted God to appear harsh and restrictive.

God actually said, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). The first thing God told Adam was what he could do. All the other fruit was good for the picking, and Adam could eat freely from the other trees. Of all the trees in the garden—and there were surely many—he was only restricted from one.

God has given us so much that we are free to do. When you focus on that which you can do, rather than that which you can’t, you will discover a peaceful life of satisfaction and fulfillment rather than discontentment.