We established in the first part of our study that there are ‘deep things’ of God and of Satan. One major difference is that God is Sovereign, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Immutable .. while Satan is not. God is the Creator. Satan is a created being (angel). These are important basics to remember as we look at the ‘deep things’ of the Necessary Being and a ‘contingent being.’
The Depths of Good
As we plumb the depths of God, we find ‘good.’ As God created the ‘heavens and earth,’ He looked at each step and said it was good. When God finished creating the ‘heavens and the earth,’ He said it was ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31). God is ‘good’ and everything He does comes from the place of ‘pure goodness.’ That includes both His ‘actions’ and ‘reactions’ that we find in Scripture.
God warned Adam (first created human) that obedience was ‘good,’ while ‘disobedience’ was ‘bad’ –
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17
God also saw that it was not ‘good that man should be alone,’ so He made ‘a helper comparable’ to Adam (Genesis 2:18) –
“And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” Genesis 2:21-23
We see the ‘goodness’ of God in both of His actions:
- warning Adam not to eat the fruit from the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’
- creating a ‘comparable helper’ (woman) for Adam
We also see the ‘goodness’ of God in removing Adam and his wife from Garden of Eden after they disobeyed Him. If they had remained in the garden and eaten the fruit from the ‘tree of life,’ they would have lived forever in a disobedient state – apart from perfect fellowship with God –
“Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” Genesis 3:22-24
Adam and Eve (“And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.”) left the garden to begin living their new life in a world that would be filled with evil and danger. God had already told Adam and Eve what living their life would be like on the ‘outside’ –
“To the woman He said: ‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” Genesis 3:16
“Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: ‘Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:17-19
After Adam and Eve left the garden to begin living a different life than they would have led in the garden if they had obeyed God, “Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, ‘I have acquired a man from the Lord” (Genesis 4:1). Eve remembered God’s promise to her about the ‘Seed of the woman’ that would destroy the ‘seed of the serpent.’ Not knowing the Eternal plans of God (the deep things of God), she may have seen Cain as the promised ‘Seed.’ If that’s what Eve thought, she was wrong.
The Depths of Evil
As we plumb the depths of Satan, we find ‘evil.’ The devil was ‘cunning’ (עָרוּם – arum .. crafty, shrewd) and deceived Adam’s wife (1 Timothy 2:14) to believe his evil lies. Though Satan deceived Eve, he was correct that God knew that when she and Adam ate from the tree they would ‘know good and evil.’ That was Satan’s ‘deep-laid plan.’ God created the challenge and the devil set the trap.
Once Adam and Eve were living ‘outside’ the Garden of Eden, ‘knew good and evil,’ and no longer had access to the ‘tree of life,’ the depths of Satan’s plan became evident. He wanted to destroy God’s plan to destroy him, which meant destroying the ‘heir’ (Seed). Satan went to work on the first children born on earth. The devil saw a way to ‘destroy’ them both –
“Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, ‘I have acquired a man from the Lord.’ Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.’ Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.” Genesis 4:1-8
We learn many things about the early life of the first human family, but to the point of the ‘deep things’ of Satan I want you to notice the word ‘sin.’ Genesis 4:7 is the first time that the word ‘sin’ is used in the Bible. The Hebrew word is חַטָּאָה (chatta’ah) and means ‘to miss the mark, make a false step, stumble and fall.’ Cain did not obey God and murdered his brother.
The Apostle John referred to Cain as being ‘of the wicked one’ with works that were ‘evil’ –
“In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.” 1 John 3:10-12
The writer to Hebrews also addressed the righteousness of Abel –
“By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.” Hebrews 11:4
As for the devil and the part he played in the early days of human existence, Jesus Christ said this –
“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” John 8:44
Satan made his move inside the Garden of Eden by deceiving Eve. Satan made his move outside the garden by deceiving Cain. What would God do now that Cain had murdered his brother? Remember, God knows and declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). Nothing surprised Him. First, He cursed Cain by saying that the ground would ‘no longer yield its strength to you.’ Second, God told Cain that he would be a ‘fugitive and a vagabond’ on the earth. Third, God gave another son to Adam and Eve – a son whose offspring would eventually bring about God’s promise to Eve and the ultimate destruction of the devil –
“And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, ‘For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.’ And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.” Genesis 4:25-26
This reminds me of the words of Joseph centuries later –
“But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” Genesis 50:20
God meant it for ‘good.’
[Podcast version of this study coming soon.]
Next Time
The ‘battle’ between good and evil continues to this day based on the ‘deep things’ of God (good) and of Satan (evil). In the next part of our series, we’ll dive deeper into the impact both have had on human history.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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