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I am not careful enough with my words and what I say. I can interpret what people say by placing emphasis on certain words that were not emphasized, or add/take away from what was said. Thus, I am working on being a better listener and someone who seeks to understand before I jump in with solutions. My words, what I say, should be deliberate and accurate, often they are not. More often than not I find myself having to back track and take back or clarify what I’ve said or heard because of my lack of deliberateness. Sometimes this is harmless, we all exaggerate or embellish from time to time to make a story better or to drive a point. Sometimes a person will ask me about someone else and I will quickly answer instead of pausing to check if it is even my place to answer on behalf of someone else. When I speak about God this becomes all the more important. If I am not paying careful attention to what I am reading I can easily place my own interpretation on things. If I do it with what people say, I am not beyond doing it with what God says. I can let what sounds good seep in over what is true even if what is true sounds too radical for some. When I do this I am in danger of watering down the gospel. I’m learning to pray more as and before I speak. I am learning to listen and it is hard!

Genesis 2:16-18 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

As I study Genesis I find myself in different resources to glean additional insight into the scriptures. I recently listened to a lesson on Genesis by a woman called Jennifer Wilkin who drew my attention to how Eve interpreted what God said in the garden. In the above passage God clearly told the man, “Don’t eat the fruit from this particular tree or you will definitely die.” One thing that Wilkins points out is the contrast between what God actually said and what Eve repeats. If one doesn’t pay careful attention, it is really easy to miss. In the past I really thought she repeated to the serpent what God had said to the man but she didn’t.

Genesis 3:1b-3 "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"

Eve tells the serpent that not only should they not eat the fruit but should not even touch the tree or they will die. By saying this she did two things. First, she embellished, like we all like to do from time to time, that even touching the tree would result in death. Second, she omitted the fact that eating the fruit would “surely” lead to death. She added and she took away from what God had said. I can do this when I retell a story or replay a conversation in my head. I probably didn't catch Eve's mistakes because I would have done the same thing. We do it every day. This can particularly come out in male/female interaction. Ladies, he may have said x,y,z but you just added a pause before the y and put some emphasis on the z and made it into something that it’s just not. I can add or take away, but I leave room for Satan to come and mess with me when I’m not more cautious.

Genesis 3:4-5 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Now having the new emphasis on the contrast between what God actually said and seeing what Eve and the serpent were saying I cringed at the above statement. The serpent not only made Adam and Eve question God, but he blatantly denied what God had actually said. I do this! I add, take away and deny God’s word at times. I do not do this intentionally, but I do it when I look for comfort in things and people above God. In those moments I’m not looking to obey or even affirm God for who he is, instead I am looking for what will make me feel or look good. If I send that email that says, "this was done last week," when in fact it was almost done friday, I am Iying. I read something and can place more or less emphasis on parts of scripture. I can try to paraphrase instead of going back to look at the exact language. When I do this in my speech and in my actions these responses don’t reflect faith. Eve was caught up and entangled by her own words. There were two things at play. The first was her lack of carefully holding to exactly what God said. The second was her allowing the serpent to cast doubt on the God she knew. She knew that God was not one to withhold anything from them; she knew his love and kindness. She knew his provision.

I was also initially tempted to blame Adam, as Eve was not even created when God gave the instructions about the tree (see Gen3:18). I thought, “Maybe he had repeated it to her the wrong way. It’s clearly his fault.” It is painfully clear from the following passage that Adam was there all along with Eve and the serpent. Therefore, if she did not repeat what he told her he had an opportunity to jump right in and correct her, but he didn’t. I’ve been there too. I have stood by and let things go when I should have jumped in and said something. However, despite Adam’s actions, Eve knew God. It was her responsibility as it is mine to do what is right and ultimately we know what is right – to obey. Obeying God is a demonstration of faith. Faith reveals what or who I trust. The more I read the bible to truly understand God the more I am able to discern his voice and his spirit when he speaks.

"Word from Scotland" from Sandy Shaw

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