Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." – Genesis 3v4-5
I remember one of the original Star Trek episodes about a young, spoilt, capricious god who caused all kind of problems for Capt. Kirk and the
This is only one example of many where an appeal is made to man’s desire for godhood. Literature from virtually every culture in history has noted stories about how man acquires attributes of deity. Most of the time man ‘blows it’ and we see the vanity of man achieving godhood.
Yet the desire remains. It is part of our make-up. Satan used that desire in trying to convince Eve to sin. ‘You won’t die if you eat that fruit,’ he says, ‘God knows that if you eat that fruit you will be just like Him.’
How that must have appealed to Eve. From our perspective we can see the foolishness of her choice. We have hindsight, the word of God, and the literature of the ages to mould our thoughts. Surely, we know that we would fail as god just like the boy-god in the Star Trek episode.
But do we really ‘get it?’ Let’s try a test. How often do you and I think we could do a better job than God is doing? When things are going wrong and we can’t figure it out we can be tempted to wonder if God really knows what is going on. When babies die and great tragedies strike we can sometimes join the world and ask ourselves why God allows this to happen.
The problem is simple – we are not God. When we think that we are no better than Eve. ‘If I were God I would not let that happen!’ It is Satan’s same deception that continues on today. It worked with Eve. It is sad that it still can work with us.
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