Gems In Genesis: Garden Theology 6: What We Know About the Devil - "He Is Crafty"

The devil is a created being. That is what we considered previously to show that his actions are never outside of the sovereign will of the Father. In this we should not only have hope but by it we begin to make sense of how we understand the essence of all his work and character.

Genesis 3 states this plainly: "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made..." (Genesis 3:1). The word "crafty" means cunning or shrewd. In principle to be crafty or shrewd is not evil in and of itself. The disciples were called by Christ to be shrewd when He sent them out. Matthew records these words: “Jesus told his disciples to “be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves" (Matthew 10:16 NASB).

To be crafty is to be those who think outside of the norm, the standard ways of things to achieve specific ends. That Jesus tells the disciples to be innocent as doves shows that, for Him, being shrewd need not mean being evil. In the context of Genesis, however, we see this "outside of the box" thinking to be acting and thinking contrary to the standard of God and His word. This is the foundation of Satan's tactics and schemes: to minimize and or twist the universally binding authority of the Word of God. The power of his craftiness was not in his craftiness. The power of his cunning lay in the fact that those who are the object of his schemes are not well versed in the Word of God

The only way the serpent was able to deceive Eve was because she either did not know the Word of God very well, or she did not care to keep it at the forefront of the mind of her heart. When we fail to understand the contextual meaning of the Word of God, we only know half of it and not the whole. While this may appear not to be a major issue the fact of the matter is that those who are not rooted in the Word of God are easily duped by the enemy. This is the case because the devil's craftiness is not void of the use of scripture rather, he twists and or distorts it in order to deceive us. This he does because- and I need you to get this - temptation void of truth twisting is not really temptation at all!

What makes the enemies deceptions plausible is because they are veiled and wrapped in Christianityism - the false use of the Word of God to achieve personal and sinful ends. We know this is the case by a mere perusal of the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4. Yet, Paul, reflecting and teaching the essence of what took place in the exchange between the devil and Eve in the garden makes this clear: "But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3).

Paul teaches us that Eve (and us if we are not careful) was deceived and led astray from her devotion to the Lord because she believed the serpent's cunning. We know that this cunning involved a twisting of truth because Paul adds,

"For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you

receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the

one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough" (2 Corinthians 11:4).

Note the emphasis added in verse 4. To proclaim means to speak or to teach. Paul says that we will be like Eve in the garden, deceived and led astray, if we embrace another teaching about Jesus or another gospel that is different from the one, we have received from the Lord. A right understanding of the Word is essential since, according to Paul and what we see in Genesis, the devil always attacks our thinking and consideration of the Word above everything else. If he can get us thinking differently about the gospel he will certainly have us living differently from the gospel and trusting in something (someone) different and other than the gospel of grace.

Simply put sin came into the world because Eve thought differently about the Word because Eve did not keep (guard) her heart with the Word. This is why the Proverb commands us, "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life" (Proverbs 4:23). The devil attacked because Adam and Eve were naked (Genesis 2:25). This referred to their purity and integrity before the Lord and it is this that he attacked and, as a result, turned to their own shame (Genes 3:7).

As the devil attacked Jesus in the wilderness - the once beautiful garden of Eden now expressed chaotically because of sin - he was defeated. he was defeated not by Jesus per-se. He was defeated by the Word by which Jesus kept and guarded heart. Battling the craftiness of devil will take no less than what it took for our Lord. If I do not treasure the Word and hide it in my heart, at the moment of temptation, I will be overcome. Therefore, David would pen these words: "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you" (Psalm 119:11).