In Genesis 2, the LORD God had “commanded the man,” saying,
“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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.” (2:16-17)
In the very next chapter, the serpent–described as “more crafty than any other beast of the field–says to the woman, “You will not surely die” (3:4).
One said, “You shall.” The other said, “You will not.” They couldn’t both be right. So who was telling the truth? That’s the fork-in-the-road Eve and Adam encountered in Eden.
A whole lot of time has passed, and a whole lot of pages in the Bible are dedicated to describing the ripple effects of who was believed in that moment, but the fundamental question hasn’t changed, evaporated, or become irrelevant. Each one of us approaches the same fork-in-the-road, day by day, multiple times throughout the day.
“Who is telling me the truth?”
God says, “Yes.” Satan says, “No.”
The Creator says, “Don’t.” The devil says, “Do.”
The Lord says, “It will.” The tempter says, “It won’t.”
The Father of lights says, “That’s out of bounds.” The father of lies says, “It’s no big deal.”
The Savior says, “Be made new.” The adversary says, “You be you.”
“Who is telling me the truth?”
You’re a long ways from Eden, but the way you are answering that fundamental question is shaping your life and determining your experience of eternity.