Episode #159 The First False Story Ever Told (and how it still messes with us) – Significant Stories

Hey, friends, it's Jen. And today on the podcast, we're talking about the first false story that was told about God. It's recorded for us in Genesis 3.

And so this false story, this false narrative that the enemy spread to really all of humanity—which was only Adam and Eve at the time—is still being spread by our same enemy to all of humanity today. And so we want to be wise, not only to the lies that he spreads but also to what is actually true.

First I want to read for you just a few lines in my own words, summarizing what this lie represented to humanity. This is an excerpt from the poem “What Happened Next” in my poetry collection A Beckoning to Wonder. And in these lines, I'm referencing Genesis chapter 3.

“Every human lives the sadness of the next part of the story.

God calls us good, but we doubt His goodness.

Unsure about God
suspicious of His truth
unconvinced of His love
we decide to define good ourselves.

We believe
false stories
about God
so we seize
our own
knowledge of good
and evil
and we fall
into fault lines
of false human stories
and we dig
ourselves into sin-clawed graves.

We because while Genesis 3 tells of Adam and Eve,
we all trudge and stumble, willfully plunge
throughout human history in painful struggle
away from God

and yet desperate

for His rescue.” (Jen Weaver, “What Happened Next”, from A Beckoning to Wonder)

I wanted to start us off by reading these stanzas because as I read the passage for us in Genesis three, I encourage you to keep your ears open for doubts, for suspicions, for ways that Adam and Eve were unconvinced about God's love and about God's goodness.

Genesis chapter 3, verses 1 through the middle of verse 6.
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate…” (Genesis 3:1-6a ESV)

For fun and a little bit more perspective, I want to read for us just a few of those verses from the Message Translation. It says:

“The serpent told the Woman, ‘You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.’ When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit…” (Genesis 3:4-6a MSG)

Now, this is commonly referred to as the fall of mankind, because we know she took the fruit, she shared with Adam, Adam also ate it. And then God comes walking in the garden looking for them and they were hiding from him.

We know how the story goes on. And if you're not familiar with it, I encourage you to read the rest of Genesis chapter three. But the part I want to highlight for us today is that the problem came in when we doubted God's goodness.

Now, God welcomes our questions. We get to come to him honest. If we're unsure, if we're unconvinced, if we don't know what is true and what is false, what is good or evil, we get to come to God and ask him. The problem that happened here, and the problem that I see repeated in my life—and I'm guessing you probably do too—is that Adam and Eve didn't run to God with their questions.

Because they were unconvinced of his love, and became suspicious about him, they believed a false story.

When Eve talked with the serpent, she could have taken a step away from the tree and taken a step toward her loving God who walked with them in the cool of the day and brought her questions and brought her doubts and uncertainty to him, but she didn't. And I know there are times in my life when I have opportunities to draw near to God with my questions and my suspicions and my doubts, and I don't.

But today we get to make a different choice.

Through this series we're going to be looking at some of the common false stories about God and the lesser stories (the lies) that we can believe about who he is and who we are. But for our time together today, I simply want to give us a couple questions to start this dialogue with God.
And our question today comes in two parts. The first question:

God, what's an area of my life where I've been doubtful, unsure, suspicious, or unconvinced about you?

And then part two:

What's one step I can take toward you in this area?

If you are unsure or doubtful or have questions about God in a certain area, don't feel like you have to run past them to find an immediate resolution. Simply ask God, what's my next step? Maybe it's continuing to talk with him.

Maybe it's opening the word and seeing what scripture tells you on that topic. Maybe it's talking with a trusted person in your life who you know loves you and loves God. Maybe it's tuning in for the next episode as we continue talking with God about these false stories and receiving his greater ones. Whatever that is, I know that God will meet you in the midst of it and he'll talk you through it.

God, what's an area of my life where I've been doubtful, unsure, suspicious, or unconvinced about you? And what's one step I can take toward you in this area?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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