Have A Little Patience

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and everything

in it because He loves you so much, He wanted a place to put you so you

could love Him back. Amen!

“We love him because he first loved us.”

1 John 4:19 KJV

God chose you before the beginning of time, and your name was written

in His book of life.

“Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.”

Psalm 139:16 NIV

God planned for you, just like He did for Adam and Eve, to be in His

presence, in His garden of Eden, forever. If only Adam and Eve had not

sinned. God placed two trees in the middle of the garden: the tree of life

and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He told Adam and Eve

they could eat from any tree in the garden, except He commanded them

not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He warned that

if they ate its fruit, they would surely die.

“And the Lord God 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.’”

Genesis 2:16–17 ESV

But the coming fall into sin was not about the fruit; it was about honoring

God’s authority for the sake of righteousness.

Adam and Eve’s failure to honor God was not the first time His

creation had rebelled against Him. Before God created man, He created

the angels in heaven to be ministering spirits to Him and to all those

who would love Him throughout the ages.

“Are not all angels ministering spirits

sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”

Hebrews 1:14 NIV

God gave the angels great power and authority. Lucifer was especially

powerful and beautiful, and he was frequently in God’s presence, in

heaven and on Earth.

“You were the signet of perfection,

full of wisdom and perfect in beauty ...

You were in Eden, the garden of God;

You were blameless in your ways

from the day you were created,

till unrighteousness was found in you.”

Ezekiel 28:12c, 13a, 15 ESV

Lucifer became proud and arrogant, and he wanted to be worshipped

in place of God. He deceived a third of all the angels, and they followed

him into a war in heaven. Michael—one of the archangels—and his

army of angels warred against the rebellious ones and cast them out

of heaven. Lucifer, the beautiful angel, fell to Earth, and Satan, the

devil, the archenemy of good, emerged. He is the great deceiver and the

father of lies, and to this day, he roams the earth continually looking

for someone to devour.

“Be sober-minded; be watchful.

Your adversary the devil

prowls around like a roaring lion,

seeking someone to devour.”

1 Peter 5:8 ESV

Satan, the serpent, was and is more cunning than all of God’s

creatures, and he had his own plans for God’s precious creation. Satan

knew he was powerless over Adam and Eve unless he could convince

them to believe his lies, and he did just that. He knew how to make sin

look tempting by mingling his lies with a little truth to hide his fiery

arrows. Satan told them the fruit was perfectly good to eat. He said

God was trying to keep the knowledge of good and evil to Himself. All

they had to do was eat the fruit. They would not die; they would be like

God, knowing good and evil. They fell for Satan’s lies. Eve ate the fruit

first and then gave it to Adam, and he ate, bringing the curse of sin and

death on all the earth.

Satan had used Adam and Eve to unlock the knowledge of good

and evil for himself. He wanted more of what belonged only to God.

Since Satan was bound by time and space, he had no way of knowing

what the full impact of that curse would be. But once he had claimed

his victory over mankind, he liked his newfound power and fully

embraced his new identity as the prince of darkness, the serpent, the

evil one.

Adam and Eve were now fully aware that something drastic had

happened. They suddenly recognized their nakedness and hid from

God. Perhaps it was because God’s light was no longer visibly shining

on them, and their peaceful world was completely shattered by that new

knowledge.