The Original Lie & Shattering The False Image of God

A Look Inside The Book: From Wilderness Chapter 5

The Original Lie

At the root of all deception are the two seeds of doubt planted in Eden.

1. God is withholding something good from you.

2. God cannot be trusted.

In Genesis 3, we see Satan tempt Eve. “Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” Genesis 3:1 When Eve responds that they may eat of all but one tree or else they will die, Satan responds, “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 3:4

The original deception plants the two seeds of doubt we all struggle with at some point in our faith journey, because just as God’s heart seeks to be known, our hearts seek to be filled. We are designed to receive. We are designed to seek abundance, and God seeks to give it. But if we do not know Him as the giver of all good gifts, we seek to receive from other sources.

If our heart is not filled with God’s truth, it will be filled with Satan’s lies.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Ephesians 3:17

“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, “I will return to my house from which I came. And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.” Luke 11:24-26

Our heart is a spiritual dwelling place. Both God and Satan are fighting for dominion.

While there are many narratives about Eve’s deception and the Fall of Man, there is one underlying factor that is often overlooked—the reason behind her choice. Eve didn’t eat the fruit because she wanted to disobey God. Perhaps she didn’t even eat it because she felt God had deceived her. She ate the fruit because she wanted to be more like God.

While we know Satan wanted to be more like God because of pride and jealousy, sin had not yet entered the world. Eve’s desire to be more like God was rooted in His desire for her. She wanted a deeper understanding of Him and relationship with Him. She wanted what God wants for all humanity. But the way she went about attaining her good, God-given desire was subject to Satan’s deception because she did not know the heart of God well enough to rest in His commandment—to trust in His protection, provision, and process.

Obedience requires knowledge of the heart of God—not just snippets of Scripture or a false image painted by the deceiver.

While I believe Eve’s choice was part of God’s plan for humanity—part of His plan to fully reveal Himself and reap a family that chose Him, not just one created by Him—there are still important lessons we can take from this story.

• An incomplete or false understanding of God leaves room for Satan’s deception.

• A heart that trusts God is a heart that knows God.

• Satan doesn’t have to deny God’s existence, power, or authority to deceive us.

• Satan can just as easily manipulate a believer as an unbeliever.

• Satan can speak the truth, but does so with an evil motive.

• God speaks the truth, but with a pure motive.

• Even good desires can lead to our downfall if we don’t submit them to the Lord.

• God does not withhold good things from His children, even when it looks like it.

Picking up on that last point, it may look like God was withholding from Adam and Eve by telling them they could not eat of one specific tree. But His command was actually protecting them from knowledge of evil, not withholding abundance. They already had abundance. They were already surrounded by good things, each other and God’s presence. The only thing being withheld from them was knowledge that would, yes, make them more like God, but ultimately hurt them.

God’s commandments protect us from pain. They are not the source of pain nor bondage.

Jesus Christ Is The Manifestation of God’s Love

When I encounter people who are struggling to accept God or see His goodness, it’s usually because they’re wrapped up in select passages from the Old Testament. In the past, I fell into the same trap. The Scripture that always made me look at God sideways was Leviticus 15:19.

“If a woman has a discharge, and the discharge from her body is blood, she shall be set apart seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening.”

There are certainly others, but this verse always perpetuated the belief that I—as a woman with a menstrual cycle—was set up to fail. Perhaps it even perpetuated the belief that God is cruel, that He doesn’t value women the same way He does men, that He is strict and impossible to please. Why would anyone call someone unclean over something natural, biological, something uncontrollable? Why would God subject women to a law based on the body He created?

It wasn’t just the law that turned me off from God; it was also the social stigma it perpetuated. I imagined the women of this time being separated from the tribe, judged, and ostracized as they did others who were unclean. I imagined the embarrassment they must’ve felt, as well as the loneliness. I was angry on their behalf. And who else is there to be angry at but the One who made the law?

There are many instances when God, especially in the Old Testament, does or says things that make us look at Him sideways and this is why many preachers choose to teach only the gospel or New Testament, but this only perpetuates the distorted image of God. God’s heart is not only revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ—the Savior who touched the untouchable, who defended the shamed woman, who wept with the grieving, who fed the hungry, who didn’t let laws limit His love, who forgave those who hurt and betrayed Him the most, who died for the sins of all humanity. In fact, it was actually in my study of the Old Testament that God first unveiled His heart to me and my heart opened to Him.

“For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away by Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” 2 Corinthians 3:13-16

Reading the Old Testament is like reading the beginning of any story. You won’t understand the story being woven by the writer—you won’t see the breadcrumbs or foreshadowing—until it’s revealed much later in the novel.

When you seek the Lord, He will reveal Himself to you. The veil will be lifted, and you will finally see the truth that was always lying in plain sight.

In the instance of Leviticus 15:19, it makes more sense when you understand how blood functioned symbolically, spiritually, and covenantally in the ancient world. Blood represents life itself. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” Leviticus 17:11 Blood is not merely a fluid. Life originates from God and belongs to Him. Because life is sacred, blood was treated with reverence. This directive to set the women apart during their monthly cycle was not about the women, but the blood. They were set apart for God during this very specific time.

We see the significance of blood perpetuated in God’s commands for sacrifices. Blood was poured out on the ground or altar—during animal sacrifice—as a symbolic return of life to the giver of life. And in no circumstance was an Israelite permitted to consume blood. This extended to eating animals that consumed the blood of other animals. The importance of this custom goes even deeper than revering blood, honoring life, and the life-giver, the Almighty God. It also served to separate God’s people from unbelievers who often participated in pagan blood rituals in which they might commit human sacrifice or cut themselves—bleeding out for their false god, and ultimately discarding life.

The concept of sacrifices and cleansing rituals is another hiccup many have when reading the Old Testament. Many may wonder why God requires so much of His people. But the more you study, the more you understand that this was (1) God’s way of offering atonement for sins and maintaining relationship with man before the coming of Jesus Christ, (2) His way of revealing the need for a Savior, and (3) a foreshadowing of the coming of Christ, who is the ultimate sacrifice.

Blood was always central to atonement and reconciliation. It is the blood of Jesus Christ that makes us clean, that saves our souls, that atones for us before the Father—that opens the door to the eternal Promised Land. Jesus Christ fulfills the sacrificial system of the Old Testament and enacts a new covenant between man and God, sealed with His blood.

Blood is a covenant seal seen throughout the Bible. The Adamic Covenant: After the fall of man, God kills an animal to clothe Adam and Eve. “Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.” Genesis 3:21 This is the first instance where death covers sin. The Noahic Covenant: After the flood, Noah “built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake…nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.” Genesis 8:20-21 The Abrahamic Covenant—the covenant that foreshadows Jesus and the eternal Promised Land—is enacted in Genesis 15 with animal sacrifice and is later marked with the sign of circumcision. 

Blood is spilled as a seal. We see this even in marriage covenants where the blood of the virgin was often seen as a final and necessary step of the marriage ritual. In many legal systems today, the act of consummation—symbolizing the joining of two lives and becoming one flesh—is the difference between seeking an annulment versus a divorce. An annulment means the court declares the marriage was invalid / never happened. God has always sought to become one flesh with man, and He spilled the blood of His Son in the most excruciating, humiliating, and public way so that no one can say His covenant with us is invalid.

God didn’t suddenly start loving us after His Son was crucified. His love is not limited to a specific time or event. The love of God is the very essence that birthed the universe. It is the breath in our lungs. We are never far from His love. It is His love that created us, and His love that saves us.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, not anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

And do you know what makes the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior even more symbolic? What makes our call out of bondage into abundance even clearer? Crucifixion was a form of Roman execution deemed so brutal that it was once reserved only for slaves. Only for slaves. By the time of Jesus, its use extended to rebels, criminals, and non-citizens, but Roman citizens were almost never crucified. This punishment was designed to be public, humiliating, and dehumanizing—a punishment meant to strip a person’s dignity as well as their life. This is exactly what Satan seeks to do to us. The thing is, we don’t even realize it.

Jesus Christ died the death of the lowest—a slave’s death, a shame-marked, bondage-marked death. He stepped into our chains and onto our cross, so we could step into his sonship.

All the years I spent thinking God set me up to fail, I didn’t realize He’d actually already taken the test for me. All the years I spent chasing love, thinking God was the one keeping it from me, I didn’t realize He was the one who loved me the most. All the years I spent thinking I’d never be good enough for Him, I didn’t realize that was kind of the point. He chose me in my imperfections and called me blameless. He chose me in my sin and called me saved. He chose me in my doubt and called me daughter.

There is more to this chapter in Wilderness, available to preorder now, including more journal prompts like this one: What image of God did you inherit growing up? Does this image align with biblical truth?