{"id":900,"date":"2010-02-22T03:41:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-22T07:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=900"},"modified":"2015-10-19T15:07:32","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T19:07:32","slug":"genesis-3-and-voice-of-temptation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=900","title":{"rendered":"Genesis 3 and the voice of temptation"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the serpent tempts the woman in Genesis 3<\/a>, he doesn\u2019t start off with a question, but with a statement\u2014with a statement he knows is false, and that he knows she<\/i> knows is false. This is because if he were to ask her a question, she would have to think in order to answer it, and while he wants her to talk to him, he doesn\u2019t want her to think; he wants her to react without thinking, and his opening false statement gets him the reaction he wants.<\/p>\n

You see, the serpent wants the woman to talk about<\/i> God without talking to<\/i> God. Specifically, he wants her to talk about God to him, so that he can sow doubt and distrust in her ear; but if it ever occurred to her to bring God into that conversation, to allow God to respond to the snake\u2019s lies, then the game would be up, and all his efforts to breed distrust would go for nothing. So he wants her to react without thinking too hard about it, so that he can keep her in that mode of talking about God without actually asking God to join the conversation\u2014which is always a bad mode for us as believers to be in.<\/p>\n

(Adapted from <\/i>\u201cThe End of the Beginning\u201d<\/i><\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the serpent tempts the woman in Genesis 3, he doesn\u2019t start off with a question, but with a statement\u2014with a statement he knows is false, and that he knows she knows is false. This is because if he were to ask her a question, she would have to think in order to answer it, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[65,76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion-and-theology","category-scripture"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6R3Ax-ew","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":895,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=895","url_meta":{"origin":900,"position":0},"title":"The roots of disobedience","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"26 February 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the interesting things about the account in Genesis 3 of humanity\u2019s fall into sin is that it gives us an inside view\u2014not a blow-by-blow account, but the highlights\u2014of the process of temptation. As I noted a few days ago, the snake begins the temptation not with a question,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religion and theology"","block_context":{"text":"Religion and theology","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=65"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":264,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=264","url_meta":{"origin":900,"position":1},"title":"The End of the Beginning","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"21 February 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"(Genesis 3:1-24; Romans 5:12-21)If Genesis 1 is the account of God building his temple, and Genesis 2 shows us God creating his image\u2014us\u2014and placing that image within his temple\u2014setting things up so that the good Creator of all things might be properly worshiped by his creation\u2014then logically, worship belongs at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermons"","block_context":{"text":"Sermons","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=45"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":226,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=226","url_meta":{"origin":900,"position":2},"title":"Before There Was Time","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"28 November 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"(Genesis 1:1-3; John 1:1-2)There\u2019s a scene in Goethe\u2019s Faust in which Dr. Faust sets out to translate the New Testament into German. Reading John 1:1, he decides that \u201cWord\u201d is an inadequate translation for the Greek word logos and goes looking for an alternative. He tries \u201cIn the beginning was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermons"","block_context":{"text":"Sermons","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=45"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1375,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=1375","url_meta":{"origin":900,"position":3},"title":"Reader’s guide: posts on faith","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"7 April 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Keeping faith in mind Is it a choice between brains and belief? No. A matter of trust Do we really believe God knows and wants what's best for us? Thoughts on the nature of Christian faith Flannery O'Connor was right: it's harder to believe than not to. For a 90\u00b0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religion and theology"","block_context":{"text":"Religion and theology","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=65"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=30","url_meta":{"origin":900,"position":4},"title":"Circle Dance","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"18 January 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"(Genesis 1:26-28;\u00a0John 14:15-26,\u00a0Galatians 4:4-7) As I was praying and thinking about the sermon schedule for this year, I found myself being led to begin the year by preaching on worship.\u00a0 Ken Priddy, who leads the EPC\u2019s task force on church revitalization, divides the ministry of the church into four areas\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermons"","block_context":{"text":"Sermons","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=45"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Faroese-Chain-Dance.jpg?fit=1200%2C872&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Faroese-Chain-Dance.jpg?fit=1200%2C872&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Faroese-Chain-Dance.jpg?fit=1200%2C872&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Faroese-Chain-Dance.jpg?fit=1200%2C872&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Faroese-Chain-Dance.jpg?fit=1200%2C872&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2163,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=2163","url_meta":{"origin":900,"position":5},"title":"A matter of trust","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"17 March 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A year and a half ago now, a colleague of mine, preaching at our classis meeting in Colorado Springs, hit me right between the eyes with his sermon. He was preaching about trusting God, and all the reasons God has given us to do so, and how our spiritual life\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Discipleship"","block_context":{"text":"Discipleship","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=97"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=900"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4706,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions\/4706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}