Satan's Chocolate Chip Cookies Are All Made From Dirt! (Genesis 3:1-5)

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
Then the serpent said to the woman, “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 3:1-5

“Fred, do you want a cookie?” my elder brother offered my much younger self as he kindly held a sun-baked dirt cookie out towards me. He had even put carefully-selected rocks in it that looked exactly like chocolate chips.

“Sure!” I said heartily, taking the cookie from his hand and taking an enormous bite. “ACK! PFFFT! BLECH! GAG! Tedd, these cookies are made out of dirt! You fed me dirt!”

“Oh, whoops! You’re right. I meant that one for someone else. Here, try one of these.”

From under the table, he pulled out a whole plate loaded with dirt cookies.

“Those look the same as the other one.”

“But these ones are REAL cookies,” he said smiling.

“You promise?”

“I promise; they’re cookies.”

“Do you super promise?”

“I super promise.”

"Do you super-duper promise?”

“Fred, do you want a cookie or not?”

“Okay!” With trusting heart and eager stomach, I stuffed yet another dirt cookie into my mouth. “ACK! PFFT! BLECH! GAG! Tedd, this cookie is made out of dirt, too! You promised me it was a real cookie!”

After Tedd was finally able to stifle his howls of laughter, he said, “It was a real cookie! It was just a real DIRT cookie!”

What’s the saying, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”?

It is so frustrating how easily Satan can tempt me, trap me, and lead me astray when he’s doing little more than offering me the exact same plate of cookies that he’s been using on people throughout human history! He’s a magician of few tricks, but if they work, why learn new ones?  

Did you see what he did with Eve?
1) He questioned what God had clearly said. "Did God really say...?"
In Scripture, God doesn't stutter. He very clearly spells out His role in our existence, how He views human life, how He defines justice, the proper parameters of marriage and sexuality, gender identity and roles, priorities in parenting, the proper role of money, and how we should treat others. Ol' Forked-Tongue just whispers, "Did God really say?" and all of a sudden, we know better than our Creator!

2) He questioned God's goodness. "Did God really say you couldn't eat ANY of this yummy fruit?"
No, actually. That’s not what He said at all. He only said not to eat the one. But getting Adam and Eve to feel like the prohibition against the one was the same thing as ruining all of their joy convinced them that God didn't really want what was best for them. This made them more malleable towards the rest of his temptation.

We might use easy-to-swallow terms like “freedom,” “human rights,” or “equality,” but every time our lot in life seems great until we see what God DIDN'T give us, that Malevolent Magician is grabbing for another dirt cookie off of his plate.

3) He spoke in half-truths. "You won't really die. He just doesn't want you to be like Him."
It was true that Eve, then Adam, didn't instantly stop breathing when they ate the fruit. But they immediately experienced the Death of their relationship with God, their relationship with each other, and their sense of well-being! Half-truth. Then, God had actually created Adam and Eve to be like Him (in His LIKE-ness), so Satan was lying, but God was insistent that this be accomplished only His way, so Satan was telling the truth. We all know this technique. We just sanitize it by calling it "Spin."

No, I don’t think my brother, Tedd, is Satan. If you know Tedd, you know quite the opposite is true. But Satan uses similar techniques, because he knows what works to get me to take yet another bite out of his wretched concoctions. Watch out! He’s always on the look-out for his next unsuspecting customer!

Dear Heavenly Father, lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from the Evil One. Teach us Your Word and give us the grace to trust it. Remind us of your goodness, and give us the grace to be satisfied with it. Give us the discernment to pick out the Evil One’s lies. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.