Joseph’s Alabaster Box

The first sin of man was rebellion against the authority and position of God. Satan determined in his heart that he would take the place of God. Isaiah 14:13, 14 says, “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” Satan probably had a throne on Earth where he was a high- ranking angel. Many scholars believe he was the maestro of the sounds that came to Earth, and were converted by the canopy into beautiful music that greatly enhanced man’s life on Earth, “. . .for the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.” (Ezekiel 28:13).

Satan originated sin when he said what is recorded in Isaiah 14:13, 14, and proceeded to Heaven where he attacked God, and was cast back down into Earth. God could have cast him to any planet in the universe, but Satan would have returned to Earth, for it was man’s worship he wanted. Satan’s attack probably occurred on the Sabbath, the day of the Lord’s rest, or Sunday, the first day of the week, for he would not have wasted much time in attacking the Lord after the creation was completed, and he saw it. Genesis 3:1 must have occurred on Monday. Let’s read part of what happened on that day as it is recorded in verses 1 through 3 of Genesis chapter 3. “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”

Satan quotes the Word of God as it pleases him to quote it. He translates it any old way he wants. If you write me an important letter, giving me clear instructions about something, that is very important to you and me both. If you send it to me by a messenger, how would you feel if that messenger got the letter open, and changed the wording, or the meaning of words, and then gave it to me? I’d be very surprised if you didn’t get pretty mad. Satan spoke through this serpent. Mockers have scorned the idea that animals could speak, but some zoologists are even now claiming that they can teach chimpanzees simple speech. Anyway, it was Satan speaking through the snake.

We know that God caused an ass to speak. In Numbers 22:28, Balaam’s ass spoke to him. When animals were created, some of them may have been made to speak to man. Eve was not alarmed by the serpent speaking to her. She seemed not to be surprised when the creature spoke to her.

Satan may mix truth with his lies if he must to persuade some person to do what he wants him to do. For example, Satan may say, “Sure, you need to get saved, but you have plenty of time to get saved.” In that he mixes truth with a lie. Satan is the father of lies. Jesus said, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” “You need to get saved” is the truth. “You have plenty of time is a lie.” The statement is a lie. Great numbers of people don’t know the difference. The lie in the truth makes the whole statement a lie. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. The statement sounds good, and it relieves the pain of a smiting conscience.

Dr. Henry Morris says, “Apart from uniformitarian considerations, there may really be no reason why we should not assume that, in the original creation, the serpent was a beautiful, upright animal with the ability to speak and converse with human beings. Such an interpretation would at least make the verses in this passage easier to understand, even though it may make them harder to believe.”1

Satan could speak only lies, and a lie with truth mixed in it is the most sinister sort of lie. How can people hate God, and blame Him for humanity’s pains? Famine, wars, death, everything bad is laid on the shoulders of the LORD. This is what Satan planted in Eve’s innocent heart by what he said in Genesis 3:1. In so many words, he said to Eve, “Do you mean that God will not allow you to eat of all the trees in this big garden?” Eve must have been stunned by that question. It had never occurred to her that God would withhold something from them. I am sure this was a painful thought to Eve. She was so rattled that she did not realize that Satan was twisting God’s words.

We must resist the devil. We can only resist the devil by the power of the Word of God. Eve did not know the Word of God very well, because she misquoted it. God had said, “. . .Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Eve quoted God as saying, “. . .God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” God did not forbid them to touch the tree.

Do we see in this scene the devil at his absolute worst? Is there any greater damage he can inflict than he does in beguiling this innocent woman? Was Satan worse when he drove Stalin to murder 30 millions of his own people? Was Satan worse when he motivated Adolph Hitler to launch an extermination campaign against non-Germans? Was Satan more dangerous when he influenced Herod to slaughter the little baby boys in Bethlehem? Look at Satan in these verses. He was not violent in behavior. He was not cursing. He was not threatening. He was soft, tender, kind, beautiful, sympathetic. In all of these wonderful characteristics, he succeeded in bringing the human race down to ruin. In these few minutes he murdered the entire human race, “For as in Adam all die, …”. Every soul was in Adam, and so Satan’s greatest crime was in deceiving Eve. His worst is seen in his softness, tenderness, kindness, beauty, and sympathy.

Look at John the Baptist – a man dressed in animal skins, eating insects, blasting people out of the water. Look at Jesus, just a carpenter’s step-son, turning over tables and beating up on people, calling them the devil’s children. Think about Peter, saying things to people that cause them to actually fall down and die. (Acts 5). Consider the fundamental preachers today telling people they are living in sin, and are bound for a devil’s hell. Those ways are not the ways of Satan. He is soft, quiet, persuasive, kind, and as deadly as a king cobra. If I am going to tell you a lie and expect you to believe it, I am going to be the nicest to you that I will ever be. I’ll even do you favors or give you gifts to break down your resistance to what I am about to tell you.

The great preachers of old would rouse such passions among sinners that their lives would be threatened. Churches were burned, and all sorts of damage done to stop the ministry of conviction that caused by such feeling of guilt. The truth doesn’t come wrapped up in silver foil tied with a golden string and perfumed with Evening in Paris. The truth is raw. The truth is sharp. The truth is gleaming. Like the needle on the tip of the syringe that is about to inject medicine into you – and pain. The truth flashes on the edge of a Sword. The truth falls from fearless lips that pronounce the wrath of God upon sinners without fanfare or soft music, but love wells up from a heart of love. Deception comes from oiled lips that say pleasing things, and stagnates in a pit of hate.

Satan was as smooth as silk, as sweet as saccharin, as soft as a marshmallow, and as deadly as strychnine. Lies are the opiate of people who love deceit. Lies contradict God. Lies are aimed at God. “. . .Ye shall not surely die.” is the monumental lie of all time. Poor Eve believed it. How can a poor mortal alone joust with the devil? Satan has steadily increased his output of lies. The human race is saturated with them. The more humans there are, the more lies can flourish.

It would be interesting to know whether there are more lies perpetrated in the world of business or the world of religion. There is little doubt which category of lie does the most harm. If a person in finance tells me a lie, then we might lose more money than we have, but we could probably recover from the loss in a few years, but if a person in religion tells us a lie, then we might never get over it. It is most wicked to make a liar of Jesus Christ Who is the truth. People who contradict the Holy Writ are making the Saviour a liar. This is an outrage of outrages. The Bible must be handled with extreme care to assure that we do not violate it in any way. John 8:32 “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

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