So let’s go back to the very beginning and look at fear’s first manifestation. We learn in Genesis 3:1 that the serpent (through whom the devil was speaking) was subtler than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. He demonstrated that subtlety with his clever interrogation of Eve.
“Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” the serpent asked. Eve told the serpent she and Adam were permitted to eat of the from any tree except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If they ate from that tree, she explained, they would die.
The serpent wasted no time in challenging God’s Word in Eve’s life. “You shall not surely die,” he said. “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). The Bible doesn’t reveal what was going on in Eve’s mind, and there are many layers of revelation about the fall of man and the circumstances leading up to it. But I submit to you that fear played into the equation of Eve’s fateful decision.
Eve feared that God’s plan, God’s will, God’s commandment, might not really be the best thing for her and her husband. Eve feared that God was holding out on the young couple. Eve feared she would miss out on something good if she took God at His word. That fear of missing out clouded her judgment to the point that she never considered the consequences of following another voice.
Eve’s sin was ultimately unbelief. But it was fear that led her to doubt’s doorway and into that sinful realm of unbelief. The Bible says whatever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23). Eve’s decision was not of faith. In other words, her choice was not based on believing the Word of God. It was based on what I call the “fear of.”
Tomorrow, we’ll look more at the “fear of” factor. When we look at fear though the “fear of” factor, we can begin to recognize its operation in our lives.
