God, Did You Really Say That?

James 1:22 "But be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."

As I began reading through the Bible again this year, I came to the passage in Gen 3 where the serpent comes to Eve to entice her to eat of the forbidden fruit. I have often wondered why he was so determined for her to eat that which was banned by God. What was in it for him? The only thing that I could come up with is that "misery loves company". Since he had been banished from the good graces of God, he wanted others to join him. So, how did he go about doing that? First, he simply offered the fruit to Eve. Here, take it. You'll be glad you did. Her reply was proper in that she told him that God had put this particular tree off limits to them. Every other tree was fine, but they had to leave this one alone. Then, Satan, that sly devil, (excuse the pun) replied with, did God really say that? You know, you may have just misunderstood what He was saying. Actually, we see that Eve did add some to God's instructions when she said that they weren't even allowed to touch it. Now, before we move on, it is very important that we see how simple God made His instructions to them. Here is the Tree or Knowledge of Good And Evil - DON'T EAT!!!. Here are all of the other trees and vegetables - help yourself. It can't get any simpler than that. The problem comes when we begin to analyze God's instructions rather than just apply them. We try to figure out what God meant in stead of just listening to what He said.
The entirety of God's law for man was right there in that little phrase - don't eat. God's entire instructions for us are given in His Holy Word, the Bible, and all we need do is obey. Listen to God and you will find that, yes, God did say that and He meant it. So, just go ahead and do it.