All is a lie

I recently read a devotion from Proverbs 31 ministry that just won't let go of me called All About Eve. Eve and the nature of sin and the problem of evil have really been occupying my thoughts the last few months.

This devotion pointed out the fundamental lie that Satan enticed Eve with - all is better, all is the best - God has all and He is God. He is holding out on you so you won't be equal to Him. There is more and you don't have it so you should get it for yourself. And God was holding out on Adam and Eve. He was withholding the knowledge of good AND evil because He knew how terrible the knowledge of evil is. Eve fell for the lie that all had to be better because it would be all good. It never occured to her (probably because she didn't have the knowledge of good AND evil) that "all" could include something that wasn't good.

I think we fall for the same lie still. The continual lust for more is driven from this same naive belief that "all" means only all good. We forget that "all" includes all evil as well. Would that apple be so enticing if we remembered it includes all the terrible, horrible, vileness this world can summon? The hope of Heaven is the promise that there will be no more pain, no more sorrow, all our tears will be wiped dry, evil will be overcome once and for all. And yet, I think there still lingers the trace of the lie that not having "all" means we are missing out on something...something good.

Perhaps all the terribleness of this world is to help us reach a point where we choose to believe the truth...that the only thing God is holding out on us is something we don't need and don't want, that all good is enough, more than enough, and that having it "all" does in fact lead only to ruin, destruction and death.

And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
for when you eat of it you will surely die." -- Genesis 2:16-17