Last week I went shopping with my youngest daughter and wife, as my oldest daughter was working. I think I do more loitering than actual shopping. I wander around following the ladies, hands in my pocket, scanning the shelves for things I have no interest in - boredom sets in real quick, so I pretend to be enjoying my outing with the family with a smile on my face. But, I can’t fool them; they know I have a low tolerance for being dragged behind them, and they have mercy on me and were off to another section of the store.
On this particular day, the ladies went to the cosmetic section of the department store. As they were perusing the make-up, I noticed an advertisement that stood out among the others. Most of the pictures were of women detailing fashionable make-up and the enhancement of faces adorned with different shades and colors of cosmetics. But, what I noticed about this particular picture was not the young lady or the make-up, but the words printed across the image in a unique font.
“Time to worship you.”
It seems pretty innocent, but those words remind me of the temptation and fall in the garden of Eden. I will paraphrase what Satan said to Eve. “It’s time to worship you.” Didn’t Satan say in Genesis 3:5, “Even God knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you'll become like God, knowing good and evil.”
Satan knew how to tempt Eve, by luring her into self-gratification. The fruit hanging on the tree was not the reason Eve sinned nor were the words Satan used to tempt Eve. She fell into sin because she acted upon the temptation - just as Adam would follow after his wife.
And this is our culture today. We are replacing God with me. People are lovers of self and worship the person in the mirror instead of God.
Exo 34:14 for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God,
The word worship in this verse is to “depress” or “bow down.” The Strong’s definition describes worship in this way:
shâchâh, shaw-khaw'; a primitive root; to depress, i.e. prostrate (especially reflexive, in homage to royalty or God):—bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship.
God specifically instructs His people not to worship, bow down to, crouch, stoop or give obedience to no other god.
And so you say to yourself, “I would never bow down or subject myself to any god or any person.”
When God becomes second, you are worshiping yourself.
....Looks like my reply didn't completely make it. Here's the rest: However, it appears that God makes no distinction between thought and action. In our condition on earth as opposed to the spirit world of God, our actions consummate our intentions. In this world we're not punished for out thoughts; we're punished for our actions. Your assessment is correct if we judge Eve within the parameters of this world. But she is judged by God. Had she not touched the fruit she would have already been guilty of sin by God's standard. The action is simply a manifestation of her thoughts for the physical world to see. But her goose was already cooked as far as God was so concerned.
If the fruit was not the reason, and the words of Satan were not the reason, then what was the reason? The action itself can't be the reason. Reaching for an apple on my kitchen table is not a reason. Wanting to eat it might be a reason for wanting to take it. But what motivated Eve, what was her reason, for taking the action she took?