Episode 94
The Serpent's Strategy: Lessons from Genesis 3 for Today
The Serpent's Strategy:
Lessons from Genesis 3 for Today
This week's Revelation Warning podcast features an insightful discussion between Pastor Robert Thibodeau and prophecy expert Scott Wright, focusing on Genesis chapter three and its implications for humanity's relationship with God.
The conversation does a deep dive into the key events of the fall, highlighting how Eve's interaction with the serpent serves as a reflection of the broader theme of temptation that persists today. Scott emphasizes the importance of understanding the enemy's tactics, noting that the devil often entices individuals by appealing to their fleshly desires and pride.
The episode also explores the delicate balance between divine sovereignty and human responsibility, stressing that while God sets the parameters, it is our duty to follow and obey His guidance. Ultimately, the dialogue underscores the tension between judgment and grace, illustrating that acknowledging our sinfulness is crucial for receiving God's mercy through Jesus Christ.
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Takeaways:
- The podcast discusses the significance of Genesis chapter three concerning humanity's fall and relationship with God.
- Scott Wright emphasizes the importance of understanding the enemy's schemes to overcome temptation effectively.
- Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are framed within the context of following God's guidance and decisions.
- The balance between knowledge and wisdom highlights the dangers of pursuing understanding without readiness or proper timing.
- Satan's tactics in Genesis 3 are compared to modern temptations, showing their consistent nature throughout time.
- The discussion concludes with the reminder that God offers grace and mercy for our sins through Jesus Christ.
Transcript
Welcome to Revelation Warning, a weekly podcast hosted by Pastor Robert Thibodeau as he interviews prophecy experts from around the world as we discuss current events in relation to Bible prophecy.
Pastor Robert Thibodeau:All of this is to give the world a final revelation Warning.
Pastor Robert Thibodeau:Now, here is your host with this week's guest, Pastor Robert Thibodeau.
Pastor Robert Thibodeau:Foreign.
:Hello, everyone, everywhere.
:Pastor Robert Thibodeau here.
:Welcome to the Revelation Warning podcast.
:We are so blessed that you're joining us here today.
:Today we're joined again by our good friend Scott Wright, author of the God Centered Concept Journal, host of the God Centered Concept Podcast.
:Scott's a respected teacher on biblical prophecy and the end times, and his insights into the end times provides us critical keys to understanding the days and times and events that we see happening all around us right now.
:And drawing from scripture, Scott sheds light on this central theme that just unites God's word with humanity and gives us clear instructions and the hope that better things are coming.
:Amen.
:Help me.
:Welcome to the program Scott Rice.
:Scott, it's a blessing to talk to you again, brother.
Scott Wright:Hey, it's great to be here and look forward to another fun, fruitful discussion.
:Amen.
: new year as we steamroll into: Scott Wright:Hey, we're ready to roll, man.
Scott Wright: I am totally ready for: Scott Wright:We've been.
:Amen.
Scott Wright:You know, we've been working on a launch on the YouTube channel, and we're gonna be.
Scott Wright:We're gonna be doing this.
Scott Wright:So I've been doing lots of recordings and getting everything arranged.
Scott Wright:And here we go.
Scott Wright:2025 is going to be the one.
:Amen.
:Amen.
:We got a lot of stuff planned as well.
:Praise God.
:Today, though, we're going to focus on Genesis chapter three and how all of this helps relate to the end times.
:And can you walk us through, like, the key events of Genesis 3 and explain the significance in the contest of humanity's fall and relationship with God?
Scott Wright:So always find Genesis 3 interesting.
Scott Wright:Obviously, the.
Scott Wright:The first part of this is he really has to do with the serpent and Eve and their interaction.
Scott Wright:And really, this is the devil and her having a conference, sort of how the devil confronts us.
Scott Wright:And it's a confrontation.
Scott Wright:The problem is that she doesn't realize it's a confrontation.
Scott Wright:And that's really the first piece of this.
Scott Wright:And so you have that piece, obviously, then they do eat the fruit.
Scott Wright:And then once that happens, then God basically questions them.
Scott Wright:And then from there, God has to start making decisions on how he's going to deal with them.
Scott Wright:And so judgments fall upon all of them.
Scott Wright:Obviously, the serpent is given his.
Scott Wright:Basically, you know, you'll strike at the heel, but they're going to crush your head.
Scott Wright:So he's given his judgment, Eve is giving her judgment, and then Adam is given her judgment.
Scott Wright:And then from there they.
Scott Wright:Eventually God helps them, but then he ushers them out of the Garden of Eden and then to never again enter at that point.
Scott Wright:So they're.
Scott Wright:Their days of being in the Garden of Eden are over.
Scott Wright:And it all started back with the fact that Eve entertained the devil.
Scott Wright:She just did.
Scott Wright:She entertained him, she entertained his thoughts, and eventually that got to the flesh.
Scott Wright:And then from the flesh, it went from there.
Scott Wright:So you can just kind of see the chain of events and how that happens.
:Well, how does the serpent strategy in Genesis 3 reflect, say, the broader theme of temptation that we experience today?
Scott Wright:Well, I mean, think about it.
Scott Wright:What does he do?
Scott Wright:It's.
Scott Wright:It's really no different than Jesus in the wilderness.
Scott Wright:You know, it's the first thing he does is he tempts you with fleshly need or makes you think you need something that you really don't.
Scott Wright:You and I were talking about Christmas eating.
:Amen.
:Amen.
:No temptation there.
Scott Wright:Exactly.
Scott Wright:None.
Scott Wright:You know, so the flesh, you know, it.
Scott Wright:It starts.
Scott Wright:He'll, you know, prick you a little bit with the fleshly thing and make a desire seem like a need.
Scott Wright:That's really a critical thing to understand, you know, Then he'll try to get you to be rebellious and put God to the test.
Scott Wright:And then, of course, then pride enters, you know, and then he tries the.
Scott Wright:The whole pride thing about making you more than you are, you know, how.
Scott Wright:How he can accomplish that.
Scott Wright:Well, he doesn't.
Scott Wright:It's not really any different here.
Scott Wright:And the desires of the flesh, she, you know, he kind of pricks her pride a little bit, you know, gets her curious.
Scott Wright:And does.
Scott Wright:Does Satan do that to us today?
Scott Wright:Absolutely.
Scott Wright:He absolutely.
Scott Wright:The.
Scott Wright:The curiosity.
Scott Wright:That whole phrase, the curiosity killed the cat.
Scott Wright:It totally falls with temptation and how that works with us, if you know what we have to do.
Scott Wright:Look, just from a strategic standpoint as a, as a believer, we have to know his schemes.
Scott Wright:We got to know our enemy, and that's really the key.
Scott Wright:And in as far as, you know, looking at our sin and understanding how to attack it, not to get off on a side engine here, but if you don't understand the schemes of the enemy, you're never going to defeat him.
Scott Wright:And thing is, is God gives us the ability to Defeat him.
Scott Wright:Because his spirit's in us.
Scott Wright:We can sense if we're in tune.
Scott Wright:If our eyes and the ears of our hearts are in tune with the Holy Spirit, we'll know when he's attacking.
Scott Wright:We'll know when he's trying to deceive us.
Scott Wright:And my favorite saying is Satan.
Scott Wright:He.
Scott Wright:He's the Master of the 98.
Scott Wright:2 Rule 98 Truth, 2% false.
Scott Wright:But always think of it like this.
Scott Wright:Anything with him involved is like that number multiplied by zero.
Scott Wright:It's still going to end up at zero.
Scott Wright:You're still going to end up all wrong.
Scott Wright:It's going to be 100 wrong.
Scott Wright:It's going to be a zero percent, you know, amen.
Scott Wright:So that's.
Scott Wright:That's what a lot of times people don't realize.
Scott Wright:It's going to be zero percent.
Scott Wright:It's going to all be false.
Scott Wright:Even though he's 98% being truthful in the way he presents it.
Scott Wright:So, and he does that right here.
Scott Wright:And you, you can see that if you read Genesis 3, he's being all truthful, but he's twisting the truth.
Scott Wright:And there's that little bit of intention that if she would have stepped back and thought about it, she could have avoided this, but she didn't.
:Well, how does Genesis 3 illustrate, say, the concept of knowledge and wisdom being both beneficial and dangerous?
:Give us some examples from this chapter and other biblical texts.
Scott Wright:So here it is.
Scott Wright:Obviously, God told them not to eat from the tree of knowledge.
Scott Wright:And what the serpent does is he pricks her and says, no, what it is, it's going to open your eyes.
Scott Wright:And he's tempting her with this wisdom that'll make her smarter.
Scott Wright:He's tempting her.
Scott Wright:Pride is what she's doing, you know, to make her bigger and better than what she thinks that she.
Scott Wright:And make her bigger and better than she is.
Scott Wright:That's really what's happening here.
Scott Wright:And I always think of it like this.
Scott Wright:And I.
Scott Wright:And it's the same here.
Scott Wright:I am guessing that at some point God was going to open their eyes.
:Oh, yeah.
Scott Wright:But they weren't ready for it.
Scott Wright:They.
Scott Wright:They had not.
Scott Wright:It's just like, it's just like when Jesus goes into his ministry, he needed to fast for 40 days.
Scott Wright:There was reasons for that.
Scott Wright:Okay.
Scott Wright:It's also assigned to us of a time that we need, a time of preparation before we start really acquiring knowledge and wisdom.
Scott Wright:You know, you get.
Scott Wright:You take on too much too fast.
Scott Wright:You're not ready for that.
Scott Wright:And it's the same thing here.
Scott Wright:She wasn't ready to deal with this.
Scott Wright:And I think that was, that's really what's going on here.
Scott Wright:She's not ready for that knowledge and that wisdom.
Scott Wright:And so I always think of it like this.
Scott Wright:God gives us the knowledge and wisdom that we need at the moment and there's going to be things he gives us later which will make us more knowledgeable in wisdom when we're ready for it.
:Yeah.
:You know, example I've shared with, know my family and stuff at different various times growing up, you know, my dad was all into hunting and all that.
:Right.
:And he would not allow me to even touch the guns when I was, you know, 5, 6, 7 years old.
Scott Wright:Sure.
:When I turned 12, he bought me my first gun.
:I went in the military and learned how to become an expert marksman and how to handle weapons and all that, became a cop and all that stuff.
:In that light here, Adam and Eve is, we'll say as toddlers basically learning how to do what God wants and what is required of them and all that.
:And Satan says, oh yeah, God's got plenty of these gods, you know, he just doesn't want you to have any fun.
Scott Wright:Yep.
:You know, and what do you do if you got a three or four year old with a live weapon?
:Just, you know, oh, what's this do you know?
:And nothing good ever happens.
Scott Wright:No, nothing good's coming from that situation.
:But in the hands of someone who has matured and received training, those things are tactically efficient tools to accomplish a specific purpose.
Scott Wright:Yes.
:And so that's, that's, I like relating it to that because everyone hears these tragic stories where, you know, a four year old found his dad's gun and killed his brother and stuff like this, you know, and, and that's just an example of, you know, oh, God wants you, he's holding back on you, you know, and it's like, you know, your brother uses a gun, he plays with a gun and all this stuff.
:So it's, it's, it's tragic, but it's a pretty good analogy, you know.
:Amen.
Scott Wright:Yeah.
Scott Wright:And, and that's, and, and you know, and that's part of what happens here.
Scott Wright:And what I always find funny is that, you know, Adam was not created in the garden, he's created outside the garden.
Scott Wright:So he had obviously seen the outside world, Eve had not.
Scott Wright:And I kind of wonder if that's why the serpent went after her because she didn't know the difference in her, you know, Adam could have explained it to her, but that doesn't matter.
Scott Wright:He Understood the protection and the beauty and the gift of the garden.
Scott Wright:She did not.
:Amen.
:Yeah, that's.
Scott Wright:And I think that, you know, and I think that matters here, because that is who he tempts.
Scott Wright:She just had not experienced the outside.
Scott Wright:And had she experienced the outside, I think she would have told the serpent where he could go.
Scott Wright:She would not have wanted to leave, especially.
Scott Wright:I mean, this is going to be the worst mistake in the history of.
Scott Wright:The long, sad history of horrific mistakes ever made.
Scott Wright:This is gonna be the worst one ever.
:Yeah.
Scott Wright:And if she'd have known that, she would have done this.
Scott Wright:I mean, neither would have Adam.
:Yeah.
Scott Wright:He knew better.
Scott Wright:He even knew better more than she did.
:Yeah.
:Kind of didn't do nothing to stop it.
:He was right.
Scott Wright:And he could have put his foot down and said, no.
:That's right.
Scott Wright:And regardless, it's not like the serpent force fed her.
:Right.
Scott Wright:He couldn't make her eat it, so she still chose it and so did he.
Scott Wright:I mean, they both chose this.
:Yeah.
:I mean, he's.
:He's probably like, what's gonna happen?
:Nothing.
:Okay, well, let me take a bite.
Scott Wright:Yeah, exactly.
Scott Wright:And yeah, but this.
Scott Wright:This knowledge and wisdom thing matters because, you know, it's about timing.
Scott Wright:And I was.
Scott Wright:God's timing matters.
Scott Wright:And if you don't.
Scott Wright:If we don't appreciate God's timing, then you're going to push things too far, too fast ahead of what you're capable of or ready for.
Scott Wright:You will be.
Scott Wright:You're capable of it.
Scott Wright:You're just not ready for it.
:Right.
Scott Wright:You know, it's.
Scott Wright:It's like what you said with the gun.
Scott Wright:So I completely agree with that.
Scott Wright:And I think that's exactly what this is saying here.
:And Daniel, chapter 12, I think, verse four.
:So knowledge is said to be sealed up until the end.
Scott Wright:That's right.
:How does that idea connect to the knowledge gained by Adam and eve in Genesis 3?
:I mean, is there.
:Is there a link between the two passages or was there too much knowledge given to them?
:So God's limiting our ability to have knowledge today.
Scott Wright:So here's the thing.
Scott Wright:When Daniel saw these things, the problem was the Messiah had not come and the word of God, the gospel had not been spread.
Scott Wright:He was seeing the totality of the end and how horrific would be.
Scott Wright:However it could not accompany the things that God wanted to accomplish through man could not be to man, I guess, would be more of it could not be done until after the Messiah had come and the gospel had spread.
Scott Wright:That did not happen yet.
Scott Wright:And so that's why he had to seal these words and think about it.
Scott Wright:All the prophecies about the end and what we read in the book of Revelation and all this stuff.
Scott Wright:What is the one thing that still has to happen before it can be done?
Scott Wright:The entire world has to be preached the Gospel, every tongue, tribe and nation.
Scott Wright:And even today, we're not totally there yet.
Scott Wright:We're getting close.
Scott Wright: ement to get this done in the: Scott Wright:And, and so that's why, and that's why I tell people to, to be cautious about this whole, about the whole thing.
Scott Wright:You know, people saying, hey, the rapture's getting ready to happen and blah, blah.
Scott Wright:I'm like, well, the whole world hadn't been preached the Gospel yet, so that's kind of hard.
Scott Wright:I said, yeah, we're seeing all the signs.
Scott Wright: this done at some point in the: Scott Wright:And that's exactly why God tells Daniel that because the Messiah hadn't even come yet, and the world hadn't been preached the Gospel.
Scott Wright:Every God's goal and what God wanted to happen was, is he wants every tongue, tribe and nation worshiping him in heaven, every tongue, tribe and nation he's created.
:Amen.
:But how does Genesis 3 help us understand, say, the balance between divine sovereignty and human responsibility today?
Scott Wright:So, you know, think about this.
Scott Wright:That's a great question.
Scott Wright:Divine sovereignty is that we need to always acknowledge that God is the Creator.
Scott Wright:And we, we not only acknowledge it, but we need to submit to it.
Scott Wright:We have to submit that he's the Creator.
Scott Wright:Therefore that gives him the right to make all the decisions of how and what is right and wrong.
Scott Wright:He gets to decide, not us.
Scott Wright:We don't get that decision.
Scott Wright:Our responsibility is to follow him and to obey.
Scott Wright:So there's an interesting question that, that I've been asked before, and I think it's exactly why pastors, a lot of pastors, when I get them to actually tell me the truth, and I've asked this question, and this is an interesting question.
Scott Wright:How much of your church congregations actually follow the gospel, actually do what they're called to do.
Scott Wright:And when I get them in private and they tell me, I've never had one tell me more than 15%.
Scott Wright:Never.
Scott Wright:I'm.
Scott Wright:And I'm, I've talked to several, not one time.
Scott Wright:So here's the deal.
Scott Wright:This is what it boils down to.
Scott Wright:Don't tell me what you believe.
Scott Wright:Tell me what you follow.
Scott Wright:Because what you follow is the key.
Scott Wright:That is.
Scott Wright:It is.
Scott Wright:I.
Scott Wright:It's not about belief.
Scott Wright:It's about what you follow.
Scott Wright:And I think, you know, so many people that I've visited with over the years and talked to, they talk about what they believe, but what they follow is something different.
Scott Wright:And it's.
Scott Wright:It's more like people want their fire insurance and then to move on.
Scott Wright:So I think the.
Scott Wright:The sovereign part is that God gets to decide how this is done.
Scott Wright:Our part is to follow that and to follow Him.
Scott Wright:And ultimately, what it is is that the reason he puts these things in place is so that you'll pursue Him.
Scott Wright:You pursue him through obedience.
Scott Wright:You pursue him by delighting in his law.
Scott Wright:I mean, the Bible tells us that you're.
Scott Wright:We're to delight in that day and night.
Scott Wright:Yeah, we're delighting in his law all the time.
Scott Wright:That's what we're supposed to do.
Scott Wright:You know, we're supposed to be focused on His Word, on His message.
Scott Wright:It's not our message, it's His.
Scott Wright:It's just like, for instance, we'll hear people call themselves certain things.
Scott Wright:Like they'll call themselves prophets or apostles or whatever.
Scott Wright:The truth is.
Scott Wright:No, we're.
Scott Wright:None of us are apostles and none of us are prophets.
Scott Wright:We have a gift of prophecy.
Scott Wright:We have a gift of being an apostolic gift.
Scott Wright:We have the gift of speaking tongues.
Scott Wright:The truth is, it's his and it's him that's doing it.
Scott Wright:It's not us.
Scott Wright:No, we're.
Scott Wright:We're simply his ambassadors.
Scott Wright:That's it.
Scott Wright:And towards his calling.
Scott Wright:It's.
Scott Wright:It's him giving us the gift.
Scott Wright:And so what we have is a gifting that has come from him, and he can take it away just as fast.
:Yeah.
:You know, that's a good word.
:As ambassador.
:You know, if an ambassador is sent to a nation, he's representing the leader of that nation.
Scott Wright:Yes.
:You know, like the United States ambassador to wherever.
:And if they're not doing the job, he gets recalled.
Scott Wright:Exactly.
:Placed.
:You know, and so.
:Yeah.
:Amen.
:Amen.
:You know, Genesis 3 talks about God's judgment, as we said, it's also hinting at redemption.
:How does that tension between judgment and grace shape our understanding of God's character?
Scott Wright:Well, the first thing we have to do is realize that God's wrath is real.
Scott Wright:But we have to understand why that wrath is real.
Scott Wright:And it's because of our sin.
Scott Wright:Sin is rebelliousness to God, whether done through passive indifference or actively active rebellion, it's sin.
Scott Wright:Sin is sin and you gotta call it that.
Scott Wright:What I've told people before and what I like to explain it people, is that you have to admit how sinful you are.
Scott Wright:You can't justify it because when you justify it, you glorify it.
Scott Wright:We aren't to glorify sin.
:Amen.
Scott Wright:So that's the part of the judgment that matters is that we have to, we have to totally own that we are depraved and sinful.
Scott Wright:But once we do that, then God's mercy is right there for us for the taking.
Scott Wright:And how does that happen?
Scott Wright:That is through the shed blood, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Scott Wright:He is the bridge.
Scott Wright:What we have to obviously finally surrender to is that we can't do it right.
Scott Wright:We're not capable.
Scott Wright:And where God's mercy comes in and the gospel comes in is that because we can't do it, he does it for us.
Scott Wright:That's where his love, his grace and his mercy come in, is that he will be merciful.
Scott Wright:If we own that, that's, that's the bottom line.
Scott Wright:And so it's, he loves us and offers a wonderful plan for our life.
Scott Wright:But because of our sinfulness we are separated from God and we have to own that.
Scott Wright:And then Jesus is the only bridge between us and God and he covers our sin.
Scott Wright:I always say in, in my wife likes to, she likes to illustrate this with the way in this a particular story but basically think of it as your sin all be written in a book all your sins and if God looks at you is he going to see the book of sins or is he going to see the blood of Jesus on each page that covers those sin where he doesn't see the sin anymore?
Scott Wright:That's really what it pulls down to.
:Yeah.
Scott Wright:And it's what you again, it's what you surrender and follow.
:Amen.
Scott Wright:You know, do you surrender to that you own the fact that you're sinful?
Scott Wright:You know, it's not enough to acknowledge it.
Scott Wright:You, you have to surrender to it, you know, as an act of your will.
:Scott, as usual this been so interesting.
:How can someone reach out to you with questions or they want to get more information or maybe invite you do an interview like this.
Scott Wright:Sure.
Scott Wright: Hey GCC God centered concept: Scott Wright:Just reach out to me there, I'll be glad to respond.
:I'll put all this information down in the show notes below.
:Praise the Lord folks.
:I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for you to realize where we're living at on the timeline right now in these last of the last days.
:I mean the days that have been prophesied as the end times are here now.
:Praise God.
:Just drop down the show notes, reach out to Scott, get in touch with him, subscribe to the podcast, be sure to purchase his journal and start learning all about the God centered concepts that he specializes in.
:Amen.
:Do it right now before you forget about it later on because I know everyone's busy this time of year.
:Drop down the show.
:Click the links right there.
:Do it right now.
:Scott.
:Again, I appreciate you coming on the program, sharing all about this information with us and look forward to the next conversation.
:Brother.
Scott Wright:Hey, thanks for having me on and look forward to next time.
:Amen folks.
:That's all the time we have for today.
:Scott Wright myself passed by reminding you to be blessed.
Pastor Robert Thibodeau:You have been listening to Revelation Warning with Pastor Robert Thibodeau and his guest expert on Bible prophecy as it relates to current events.
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