Destruction Destroyed

We're so glad you joined us for today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

I'm James Banks, and I'm calling our reading Destruction Destroyed. The baby birds will fly tomorrow. My wife Carrie was elated about the progress a family of wrens was making in a hanging basket on our front porch. She watched them daily taking pictures as the mother brought food to the nest.

Carrie got up early the next morning to look in on them. She moved some of the greenery aside covering the nest, but instead of seeing baby birds, the narrow eyes of a serpent met hers. The snake had scaled a vertical wall, slithered into the nest, and devoured them all.

Carrie was heartbroken and angry. I was out of town, so she called a friend to remove the snake, but the damage was done. Scripture tells of another serpent who left destruction in his path. The serpent at the Garden of Eden deceived Eve about the tree God had warned her against eating from.

You will not certainly die, he lied, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Sin and death entered the world as a result of Eve and Adam's disobedience to God, and the deception wrought by that ancient serpent, who is the devil, continues. But Jesus came to destroy the devil's work, and through him were restored to relationship with God.

One day, he'll make everything new. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is a passage that started it all from Genesis 3, verses 1 through 10. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. You will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, where are you?

He answered, I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid. May we pray. Please deliver us, Jesus, from the devil's deception, saving God. Give us grace to live for you and only for you. In Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is James Banks and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.