Trouble in Paradise

by Skip Heitzig

The very first couple, Adam and Eve, is the prototype of all couples. They’re a lot more like us than not, except, as the old joke goes, he didn’t have to hear about her old boyfriends, and she didn’t have to hear about how good his mother’s cooking was.

Genesis chapter 2 closes in a beautiful, romantic setting in the Garden of Eden. But if we were to stop reading there, we wouldn’t get the whole picture. Chapter 3 introduces trouble in paradise. Like Adam and Eve, we have trouble in our world, in relationships, in families, and in marriages.

Just as Adam and Eve are the prototypical couple, they faced prototypical temptation in Genesis 3. There’s a pattern with which Satan typically works in people and particularly in married couples. We need to be able to recognize the pattern so that, as Paul wrote, we are not ignorant of Satan’s devices (see 2 Corinthians 2:11).

There are three things to notice about Satan’s typical attack. First, he challenged God’s love. “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree?’” (v. 1) as if to say, “You mean to tell me God is withholding something from you? He doesn’t want you to live a happy life? How can a loving God do that? Wouldn’t He want you to have every pleasure?”

Many times, Satan will whisper to a married couple, “God doesn’t want you in this relationship if it’s painful and hard. Why would a loving God want you to suffer? He wants you to be happy, and the happiest way is out.” And sometimes people will tell themselves, “God will forgive me,” as if that gives them permission to disobey Him.

Second, Satan challenged God’s Word. Regarding the tree “in the midst of the garden,” as soon as Eve replied to Satan saying, “God has said, ‘You shall not eat it…lest you die’” (v. 3), Satan said, “You will not surely die” (v. 4). That’s an attack on God’s Word.

Satan wants you to question the authority of the Bible, including God’s blueprint for marriage and life. He wants you to think, That’s such an outdated book. It doesn’t work in my situation. Then you’ll start separating yourself from the church, from biblical accountability, and from couples who care. Ultimately you’ll start separating yourself from Scripture itself; you won’t read it.

A pastor who does marriage seminars around the country reported only 10 percent of the Christians he spoke to had daily devotional time with the Lord and only 5 percent prayed as a couple. That tells me that a lot of Christians are trying to do marriage without God.

Third, Satan substituted God’s truth for his own lie. “For God knows that… your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (v. 5). Now Satan was just making stuff up. “God is trying to keep you from something that will make you as good and as powerful and as all-knowing as Him.”

Once a person starts questioning God’s love and His Word, he will start questioning the whole notion of God. He’ll think, The Bible isn’t enough for my problems. Church isn’t enough. I need real help, not from the biblical community, from the secular world. And once you push God and His blueprint out of the picture, you can insert just about anything you want, anything you feel.

When people cite their feelings as a reason for disobeying the direction of God, I remind them that feelings shouldn’t drive the train. Your feelings should be the caboose that is pulled by your will and guided by God’s principles.

Satan’s typical attack is to challenge God’s love and His Word and to substitute God’s Word with lies. God invented marriage, so don’t try to do marriage without Him. Spend time in God’s Word daily. Pray with your spouse. Be in fellowship with other Christian couples, and be accountable to them. And remember, you’re a sinner married to a sinner. The happiest marriage is the union of two forgivers.

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"Your teaching helps me to understand God. My life is not easy and there was a time I was jealous of my husband because he is in heaven and I have to deal with so much. I almost couldn't take it. One day I told God to quit, but then He let me know He is always there, so I decided to go further in my life with Him. It's still not easy but I know one day I will understand."

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