The world seems to be over flowing with bargains. Everyone advertises special "deals" on everything from bath soap to automobiles to investments. Upon closer scrutiny, the bargain often turns out overpriced. The item that appears so appealingly priced is actually not as valuable as the advertiser leads one to believe. Satan is the master at advertising special bargains. He began his deceptive advertising campaign in the garden of Eden and continues the practice today. Consider some who bought from Satan.
Eve was the first. She was deceived into disobeying God by eating the forbidden fruit. Eve was fully aware of what God had said: "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:16,17). Satan convinced Eve to disobey God, and instead to buy what he offered. He offered freedom from an dishonest, overbearing God who did not want Adam and Eve to achieve their full potential. He told Eve "Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:4,5). She bought the goods Satan offered, she ate the forbidden fruit as did Adam. And what did they get? A life of hardship, guilt, fear, and shame to name three (see Genesis 3:7,8). What did it cost? Life in paradise, access to the tree of life, death (See Genesis 3:16-24). How often has Satan sold someone in our time on the benefits of disobeying God, seeking the same things Eve did, only to find hardship, guilt, shame, and fear.
A second example of one buying the bargains of Satan was Joseph’s brothers. They were jealous of Joseph’s special position with their father Jacob. They did not like the dreams he had experienced while sleeping, indicating his superiority over them. So one day they threw Joseph into a pit and sold him into slavery in Egypt (see Genesis 37). It seemed like a good thing to do. They could get rid of him and not physically harm him. What was the price of their actions? Undying grief for their father: "Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him" (Genesis 37:34,35). It also brought them many years of guilty conscience (see Genesis 42:21,22; 50:15). How many today allow envy, jealousy, pride or prejudice to motivate them to actions against another which only bring about the same negative results in life the actions of Joseph’s brothers received?
More next week, Lord willing. — Denny