In the Beginning, there was a Serpent in a Tree

In the beginning, that old Serpent called the Devil was there when Eve encountered him in that tree in the Garden. She ‘ate of that tree’ by listening to him and was thereby deceived by him. God had given specific instructions to Adam not to ‘eat’ of that tree. Then the Serpent came along and convinced Eve to disregard God’s instructions. Consequently, Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden for their disobedience and succumbing to the deception of the Serpent. Eve thought it ‘looked good for food’ and ‘a tree to be desired to make one wise.’

Cast out for Disobedience
The old Serpent convinced Eve to disobey God

To Comfort My People

The German composer, Handel, opened his famous concert, Messiah, with this song from Scripture. The Prophet Isaiah wrote in chapter 40 a message to “Comfort My people, Israel” to let them know their appointed time has come to deliver them and remove the yoke of those who serve themselves of them.

“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare/appointed time is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”

Isaiah 40:1-5

A House Divided Against Itself

One hundred and sixty three years ago, on June 16, 1858, the newly chosen candidate for the U.S. Senate, Abraham Lincoln, delivered a speech to his colleagues. His goal was to unite them in their on-going discussions and disagreements about whether to abolish slavery or not. In his effort to get them into an agreement, he said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Now whenever that phrase is heard, it is attributed to President Lincoln, but he was quoting someone else! And that someone was Jesus Christ! What was the original context?

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