Torah Discovery

God’s Enduring Word, Pt. 2

Posted on October 12, 2023 Updated on March 19, 2025

The struggle, then, that challenges the restoration of the natural world and humankind with it is not that God is failing or will fail to bring about His word, rather it is mankind’s struggle to trust or have faith that His word will prevail. It is also our failure to understand every word’s future implication. This has been, hands down, our struggle from the beginning; in fact, mankind’s plunge into the world of corruption, sin, and spiritual isolation is on account of our failure to take God at His word. With the help of Satan, we have been overrun by doubt, skepticism, and faithlessness. It all started in the garden, where we witness the fall of mankind due to one of our greatest weaknesses: doubt.

Genesis 3:1-6

“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And He said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.” ‘ Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”

The fall of humanity was conceived from the seed of doubt. The words, “Did God really say?” have plagued humanity throughout history, even the most devout followers. Adam and Eve are called the father and mother of humanity and we, like them, bear within our genetic makeup their propensity to doubt and to question God at His word. We, too, have attuned our ear to the sweet words of the enemy. With very little effort, Satan continues to cultivate corruption and sin by sowing the seeds of doubt and deceit. Thus the Bible calls him the deceiver of the whole world. He appears as light and as truth, but His words sow destruction. Many believe that Satan’s primary goal is to introduce the most vilest sins into the lives of men and women, but as we will see, this is not always the case. Satan’s easiest and most cunning weapon against humanity are these words: Did God really say? Once he plants this seed, man inevitably leads himself down the path of vile sin.

It was through these words that Satan even tried to snare the Son of God Himself, for in the wilderness he used God’s own words in an attempt to entrap Jesus (Matthew 4) in the same manner as Adam and Eve:

Did God really say that He would sustain you? Sustain yourself by using your power to turn these stones into bread.

Didn’t God promise to protect you no matter what? Then throw yourself from the temple and see if He means it.

Will God really give you an inheritance? If you truly desire to rule, worship me and I will give to you all the kingdoms of this world…without suffering.

Jesus’ responses to each of Satan’s temptations sets the stage for how we encounter and defeat the voice of deception. To the enemy He stated, “It is written, ‘Man shall not LIVE by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

As we set forth on this journey to understand the mind and will of God concerning His people Israel–and all of humanity for that matter– then we must do so with a hunger for His truth, for it is only in His word and His word alone that the true promises are revealed, the hope for which we strive. It is through His word that we are given a clear, unadulterated vision of His story, past, present and future. Ultimately, like our Master, we ought to hunger for every word that proceeds from the mouth of God because these words are our life, our hope, and our defense against the schemes of the enemy. He is cunning, which is why he, and those who do his work, have been able to keep the world entranced in deception and will continue to do so until he is finally removed. In the book of Second Thessalonians, Paul warns us that the time is coming–and may already be–in which there will be a great falling away because the man of sin will set Himself up in the temple of God, showing Himself as God. Many will be deceived, in large part, because the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, according to Paul. It is already spreading confusion, doubt, and discord. This is visible in the fact that people’s lives are governed by lawlessness. Our society feeds off lewdness, violence, and perversion. This, in large part, is because we have lost our sense of truth, or because we are wandering from and rejecting the truth. Paul goes onto tell us that,

“the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness“(2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).

It is the truth that will save us; it is the truth, Jesus tells us, that will set us free. One would believe that humanity would be running toward this freedom. But the prophets spoke rightly, even of us: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”(Isaiah 5:20-21). Why did Isaiah speak this of his own people? Why do these words still ring true among God’s people today? Isaiah tells us a few verses later: “Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel” (5:24). Our senses have been dulled, and our discernment has been flipped inside out. Therefore, Satan will continue to do to us what he attempted to do with Jesus: lull us asleep and destroy us through deception, lawlessness, and unrighteousness. Twice in Thessalonians, Paul emphasizes that those who do not love the truth will be deceived through lying wonders, signs, and power. Yes, these individuals will believe that he who sets himself up to be God is God. Because they do not live by every word spoken by the true God, they will fall for the lies of the lawless one. It is a love for God’s word, His law, that will protect us in these times. Those who know, understand, and who have received the truth will have a greater chance of identifying the lies of the lawless one, and will recognize the deception in his narrative; they will know that his signs and wonders are not of God. Why? Because they will know the story. They will have trained senses, and they will understand that the enemy comes cloaked in light and works of wonder, and that his lies are coated in honey. The only way to see through them is with truth. Their defense is the love of the truth.

Thus, Paul later encourages the Thessalonians–and all believers–that the only defense is through “sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth”(2 Thessalonians 2:13). These are what will help us stand against the schemes of the lawless one. Jesus confirms this. In His prayer for His followers, Jesus asks the Father “to keep them from the evil one and to sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth”(John 17:15-16). To sanctify means to separate from profane things, to cleanse, and to purify internally. It is God’s word that not only reveals to us the nature of who He is and what He is doing, but it is His word that cleanses us, sets us apart, removes from us all deception and lawlessness, so we can see clearly. As the author of Hebrews states, solid food [the truth] belongs to those “who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good ad evil”(Hebrews 5:14). This is why it is vital that we not only believe every word, but that live by every word. Th enemy is cunning, and from the beginning, he has set out to disrupt and destroy the story of God. He knows that Israel are God chosen people, which is why He tried to destroy them through Balak, but then eventually tripped them up through the counsel of Balam. Israel’s success is God’s victory, and God’s victory is the enemy’s defeat. Thus, Satan’s greatest tool deception, because deception taints our view and our acceptance of God’s plan. This is why we must diligently seek the truth.

This is not enough though. We must pray that God gives us the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the hearts to understand, and a faith to follow after this word. The enemy is cunning, and as we see in his encounter with Jesus, he is familiar with the words of God, and he uses this familiarity to twist whatever lies into this word that is necessary to deceive us. He does not want us to know the story; he does not want us to discover who we are and the power we wield through Christ and through the word of God. He will stop at nothing to turn us against the Author of truth, and that is why our pursuit of truth is of utmost importance. To simply have knowledge, though, is only part of our defense. We must also be given the wisdom and discernment to properly handle the word of truth. There are many who know the scriptures, but as we will see, our understanding must be opened in order to see the continuity of God’s story.