Will God Expose The Craftiness Of A Deceitful Plan?

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV). It has been noted that the Bible is unique in that it contains autobiographies in which the authors recorded not only their own failure, but also the consequences of those failures. When I used to challenge my youth groups to study the stories of the Bible I also warned them that many the stories were “R” rated and beyond! I used to encourage them to read both the Old and the New Testaments, because the New does teach us about our everyday Christian walk with God, but it is in the Old Testament that we discover the heart of God, and most especially, how He really feels about sin!

One of the most famous stories in the Bible which shows God exposing the craftiness of sin and its’ consequences is found right in the beginning of the Bible. It is the story of Adam and Eve falling into sin in the Garden of Eden. They were deceived by Satan masquerading a serpent, and ate the forbidden fruit. According to Genesis 3:8, (NKJV) when God came looking for Adam and Eve following this act of disobedience, they promptly hid themselves among the trees in the Garden. God called out to Adam saying “Where are you?” Adam revealed where he was and as the rest of the story unfolded, God exposed his sin. According to God’s own words, their seemingly simple act of disobedience, however lame it may seem to an unlearned reader, according to God’s own words, brought the curse of sin on all of mankind forever after. From that day forward, every person ever born was born with a sin nature. This seeming victory for Satan, however, although not instituted by our omniscient Heavenly Father was, foreknown by Him. He immediately implemented the practice of animal sacrifices to keep His creation from being cut off from fellowship with Him forever, foreshadowing the unfolding of His more perfect plan, a sacrifice to end all sacrifices.

In the very first generation to follow, Adam and Eve’s oldest son Cain murdered his younger brother Abel because Cain was jealous and felt his sacrifice was better than Abel’s. Once again, we see the craftiness of Cain’s plot to kill Abel, covering up his sin afterward. In Genesis 4:9b God said to Cain “Where is Abel your brother?”

Cain answered, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”(NKJV) God then confronted Cain, exposing the sin of his murder of Abel and in verse 12 pronounces a stern and difficult curse for his sin, a curse that would last the rest of his life.

In spite of the fact that throughout the Bible we see that God repeatedly sent his prophets, priests and teachers to reveal His truth to mankind about the destructive nature of sin, mankind still continuously rebelled and fell into sin. In story after story, we see revealed first the temptation to sin, then secondly, and foolishly, the often complex and crafty plan on how to engage in the particular sin without anyone finding out about it. Then lastly, the actual sinful act itself, that God due to His own righteous nature has to expose. Numbers 32:23b states “and be sure your sin will find you out.”(NKJV) In Luke 12:2, as Jesus was teaching his disciples he said; “But there is nothing covered up which will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.”(NKJV) In actuality, many places in the Bible teach us in many different ways that it is almost God’s specialty to shine His light in dark places and reveal wicked actions.

One of God’s greatest works through His Son Jesus Christ is His revelation of the plans of Satan to try to destroy God’s creation. You see, what God loves the most, the devil hates the most. Because God loves His creation so much, He set a plan in place for them to be adopted into His family through the gift of salvation. Our salvation was purchased for us when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and rising again from the dead three days later. Once a person is truly born again, their spiritual eyes are finally open. Through the power and the ability the Holy Spirit brings, they start detecting Satan’s craftiness and realize that he is trying to get them to fall back into their former sinful habits, which would cause them to become unfruitful spiritually. Jesus taught in John 10:10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (NKJV)

The word “crafty” is not a word in common use today, although it used to be. The Oxford dictionary defines it as “clever at achieving one’s aims by indirect or deceitful methods.” We live in a world today where due to modern technology; people’s “crafty” plans to deceive can be more complex than ever before. Ironically, they no longer have to come up with the plan themselves; a simple Internet search quickly brings up information posted by accomplished Internet criminals detailing how to both accomplish and cover up their mission. If someone has enough money, they can also hire someone else to create a computer program or a machine to aid in their deceitful plot. God however, is not even slightly slowed by modern day intelligence or ingenuity. The same God who shed light into the darkness of Adam and Eve’s sin nearly six thousand years ago can still shine the light into the darkness of the most complex computer software. He can expose the craftiness of man even if it was developed on one side of the planet to be used on the other and as we pray as a nation He still can bring forth the truth needed to expose every crafty lie and plot. May God’s truth be revealed to America!