It Starts with a Thought//Raygan Boster

 In this weekend's reading, we see Satan start to mess with Eve by speaking to her while she is asleep, thus invading her dreams. From there she wakes up and tells Adam about it, he reassures her that it is okay, and they move on. She doesn't take action right away and barely thinks about it for the rest of it. However, we all know that she will eventually act on this. It is interesting to me that this is portrayed here because I believe that this is how sin works even today. There will be random, unwelcome thoughts that randomly pop into our heads and we move on, don't act on it, and go about our day. But for some reason, we slowly start thinking on it more, reasoning with it to make it seem less horrid, and eventually it leads to action. Our thoughts have so much potential and we don't even realize it sometimes. That is why it is so important to be cautious of what we allow in our minds. Now, obviously in this part, Eve didn't choose to let Satan taunt her in her dreams, but it leads me to point out how quick the angels were to stopping Satan in the act. It was obvious he wasn't about to physically harm her, but God wasted no time in getting angels to come between Satan and Eve's mind, it makes me wonder just how influential it is. I think maybe that is why the Bible stresses us reading, understanding, and hiding the Word in our hearts, so that we don't fall victim to the evil thoughts planted into our heads by Satan and the world around us. If we don't have anything  in our minds to fight off the evil, it will reside there and take root, growing from a not so threatening seed, to a very harmful threat, which is what might happen in Eve's mind as the story continues. 


I commented on Brooke Bradley and Taylor Vice's post. 

Comments

  1. Emma DSeptember 13, 2021 at 11:12 PM

    I definitely agree that this dream has to impact Eve's actions somehow! I wonder if Milton created this moment out of his own personal experiences with the New Testament and the idea of taking thoughts captive. I do like however that her first response is to tell Adam, because it is much easier to fight off the lies of the enemy when others know what you're going through and can encourage you in the right path. Do you think that Adam's response helped Eve resist the attack, or was the damage already done? I can't help but wonder if she will act not because of this dream, but because of some failure on Adam's part to encourage her in the path she wants (e.g. not eating the fruit) when she encounters the snake.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Braylan StringfellowSeptember 14, 2021 at 8:46 AM

    My youth pastor would talk a lot about those thoughts that will just pop up in our heads. He would say the same you said about how we will just ignore it and just move on but the thought will just keep coming until we act on it. He said the same thing you said here that we need to be careful on what we allow to come into our minds. I completely agree with you on how this is a method that is used today to get people to sin.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Micah PowersSeptember 14, 2021 at 9:21 AM

    I agree I know through my personal battles with sin nature it starts with one thought and if I dismiss the thought then it leads to no long term effect but as we dwell on it, it encompasses our actions. Our actions start to betray our redeemed nature leading us to another fall and hopefully to new repentance. I think that is why Pauls mentions so often in the epistles to carry the mindset of prayer and dwelling on holy things.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A House Divided//Emily Otts

The words Jesus spoke in Matthew 12 remind me so much of this play: "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand." (Matthew 12:25) King Lear, at the end of the day, is about a family being divided multiple ways. These divisions arise over greed and hatred for one another and cause the whole family to be ruined because of it. King Lear first divides the kingdom after his daughter Cordelia does not proclaim her love to him, so he banishes her. Later, his daughters go against him for not doing as they asked, believing he is unfit and unworthy to be king, secretly plotting against him. But all of this comes to a head in Act 5. After capturing King Lear and Cordelia, Edmund plans to have them killed. You would believe the sisters would be able to work together because their plan is working, but an even greater division has risen between them. Both of them wish to have Edmund for themselves, and they plot against each o...
Read more

The Plague in Everyone// Emily Otts

     In part 4 of the Plague , Tarrou tells Rieux about how he has had the plague forever. Except, this is not the same plague as the one ravaging the town. Tarrou speaks of how his father was a lawyer who believed in the death penalty, how he saw so many people support it and be comfortable about it, and how he had to witness the executions of prisoners. He explains how this sort of mindset is a plague itself, one Tarrou had been fighting for a long time. " That's why everybody in the world looks so tired; everyone is more or less sick of plague. But that is also why some of us, those who want to get the plague out of their systems, feel such desperate weariness, a weariness from which nothing remains to set us free except death" (Camus, part 4, chapter 6). Tarrou wants to desperately not submit to such awful ways of thinking.      Tarrou does not realize it, but the plague he is talking about is sin. Everyone has it, some people give in to it and let...
Read more

The Thirst for Knowledge

     With Book Seven of Milton's Paradise Lost, Raphael is continuing his exposition on Satan's apostasy. The plan is to expose Adam and Eve to the wretched fate of those who cross God's will. The more he shed's light on the subject, however, the more Adam is inclined to ask for more information. He wants to know everything about the subject, as well as God and His creation.      However, while the taste of such knowledge leaves Adam yearning for more, there are boundaries. It is like a toddler eating a cookie... and eventually begging her mother for the rest of the jar. Is it a coincidence that the one thing Adam and Eve are not to touch is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? Most readers know how the story ends: these toddlers are never going to be content with a few cookies. They're going in for the jar.   There is a statement in the Bible that is constantly being repeated throughout the Old Testament: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of ...
Read more