The Devil Made Me Do It

The oldest lie in scripture, the oldest lie in all of history, is the lie “The Devil made me do it”. First things first, Eve was in the garden and the serpent told her to eat of the fruit, she said that God told them no, and so the serpent gives his lame deception. Well, Eve had never encountered deception and didn’t know how to handle it, yet, she knew responsibilty and respect, and disobeyed anyway. 

Alright, so we’re caught up. What stands out in this story that causes us to think the Eve may have been more at fault than the serpent? Wait a minute-, did I just say that the serpent wasn’t at fault? Yes, the serpent was more innocent than Eve, or rather, they were equally guilty, as both played a part in this sin.

Here are the facts: the serpent(Satan) tempted Eve by offering her a fruit from the plant God had outlawed, Eve took it and ate it.

It seems to be straight forward, the Devil made her do it, right? Wrong. Let’s take this back to The Book.

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

—Genesis 3:6

What, in this passage implies that Eve knew what she was doing? What would give me reason to blame this on her?

The Bible says, quote- “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit...“- unquote. Do you know what that says to me? It says that Eve tempted herself. Eve convinced herself by sense, (the fruit was useful), by her senses, (the fruit was appealing), and by sensibility, (the fruit was alluring), so she took it. Sure, Satan opened the door, but Eve’s own heart betrayed her, telling her to eat the fruit.

Nowhere in this scene do we see any reference to Eve wondering why God told her not to eat of the fruit. The Scriptures don’t say that “Eve looked upon the fruit and remembered the words of God telling her not to eat of it”, it doesn’t say that “Eve thought about what she was doing”. The Bible says, (paraphrase), that every part of Eve convinced her to forget God and follow her heart.

The Devil didn’t make her do it. The Devil didn’t make the tree, or Eve, or the fruit. The Devil cannot make anything, he can only disrupt what God makes. Eve made Eve sin, the Devil just helped.

Now, Eve got special attention because she was the first lady, so I don’t want to hear you say, “the Devil made me do it”. Let me tell you, the Devil has bigger fish to fry than to make you steal a comic book or cheat on a math test. 

Be realistic, you made yourself do it. That’s one of the consequences of a free will. If we would start taking responsibility for our actions, we’d be a much more mature people…and they wonder why humanity is getting dumber and dumber as centuries pass, we’re crediting our actions on others, namely Satan, but also God, and avoiding both censure and punishment, as well as praise and reward. How can we grow if we do not own our actions. Take responsibility for yourself, and give credit, even if it’s bad credit, where credit’s due.

As always, thanks for reading.

—the anonymous novelist

Consequences

Well, I ended the last post on a note of the Skywalker family and their dysfunctionality. While I’m on the subject, I’d like to address what is possibly one of the best portrayals of the consequences of our actions in all of film.

In the third movie of the Star Wars series Anakin Skywalker, who is now married to Senetor Amidala, and the personal assistant to the Supreme Chancelor Palpatine, begins to have nightmares.

Because this young Jedi is special, and seems to be a one who will bring balance to the power that binds all thing together: The Force, he is not trusted by his superiors and these dreams, he thinks will predict the future. So, when he sees that his wife will die in childbirth, he takes drastic measures. He will do anything to save her, including becoming that which he had sworn and was destined to destroy: a Sith Lord. The Sith were controlled by the evil side of The Force known as the Dark Side, and were opposed to anything that did not advance their own power. 

In the story, the Supreme Chancellor Palpatine was actually a Sith Lord though no one knew. He and Anakin became close and Anakin was open about his fears of losing his wife. Palpatine took advantage of this weakness to try to lull Anakin to the Dark Side; he told Anakin that he knew of a Sith who had power over life and death and could stop people from dying. Palpatine’s plan for Anakin was to make him his apprentice to learn the dark arts, and so he slowly turned Anakin against everyone he used to trust and then finally Anakin gave in. 

Plot Point #1: Anakin Skywalker became an evil Sith to save his wife’s life. 

Well, turning evil and serving a Sith meant obeying the power hungry beast. Anakin followed orders and wiped out nearly all of his former comrades, becoming a true monster. In an attempt to wipe out every last Jedi, Anakin hunted down his previous mentor and his wife, with child, stowed aboard his transport. Once he found his target, his mentor tried to reason with him but it was no use. His wife appeared and tried to stop Anakin and he nearly strangled her before casting her aside. That confrontation with his mentor led to the loss of Anakin’s legs and most of his skin in lava burns. 

Plot Point #2: Anakin couldn’t control the monster he’d become, and it cost him everything.

Not long after, his wife, who had survived the strangling, went into labor but was too weak to survive it. She gave birth to twins then died, unable to even draw breath.

Plot Point #3: Anakin’s dreams became reality even though he took every step to avoid it.

In all of Anakin’s striving to save his wife, he ended up being the cause of her death. The truth is, she would not have died in childbirth had he not taken the steps he did to ensure that she wouldn’t. It was as if he saw a possible future and then feared the only way to change it was to do the opposite of what he was currently. The only way to bring about a different reality is to completely reverse the way you are living. He chose a path that was the oposite of who he was in the hopes that it would save his wife, in reality it condemned her.

Had he not tried to save her, she would not have lived. Actions, even good intended ones, have consequences, especially when those actions involve known evil. Anakin had the choice to take or spare Palpatine’s life and he spared it. He brought about the destruction of himself, his wife, and the country he loved by doing what he knew was wrong for selfish reasons without consulting anyone outside of himself.

Pride cometh before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. And great was the fall of him, he single handedly wrecked his family and an entire Union Government. Lessons can be learned from movie character’s mistakes, this one is not the least of good examples.

Know that you will be held accountable for your actions, and there is always a price to pay for doing wrong and siding with evil.

As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist