"We don't want Satan to outsmart us. We know how he does his evil work."
- 2 Corinthians 2:11 nirv
Satan is crafty.
Oxford Dictionary's definition
"clever at achieving one's aims by indirect or deceitful methods"
" of, involving, or relating to indirect or deceitful methods"
One of Satan's primary ways to bait us is through using double-binds. It's a psychological strategy which fits in very well with how Satan operates and communicates. "Damned if you do, damned if you don't." Nobody wins. But that is the point, since Satan already knows he is defeated. Misery loves company.
In double-binds, there is a psycho-logical illusion that you will come out ahead by choosing one of the options the controller wants you to choose, which traps you because it's not what you really want, it is an illusion. What you want is being used against you, to bait you. Double binds are crafty baited traps, which trap you in and leave you with no options that truly benefit you. Double binds are incredibly covert, and often go undetected if the unsuspecting person cannot recognize the underlying distorted and flawed assertion.
In the garden of Eden, Satan temps Eve by putting her in a double bind. He knew she was created in the image and likeness of God, and that she enjoyed reflecting her Maker, whom she adored. He used her desires against her, by fooling her into thinking she was missing out of getting her desires fulfilled.
At first, Satan tries to misquote God and twists His words around to portray Him as restrictive by withholding from her what she desires most; to be godly or just like her Maker because she adored Him.
"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" -Genesis 3:1
The woman thoroughly corrected the serpent, thinking it was harmless at worst, or perhaps helpful at best. Imagine that, ladies!
"The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the tree in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" -Genesis 3:2-3
She set him straight! Or so she may have thought. Instead, she was unknowingly giving him another chance to deceive her, and to gradually go for the kill. She kept engaging with him, even though she had just corrected how the serpent misquoted and misrepresented God as being - a withholding jerk. But without her realizing it, she was giving more space to the serpent to worm (no pun intended) his way into undermining her pure image or portrayal of God according to HER truth, based on HER own experience of God. He was very subtly and covertly, yet progressively discoloring the woman's experience with her Maker.
"You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." - Genesis 3:4-7
Time out.
This serpent just called God a liar. He just confronted what God told Eve and injected his own twist, with God now sitting in the liar seat because what God told Eve was not true, per the serpent.
But, he also came to Eve and served her an illusion on a silver platter. The illusion of her satisfying her deepest desire to be like God.
This is the diabolical double bind which went undetected: she would need to mistrust God in order to be like God.
The desire to be like God, but not to trust God because He isn't trustworthy, is the diabolical double bind. It is damn sneaky. If the woman desired to be like God (which she did) AND she believed what Satan was saying, then these were her options:
- Miss out on being like God by knowing good and evil.
- Don't miss out on being like God, by mistrusting God and by invalidating God's words and doing the only things he said not to do.
There was a third option, had the double-bind been detected. This would have required the woman to doubt the serpent, be assertive and tell him to leave her. This did not happen because she did not doubt the serpent, she trusted him.
Now, just as with all double binds, there is a strain of truth which gets twisted and dragged out of its proper context, therefore causing confusion.
God did know that when the woman and man ate from the tree, it would cause their eyes to be opened. Opened to shame. Their eyes were opened to Satan's version of God, not their own that was based in their reality and experiences of God. They exchanged their own perceptions of God for Satan's, and in doing so, were introduced to shame. Shame's first target: their own bodies. They were ashamed of being naked. They were ashamed of their own bodies. That is like living in a double bind, being ashamed of your own body. How can one live and not be in their body? It's impossible, but there is an illusion that people buy into all the time, bodily-dissociation, in which gives way to all sorts of ailments, disorders and illnesses on every level; physical, mental and emotional.
Back to the story....
God went looking for them, even after they sinned and ate from the tree he commanded them not to...God pursued them. Their response? - to hide.
"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?" - Genesis 3:8-9
Sin does not separate us from God, shame does. And sin induces shame and THAT is why God prohibited the tree's fruit from them, because they would then experience death.
Shame kills the human spirit because it separates us from God.
Shame doesn't separate God from us, but us from God.
There is another example of Satan trying to bait a human being, to completely thwart God's plans, but it didn't work. The human was Jesus. The most noticeable differences to me are the ways Jesus responded to Satan by not engaging with him outside of Scripture and he kept with it even when Satan tried to misuse Scripture as well. He didn't explain himself or enter into debate with Satan. He used God's words within context and being consistent with God's character. After three attempts by Satan, Jesus told him to get lost.
"Jesus said to him, "Away from me Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only." -Matthew 4:10
Jesus sets us free from the lies that shame brings and leaves.
Scripture says, "The one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
-Romans 10:11/Isaiah 28:16
One way to detect diabolical double binds is to ask the question:
Does this temptation or offer present me with a substitute that subtly invalidates God's trustworthiness?
If so, proceed with caution, trusted community and mindfulness that God looks like Jesus.
