Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals:
Monday April 27 2026
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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’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ “. 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 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.” 6 So when 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.
Have you noticed that many of the television shows these days portray God as the bad guy?
I was thinking about this recently while skimming through episodes of the television show, Supernatural.
In it, the God of the Bible is portrayed as “Chuck,” a malevolent being with the power of God. However, Chuck’s portrayal does not match up with the character of God demanded by either the creation or Scripture. However, Chuck DOES identify with how Satan-from the beginning-has tried to portray God to humanity.
In the Garden of Eden, Satan tried to convince Adam and Eve that God is not truly good in His Nature and Being, and that He had ulterior motives for not wanting them to eat from the Tree of Knowledge.
One author has noted:
“This is a crucial issue. How humans view God lies at the heart of the entire biblical narrative. Since the beginning, God and Satan have been locked in a tug of war over God’s character, competing against each other to sell their conflicting viewpoints to humanity. 2 In the Garden of Eden, God commanded Adam and Eve to not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because, he claimed, it would cause them to die. But then Satan sold them a different story. He claimed God lied, that eating the fruit would not cause them to die but instead would cause them to become like God, knowing good and evil. And so the historic struggle began—God claiming his commands are in humanity’s best interest and Satan claiming they aren’t, God trying to convince humans he is trustworthy and Satan claiming he isn’t, God claiming he is benevolent and Satan claiming he is selfish, etc. In other words, Satan’s initial strategy to cause humans to sin was to alter their view of God. And he’s been working at it ever since. This is what Satan does. He distorts the truth. He attempts to lead “the whole world astray” (Rev. 12: 9). He is “full of all kinds of deceit and trickery” (Acts 13: 10). According to Jesus, “there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8: 44). Satan’s power is the power of deception. Boyd explains: From this perspective, we could describe the entire biblical drama of God working to restore us to himself as a conflict between God’s truth and Satan’s deception. From start to finish, God is working to restore humanity into a right relationship with himself by delivering us from the false conception that “the ancient serpent,” who is “the accuser” and “the deceiver of the nations,” has used to enslave us since our fall in the garden (Rev 12: 9, cf. 20: 2-3, 7-8). 3 To put it another way, a distorted view of God’s character is the root of all sin. In Boyd’s words, “our alienation from God and our bondage to Satan is most fundamentally anchored in the fact that we have been seduced, to one degree or another, into sharing Satan’s jaded and untrustworthy view of God, as the story of Adam and Eve graphically illustrates.” 4” (Matthew Curtis Fleischer, The Old Testament Case for Nonviolence, 167-168 (Kindle Edition): Oklahoma City, OK: Epic Octavius the Triumphant, LLC)
The goodness of God is demonstrated in innumerable ways throughout creation and Scripture (cf. Job 32-37; Psalm 52:1; 107; Lamentations 3:15-31; Matthew 5:44-45; John 3:16; Acts 14:17; Romans 2:4; 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21; Colossians 1:15-23; 2 Peter 3:9).
Psalm 100:4-5-Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. 5 For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
Psalm 107:43-Whoever is wise will observe these things, And they will understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.
Psalm 119:68-You are good, and do good; Teach me Your statutes.
2 Corinthians 9:15-Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
What are some ways that you can see the goodness of God in your life?
Father, thank You for being good and for doing good. We praise You. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.