Adding to God's word

“The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees 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
Yesterday we read how Satan casts doubt on God’s word and denies it, to try to tempt us into sin. But Eve did herself no favours either. She changed God’s word – adding some words, and taking away others. Let’s see what God actually said: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden” (Gen. 2:16) – Eve leaves out the word ‘any’. What she says sounds more like a concession from God, rather than the blessing of free choice. “But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” – what she says is fine so far – “for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Did you notice what she added, and what she left out? She adds, ‘and you must not touch it’. This is the first instance of what we might call Phariseeism: man adding extra rules to what God had said. (For example, concerning the Sabbath day, the Bible only says to do no work and light no fires in their dwellings. But the rabbis, over the centuries, added many more Sabbath rules, which were written down from oral traditions in the Talmud. These included things such as, you could not look at a mirror on the Sabbath (because you might see a grey hair and be tempted to pluck it out, which would be considered work), you could not wear a wooden leg on the Sabbath (because that would be carrying a burden and thus doing work), and so forth. This is why Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their bad attitudes when He healed people on the Sabbath, because God’s intention for the Sabbath was for a blessing of rest for mankind – not an excuse to make people’s lives miserable (Mark 2:27). The initial intention behind these extra rules – and behind Eve saying ‘you must not touch it’ was to put a protective fence around the rule that God had given. But Eve had still added to God’s word, and she knew it.
Eve also left out a critical word: ‘you will not surely die’. She downplays the seriousness of the consequences of breaking God’s rule. It’s interesting to note that Satan corrects her, as he denies God’s word, saying, ‘You will not surely die’ (Gen. 3:4). Satan knew what God had said. By correcting her, he sets himself up as someone she should listen to, because after all, he knew what God really said.
The Bible speaks on several occasions about not adding to it or taking away from it (Deut. 4:2, Deut. 12:32, Prov. 30:6, Rev. 22:18-19). God is just as serious about His Word today as He was in the Garden of Eden.