One of my favorite American television game show is called the Weakest Link. It made its debut on April 16, 2001. NBC cancelled it July 14, 2002, then NBC developed a daily half-hour edition and this version premiered on January 7, 2002, but the last new episode aired on May 2002. In July 2020 it was revived and premiered on NBC. Jane Lynch hosts, as eight contestants work as a team to bank the maximum amount of prize money across multiple rounds by answering rapid-fire trivia questions, with each successive correct answer increasing the amount of potential winnings, and each incorrect answer breaking the chain and forcing the contestants to start over with lowest amount of money. At the end of each round, players vote for the person whom they consider to be the weakest link, and the contestant with the most votes leaves the game as Jan delivers the famous catchphrase: "You are the weakest link. Goodbye."
We are only as strong as "the weakest link." My life has had weaknesses exposed as I had to carry the stress load of living without the love of my life. If I am being honest with you, there are times that my faith has felt weak as I had to face fears, weariness, confusion and a lost of direction, while adjusting to my "new normal." I praise God through my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that when I am weak, He gives me strength. Without Him I would be lost. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about his visions of the Lord and his thorn in his side. Three times he pleaded for the Lord to take it away from him, but the Lord told him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (v.8). God has used me mightily in by weakest moments, and each one of those moments, God used me to glorify Him. I praise God for allowing me to glorify His righteous and holy name.
The truth is, we all are struggling with some type of weakness. Some weaknesses are mental, some maybe moral, and all of us may have some type of physical weakness. We are weak in some areas and we are strong in certain areas, especially in our Christian living. There are some areas that is more difficult, especially to be what we should be. You maybe strong in your moral compass, but weak in your tithes and time to the church. You maybe strong in church attendance, but weak in controlling your thoughts and tongue. Time and time again you may have moments when the spirit is willing, but the flesh was weak. As you grow and mature in your Christian walk, you will become stronger in your weakest areas.
There are no Christians who do not have some weaknesses. According to the Biographical Bible, there are 3,237 Bible characters named in the Scripture, from Aaron to Zorah. The Bible depicts many men and women who had weaknesses and how God used their weakness and provided them with the strength they needed for God's glory. Think of the weaknesses of Jonah, Abraham, David, Samson, Elijah, Solomon, Peter, Paul, let's not forget Adam, and the list goes on and on.
Jonah was the son of Amittai. He was a prophet and God told him to go to the city of Nineveh and deliver a message, the Lord said, "I am going to destroy you, for your wickedness rise before me; it smells to highest heaven" (Jonah 1:1). But Jonah was afraid to go and he ran away from the Lord. He went to the seacoast, to the port of Joppa, where he boarded a ship. Suddenly the Lord caused a great storm to rise and Jonah was thrown overboard into the raging sea and was swallowed by a big fish. Jonah was inside the big fish for three days and three nights. Jonah prayed to the Lord from inside the fish. The Lord heard his prayer and the fish spit up Jonah on the beach and Jonah was obedient to the Lord and went to speak to the people of Nineveh.
God spoke to Abraham in a vision and told him that He would give him great blessings. Abraham told God , "What good are all your blessings when I have no son? For without a son, some other member of my household will inherit all my wealth" (Genesis 15:2-3). God told Abraham that he would have a heir and his son would inherit everything he owned. Then God told Abraham, "Look up into the heavens and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that." Abraham believed God, then God considered him righteous on account of his faith. Sarah convinced Abraham to sleep with her handmaiden, Hagar and Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. But Ishmael was not the heir to Abraham's empire. God appeared to Abraham and told him that Sarah would have a son by him and she would be the mother of nations. Abraham told the Lord to do bless Ishmael, but God said no, "Sarah shall bear you a son; and you are to name him Isaac." So Abraham, at the age 100 and Sarah, at the age of 90, gave birth to Isaac.
I could go on and on about the weaknesses of the people in the Bible, but who I would like to elaborate about is Adam and Eve, especially Eve. Eve messed everything up for all of mankind.
Adam and Eve. It is clear that Satan will schematically attack the one who is the most vulnerable. Beginning in Genesis 3, we see Eve was the one at the time, who instead of resisting Satan, compromised herself, her husband, and the entire human race. When we neglect the Word of God, we leave ourselves open to the work of Satan.
Genesis 2, serves as the background to this devotional. "Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, to the east, and placed in the garden the man he had formed. The Lord God planted all sorts of beautiful trees there in the garden, trees producing the choices of fruit. At the center of the garden he placed the Tree of Life, and also the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" (vs. 8-9). Adam was placed in charge of the garden as the overseer, and a river from the land of Eden flowed through the garden to water it. The Lord God placed the man in the Garden as its gardner, to tend and care for it. The Lord warned Adam, "You may eat any fruit in the garden except fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil - for its fruit will open your eyes to make you aware of right and wrong, good and bad. If you eat its fruit, you will be doomed to die" (v. 16).
The Lord was feeling good about His creation, but He said, "It isn't good for man to be alone; I will make a companion for him, a helper suited to his needs." So it was out of Adam's ribs that Eve was given life. They were united to become one flesh. At the end of Genesis 2, life is perfect for Adam and Eve. They are in the garden enjoying fellowship with the Lord and with each other. Then something happens that forever changed the world.
According to Scripture, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made" (Genesis 3:1). In Genesis 3 the Hebrew word 'nachash' means the shining one. This would lead one to believe that the serpent was in no way a threat to them as they moved around in the garden. It is possible that they crossed each others path, daily. This however allowed Satan the opportunity to use this interaction to his advantage by embodying the serpent.
Then one day the serpent speaks to Eve, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden?'" In Satan's approach to Eve, he reduced God's command, to a question. He does not directly deny God's word, but introduces the assumption that God's Word is subject to our judgment, and he does not accurately say what God's said, but it was enough to get her attention and to get her to respond.
Satan's strategy to Eve appeared to be rather innocent, by introducing and encouraging her to see the side that would lead to destruction. His strategy quickly culminated in a blatant denial of God. You see, he targeted her mind and that lead her to think away from what she had been told by her husband, concerning the Garden. Satan went on to deny the doctrine of God's judgment. He denied the penalty of sin when he told her, "You will not surely die." It is imperative that if you get nothing else out of this, recognize that there are consequences for our sins. To imply or suggest otherwise, is to undermine God's holiness, righteousness, justice, and wrath, thereby calling His very Word into question.
Satan had Eve to focus her attention on one prohibition. He attempted to imply that God was selfish as to why He did not want them to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Let me give it to you another way. Satan questioned the love of God and the goodness of God. He wanted her to understand, if God is so good then why did He put this restriction on you?
In Eve's dialog with the serpent, Eve accepted his distortion and then added her on by replying, "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" (v. 3). The Lord said nothing about touching it. The diabolical Satan in his scheme, tiptoed up to Eve in her weakest moment, blindsided her, with a boldface lie, then steamed-rolled her into believing that he has her best interest at heart. What heart? If he only had a heart!
It didn't take Satan long to shout to himself, "Mission accomplished." Satan only spoke twice to Eve and that was enough to plunge the human race into a spiral of sin. His success can be attributed to his ability to question the goodness of God in such a way that the children of God falls for his games, instead of standing on the Word of God.
God's rules are for our well being. Psalms 84:11 states, "For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing does He withhold from them that walk uprightly." According to 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." What is the point here? Instead of Eve calling out to her husband for help, she chose to engage with the serpent, one on one.
Why didn't Satan seek the opportunity to talk to both of them? Simply put, because of his craftiness, he knew that Eve would incline her ear unto his message. She was "the weakest link." He knew that Adam loved her enough, that through Eve he could get Adam as well.
Let this be a lesson that Satan is real and he moves to and from seeking to break up homes and destroy the future of God's people. Don't believe that song, that you can stomp Satan out. By yielding to God, we can keep him away from us, because he is already a defeated foe. Without Christ, we are no match for him.
Please allow me to outline my four thoughts in clarifying that Eve is "the weakest link:"
Point one - She underestimated the persuasive power of Satan. By talking one on one with him, she was no match. Beware of a loose conversation with someone, because it can be your worst enemy.
Point two - Satan led her to look at God, as if He was not a God of His Word.
Point three - She listened to him with full attention and at no time questioned his motive.
Point four - Satan manipulated her by placing doubt about God, into her mind.
We have a God who loves us and leads us into the path of righteousness. Eve stepped off that path when she engaged with Satan. She allowed Satan to convince her that the fruit was desirable for gaining wisdom, so she took some and ate it. Then she gave some to Adam and he ate it. She acted contrary to the helper principle designated to her by God. Remember what God said, "But for Adam there was not an help meet for him." God took Adam's ribs and made a woman, and brought her to him. Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because flesh was taken out of Man" (Genesis 2:23). They became one. Summing it up in a nutshell, Adam participated with his eyes wide opened, instead of remembering what the Lord had said to him. He should have rebuked Eve when she brought him the fruit. He had a clear choice to make. However, he chose to obey his wife and disobey God. The power behind his love was greater for Eve than for God. He said no to the Creator of all his blessings, and he said yes to the created one, Eve. Their action plunged all people into sin and cursed the entire world.