An exploration of how the hyperfocus on ourselves, without submission to God, can lead to tragic consequences
The Lord created us, and He loves us dearly. It is my belief that all God has ever done for humanity has been to make it possible for us to co-exist with Him, directly in His presence. However, it becomes very difficult for us to bask in His presence and enjoy His goodness when our attention is on ourselves.
The biggest example of God’s efforts to bring us closer to Him is seen in Jesus’ ministry. The Lord descended in flesh, suffered to the point of death, was resurrected and ascended all so we could have a closer relationship with God. After generations of the Mosaic law, Jesus, Son of God the Father, was the pinnacle of all that had been done before to make us holy enough to sit in the presence of God. I think we often forget that God is Holy, we are not – not by nature.
After the first sin, it all went very wrong, and we became somewhat incompatible with God. This is why we were cast out of the garden, not because He’s mean, but because He loved us, and He didn’t want us to die simply by being in close physically proximity to Him. Since then, He has done everything He can to bring us back to His presence.
Self focus in the Garden of Eden: The Beginning of the End
God’s very nature is to love us, and another expression of His love is to save us from ourselves. The focus on self has never led anyone to any good. When we take a look at the incident in the Garden of Eden, we begin to see that the reason why it was possible for Satan to tempt Eve is because her attention was drawn to her so-called lack, and she became fixated on how she could add to herself.
In Genesis 2:9 we are told:
“And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Genesis 2:9 NKJV
When Eve committed the sin against God, we are given some insight into her thought process leading up to the sin:
“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.” Genesis 3:6 NKJV
Let’s try to dissect each step in her thought process:
- She saw that the tree was good for food.
Eve wanted more for herself to eat, despite there being so many other things available to her as can be seen based on Gen 2:9. When God created the garden He gave them permission to eat from every other plant in the garden, also it’s not as if the other food that was there was not good for food – it would have filled them up the same way the forbidden fruit would have. It becomes obvious that they did not lack any food, nor were they going hungry in any way. This was greed.
- She saw… that it was pleasing to the eyes.
Again, we can see from Genesis 2:9 that all the trees that God grew were also pleasant to the eyes. Eve did not lack beautiful things to look at, she simply wanted more than she already had and needed. Perhaps Eve had started to covet.
- … and a tree desirable to make one wise.
At this point, Eve had forgotten about God’s instructions, and her focus was now on how she could do some self improvement and be wiser. This is a little strange because, up until that point, there is no indication that Eve lacked any wisdom. Sadly, she had allowed the devil to poison her view of herself when he said:
“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.” Genesis 3:5
The devil was crafty in phrasing the sentence in such a way that it concluded that Eve needed something she didn’t have. He posed himself as Eve’s advisor, knowing more than she did. The devil, himself a created being, did not know more than God, the Creator – and God had already revealed all that Eve needed to know about the tree. Had she rooted herself in God, she would have quickly recognised that God had ALREADY supplied her with all that she needed.
Outside of a secure identity rooted in a relationship with the Lord, it becomes easy to put on labels of lack that God never meant for us. Without His security, we become vulnerable to our environment, and we fall prey to filling gaps that God never told us we had, and, we try to fill these gaps outside of His will.
Although she already had so much else in the garden, all of that became irrelevant when she was deceived into believing there was lack where there wasn’t any. The hyper-focus on self caused Eve to take her eyes away from God, His word, and onto the very thing He had forbidden.
Tragedy Caused by Self-focus
After the fall, the focus on self did not leave us. In the Old Testament we see example after example of why focusing on ourselves can be the cause of our downfall. Below, are just two examples.
Cain
Not too long after the fall, Adam and Eve had children, and one of them was Cain. Cain struggled with anger which led him to murder his own brother.
After both Cain and his brother Abel offered sacrifices to the Lord, Cain became angry because the Lord was pleased with Abel’s offering but did not respect Cain’s. The Lord counselled Cain about his anger and even warned him that his anger would allow sin in, which was already crouching at his door, ready to capture Cain. Unfortunately for Cain, he didn’t engage further in the conversation with God. Instead, he seemingly carried on as ‘normal’, continuing to interact with the object of his jealousy and ending up killing him when they were alone.
While he had the opportunity, Cain could have asked God what the source of his own anger was, and how to overcome it. Unfortunately, something in Cain (probably pride) meant that he wouldn’t humble himself enough to be vulnerable with God in order to be guided by Him.
“He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” Proverbs 28:13 NKJV
The Israelites
After their deliverance from Egypt, the Israelites spent 40 years carrying out an eleven-day journey because they kept worrying about themselves more than they did about God’s direct commands.
For the Israelites to even escape Egypt, the Lord had parted an actual sea for them to walk through. When the Egyptian army started to pursue them on that same path God had created in the sea, they drowned. Personally, I think that’s up there as one of God’s most impressive miracles! Sadly, that was quickly and easily forgotten when the focus turned to their comforts, their fear, and their worries, so much to the point of wanting to go back to the very bondage that they had cried out to God about.
“Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”” Exodus 16:2-3 NKJV
Whenever, I have read the above scripture, I get so outraged at the drama of the Israelites – the God of the universe split the sea so you could escape from bondage, but you are complaining that He’s going to kill you by starvation?! I get so irritated at their short memory and their moaning, forgetting that I too have had moments where I seem to forget the wonderful things God has done for me and I start to moan about the small stuff that I just need to speak to Him about directly.
My wish is that the Israelites would have remembered how big a deal splitting the sea was and how much He must’ve cared for them to have done that, and therefore considered that maybe God would gladly give them food since that seems like a much smaller task after splitting the sea. I’m not suggesting that God is a genie who must give us whatever we want, but He is our heavenly Father who loves us and will meet our needs if we would humbly ask.
Thankfully, even without the Israelites directly asking, but just throwing shade at God, He provided bread and meat from heaven for them to have enough for each day. With this, God gave them specific instructions that they were to collect enough for each day (except for the 6th day when they could double up), but they disobeyed and kept extra which became foul and inedible.
The lesson here is this: the Lord meets our needs, but we often become prideful, thinking more of ourselves that we ought to. Hereafter we end up doing the very thing that He told us not to, convincing ourselves that we are self-sufficient and no longer need Him. In the case of the Israelites, the Lord swiftly addressed this because the bread would rot, and so they obeyed. In our modern world, we don’t even realise we are doing this, but we are susceptible to deception when we hyper-focus on self. We can very easily stray from God’s word, leaving room for us to begin to distrust it.
In the Israelite journey, we see a cycle of instruction, disobedience, consequence of disobedience, repentance and forgiveness, and a lot can be learned from it. For now, I would like us to consider how we manage ourselves from these two angles:
- When there is friction (and there will be), do we start to complain about the very blessing we asked for, how it no longer works for us in the way we want, while longing for the old situation that we so badly wanted to come out of?
- When it’s going well, do we start to think more of ourselves because of the blessing, believing we are in charge, and can handle the very same blessing in a way that dishonours the One who gave it?
The Antidote for Self-Focus: Honesty & Humility
Although God knows everything about us, including where we fall short or struggle, I believe He only helps us when we invite Him in. God doesn’t gatecrash parties, but He will show up and show out when we invite Him, with sincere humility and honesty.
A good example of this is seen in King Solomon. When he ascended to the throne of David, he recognised his shortcomings in his youth and inexperience. When God asked him what He could give to Solomon, Solomon brought this insecurity to God’s attention in humility, and God rewarded him above and beyond what he had asked for in the first place. Solomon did have other issues, but that’s a conversation for another time.
Before we can be honest with God though, we need to have the self-awareness to be honest with ourselves. If self-awareness isn’t your strong suit, then ask the Lord to help you with this. In the meantime, give a trusted person in your life the permission to tell you directly (but kindly) about the areas you struggle with. This will be very difficult to hear but will be worth the growth you will be able to experience in Christ.
The focus on selfish ambition, self comfort, self assurance, self preservation is something we can all be vulnerable to if we do not regularly humble ourselves at the feet of Jesus.
No matter how far gone we think something is, the immeasurable power of God can redeem, restore and bring abundance to even the ugliest parts of us. However, left unchecked, those ugly areas become strongholds that rule over us, and we become captives where we were meant to be conquerors.
I can only wonder where the world would be if Eve, instead of eating from the tree, simply went and told God about her ‘lack’ of wisdom. My guess is He would have told her that she was enough, and that He was sufficient for her. That’s the beauty of our loving Father, His word cuts through the lies of Satan and it reminds us who we belong to when we lose our way.
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