Genesis 3:1-7 (NIV)
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'?" 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.' "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.
"For God knows that when you eat of 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 were
opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together
and made coverings for themselves.
Have you ever wondered why a snake
(actually Satan in the guise of a snake) was the source of Adam and Eve’s
temptation? Indeed the Hebrew word used
for serpent means snake and the verb form of this Hebrew word means to practice
divination or fortune-telling. The verse
says that the serpent was more crafty (shrewd, cunning) than any other animal
God had created. Snakes give the
majority of humans the creeps and produce enormous fear. Why am I thinking of the classic scene in “Raiders
of the Lost Ark” when Indiana Jones yells in the airplane—“I hate snakes, Jake,
I hate ‘em”.
Note the serpent’s deceit. You can sense the cynicism in his words, “Did
God really say…….?” He outright
contradicted God’s words by saying, “You will not surely die”. He caused doubt in Eve’s thinking and her
doubt caused the loss of her faith.
Satan has not changed his ways throughout history. He is a constant source of temptation either
directly or through the flesh (physical immorality) or the world’s value systems
(emotional and spiritual immorality). He is the father of lies (John 8:44).
Eve’s lust started in her mind after
absorbing what the deceiving serpent said to her. The temptation for food resulted in lust for
power, the same kind of power God has. Lust produced sin and sin produced death
(the LSD of sin, James 1:14-15). God
warned Adam in Gen 2:17 that eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil would produce death. Not only
eventual physical death as stated in Gen 3:19, but also spiritual death in the
form of a curse that separates mankind from God Only faith in Jesus Christ and accepting His
sacrificial death on the cross for God’s forgiveness of sin can remove that
curse.
Compare this temptation with the temptation
of Christ. Satan tempted Christ in the
same way as Eve, yet what did Jesus do that Eve did not? He used Scripture to counter Satan’s
temptations. Eve could have simply
replied that the word of God prohibited her from doing what the serpent was
tempting her to do, but she did not.
And, of course, where was Adam when this was going on? He was standing and watching and doing
nothing. Adam was a failure as a
spiritual leader.
We all can learn so much from the example
of Adam and Eve and their succumbing to the temptations of the serpent, the
devil himself. We must all be on guard
against his attacks and his #1 modus operandi---to deceive you, to lie to
you. How many millions of men and women
in the history of the world has he succeeded in destroying through his lies and
deception? Don’t you be another
victim.
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