Bible Study

Genesis 3:1-6

Temptation and the Fall of Man and woman

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of 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 hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
(The Holy Bible : King James Version. 1995)

How easily are we deceived? If we stop to think about the original sin, of first Eve and then Adam, it isn't hard to understand their fall to temptation. Eve was not tempted by a chocolate bar, or some tall, dark, and handsome stranger, she was tempted by Satan himself, the master of all deception! We fall prey to temptation continually on a daily basis, how can we possibly hold Eve accountable for being naive and falling into Satan's trap?

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.

The Hebrew word for the word Subtil is Aruwm (aw-room), it is translated once as Subtil, twice as crafty, (perhaps cunning would be more appropriate) and Prudent eight times in Proverbs. I prefer to use either crafty or prudent. Between the nature of all the beasts, we see differences in animals, such as the cunningness of foxes, and the serpent may have been even more cunning which would have made him a viable tool to get to Eve. On the other hand, he could have been the most prudent or sensible of creatures making him one you would have more trust in and one you would least suspect of being deceptive. I believe that if Satan were to, (and someday he will), present himself in a person, (or in person himself), he will not come across as being crafty or deceiteful, but will appear as a creature of understanding and compassion, one in whom most people would put their trust and confidence in not realizing he is a back biting, lying thief trying to steal your soul. Either way makes the serpent a viable target for Satan to work his craft through.

And he said unto the woman,

Did the animals have speech before the fall of man? Or did Satan use his powers to give speech to the serpent? This has been touched on by others, but outside of being a point of debate has little value, God has the power and authority to create and destroy the universe, he had the power to put speech and language in our mouths, and in the Old Testament He spoke through the mouth of an ass, so the only point of value here is that Satan did use the serpent as a tool of communication through which to tempt Eve, and did so with speech.

Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Now comes the fun. There may or may not have been more conversation leading up to this question posed by the serpent, but I prefer to look at the psychological tactics used by Satan. First he raises the question, "hath God said...." If Satan had the power to manipulate Adam and Eve, if he were perceived as a figure of authority over Adam and Eve, he could have simply said, "God is a Liar" or "Taste it, it is good, you won't die", but Adam and Eve had already been instructed by God, and had been created to obey God. In order for Satan to create the fall, he must deceive them.

The first step in Satan's deception is a question. This very question by nature shows that Satan already knew the answer, if he had not known about the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he would not have known to ask the question. So why was a question such a clever tactic? To start with, in asking her this question he draws her into a conversation where he can work his craft of deception. Secondly he introduces Eve to the concept of questions. Until now, Adam and Eve were created to obey God, and to do his bidding. I don't believe the Angels in Heaven ever ask why, nor do they question Gods authority. They simply obey as did Adam and Eve until this point, NO QUESTIONS ASKED!!!

Did this question arouse a different way of thinking to Eve? I believe it did and here is why:

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of 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 hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

As Eve is responding to Satan's question, notice she says, "neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die". I've heard many speak on this line, God did not say, "neither shall ye touch it", she is either making this up, or lying, or perhaps something is now going on in her mind, and she is thinking out loud in attempt to fight off the growing temptation. Adam and Eve were made for obedience, not made to lie or to presume Gods intent, so it is hard to believe that she just made this up for the point of argument. Her mind began racing as she spoke, now she is telling Satan what God said, but as she is saying it, questions begin racing through her mind..."Why can't we eat of it? Will we die? Why would God give us a tree that would kill us?" all in all, she was beginning to feel the pressure and in a feeble attempt to avoid the temptation thought to herself, I don't even want to touch it!!! Oh I think many of us have been in that predicament where we feel almost driven and possessed to do something we know we shouldn't, even to the point of avoiding even getting close. Maybe it is taking a different route home, or not going by the ice cream shop in the front of the mall by entering the back, or maybe even something worse. Eve was already on the driven path, full of questions, but in the back of her mind she could hear Gods voice loud and clear, "DON'T EVEN GO THERE".

Satan's work had already begun, he had her by the toe and was ready to drag her right on down. The very same way we get taken in by temptation, a little at first, the question, what harm is there in it? and before we know it, we have done something that we know was wrong and the guilt and remorse set in.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

This is further evidence that Eve had now some doubts and questions in her mind. This is how Satan works, first by weakening our confidence, then attacking that weakness to pull us down. Seeing her doubt, he seizes the opportunity to attack with a false accusation against God, and before she even has a chance to question why, he answers that ye shall be as gods.. Satan has taken her weakness and doubt, and twisted Gods intentions as if to make God appear to be concerned that if she ate of the fruit, she would be almost His equal. Thus her doubts had been filled with false answers.

Eve was naive, she was probably confused, being at first innocent, and now filled with questions and doubts. She had until now only known Truth and God's will for her life, but now she saw a life of her own. She had never known a lie or what a lie was, until now she only had God and Adam. Eve had no street smarts, and now her doubts were being filled with the possibility that this serpent was privy to information she didn't have. We can only imagine what must have been racing through her mind at this point, but we all have some experience of being innocent to a certain degree, and being steered and manipulated with doubt and convincing argument, you almost have to feel sorry for the woman.

Today the same thing is happening every day, look at evolution being taught in the classrooms. We are told by Gods word that he created the world in 6 days, Moses wrote it down, Jesus confirmed Moses accuracy, yet when young learning and unsuspecting minds are introduced to alternate concepts we are taken in. Suddenly Gods word becomes weaked within us, and the Satan uses that weakness to pull us down. (see my tesimonial and Bible study on the creation when I get it done).

The bottom line to these five verses is, we need to set our minds to hearing and following the will of God for our lives. To surrender completely, not to question, not to falter, but to stand strong against temptation when we know better on the inside. Sometimes following Gods will can cost friends, He may lead you in a direction you don't understand, and people around you may not understand either, but God does know what is best, and if He leads you in a new direction, or keeps you on the path you are on, He has reason for it and it behooves us to follow his lead. Anything less only hurts us, and those around us.

Dan Dunkin