> [!Scripture] > **1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" > 2 The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; > 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'" > 4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! > 5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."** <img src="https://audio.mhbbible.com/media%3Agenesis%203%201-5.jpg" alt="Genesis 3:1-5" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;"> > [!success] Audio Commentary > <audio controls src="https://audio.mhbbible.com/Genesis%203%201-5.ogg"></audio> ## Brief Observations - **The serpent as Satan: crafty deceiver** — Satan, the father of lies and fallen angel of light, appears as (or possesses) a serpent—permitted by God in Eden. His pride led to apostasy, likely sweeping a third of heaven’s angels into demonic rebellion (Revelation 12:4). Once attendant at God’s throne, now a betrayer and tempter, raging against God and cynical of human faithfulness. + **Satan’s indirect assault on innocence** — Powerless to harm pre-Fall Adam and Eve directly, Satan tempts them to self-destruction—eroding their bond with God, making them vulnerable. Like with Job, he uses suffering or deception to test faith. Jesus calls him murderer from the beginning (John 8:44), come to steal, kill, destroy—ambitions we adopt under his influence. - **The serpent’s subtlety: twisting God’s word** — Satan initiates with a loaded question: “Has God said…?”—sowing doubt, implying restriction. He disguises as non-threatening (serpent camouflage), even angelic light (2 Corinthians 11:14). Dangerous lies often appear attractive, good, or prophetic—flying serpents symbolize false words from God. + **Exploiting vulnerability: targeting Eve alone** — Satan approaches Eve when isolated, away from Adam—highlighting dangers of separation from community and God. He appeals to intellect first, perverting God’s command into prohibition, fostering discontent. Isolation amplifies temptation; stay vigilant in fellowship. - **The progression of sin: doubt to denial to desire** — Satan denies consequences (“You surely will not die”), promises godlike knowledge—eyes opened, knowing good and evil. This mirrors his own fall: aspiring to be like the Most High (Isaiah 14). He lures with forbidden fruit’s appeal—good for food, pleasing to eyes, desirable for wisdom—awakening lust of flesh, eyes, and pride of life (1 John 2:16). + **Eve’s deception and Adam’s complicity** — Eve, beguiled, eats and shares with Adam—who sins knowingly, not deceived (1 Timothy 2:14). Immediate consequences: eyes opened to nakedness, shame births fig-leaf coverings—first futile attempt to hide sin. Innocence shattered; vulnerability and harm enter human hearts. - **The Fall’s core: rebellion and self-deception** — Eating wasn’t about the fruit but direct disobedience—exchanging tree of life for knowledge of good/evil, inviting death. Mortality seizes them: lives now apocalyptic, each day nearing grief, loss, and Christ as Judge or Savior. Sin inverts order: body/soul once aligned under God, now corrupted. + **Satan’s timeless tactic: assaulting God’s character** — He implies God withholds (malevolent or impotent)—same as today’s “If God is good, why evil?” Treason against His honor. Satan accuses God to us, us to God—the Accuser, thief. The more Christlike you become, the more his enmity targets you. - **Defense: trust God’s truth and love** — Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18); Christ’s love hedges against Satan. Resist by trusting God’s word on sin’s evil and His goodness—Satan flees (James 4:7). We have the Holy Spirit of Truth; walk in His light, fear no deceitful darkness. + **Redemption from paradise lost** — Our progenitors’ Fall dooms us to sin’s nature, but God foreordains rescue: Christ, the Truth, crushes the serpent (Genesis 3:15). In Him, we reclaim innocence, defeat deception, and enter eternal paradise. ## Full Commentary These verses present the account of Satan’s tempting Eve, so that he might draw our first parents into sin. Satan either takes the shape of a serpent in this passage or possesses one. Like I said I think we can be reasonably certain the serpent is in fact Satan. He is the father of lies and a malignant spirit, but he was created as an angel of light and he was an immediate attendant upon God’s throne. Satan’s pride warped him into apostasy and rebellion against God’s authority. Most scholars agree Satan was not alone when he fell from heaven, indeed tradition has it that a third of the angels fell with him. There is no verse in scripture which explicitly states this — but collection of biblical evidence suggests it to be true. The most common proof text is found in Revelation 12:4 which reads, “And his (Satan’s) tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.” After this rebellion, the angels who remained loyal to God were demarcated as holy angels. The group who fell with Satan became demons or those whom Christ called, “unclean spirits”. While there were multitudes of the heavenly host who defied God, the specific spirit who approached Eve in the garden was Satan himself. Satan’s nature as a betrayer is the same nature which causes him to be a tempter. Virtually every betrayal begins with temptation. Satan was powerless to harm Adam and Eve in their innocence, but if he could draw them into debauchery they might destroy themselves. Satan’s perspective can be described as one of rage against God and cynicism of human faithfulness. This is why he thought he could erode Job’s faith by inflicting him with suffering. When Satan or any other demonic force can’t directly harm you, they use indirect influence to draw you away from God. The further you separate from God the more vulnerable you are to corruption. Adam and Eve’s vulnerability to evil immediately coincided with sin separating them from God. Jesus said Satan was a murderer from the beginning. He said Satan has come to kill, steal, and destroy. Those are the ambitions of the evil one. Those become our own ambitions the more we allow ourselves to come under his corrosive influence. Our common progenitors are Adam and Eve, we are made of the same nature. This means we are still vulnerable to the sweet sounding lies of the serpent — just as they were. We don’t know whether Satan morphed into a serpent or whether he took possession of an actual serpent in the garden. I tend to think it was an actual serpent whose existence in the garden was innocuous prior to possession. But the Revelation account suggests there’s something serpent-like about Satan’s physical body anyway. In either case Satan’s presence was permitted by God. Part of the symbolism behind the serpent’s iconography is deception itself. The serpent disguises itself as non-threatening, hard to spot, and sometimes even camouflages itself in desirable colors. Some serpents in scripture are flying serpents, and the symbolism there represents deceptions which present themselves as words from God or prophecies. Satan used this style with Eve when he initiated discourse with her by first twisting God’s prohibition. Dangerous situations often present themselves as attractive or good for us. Satan was an angel of light, and he can still reveal himself as such, although his image is a lie. In scripture the serpent is considered a symbol of subtlety. This means the serpent is clever to how it might evade mischief and also cause it. Jesus Himself instructs His disciples to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. This means there is no nobility in naiveté. It’s better to be aware of how you might be hurt and take action to prevent it. Followers of Christ must be strategic in how they navigate a hostile world without compromising their moral integrity or becoming aggressive themselves. The serpent in the garden, possessed by Satan, was more deceptive than any serpent to follow it. Although he was no longer a holy angel, he was one before and he knew how to shape his speech and make it sound like an authoritative proxy for God. You must understand that if Eve could readily distinguish the serpent as evil, she wouldn’t have listened to him. Often we lull ourselves into spiritual sleep thinking if Satan or one of his emissaries comes to destroy our lives we’ll notice it from afar before they get to us. I just don’t think this is the case. Satan’s primary vehicle for destruction is deception and temptation. Any other efforts would directly violate God’s sovereign authority and God doesn’t allow that. If Satan could just destroy all of us directly then he would — but God will not permit it. And so as a Christian you must be aware corrupting influences will present themselves as attractive influences. The simple, yet perfectly effective protection against Satan and all of his schemes is to trust God’s words. Just trust what God has said and you have nothing to worry about. Satan’s temptation was targeted at Eve while she was alone in the garden, separated from her husband but nearby the forbidden tree. Scripture intimates Satan as a lion prowling the earth and stalking his prey. One commonality between Satan and predatory cats is how Satan isolated and targeted the weaker vessel. While Eve was perfect as a woman, she was likely inferior to Adam in terms of physical strength, direct experience with God, and presence of mind. It’s possible God’s prohibition of the forbidden fruit came to Eve as a second-hand command from Adam. Maybe this made it easier for Satan to convince her to discredit it. Notice how Satan waited until she was alone to tempt her. When it comes to resisting some temptations, there is often strength in numbers. The communion of the saints is able to help you stave off sinful temptations which may be much more difficult to handle alone. Also noteworthy is her proximity to the forbidden tree at the moment of temptation. She was nearby it. She may have been gazing upon it with curiosity. It’s easier to avoid the fire of sin if you flee the moment you notice smoke. Avoiding sinful temptations is best achieved by avoiding entire situations where sinful temptation may occur. For instance, if I want to avoid temptations to adultery, I should first avoid inappropriate conversations with women who aren’t my wife. Indulging inappropriate conversations opens the door to temptations which are much more difficult to resist. I know some pastors who won’t even be behind closed doors alone with a woman who is not his wife. I think there is great wisdom in this. You can’t fall into sin if you’re never positioned in a way that promotes it. Had Eve remained by her husband’s side, the serpent may not have approached her. You could argue Adam was Satan’s principal target the entire time. He merely chose Eve as a proxy for getting to Adam. This was certainly the case when Satan tried to tempt Job through Job’s wife. Similarly true when he chose to tempt Christ through His disciple Peter. This is why I say trust in God’s word must be preeminent over all other forms of trust. If you trust a loved one more than you trust God, you can be certain Satan will take advantage of it and use that person to lead you astray. The tradition of Sola Scriptura, or clinging to the infallibility and sufficiency of scripture, is your safest option when it comes to inoculating yourself against worldview-destroying pathological ideas. Satan is a schemer who employs ancient strategies known the world-over for successfully manipulating men and women into sin. His ideas, while contradictory, are not shallow in character. There is a kind of depth to Satan’s lies which the wicked explore to their detriment. Jesus refers to these teachings as the “deep things of Satan” in Revelation chapter two. Ephesians 6 tells us we are able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil when we put on the full armor of God. The two most famous temptations given by Satan are this one in the Garden of Eden and the series of temptations given to Christ in the wilderness. There’s an interesting parallel between them and I’m not sure what to make of it. The temptations are given to the first Adam and the second Adam. Remember Paul calls Christ the second Adam in his letter to the Corinthians. Both Adams are perfectly pure of corruption at the time the temptations are given. The first Adam is tempted in paradise. The second Adam is tempted in the wilderness. The paradisal Adam succumbs to temptation, while the wilderness Adam resists it. Perhaps these parallels are to suggest the power of God is all we really need to combat the temptations of the devil. Adam had the advantage of circumstantial paradise. Christ had the disadvantage of circumstantial wilderness. But one thing Christ had which Adam didn’t was absolute trust in God and accurate knowledge of His word. In both instances Satan’s approach was to mischaracterize what God had said in order to sow the seeds of doubt. With Adam and Eve it worked, either because they forgot God’s command or they didn’t trust that His command was true. With Christ it failed three times because each time Jesus was able to recall the scriptures and point out how Satan was twisting them. The first open door to allowing Satan into your life is to question whether a sin is actually a sin. Next is to minimize the negative consequences of the sin. And finally Satan will suggest commission of such a sin will come with distinct advantages over humble faith in God. This is the exact process Satan took with Eve: In verse 1 he changes God’s command and then questions whether God even said it. In verse 4 he minimizes negative consequences by assuring Eve she will not die if she transgresses. In verse 5 he promises her the advantage of being like God, knowing good from evil, and convinces her God knows about this advantage and is holding it back from her unjustly. Satan’s temptations almost always come packaged with those three lies: convincing yourself a sin is not actually a sin. Deceiving yourself that there will be no negative consequences. And then promising yourself great advantages if you just go ahead and do it. What’s most fascinating about these three deceptions is that they don’t always present themselves _before_ commission of sin. Sometimes they come after the sin as a kind of post-hoc rationalization. They remain equally dangerous whether they come before or after you sin. I think these three lies are actually far more dangerous than the sin itself. When I talk with people who have recently sinned in a major way — I caution them above all else against believing these three lies. The sin damages yourself and those around you, but these lies inject straight into your spirit and infect your worldview — making it much more difficult to repent and turn back to God. Let’s examine each lie in greater depth. First is how Satan questioned whether the sin was truly a sin. He doesn’t come right out and suggest Eve eat of the fruit. He simply asks her whether God forbade her from eating any of the fruit in the garden. Notice how nested within his first question is also his first twist of the word of God. God never forbade Adam and Eve from eating _any_ of the fruit, He simply forbade them from eating _specifically_ from the tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. But there’s a reason Satan leads off with a question. A question invites the person into discourse with the tempter, and mere discourse with the tempter seems safer than commission of the actual sin. But it’s not safer. Remember what we said about adultery beginning as simply inappropriate conversations. Satan had to misrepresent God’s word in order to cast it in a negative light. If all of us simply knew what was in our best interest the way God does, and if all of us knew how much God loves us the way God knows, then we wouldn’t be so tempted to violate His commands. If you can be convinced the word of God is unjust on a certain topic, you’re much more likely to discredit it as unimportant or untrustworthy. That’s why Satan altered God’s command in his opening question. There’s also a taunting element to the question. He asked it as if he were upbraiding her for being so ignorant. In order to understand the true evil of Satan we must accept that in his essence he is a scoffer. Satan scoffs at God. The scoffers who exist in the last days of the world are children of Satan. A favorite strategy of scoffers is to misrepresent faithful innocence as naive ignorance. The scoffer says, “There’s nothing noble about obeying God. You’re simply a coward for doing so, and you’re missing out on what you could become.” The scoffer is cynical of the very real evil which motivates sin and the very real consequences of sin on people and on the world. The scoffer might say something like, “A rapist wouldn’t rape if women wouldn’t dress themselves so provocatively.” In this way the scoffer seeks to deny the evil of rape and chalk it up to primordial urges. It was the satanic spirit of the scoffer who inspired the writings on the archway leading into Auschwitz (a place of terminal slavery and death) which read, “Arbeit Macht Frei” translated: work sets you free. Not only does Satan reject God and readily embrace evil, but he laughs at the tragic consequences it inflicts on those who commit it and those who suffer from its commission. Satan’s opening question was designed to throw-off Eve’s sense of obligation concerning the command of God. He misrepresented the command and then attacked the misrepresentation as unreasonable and untrustworthy. In fact, so the implication goes, Eve herself must be mistaken in what she heard. Someone as wise and powerful as God wouldn’t even issue such an unreasonable command, would He? So when we think about some of our own sins like drunkenness, taking the Lord’s name in vain, lying, or committing adultery — it’s crucially important that we maintain high respect for the commands against these things. We must remain certain God Himself has commanded it, and that by His grace we will continue to abide in His commands to the betterment of our lives and of our souls. You might find it impressive how Eve responded to the serpent with full and accurate recollection of God’s command. But doing so proved she already made her first mistake — which was to enter into discourse with the serpent at all. She should have clung to what she knew God said and trusted Him enough to turn and flee from the tempter. This is exactly what Christ did when He noticed Satan speaking through Peter and He responded with, “Get behind me Satan!” If Eve knew God’s command, which she demonstrated she did, then she should have detected the lie in Satan’s opening question: and this she also did. Despite knowing the serpent had no good motive for asking her this question, her curiosity got the best of her and she continued the conversation. The moment we fail to reject a temptation with disdain and abhorrence is the moment we make our first mistake and take our first steps toward sin. Satan’s will to enter into conversation with us reveals his lack of absolute power over our souls. If he had true power over us he could just force us to sin, but instead he opens with an invitation to talk because he knows that’s all he can do. If you want to be kept from harm you must take action to stay out of harm’s way. Proverbs has many admonitions in keeping with this principle, but two of my favorites are: “Leave the presence of a fool, Or you will not discern words of knowledge.” The other one reads, “Cease listening, my son, to discipline, And you will stray from the words of knowledge.” Despite her mistake of indulging conversation with the tempter, I do think we should extend some credit to Eve for accurately recalling God’s true command. Part of why Satan twisted it from a specific tree to _all_ trees was to blind Eve to the liberties of trusting in God and magnify the restrictions. He was attempting to mischaracterize God as someone who would put her and Adam into paradise only to tantalize them by surrounding them with forbidden fruit. This sounds like an easy lie to dismiss, but it’s actually the same lie which preys on godless people today. Time and time again you’ve heard the godless say things like, “I don’t want to be a Christian because then you’re not allowed to do anything.” Or something like, “I don’t want to live a life of restrictions and scrutiny so I want to leave the faith.” These thoughts stem from the deception that God has surrounded you with forbidden fruit. The truth is, not all fruit is forbidden, and the best of fruits are not forbidden at all. Living a life of faith is truly the best life on offer, and the liberties which attend being in right relationship with God are liberties which are exclusive to it. The fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are not apprehensible outside of relationship with God. Satan would have you forget about the comforts of life with God and instead focus on the restrictions: restrictions which are in place for your own benefit. Although Eve recalled God’s command more accurately than Satan misrepresented it — she did in fact embellish a small part of it and wavered in another. The embellishment comes when she adds to the prohibition that, “we must not touch the fruit”. In truth God never told them not to touch it, He told them not to eat of it. We don’t have enough textual evidence to know the motivation behind Eve’s embellishment, so I think we’re best served in extending her the maximum possible charity. She may have added the part about not touching it because of her high respect for God and His prohibitions. _God said don’t eat of it, so therefore we’re not even going to touch it._ The part where her faith beings to waver is when she recounts the consequences if they do eat of it. God said, “…in the day you eat from it you will surely die.” Eve modifies this warning by removing the certainty and simply saying if they eat of it they will die. You might think her redaction of the word “surely” is incidental — but I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s mere coincidence that the very next words from Satan’s mouth are, “You surely will not die!” Also notice how Satan re-inserts the word “surely” when he presents the inversion of God’s warning. God gave Eve certainty she would die, Eve landed somewhere in the middle without certainty, and Satan gave her certainty she would not die. This part of the discourse reveals that wavering faith and wavering resolutions open the smallest crack in the door for Satan to walk through. When Paul warned the Galatians of false teaching he said, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.” The serpent calls into question the certainty of repercussions should Eve transgress God. This approach is interesting because it remains effective even when separated from doubting the transgression itself. This is like the drunk driver who understands drunk driving is against the law but doesn’t truly believe anything bad will happen to him if he does it. In the serpent’s case, it was a way of undermining Eve’s fear of God. There are two major strategies Satan uses to lure us into sin — let’s unpack each of them. First is to undermine our confidence in the authority of God’s word. This is to attack our trust in God. In order to deceive the woman Satan only needed her to doubt part of what God said. This is true of how we treat God’s word today. If we begin to doubt any part of the scripture or become skeptical of anything God has said, the door will be flung open for all manner of apostasy. Second is to undermine our fear of the Lord. Denying the certainty of repercussions was Satan’s way of diminishing Eve’s fear of God. Scripture says the fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom, and this means we can obey God’s word even if we don’t understand it — and we can do so because of our reverential fear of God Himself. Eve didn’t actually need to believe eating the fruit was sinful, she only needed to trust in the consequences God said would come should she eat it. To keep the drunk driver analogy, a person who’s considering driving drunk would be hesitant to do so _even if it were legal_ supposing this person feared the non-legal negative consequences of it. I could live in a society which permits drunk driving, but if I know anything about the human tragedy of drunk driving accidents then I would resist doing so regardless of whether it was legal. That’s what it means to fear the Lord. We may not agree with a specific command given by God, but if we fear God we’ll obey that command regardless. Satan’s twofold temptation was to cast doubt on the command itself as well as the certainty of negative repercussions. It’s worth noting how the undermining of consequences came _after_ he tried causing her to doubt the command. This is the same process which causes converted Christians to fall into sin today. Nearly zero pastors who have moral failures do so on the ground of not realizing a sin is a sin. They simply become deceived that there will be no negative consequences for their sin. Just as fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, so defiance of the Lord eliminates whatever capacity for wisdom you might have. Satan always attacks a person where he or she is weakest. This is one of many reasons why attempting the Christian life in isolation is deeply unwise. You need to be surrounded by faithful people who do not have the same weaknesses as you. This way they can come alongside you and assist your resistance to spiritual attack. If we fail to abide in Jesus as the axiomatic presupposition for all things true, we are doomed to lose our ability to apprehend truth at all. That’s what Christ means when He calls Himself the truth. He is the Spirit of Truth itself. Even our A.I. large language models are incapable of apprehending truth divorced from initial value-judgments. This is why A.I. models like Google’s Gemini and Chat GPT give such different responses than models like Elon Musk’s Grok. Even systems with computational power far greater than our own are incapable of reasoning without basing their reasoning on axiomatic presuppositions. They need to be trained to recognize what is “true” on the basis of some sacred parameters. You need sacred parameters which you never question otherwise you will drown in a white noise of information — none of which has any greater value than the rest of it. That’s like a technical picture of what the postmodernist means when he says, “I have my truth and you have your truth, but there is no objective truth.” I want to read to you a passage of scripture which expands on what it means to view Christ as the truth and to abide in Him. The apostle John was writing to the province of Asia, likely including the Ephesian church, and he was warning them about antichrists which would come to deceive many. He tells them what it means to abide in Jesus as the eternal Spirit of Truth. Here’s what he says: >**1 John 2:18-29** >18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. >19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. >20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. >21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. >22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. >23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. >24 As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. >25 This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. >26 These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. >27 As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him. >28 Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. >29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. It’s also worth noting how Satan knew for himself he was lying to Eve. He knew the truth of repercussions should she defy God — he himself suffered from them. Satan conceals his own misery and offers the falsehood of power in order to lull you into damnation with him. We see this all the time with unrepentant sinners. They dress themselves up and take “pride” in their sins as a way of concealing the suffering which attends them. While many people discount God’s word, most people understand quite clearly that things which you should not do tend to result in objective breakdown. Playing with fire is a bad idea because it will burn you. Mishandling loaded guns is unwise because of accidental discharge. Jumping off of buildings is perceived as a bad thing because of what gravity does to your body when the fall is complete. These are considered bad ideas universally, independent of one’s religion. When negative consequences are so reliably observed from the transgression of God’s commands — it adds legitimacy to the objectivity of the command itself. Perhaps what God said is _actually_ true if we can so reliably suffer negative consequences when we violate it. That’s why unrepentant sinners hide the consequences. They don’t want to legitimize God’s word through the reality of their own misery. If Satan had shown Eve all the ways he had suffered by defying God, he would have undermined his own claim that God wouldn’t punish her should she sin as well. In addition to doubting the consequences, Satan also promises Eve specific advantages if she consumes the forbidden fruit. I think that’s one of the most fascinating parts of this discourse and truly enlightening concerning the dangers of Satan’s ability to tempt us. Remember Adam and Eve were living in paradise completely free from sin. And yet somehow Satan convinced them there was something better. Neither of them would have risked defying God and ruining themselves had they not believed in the great probability of bettering themselves. This goes back to an idea we mentioned earlier in these Genesis studies: it does not matter how perfect your circumstances are if you fail to believe God has placed you there. The key for Adam and Eve resisting fantasies of some place better than actual paradise was to remember God is the one who put them in paradise to begin with. This means their fantasy of something better wasn’t born of some dissatisfaction with paradise — it was born of a distrust in God. If you trust that you are where you are because God wants you there, then it becomes impossible to dream of something better. This really is the secret to godly contentment. It’s impossible to find your calling if you’re never prepared to believe God has placed you in your calling. A calling is not a feeling, it’s a belief that God has you where He wants you and it’s a trust in His reasons for it. Satan’s supposed revelation of secret knowledge which would make Adam and Eve better only matters if Adam and Eve distrust God. They had to come to a place where they could believe God is hiding something from them. Obviously this promised betterment couldn’t be associated with their actual circumstances: the definition of paradise meant their circumstances couldn’t be any better. So Satan had to appeal to their intellect instead. He told Eve, “God knows in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” He promised her a form of consciousness much deeper and much richer than her own. He insinuated that both her and her husband had narrow fields of view for what they could actually contemplate and enjoy. They didn’t have near the kind of power they could have. God was keeping them blind and what good is paradise if you’re almost completely blind to it? That’s the blow which Satan struck at the root of the tree of our first parents. The tree of which all of us are now branches. He told Eve that her and Adam shall be like God Himself. They would be omniscient and omnipotent, they would be equal with God and rivals with Him. Ultimately he was promising them self-actualization. He was promising them a sovereign existence truly independent from God. When in reality all he could offer them was separation from God. It’s funny because when we read about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, almost all of us by default accept the satanic sense of its name. We think it was named such because consuming its fruit gives us a speculative knowledge of existence going deeper than what we perceive in innocence. We think it imparts the knowledge of morality and that’s the primary meaning of its name. But that’s merely the idea Satan sold to Eve. The truth of its name was that the tree itself, independent of its consumption, existed as a delineation between good and evil. The entire purpose of its name was to reveal how obeying God is the ontological reference-point for that which is good and defying God is the ontological reference-point for that which is evil. The tree represents a choice — one choice being good and one choice being evil. And this information was already given to Adam and Eve before their eyes were opened by its fruit. If Eve had remembered this at the time of her discourse with the serpent, she would have been protected against his lies of secret knowledge. The scariest thing about Satan is that this entire time he was always aiming at humanity’s destruction, even in this discourse with Eve. He wasn’t just accidentally wrong about his promises. He knew he was wrong. He knew they couldn’t be like God anymore than he could. He ruined himself with aspirations to be like God. We read briefly about it from the prophet Isaiah who says: >**Isaiah 14:12-19** >12 "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! >13 "But you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. >14 'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' >15 "Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit. >16 "Those who see you will gaze at you, They will ponder over you, saying, 'Is this the man who made the earth tremble, Who shook kingdoms, >17 Who made the world like a wilderness And overthrew its cities, Who did not allow his prisoners to go home?' >18 "All the kings of the nations lie in glory, Each in his own tomb. >19 "But you have been cast out of your tomb Like a rejected branch, Clothed with the slain who are pierced with a sword, Who go down to the stones of the pit Like a trampled corpse. Satan’s plan the entire time was to lure humanity into the same damnation he himself suffered. But he presented it as if God were giving humanity a bad deal. It’s no coincidence you hear this same trope from those who hate God today. “If God is good, why is there so much suffering and evil in the world?” Packaged with this question is the assumption that God is holding back from us — either through malevolence or incapacity. It’s literally the same set of implications that came from the mouth of Satan himself. Either God isn’t all-powerful and therefore He fears you eating this fruit and rivaling Him, or God is not good and He is withholding the best possible experience from His creation. Both of these claims are high-treason against the honor of God. They are anti-truths which function as assaults on His character. If Satan and his followers are willing to misrepresent the character of God Himself, how much more so may your own character be misrepresented? A danger of the Christian life is the false assumption that if we be good enough people we won’t make any enemies. You must remember Satan is an enemy of God Himself. There is nothing better than God, and even despite this Satan maligns Him. It’s far more accurate to say the more Christlike you become, the more you will attract the enmity of Satan. Satan accuses Christians in front of God, and he accuses God in front of Christians. This is why he called the Accuser, the Father of Lies, the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But you don’t need to be afraid. Perfect love casts out fear and Jesus Christ has perfect love for you. The hedge of protection which Satan himself cannot cross is your trust in God. Trust God that what He said is true both in regard to the evil of sin and to the goodness of Himself. If you simply trust in God, no matter the circumstances, then you will resist Satan and he will flee from you. The guile of the serpent proved a most dangerous snare to our first parents in the story of paradise lost, but we have the Holy Spirit of Truth and so as we continue to walk faithfully by His light, we need not fear the darkness of deceit.