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.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree
was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the
tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate;
and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes
of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and
they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the
cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the
presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord
God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I
heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was
naked; so I hid myself.”
What
do we learn from this important passage on temptation?
(1) God allows us to be
tempted. (Gen. 3:1-5)
(2) God never tries to
get us to do the wrong thing, however. (James 1:13)
(3) We are tempted when
we are overpowered by our own desire. (James 1:14)
(4) Satan, man’s
arch-enemy, used the body of a creature who was subordinate to Eve
(Gen. 1:26-28) to tempt her. (Gen. 3:1-5; Rev. 12:9)
(5) Adam allowed his
wife, who was created to be his suitable helper (Gen. 2:18-23), and
thus was subordinate to him, to tempt him. (Gen. 3:6).
(6) Satan began by
questioning God’s Word. (Gen.3:1)
(7) Satan continued by
contradicting God’s Word. (Gen. 3:4)
(8) Satan lied about
God’s motive and besmirched His character, stating that God really was
trying to withhold something good from Eve – being like God. (Gen. 3:5)
(9) Adam and Eve lost
their innocence when they disobeyed God. (Gen. 3:7).
(10) Adam and Eve died
spiritually the moment they had disobeyed. They were now separated from
God and did not want to be around Him. (Gen. 2:16-17; 3:8-10)
(11) It would take Adam
930 years to die physically. (Gen. 5:1-5)
(12) If you don’t take
care of spiritual death before you die physically, your eternal destiny
will be “Second Death.” (Rev. 20:11-15) You really don’t want that to
happen!
