Blessings, Rev Frank R. Anderson
As we
already stated previously, the enemy is a believer. He believes in the power of God and
the promises of God; that is why he works so hard to discredit them. I fear
that the enemy at times believes more in the promises of God than do some of
the saints! His work is to discredit those promises and to attack the character
of God, which he successfully did in the Garden.
In Genesis 3:1-3, it says,
“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.” Up to this point we can give Eve a
passing grade in doctrine. She expressed the commandment as it was given to
her; you can eat of any of the trees except for the tree in the center because
that is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the original translation
it says, “The day you eat of it before the sun goes down ye shall surely
die.” Now, when God said “ye shall surely die,” He obviously meant
spiritually since they did not physically die. This is indeed the very reason
Christ had to come and die for our sins, to be born again of His Spirit because
death passed upon all men through Adam and Eve’s disobedience (Rom 5:12).
Bear in mind that when God created Adam and Eve they were created to live
forever, they were not created to die.
The Enemy Wants to Convince
Eve of Something False
Now the
serpent, which is a master at trickery and deception, began to sneer at what
God said and make Eve ashamed that she believed what her husband and her God
said. Genesis 3:4 says,
“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:” Today, the
conversation would sound something like this: “You’ve got to be kidding me,
that is utter nonsense; you don’t really believe you will actually die do you?”
Now, the enemy knew full well that what God said was true but he was using his
tools (his words) to deceive her. Why? It is because he wanted to convince her
of something he himself knew was false and thereby slay her. By his deceptive
words he convinced her to believe something false because, once she believed
it, he knew she was going to act on that belief, separating her from her
husband and God (sin separates us from God). He also knew that by convincing
Eve he was going to affect the entire human race by her disobedience, giving
him an advantage throughout the history of man. He wanted to get her to believe
something that is not true; he wanted to convince her that what the Lord (and
her husband) said she could not have was because they were unfair and
controlling. In Genesis 3:5 the
serpent said to Eve, “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.” These words were smooth as oil I am sure, but what a slanderous
accusation against the nature and character of God. Oh, how many he has slain
with variations of this same lie throughout the generations!
The Problem was That Eve
Believed the Lie
Now, the
enemy coming and undermining the character of God is not really the problem, as
heinous as this is. The problem is that Eve believed it. Why did Eve
believe it? When the enemy pointed out the “merits”
of this tree, Eve turned and she looked. This is the problem; she began to
believe the lie. Genesis 3:6 says, “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with
her; and he did eat.” Prior to this encounter this was a
hated tree. They probably never even looked at it because God, who had always
been good to them, told them it would be certain death to do so and so they
dismissed it from their minds. Then the enemy came to her and said something
like this: “Let me tell you what the problem is here; God is holding you
back, all He wants to do is control your life and keep you back.” With
that, evil thoughts entered into Eve’s heart and she began to see things in a
“new light.” Let me put this caution in
here for the ladies: when you begin to feel your husband and the church are
holding you back, you need to examine your heart and take careful note of who
is talking to you and what they are saying. These are the warning signs that
something is wrong.
Evil Thoughts Entered Her
Heart When She Believed a Lie
The lies the
enemy told Eve corrupted her. Evil thoughts of self-interest entered into her
and even worse, she believed them. Always choose the fear of the Lord over
personal gratification to avoid this snare. It was Eve’s self-interest that got
her in trouble here. The enemy did not tell her what he knew to be true, that God
was holding her back from things that would harm her and the generations that
would follow. Instead he imparted to her a doubt about God’s character and she
questioned if God had her best interest at heart. The enemy also implanted a
desire for the forbidden fruit. Once he accomplished this task he knew that she
would do the rest, disobeying the commandment of the Lord and bringing God’s
judgment on that disobedience.
In Genesis 3:7-8 it then states, “And the eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together,
and made themselves aprons. (8) And they
heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day:
and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst
the trees of the garden.”
What a sad day when the Lord came down into the garden to walk with Adam and
Eve in the cool of the day as He had done so many times before, only to find
them hiding from the one who lovingly created them with His own hands and
breathed the breath of life in them and put them in the beautiful garden.
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