Genesis 3 - A Peak into Satan’s playbook & Lessons We Can Learn to Not take the Bait!
I’ve just started going through Lies Young Women Believe Companion Guide (written by Nancy Leigh Demoss Wolgemuth and Dana Gresh) with a couple of small groups. I felt led to dig deeper into how Eve was deceived in Genesis three, since that is where this study begins. My study uncovered some highlights that may not be new to you but are definitely worth revisiting! I’ll take the passage one chunk at a time.
Genesis 3:1-5 “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’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 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.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!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.”
The serpent aka Satan is more crafty than all other beasts.
He targeted Eve.
He must have been listening into God’s conversation with Adam, because his temptation is based on twisting God’s Word and His nature.
He seems to be a great observer of human weakness.
First Lie - Over Exaggeration a hook to get Eve to converse with him. “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden?”
This hooks Eve in to talk with him. She takes the bait and tries to correct him.
She doesn’t realize that Satan purposefully misquoted God to get her to listen to him.
Eve’s understanding is imperfect and when she tries to correct his “mistake” she adds extra restrictions, which may show that she had already been contemplating that forbidden fruit. After all she is standing right by the tree when the serpent slithers in to entrap her. Eve says, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, “You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.”
Satan jumps on that and totally contradicts what God said and knew what would truly happen. Satan exclaims, “You surely shall not die!” Then he goes on to sow doubt about God’s nature and character to destroy His trustworthiness in Eve’s eyes. He says, “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.”
At that point, Eve’s flesh took over and she did the rest, filling in all the tantalizing blanks that spun the web around and around her.
Before looking closely at the downward spiral of temptation that led Adam to sin willfully and plummeted humankind into our fallen state, lets pop over to 1 John 2:15-17. It warns us by saying, “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (or her). For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever.”
So here’s Eve’s progression: “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food.” (Lust of the flesh.) “And it was a delight to the eyes.” (Lust of the eyes.) “And that it was desirable to make one wise…” (Boastful pride of life.) She took from its fruit and ate and she gave to her husband with her and he ate.” (Genesis 3:6)
She totally relies on her own faulty understanding. God said that “but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)
She relies on her own judgment to redefine what is “good for food” and then rationalizes her flawed judgment by leaning on her own understanding of what would make her “wise”. (God had told Adam that eating of the fruit would lead to death and He knew that He alone could successfully handle the knowledge of good and evil, for His goodness and glory was what drew the line between the two.)
Eve was targeted, but Adam appears to have been right there but passively listening.
Eve interacted with the serpent and she was sucked in by the three main sources of temptation repeated over and over in the world and described to a T by God in 1 John chapter two. This is Satan’s play book!!!
Adam knew God’s commandment and willfully disobeyed when Eve handed him the forbidden fruit. Another indicator that Adam was there with Eve as all of this chit-chat with Satan was going down is that they both experience the consequence of eating the fruit at the same time.
Genesis 3:7-9 record what happened as soon as they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “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. 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.Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’”
Here are the consequences of sin Adam and Eve experienced — which are the universal consequences of sin to this day.
Death of Innocence —They now have shame. “The eyes of both of them were opened and they knew they were naked” and they tried to cover themselves up!
Death of Intimacy with God —They now know fear. “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife, they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord.”
Death of a clean conscience —They now know guilt. They never hid from God before. They never dreaded coming face to face with Him before. They never made excuses for their actions until the consequence of their sin entered their very souls.
These three consequences still drive the cultural and personal battles that we face because of sin. Note that they certainly did “DIE” even if the death wasn’t instantly a physical death.
“Then the LORD God called to the and said to him, “Where are you?” And Adam answered, “I heard the sound of Thee in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid myself.”
God asks how he now knows he is naked. “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
This is God being merciful to Adam and Eve — our ancestors!
He is bringing them into the light by His questions. He is giving them the opportunity to come clean and confess their sin. He had a plan to restore them.
However, instead of confessing and expressing their sorrow over their disobedience and distrust of Him, they choose to play the blame game.
Adam blames Eve and God for his sin. “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me from the tree and I ate.” Don’t blame me, it’s all her fault and Yours, too, God! How often have we done that or at least thought it even if we weren’t bold enough to say it!
Then God speaks to Eve. “What is it you have done? Eve says, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.” The devil made me do it line.
And now we see that, guess what? Satan is conveniently hanging out right there while God is having this conversation with Adam and Eve. Now it seems like a courtroom. “And the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you….all the days of your life; and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.” This bothered me some, but then I realized that enmity really already existed between Satan and people, God’s crowning creation. Satan had targeted Eve to get at both her and Adam in the first place. He hated that they (and we) are loved by God, while he had been cast out of heaven and God’s presence because of his pride and rebellion. So what God was stating here was different. He was stating that there would be a particular “seed of the woman” and Satan’s seed, and this would happen when Jesus came in the flesh, God’s Son, born of a woman. Praise God that He sent His only Son for us, that “whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
To close this study out, I want to mention the characteristics of Satan that stood out to me as I studied Genesis 3.
Satan uses subtle bait at first to manipulate us and to get us to rely on our own reasoning and understanding.
He has no problem lying straight out and outrightly contradicted God’s Word. (Jesus said Satan was a liar and a murderer from the beginning and when he speaks all he knows is lies because that is his native tongue!)
Satan loves to insinuate that God is foolish or not trustworthy and is holding out on us by keeping us from being like Him. (The real motive here is not drawing on our desire to be godly, but our sinful desire to try to be god ourselves.)
Satan dangles something before us that God has told us is clearly off limits. God has commanded us to stay away from sin FOR OUR OWN GOOD, but Satan tries to get us to doubt God and His Word.
He sits back and lets our lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and boastful pride of life take over and then he’s got us snared with damaging consequences that tear at our soul.
Ultimately, Satan wants to use his lies and our sin, to get us to run from God and hide from Him. He loves to heap the shame, guilt and fear on us. But always remember that God is right there wanting us to come to Him.
God calls out to us not to shame us more or because he now hates us - NO, He calls to us because He loves us and is confronting us so we will make an honest confession and receive His forgiveness through Jesus.
He desires to restore us. Way before God even made the heavens or the earth and way before He created Adam and Eve, our Triune God had a plan, and here in Genesis three is the first glimpse given of the glorious victory that His beloved Son and our Savior would win. Here’s the full prophesy from Genesis 3:15 that the LORD God gave:
“And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall crush you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
Satan bruised Jesus’ heel at the cross of Calvary, but Jesus, seed of the woman, Son of God miraculously through the Holy Spirit, crushed Satan’s head.
Colossians 2:13-15 clearly states, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”
Praise God for His good, holy and perfect nature. Praise God that His heart is always to keep us from dying in our sins. Praise God that He sent Jesus to bear the penalty for the curse our sins incurred and for His resurrection, declaring for ever and ever, that His sinless sacrifice on our behalf is fully accepted by the Father. Praise Him for ascending into heaven and praise Him that He is coming again. Praise Him for His Holy Word which can keep us from sin!
Psalm 119:11 state, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” and Proverbs 3:5-6 tell us that true wisdom is to “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge (submit) to Him and He will direct your path.” If only Eve would have held fast to trusting God with all her heart, so much pain and suffering would have been nipped in the bud!
Thankfully, though the lies Satan told in the garden are the same lies he uses today, Jesus Christ came full of grace and truth. His salvation is able to bring us brand new life and make us new creations for His glory! Let’s resist loving this world or the things in this world, for the love of the Father is worth more than anything this world can ever offer. We must see the counterfeits for what they are and cling to Jesus, the only One who truly satisfies.
SOME ACTIONS TO CONSIDER:
DOWNLOAD THIS: Genesis Chapters 1 - 3 are foundational chapters for aligning our lives with God’s design. Please click here to download a free short study that will help you build a biblical worldview.
If you’ve found this devotional to be a source of authentic encouragement for you, please use the buttons below to quickly share it with your friends and social circles. I’d really like to be able to share what the Lord is putting on my heart with all those who would benefit from it.
If you have enjoyed working through this passage with me, then please consider purchasing EARLY RAINS, my Journey into Trust Bible Study for women who want to grow.
You may also grow from reading my post titled: From darkness to Light! — The Hopeful Buttercup!
My piece “Creed” contemplates similar themes as this piece. Find it here:Creed — The Hopeful Buttercup!
Another recommendation for those of you in ministry is reading The 3D Gospel by Jayson Georges. It’s pretty fascinating. Creed — The Hopeful Buttercup!
Lastly, I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment!
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Photo Credit for Tree Photo: Green tree with orange fruits during daytime photo – Free Green Image on Unsplash
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