Genesis 3:2-8 comments: Satan's 'con' game

3:2  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.

Satan makes the woman, whom we later know as Eve, part of his deception, his con-game. We learn in verse 6 that Adam is with her, even though it is often told by preachers that Adam could not possibly have stood by and watched his wife get sucked into the con but later we also see that Adam is quick to blame even God for his actions. Adam is not tricked here, as we understand by what Paul said in a letter to Timothy. He stands by and watches what his wife is being pulled into.

1Timothy 2:14  And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

            Eve acknowledges that she and Adam are permitted to eat of every tree but one. In fact, she goes beyond what God actually said, in neither shall ye touch it. We often do that with doctrine. God ordains a thing and we go beyond what He said to satisfy our own imaginings, making our new-improved rule God’s standard, when in reality, we have played the part of Eve.

Here, then, Satan makes a shocking statement, calling God a liar or calling into question what God meant by what He said. This is one of the most profound examples of wickedness in history, repeated by every drunk and drug addict before they take their first drink or shoot-up the first time, every sexually immoral person considering their lust, every teenaged boy with a heavy foot on the gas pedal, and every hot-tempered man of violence. Ye shall not surely die. Oh yes, you will, Sparky.

Some people might claim that Satan is telling Eve that they have misunderstood what God meant by what He said but what God said was so clear as to not be uncertain at all. Satan simply denies that what God said was true.

Satan basically tells them that God has tricked them and what He is doing is preventing them from being as gods themselves, having a knowledge of good and evil. Their eyes would be opened. But, while what he is suggesting seems desirable, being as gods, knowing good and evil comes at a price too horrible to contemplate, for death is at the end of that road. To disobey God when there was only one thing you could do on earth that constituted disobedience and the consequence of that one thing was too high a price to pay for such knowledge was the great tragedy of history.

We believe that we must have what we want and to get it we are willing to either deny that what God says will happen will actually happen, or as in the following passage, we simply justify it in our mind.

3:6 ¶  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. 7  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.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil had three qualities that presented themselves to Eve. It could satisfy hunger, was nice to look at, and, at Satan’s suggestion she and her husband would be God-like, being able to discern the secret of good and evil. However, this was a trick, a con-job. Adam and Eve had no lack of food. Food was abundant most likely and delicious. The tree was beautiful as probably many other trees were beautiful. These things drew her like a moth to a flame. But the most important line Satan used was that they would know the secret of good and evil, like God. This was the trick. Good is obedience to God, believing what He says. Evil is disobedience to God in this context, denying Him and His sovereignty over you.

There are warnings and examples regarding lusting for food and not being patient and satisfied with what God has provided, not waiting on and trusting in the Lord God, and there were warnings and examples about worshipping things pleasant to the eyes.

Numbers 11:4 ¶  And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? 5  We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: 6  But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.

Here, food represented dissatisfaction with what God had provided and a longing for the delights of the time before you were pulled out of a world in rebellion against their Creator as in, I wish I could drink a case of beer on a hot day again. What is enough is far too often not enough to satisfy our lusts.

There were things that were pleasant to the eyes to mankind that he grew to worship in place of God.

Exodus 20:4  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6  And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Numbers 33:52   Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:

In the following we see that this worship of things that our eyes see and admire is the very reason why God unleashed so many sexual perversions on our society today which were commonplace in the ancient world but had been forbidden and pushed into the dark corners of society by the Christian faith.

Romans 1:19 ¶  Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are

clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21  Because that, when they knew God, they

glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23  And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25  Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26  For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27  And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29  Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30  Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31  Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32  Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Knowledge is a two-edged sword. Solomon said;

Ecclesiastes 1:18   For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

What Adam and Eve faced and what they did we often have faced and done. Many a young person has not heeded the knowledge given to them by others to not touch the hot stove but has gained the painful knowledge that comes from being burnt in disbelief and disobedience.

Man would have done well to obey God rather than sought out the proof of what God said by painful experience. Many a life has been shattered, diminished, ruined, or lost by man’s sin nature.

True knowledge, though, is different.

Proverbs 1:7   The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Adam and Eve sought knowledge of the first kind. Satan lied to them. They learned the tragic consequences of disobeying God. This is not knowledge we should seek if we are wise. Our trouble is so many false preachers and teachers making up what God said and speaking falsely for Him that drives so many young people away from church fellowship. Hatred of and contempt for women, bigotry, paranoia, domination and control, and masochistic self-hatred are not of God and get in the way of our obedience to Him.

In any event we are called to obey Him, not test the limits of disobedience to see what happens, dancing on the edge of the abyss to see how close we can get before we fall into it

Adam and Eve chose disobedience and all of creation has suffered for it so that God could redeem us Himself and that mankind in eternity would know that they did not do it themselves but that it was God alone who saved them.

Adam and Eve gained knowledge by disobedience to God and judgment rather than gaining knowledge by obedience to Him and the joys of a personal relationship with their Creator.

Eve gave the fruit to her husband, Adam, who was with her, and he also disobeyed God. At that moment they realized their disgrace, as conscience was revealed and the bitter vision of knowing that they were undone, without honor, overcame them. As we are wont to do, if indeed we have a conscience at all, they tried to hide their shame and human frailty that had been exposed. Gone were the happy, careless times of joy in God’s garden, the first couple enjoying each other and creation without care or doubt. We mistake this time in our lives for attaining adulthood, becoming a man or a woman, when, all too often, it simply reflects a loss of who we were or could have been. When we follow the world, which is Satan’s bailiwick (2Corinthians 4:4), with our desire to place self-gratification and self-glorification above God and make it a sort of rite of passage into full admission to the world we must take on that shame and self-doubt, that uncertainty and, if you would, low self-esteem, we take steps downward. Often, with each action after that we feel less and less that sense of ‘all is possible’ for us and our choices become more and more limited and less and less satisfying. Shame becomes a constant nagging companion and if we become so hardened that we cannot feel it we just become numb and can only feel a sense of disgust at who we are.

Some will try to hide in an entertainment as an escape, some in a hobby or an employment or some other activity, even hiding from God in church, while others drink or take drugs to numb the pain of their existence. Some will become defiant and proud of their sin, claiming it as a badge of distinction and self-justification, thumbing their nose at God, so to speak. But, that point comes for almost all people who are actually able to acknowledge it, that point when they feel that they have lost something. It is a vague and uncertain pain or it may be a great sense of grief. But it is a sense of loss nonetheless. The only real cure is to trust Christ, to know that He loves you, to acknowledge both your love for Him and His for you, and to depend on His righteousness and not your own for peace with God and peace in your own soul.

They heard God, the pre-incarnate Christ, the visible image of the invisible God, the express image of His person as pointed out in the study on chapter 1, verse 3, with whom they had known such sweet fellowship, walking in the garden, calling out to them as He often did apparently. But, this time they hid from His presence. When we sin we often forgo our prayer, talking to God, and reading the Bible, God talking to us, and hide from Him, because, if we are indeed believers, we feel great shame and that we have let Him down. The more we continue to do wrong the more we try to cut off His counsel and fellowship with Him until we are the most miserable of persons.