“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made” (Genesis 3:1).

The serpent is literal, for “if the word ‘snake’ is simply a symbol for something else, how do we know what other things which we meet up with in this chapter are not also mere symbols?” (Genesis 3, Young, p. 8). Not only that, but the punishment given to the serpent at the end of this episode is literally applied to an ophidian creature (3:14).

“He said to the woman…”

“If we are bothered about the presence of a talking snake in this chapter, good. It should. God has accomplished what He set out to do: to catch our attention. Obviously there is much more here than just a serpent. Someone quite sinister is speaking through the serpent, as the New Testament reveals, ‘But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness’ (2 Corinthians 11:3); ‘And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan’ (Revelation 12:9). Thus, the New Testament regards the events of Genesis chapter three as being literal, historically true, and relevant in our time, for we today can fall for the same kind of temptations” (“The Serpent’s Voice”, Dunagan). There is something intentionally disturbing about the whole thing! A red flag should have been raised in Eve’s mind. Perhaps the novelty of world was still so fresh that a talking snake did not cause any alarm. Or maybe it was the snake’s own novelty that drew her in. Sometimes, the strange and macabre have a way with attracting our attention! Satan uses such supposedly innocuous subjects as fortune tellers, ghosts, demon possession, and fascination with death to introduce destructive heresies about God’s ultimate judgment, His omnipotence, and Biblical truth.

“Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?’”

“With the serpent’s first utterance it becomes apparent that an enemy of God is speaking…The first words uttered form a question, which seems designed to cast doubt upon God’s goodness and yet, at the same time, seems to imply that if the serpent is misinformed, he is willing to be instructed in the matter… It is a sly question, for whatever else it may do, it serves to implant within the mind the idea that God is unduly strict in not permitting Adam and Eve to eat from all the trees. ‘Really? Can it possibly be?’” (Young, pp. 20, 21). The serpent appears to be interested in truth, yet his phrasing is deceptive, and actually serves to undermine truth. Does Satan not operate this way today?

  • “Do you really believe in an eternal hell?”
  • “Can a truly good God really condemn people?”
  • “Even when we can understand doctrine, doesn’t it seem a bit narrow?”
  • “Isn’t it legalism to insist upon literal interpretation of scripture?”
  • “Do genuinely spiritual people condemn others whose motives are pure?”
  • “The Bible sure is a complicated book; how can we understand it?”
  • “Isn’t it a little naïve to believe in fantastic stories from the Bible?”
  • “Is there really only one path to salvation?”
  • “So, does getting dunked in a pool of water really save us?”

“And the woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat…” (3:2).

The original command had been to “eat freely” from the garden. Even with restrictions surrounding the forbidden tree, Adam and Eve did not live in fear of God, or were given any reason to believe they were being treated unfairly. “God uses the word ‘all’ to make it clear that the entire garden was for man. God had stressed the fact that the eating was to be abundant… and this idiom simply means that Adam might freely and abundantly partake of the fruit of all the garden’s trees” (Young, p. 27).

Eve is not ignorant of the truth, but it certainly must have seemed a lot less appetizing now that the serpent has pointed out to her the one tree she was forbidden to touch. We need to remember that one of Satan’s strongest tactics is to trivialize everything we have, while parading before our eyes something we lack, It is covetousness at its core. “To covet is to seek for something, someone, some position, some recognition, or some pleasure not in the will of God. Notice that I used the word seek rather than desire. To covet is not merely wishing for more, but going after it, lusting for it, working to hold onto it” (Biblical Ethics, McQuilkin, p. 100). While we may want many things that do not harm us spiritually or distract us from serving God, there is a point at which our motives must be checked and the desire stemmed. Even two thousand years later, Jesus’ description is apt when He says, “For what will a man be profited if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

  • We need to learn how to detect the serpents in our lives. If Satan is cunning enough to send out his demons disguised as angels (2 Corinthians 11:14-15), he can also use our friends (Matthew 16:23), family members, television programs, magazine articles, teachers, the internet, etc.
  • We must be wary of things that promise more than what God has already offered. There is no better deal out there than the Gospel. Lifestyles which seem to have “all the answers” are nothing but false advertisement.
  • Only personal Bible study equips us for this kind of discretion (Hebrews 5:12-14). If we are not investing time into Bible study, we are leaving ourselves open to manipulation and misguidance.
  • We need to remember that the world is filled with all kinds of beautiful, wholesome things (1 Timothy 4:4-5, Psalm 127:3, Ecclesiastes 9:9, 1 Timothy 6:17). What God has given to me (marriage, child-rearing, worship, athletics, hobbies, a productive work life, etc.) far outweighs the middling, paltry contrivances of the devil.

“And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You shall surely not die!’” (3:4).

One gets the impression that Satan has scoped out Eve, has learned her weaknesses, and is now comfortable enough with the situation to make a bold, transparent statement. It is actually surprising how quickly the conversation goes from seemingly innocent, to blatantly anti-God. This works to his advantage, though; often, bold, confident statements such as this either confirm the error we are already flirting with, or shake us up so much that we end up vulnerable and confused. False teachers tend to speak in the same way, “reviling where they have no knowledge” (2 Peter 2:12, 18-19).

“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” (3:5).

“He is saying, ‘The commands of God are harsh and stringent. They constrict life so that they prohibit one from realizing life in all its potentialities and force him into a cramped narrow existence.’ Far more important than law, the tempter would seem to say, is love. He condemns Eve’s attitude of trust in God’s command and seeks to point out to her that if she would obtain the wholesomeness and well-roundedness that should characterize a fruitful life, she must not be bound by law…She is confined by her position of trusting in God, of taking seriously His command…From this cramping position she must be emancipated and move over to a standpoint of neutrality from which she can accurately pass judgment upon God and His commands. She is foolish to continue permitting God to lay down the law for her. Modern psychology, we can hear the tempter saying…That (the human) soul is a very tender thing, and to restrain and bind it by the imposition of categorical law is to harm it. The soul should be free to develop and to express itself, and this it can do only through freedom and love” (Young, p. 35).

“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…” (Genesis 3:6).

Much can be said about the culmination of Satan’s trap. Notice that the fruit of the tree was appealing to every part of Eve – her body (“good for food”), her heart (“delight to the eyes”), and her mind (“to make one wise”). Sometimes what seems most pleasing, beautiful, and “right feeling” is the opposite of what is right (James 3:14-16).

Eve’s most pressing problem was the way she lost sight of God’s goodness. She already had everything in abundance from God. The totality of her life’s blessings offered more than a single tree could ever produce. All the food in the world, all the beautiful things of this great creation, a perfect relationship with God and her husband, and wisdom for obeying God until this point. We can only speculate about what Eve really thought she was getting out of this breach of God’s commandment. Was she angry with her husband? Was she displeased with God? Was she envious? Or perhaps, like so many people, she just wanted to partake of something that was bigger than herself. Perhaps, her eyes were bigger than her stomach, and she desired the very nature of God – equality with her Creator.

Compare that with 2 Peter 1:2-4; “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”  What Satan did not tell Eve was that she was already a partaker of God’s divine nature, and already had the true knowledge. The difference is that Satan wants us to wrest divinity from God and take it for ourselves, and God wants to grant it to us freely, to those who relent to His will and obey Him.