A Master Class in Sin Manipulation
Watch and learn how Satan uses what will become his signature approach on the woman as we study Genesis 3:1-7 (NIV).
Satan uses the same approach on everyone, and it works every time. The old standard, “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”, applies here.
Step #1: Satan shows her a temptation or desire he knows is of interest to her, and it begins to arouse new emotions of desire inside of her.
Satan could have approached her anywhere in the Garden of Eden, but he didn’t. He stood right beside the very temptation he knew would be of interest to her — the one thing in the entire Garden that God had forbidden her to eat from, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. So he casually begins by asking an innocent question.
“He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Satan begins to confuse the woman by misquoting scripture.
“Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?” instead of “16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2:16-17)
Remember, Satan was one of the most important angels in Heaven, so he certainly knew the scriptures. Being the deceiver that he is, he will always misquote scripture to his favor in order to confuse and deceive us.
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
She knew very well what God had said to Adam, and she even adds emphasis by adding the words to the scripture, “we’re not even to touch it.”
Step #2: Satan plants a seed of doubt and confusion in her mind concerning the trustworthiness of God as it relates to the temptation.
I can just imagine his reply to the woman. “Really is that what He said. I can’t believe you fell for that lie. The only reason He told you and Adam that was so He could keep the fruit of the tree for Himself and not share it with you. God knows that you won’t die if you eat from that tree. What He didn’t tell you was that if you eat from that tree, your eyes will be opened and you’ll be just like God, knowing everything He knows concerning good from evil. You just can’t trust Him, he’ll tell you one thing and then He will do something else.” (Has Satan ever whispered that in your ear?)
4“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
In lesson 1 we learned that God gave us our mind, emotions, and free will. And it was God’s intent that we use them in that order. First the mind processes information and makes a decision, then our emotions kick in and we get excited about our decision, then our free will kicks in to achieve our decision. We saw in lesson 2 that Satan didn’t use this process and started with his emotions, then his mind and finally his will. We saw what finally happened to him using this process, so he uses this approach on the woman, to engage her emotions before her mind has a chance to reason.
Let’s look how the woman handled what Satan said to her. Did she use God’s process and think about what Satan was saying, and realize that it didn’t match up with what she knew about God? He had been loving, kind, giving, and had never lied to them. If she would have followed God’s process at that point she would have known that Satan was lying to her and she would have walked away from him. But, she didn’t do that.
Step #3: Once Satan has succeeded in getting the woman to doubt God’s intentions, he just sits back as the temptation begins to grow, her mind justifying it, and then finally her free will begins to lust after it.
She remembers God’s command that this is the one thing (The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) you can’t have. She thinks: “Did God really tell us the truth about why we were not to eat from it? The tree looks innocent enough. I don’t see anything on it that would kill me, but the fruit looks absolutely delicious.” The woman’s emotions are now aroused and take over her mind, her free will caves in, and she can no longer help herself.
Step #4: Just like a pregnancy, once the process has come to full term it gives birth to sin, and the woman becomes helpless to stop herself.
Her mouth waters at the sight of the fruit. She can only imagine taking a bite of the fruit and it being the most wonderful thing she has ever eaten. And finally she remembers the part of the lie Satan told her that she would be like God after eating it. Satan springs his trap and the first victim of sin on earth is recorded.
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.
Step #5: The last step is death — total and complete separation from God.
The woman’s soul has been changed and now belongs to Satan, in essence she has died in the eyes of God. She becomes the first person on earth to be totally separated from God for all eternity.
We find the description of this cycle in James 1:14-15. (NASB)
14But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
What is meant by you will certainly die. The clock of death has now begun to start for Adam and Eve and the rest of us. We will not live forever any longer with God on this earth
The battle over sin had been lost, but not the war, for Adam hadn’t eaten the fruit yet. The woman then turns to her husband and probably says: “Oh Adam, this is wonderful. I have never tasted anything like this, you have to try it.” Adam rather than say no, because he knew what God had said, listened to the woman and he took a bite (this will come back to bite him in Lesson 5). Satan’s job has been completed and sin enters the world and the downfall of Humanity is complete. There is now an immediate separation between God and man I can visualize Satan standing in the background jumping up and down and shouting, “I win, I win!”
