Eve Believes a Lie

Eve Believes a Lie

Let us notice the serpent’s (Satan’s) method of deceiving

man. He first came to Eve very subtly, challenging God’s instructions

to Adam and her. Genesis 3:1-6 reads, Now the serpent

was more subtle 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? And the

woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the

trees of the garden: 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. And the serpent said unto

the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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. 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.

 

We observe from this account that Satan’s first method is to

bring doubt against God’s judgment by questioning His limits on

man. “Hath God said?...God hath said.” Then the serpent places

three temptations before them: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the

eyes and the pride of life. 

 

(I John 2:16, For all that is in the

world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the

pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.)

 

The things of this world still tempt man today. The Greek

word used for “world” in the Scriptures is “kosmos.” In a study

of the Scriptures, we find it used mainly in four ways. First, it is

used with reference to the material universe, the world; this earth

as seen in Matthew 13:35, John 1:10, and Mark 16:15.

 

The second use of the Greek word “kosmos,” or world, is

for the inhabitants, or men of the world as seen in John 3:16 and

other Scriptures where the idea of the whole race of man is implicated.

A third definition for “world” is for “this age” as found in

Matthew 13:39.

 

The fourth definition for “world,” as used in I John 2:16

(this is the world we are told not to love that is under Satan’s

domain), is the “kosmos” of the moral and spiritual systems we

call human society. Fallen society is that realm of the world which

consists of the whole circle of worldly goods, endowments, riches,

advantages, pleasures, intellectual pursuits, education, science,

man-made religious systems, business, medicine, arts and politics.

It is this definition of “kosmos” that the Word of God is

speaking of as that which is controlled by Satan.

 

Many of us do not realize that when we touch the things that

make up fallen society, we touch the power of Satan. Therefore,

we become “independent” in the way we use them if we do not

put them under the power and direction of God.

 

God had not intended to deny man access to the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil but had a plan that in time would

have opened his eyes to good and evil, and then finally allowed

him to partake of the tree of life when he had matured enough to

be able to live eternally in that state. By eating the fruit prematurely,

it brought death instead of wisdom and life, just as God

had told them it would.