Genesis 3

Notice the tactics Satan used in beguiling Eve. He started with an innocent enough sounding question, "Did God actually say...?". Eve's answer showed that she didn't know God's command correctly. God had not, in fact, banned the touching of the fruit - only the eating of it. Once Satan discovered her weakness, that she didn't know God's word, he merely inserted the word "not" into God's warning, "You will not surely die." One simple "not" was enough to do the trick. Then he added something orginal of his own to deceive Eve further. He told her that eating the fruit would enable Eve to "know" good and evil, and make her like God. In this, Satan told a partial truth. Eve would "know" good and evil, but probably not in the way she had expected. She wouldn't have expected the corrupting power of evil over her, her husband - and the entire human race. Satan's actual lie was that she would be like God if she got to "know" evil. This is a blatant lie. Although God knows about evil, God doesn't experience evil in the way we can and he can't be corrupted by evil. It's impossible for God not to be good. Furthermore, we really can't be omniscient "like God" no matter how much knowledge we acquire.

Before we become too smug in thinking how foolish Eve was, and believe we can't be fooled like she was, let's examine Satan's tactics in the world today. He doesn't appear as a snake to us, no. But his tactics in the spheres of education and entertainment aren't that different from the biblical account here. He still poses the question, "Did God actually say...?" against God's word, for us that's the Bible. For instance, Satan, through his human agents asks, "Did God actually say we mustn't practice homosexuality?" and "Did God actually say that homosexual acts are abominations to him?" Yes, God did (Leviticus 18:22 & Leviticus 20:13). Once we start to doubt God's word, Satan further adds, "You will not surely be punished for your sin." and "God surely did not create a place called Hell." But God did (Matthew 25:41).

And Satan doesn't just lie to you about essential doctrines like sin. He can undermine your belief in other doctrines that don't seem so important - at least not initially. They may seem secondary, but once he gets you to doubt God's words on secondary doctrines, he will beguile you on the essential doctrines too - until your faith is in tatters. Be warned! Until God throws him into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10), Satan won't stop in his attempts to destroy our faith.

For instance, Satan can get you to disbelieve Gods's account of our origins and other biblical history. Then should you disbelieve those, he will undermine God's teaching on sin and morality. How firm is your faith? Is it built on the rock of God's word or on the sands of contemporary culture? Do you believe in the unseen things God states so plainly in Scripture, or do you believe the lies that Satan presents to you in multimedia and on the Internet? And to paraphrase the Book of Jude - I would love to talk to you about our common salvation and God's love towards us, but I feel it's more important to warn you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3). And God delivered the faith to us - in Scripture - in the Bible - which is the very word of God. Amen.

This is what the apostle John refers to as "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1John 2:16)

It is all too easy to blame only Eve for being deceived, but notice that Adam was with her. Not only did he not prevent his wife from being deceived but he, himself, did not refuse the fruit either. God gave the command to Adam even before he had created Eve Genesis 2:17. So, Adam should've known God's command better than she, and he was responsible for teaching it to her. As the first federal head of the human race, Adam is ultimately responsible for The Fall.

The Hebrew word for "seed" is translated as "offspring" in some versions, which isn't wrong, because that's what it means. In the phrase "Your seed [H2233 zar-‘ă-ḵā] ... her seed [H2233 zar-‘āh;]", the word "seed" is singular. Both the choice of this word and the fact that in both cases it is singular are no accidents.

In both Hebrew and English the word "seed" is usually reserved for the man. We talk about the man's seed not the woman's. Yet here, God deliberately used the word seed when talking about the woman. God chose his words deliberately. This is in fact the first prophecy of the Bible and God himself gave it. The "seed of the woman" is a direct reference to the virgin birth of Jesus. God had planned our redemption from the beginning - Praise the Lord!

God pronounced a curse on the ground i.e. on our planet. This curse will be in place until God lifts it, and the Bible tells us that one day He will in Revelation 22:3.

God made garments to cover them using animal skins, which means this is the first recorded death in the history of the world, and God Himself was responsible for it. God is indicating that Man's own feeble method of using fig leaves to cover his own sin, is inadequate. Hebrews 9:22 tells us that forgiveness of sin involves blood, pointing to the ultimate shedding of Christ's blood upon the cross.