In Genesis 1-2, the creation of Man is recorded. Genesis 2 reveals only three persons in the Garden of Eden.

However, in Genesis 3, we find that Satan, God’s avowed enemy, is the fourth person in the garden disguised as a serpent.

Revelation 12:9 tells us who the serpent was and how he ended up in the garden.

⁹ So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Satan’s purpose in the garden was to tempt Adam and Eve to do just what he had previously done. Through an act of self-will, he had stepped outside the circle of God’s will to dethrone God by enthroning self. He is now there to gain recruits for his rebel ranks, to win subjects for his Kingdom of darkness and death.

He aimed to exalt himself to God’s place of sovereignty and authority and to secure for himself the worship from God’s created beings that belonged to God alone. So he is there to entice Adam and Eve away from God, to persuade them to be disloyal and disobey. He knew this would automatically cast them out of God’s Kingdom and into his own. To accomplish this, Satan did not need to provoke them to do an awful sin; he knew one act of disobedience would carry out his purpose. He only needed to destroy their confidence in God and lead them to disbelieve and disobey God.

Genesis 3:1

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

Satan’s method was very cunning and subtle. His approach was not open warfare against God. Instead, he was able to undermine faith in God by malicious propaganda. He did not come out into the open and contest God’s sovereignty over his created beings. He wanted to discredit God in their sight by creating within them dissatisfaction with their circumstances and presenting them with a false Utopia, hoping to instigate a revolt against God.

How did he achieve his success?

Genesis 3:1

…And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

In these words, a subtle insinuation is put forth to arouse suspicion of God’s goodness. “Did God really say that you couldn’t eat of every tree in this garden? But the garden was made for you wasn’t it? You’re the one laboring to dress and keep it. Don’t you have a right to its fruit?” The deceiver did not come to Eve with a glaring accusation of God’s unkindness; but only with a subtle insinuation.

In the garden of Eden, harmony reigned, and Adam and Eve were perfectly adjusted to each other, to their environment, and to God. Satan could only lay hold of the only thing he could in their external environment and used it to disrupt their relationship with God. He aimed to create doubt first, and therefore gain a foothold by disturbing the inner harmony of Eve’s moral being.

Eve’s reply showed the devil’s insinuating question had had its desired effect. She admitted God’s goodness in permitting them to eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden and acknowledged the only restriction. But in her reply, she omitted God’s gracious promise of the words “every” and “freely,” and she also added to the prohibition the words “neither shall ye touch it.”  This revealed a secret acceptance in the serpent’s insinuation against God’s goodness. Because the doubt of God’s goodness was at work in her heart, the devil grew bolder.

Not only did Eve declare the restriction made upon their liberty, but also God’s explicit warning of the penalty of death in case of disobedience, however changing God’s Word from “thou shalt surely die” to “lest ye die.” Then Satan boldly made a shocking assertion, an out-and-out denial of God’s Word, “Ye shall not surely die.” This was immediately followed by his final and fatal appeal.

“Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

to be continued. . .

Lord, Your enemy, has not changed his method, and he continues to discredit You before our eyes. Lord, save us!!

In Him,

Marion