The Bible begins with a beautiful picture of the Lord creating the earth and mankind, placing Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden. They had a perfect fellowship with God, but unfortunately it didn’t last forever because sin entered the scene. We can learn a lot from Eve and how she fell into this sin.
Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. Genesis 3:1-6
Definition of Cunning: crafty in the use of special resources (as skill or knowledge) or in attaining an end.
We should recognize that the serpent could care less about Eve. What He was after is to have Eve join him in his rebellion before God. He didn’t have the best interests of Eve in his heart, so he came cunningly, in a way that seemed like he had Eve’s best interest at heart.
From the above scriptures, I found 5 lessons.
Lesson 1: Pick your counsel carefully- Don’t easily give your trust to people who have not proven they have your best interest in mind. Watch their lives and see how they handle their life. If they continually talk badly about people and maneuver decisions to have an advantage over others, don’t receive counsel from them.
Lesson 2: Doubt is a deadly poison-The Serpent asks the question, “Did God really say…”, in such a way that makes one believe God was unreasonable in asking Eve not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Questioning a decision made by someone in authority, opened the door to doubt and distrust in the ear of the hearer. That should have been a red flag in Eve’s mind. However, she took the bait and decided to engage herself by responding to it.
Lesson 3: Discontentment led to exaggeration- Eve responded to the serpent, but unfortunately she didn’t give complete & accurate information. She said that God had said not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God also had asked them not to touch it. So Eve just added to God’s command, exaggerating His command to make it look worse than it was. When the poison of doubt has entered someone, then discontentment sets in. From there, everything is looked at from a darkened lens and an exaggerated, unreasonableness of authority. The Israelites had the same problem leaving Egypt. They started reminiscing the good things of Egypt having forgetten that they were in miserable slavery for 400 years!!
Lesson 4: Doubt led to question God’s Integrity- Basically in verse 4 the serpent lies to Eve by telling her that she will not die, and in the process declaring God to be a liar. Now Eve has moved from a place of distrust into thinking that God is lying to her, and He is really trying to hold back something good from her. The Serpent has made her think that if she eats of it, God will have a competition because she will become like God.
Lesson 5: Distrust takes away established boundaries-When you have a resolve to be obedient, you don’t entertain the idea of how to disobey, but when your heart wants to rebel and doesn’t trust anymore, the boundaries are taken off and now you are open to the possibility of the sinful thing. For the first time the scripture tell us that Eve noticed the tree. This was in a way she hadn’t noticed it before. It looked good and she desired to taste it, and also to find out its magical potency into the wisdom she thought she was missing out on. The only reason she thought she was missing out is because she started distrusting God.
What a lesson this should be for us!! When we open the door to doubt while it may seem innocent and benign in the beginning, it will take us places where would have never wanted to be. That’s why it is very important to be alert and watchful with those who speak into our lives, recognizing their character & their own history of relationships with others. We can only gain wisdom from those who live a life of wisdom. Eve lost the opportunity to have the greatest wisdom which was the fear of the Lord when she distrusted God’s authority. This made her take things into her own hands thinking she might miss out on something, including wisdom!!
Let’s pray to be watchful and intentional about who we allow to speak into our lives. For a believer, every conversation needs to be guarded and protected by leading of the Lord. We can’t afford to be causal about this!!