A COMMON SCHEME OF OUR ADVERSARY

Genesis 3:1-7
Bob Bonner
March 14, 2004

Before Dec. 27, 2001, life was a different story for Martha Stewart than it is today. She was head of her own company, two TV shows, two daily columns in a syndicated newspaper, on the board of other prestigious companies like Revlon, owner of her own magazine, and several other multimillion dollar businesses.

However, after receiving some insider information about a pending large sell-off of her stock, Martha illegally sold several thousand shares of her own company. The total benefit to her for selling her stock based on insider information, was a total of $51,000. Now that may seem like a lot to some of us, but let’s put that into perspective. When Martha Stewart’s company went public, it was worth close to one billion dollars! $51,000 dollars is relative chump-change to her. She could have lost that much money every day for a year, totaling $18.6 million dollars, and never missed it! She makes more money than that on just interest every year!

When confronted with her wrongdoing, she lied. Had she simply told the truth, she would have had to return the monies, and pay some penalties. But instead because she refused to tell the truth, she has lost the right to control her company, she has been kicked off the boards of other businesses, she has had her two newspaper columns taken from her, her two TV programs have been canceled and immediately taken off the air, and the stock prices of her company are plummeting. Her reputation will be forever tarnished and she has lost her freedom. She faces jail time. For what? $51,000?

By now the question that is probably haunting her is “How did I get here?” “How could I have been so stupid to throw it all away?”

Martha is not alone. There are millions of us just like her. We wake up one morning to find ourselves alone, our marriage on the rocks. Or a career killed. Or one’s physical health destroyed. One’s future potential cut short. Kids who don’t want to be around us anymore. Other relationships wasted because of gossip, bitterness, refusal to forgive. How did we get here?

This morning we will see how as we return to Genesis 3:1-7 and look at a common scheme of our adversary, Satan, that he has used since the beginning of time to bring hurt and destruction to the entire human race.

For those of you who may not have been here last time, we took a brief look at Satan. We learned that he is real, he is our enemy, a destroyer, murderer, a liar and deceiver. He hates us.

On the other hand, we saw that Jesus Christ is our friend. He is our Savior, deliverer and protector. Jesus is bigger and stronger than Satan, and therefore, those who have entrusted their lives to Jesus as their Savior, who have submitted themselves to His leadership, are safe from eternal destruction.

For those who have ignored God, rebelled against Him, or have just been religious but have not personally chosen to be rightly related to Jesus, they stand exposed, vulnerable to all the whims and wiles of the evil one. What’s even more alarming is that those who don’t know Jesus intimately don’t even know that they are in imminent danger.

Back to those of us who do know Christ personally. We are not totally out of danger ourselves. Although our eternity is secure in Christ, our present lives can be made miserable if we don’t respond properly to Satan’s temptations and evil schemes.

This morning, we are going to look at Satan’s beguiling of Eve, his tempting her to eat from the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Understand, God’s prohibition against eating the fruit of that tree was no trap, or game or even a test. Given the intention of God that man should be in His own image, that tree was a necessity! Why?

There is no God-like freedom or moral dimension to the existence of a robot; it can only respond to the program imposed by its maker. Robots have no capacity to value, no ability to choose between good and bad, or good and better. To be truly like God, man must have the freedom to make moral choices and the opportunity to choose, and the power or ability to do what is right however great the risk of giving someone that freedom may involve. Daily Adam and Eve may have passed that tree of freedom, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, gladly obeying a God they knew and trusted. Until finally a third being stepped in and disrupted the harmony that God, Adam and Eve all enjoyed.

Let’s read Genesis 3:1-7. It says, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said, “You shall not eat from any tree of the garden”?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat from it or touch it lest you die.”’ And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 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 loin coverings.”

When God set that single tree to stand as a testimony to man’s freedom, He warned, “When you eat of it you will surely die” (2:17). But Satan defiantly lied to Eve, “No! You won’t die. There is no punishment for disobedience. Instead you will become like God. Your eyes will be opened and you will know the truth. God is trying to frighten you, to keep you from true life.” By the time both Adam and Eve knew that Satan was a liar, it was too late. The day God had promised would come, should they eat of that tree, did indeed come. It was then that Death began its reign.

It is important to realize that much more than the end of physical life is involved in the biblical concept of death. Death in Scripture involves not only a return of the body to dust, but also a terrible distortion of the divine order. Death involves a warping of the human personality, a twisting of relationships, and alienation from God and from God’s ways. What Satan promised humanity, divine enlightenment, turned into separation and fear of God. In addition, what was felt between man, woman and God, a sense of security and intimacy, was replaced by mistrust and estrangement.

We also see death in the sudden flush of shame that spread as Adam and Eve recognized their nakedness (Genesis 3:7). Today the more enlightened “sophistically mature” defend public nakedness as morally neutral. “Evil is in the eye of the beholder,” is the phrase they often use to attack anyone who objects, never realizing how condemning that very excuse is. For evil is in the eye of the beholder, not in the creation of God. Ever since the Fall, the eye has been evil!

It is fascinating to note the strategy of the tempter demonstrated in this passage. With the rest of our time we want to expose his scheme, and then look at our defense against it. As I see it, there are five progressive steps to Satan’s classic scheme of temptation aimed at bringing down someone’s life. He uses this same strategy today.

The first step I see implied in our passage, and supported elsewhere in Scripture is that, if he can, Satan will try to isolate the believer from other believers. Without others around we are an easier target. We see in verse 1 that Satan deliberately approached the woman. I believe he caught her at a moment when her helpmate, her protector, Adam was not nearby. If Adam was right next to her, I believe he would have stepped in before Satan could have made his first move. By the time he did get there, it was too late. Eve had already eaten the fruit and Adam was left with a tough decision. Follow Eve or follow God and be without Eve.

God knows what Satan knows about us, that we are easier prey left alone than together. That is why He instructs us, commands us in Hebrews 10:23-25, this: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

There are Sundays that pass by where it is sometimes impossible for us to find a group of believers with whom we can worship. I don’t have a problem with that at all. On the other hand, there are those who think that corporate worship and regularly getting together with Christians in small groups is only for the weak, and therefore not necessary. If you agree, I challenge you to study the temptation and fall of men and women throughout the Bible. One thing they have in common is that when they isolate themselves from other believers or put themselves beyond reach of accountability with others, it is a very short period of time before the wicked one brings them down. This is especially true for those involved in full- time ministry. It is why Billy Graham, when without his wife, never traveled far from home alone. For once you are alone, Satan can begin to whisper in your ear, put thoughts in your mind and raise doubts that you have no one to talk to or bounce your questions off. Before you know it you are knee-deep in trouble.

Knee-deep in trouble is where we find innocent Eve in the middle of verse 1. Satan says to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?’” Note that Satan does not call God by His appropriate name, that God began using back in 2:4 and continues to use after verse 8 to the end of chapter three. God’s choice name by which He has been addressed is “the Lord God”, not just “God.” The difference is that the title, “the Lord God” or “Yahweh Elohim” was the name for God used in the context of relations between Himself and human beings. It is a title that reflects His faithfulness, love and commitment to human beings. By choosing to call Him just “God” Satan is raising a question about God’s integrity and concern of mankind’s best interest. “Does He really care about you? If He doesn’t, can you really trust what He says?” From this verse down to verse 4 what we see is a deliberate misuse of the word of God, by both Satan and Eve.

The first step was Satan’s. He deliberately questions Eve about God in a misleading way, so as to raise a doubt in her mind about God’s word. He wants her to rethink Who God is and what God said, keeping in mind that maybe God is not all that trustworthy. Maybe He really isn’t “the Lord God” but just a selfish, insecure God.

As we see Eve’s response, we see her also begin to misquote and misuse the Scriptures. Whereas God told man in 2:16 that they could “eat freely” from any tree in the garden, Eve ignores the magnanimous privileges God gave them and says in verse 2, simply that “we may eat.” In other words, Eve paraphrases God’s instructions in a disparaging way. We see that already she is caught like a fly in a spider’s web and being drawn ever so slowly into its deadly clutches. She already is not sure about this God.

As we continue to follow the dialogue, we notice that next, in v. 3, Eve misuses God’s word by adding to God’s prohibition. Whereas in 1:17, God merely prohibited them from eating the fruit from the tree, Eve adds that God said they can’t “touch” the fruit. And also take note that in verse 3, Eve now takes up calling the “Lord God” just “God” as Satan had done. She clearly is now questioning the integrity and trustworthiness of God and His word.

Finally, at the end of verse 3, Eve now minimizes God’s prohibition. In 2:17, God clearly and emphatically said that if they ate of that tree they would “surely die.” By leaving out that word, “surely”, Eve is questioning the possibility of being able to sin and not die.

At which point, like a serpent would jump on a weakened June Bug, Satan pounces on his opportunity to lead Eve down the path to destruction. He blatantly contradicts God. Basically, he declares that God is a liar. In verse 4, he flatly denies God’s command having any penalty for disobedience. In the Hebrew, this is a very emphatic denial on Satan’s part

But he doesn’t stop there. Remember, he started by isolating her away from Adam, so that she had no support, no one to bounce her questions off. Then he raises suspicions about God’s word. Eve takes the bait and misuses the word to her benefit, with Satan urging her on in the end by flat-out declaring that God’s word is not truth. He then moves to his third step, in verse 5 to misrepresent God. He goes from casting doubt about God’s character in verse 1 to flat-out portraying God as being jealous and afraid that Eve might become like God. He paints God as someone who is deliberately holding back that which is good and should belong to her, thus preventing her from reaching her destiny, her full potential. What’s interesting to note, is this temptation to believe that she could be like God is the very temptation that caused Satan’s own downfall.

From this point of doubting God’s word and character, we see the pattern that is so familiar; those typical three temptations that get all of us to disobey God. Usually one is enough to get us, but Eve fell victim to all three. We see them modeled in the first half of verse 6.

First we read that Eve saw that the fruit was “good for food”. This pushes her physical pleasure button. Whether it is cocaine, booze, your eighth mocha or second dessert, or that third trip to the food bar, or an addiction to sexual perversion, it’s different for each of us, but it is there. It is the “lust of the flesh.”

Second, Eve sees that the fruit is “a delight to the eyes.” This word “delight” in Hebrew comes from the same word we find in the Ten Commandments, declaring we are not to “covet.” We see something we want, a person or a thing, and we want to possess it. It is the “lust of the eyes”.

Finally, we are told that the tree was “desirable to make one wise.” The point behind this is with knowledge or wisdom comes power or control. One becomes godlike. There used to be two similar statements that were quite popular. One was “Knowledge is power.” The other was “wisdom is power.” Either way, the point here is being in control because you have all of the facts and data necessary to be in control. With knowledge and wisdom, you had the power. Elsewhere this is called the “pride of life.”

These three temptations that are typical stumbling blocks to all humans: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, were well known to the Jews. The Apostle John, a Jew, writes these words of warning about living in a world that is ruled by Satan. Satan’s world is temporary and doomed to destruction. John says this about our planet, Satan’s world, in 1 John 2:15-17: “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.”

Wow! What a statement. If you live by submitting to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, you will die! In every sense of the word. But if you obey God and keep your eyes and ears focused on Him, you will live with Him forever, as well as be blessed here.

It is all about worship of the only One who deserves our worship: God. In Matthew 4:1-11, we see Satan trying to tempt Jesus in each of these three areas. Satan fails miserably and Jesus continues to obey and honor God. In verse 10, after having been tempted by Satan in each of these three areas, Jesus tells Satan off. He says, “Begone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” Jesus, being God, knew God’s character is one of integrity and truth. Therefore the only Being who deserves our worship and obedience is God.

But tragically for all of us, Eve did not know this. So we read in verse 6 that she followed Satan’s lead rather than God’s instructions, and she ate of the forbidden fruit. Then what does she do? She knows she did wrong, and she turns to the man and invites him to come and join her. That is so typical of temptation and sin. Sin loves company. Adam made his choice to join her.

As a result of their actions, Adam and Eve, and we, from reading about their lives, have learned two very important eternal principles. First, disobedience always leads to death. Not just physical death, but spiritual and emotional death. Not just separation and alienation from God, but when we disobey God in our relationships with others, we find separation and alienation from each other as well.

The second principle is that God’s discipline always follows disobedience. No sin is ever committed that we will not experience God’s discipline. We may not see it immediately, but His discipline will show up.

Furthermore, we learn from Adam’s situation, that no sin is ever committed in isolation and without repercussions to others as well as yourself. Adam was forced into a difficult decision, a decision in which he chose wrongly. But if Eve had never sinned, Adam would not have been put in that position right then. Her sin brought about the promised consequences for herself, as well as for the only other person around her whom she loved, and others who would come after, whom she would also love.

Our God means what He says. If He says, “Do this and you shall surely die”, then if you do it, you will die. God is a God of truth and justice. Sin always leads to death.

If we are going to walk in victory over Satan’s schemes and temptation while we live on this earth, there are two things that are a must for us to know. Both of these things were the downfall of Eve because she did not fully know them. If I don’t know and trust a person, I probably will second-guess whether or not I will follow their direction. Satan began his attack on Eve by striking at her weakest link. She really didn’t know God. Because she didn’t know and believe that God was truly trustworthy, because she doubted His integrity, she opened herself up to disobeying Him.

Therefore, if I want to walk in victory, with God in intimate communion with Him and to experience His blessing in my life, I must get to know Him and believe that He is trustworthy; that He would never lie to me, and that He the creator loves me and knows what’s best for me.

The second place that Eve fell down is that she failed to know or believe that what God said was the truth. She didn’t take God’s exact words seriously. She began to paraphrase, add and delete from God’s word, to such a point that it made no sense to her and sin became easy to rationalize. She did not know and handle rightly God’s word. In the end, failure in both of these areas lead to her death.

The following are three questions that it wouldn’t hurt to ask ourselves often. How we answer these three questions determines to what degree we will be vulnerable to Satan’s schemes and temptations. First, Eve went down so easily because she did not have others around her to question her or hold her accountable to the truth that God had given. Satan waited til she was by herself and attacked. If you try to live the Christian life without having a serious accountability relationship with others, then you will be a sitting duck ready to be blasted out of the water by the evil adversary, Satan. Satan looks for dumb ducks to blast!

If you are not a part of a smaller group of Christians, a home fellowship group or a smaller men or women’s Bible study, then you are leaving yourself unnecessarily open and exposed to his attacks. You are vulnerable.

Here is another tricky question. We always like doing good things. But more often than not we believe good to always be God’s will. No! Good is always the enemy of God’s best. It may be morally good or neutral or okay or even legal in our country. But it may not be God’s best for your life. Therefore we need to periodically ask ourselves the question, Are my desires in conflict with God’s best for my life? Is there something better He would have you to do, or something less good that He would have you avoid?

This final question is one that you should ask yourself in the company of other believers you trust because sometimes you can’t get the best perspective on your life that they see. The question is am I rationalizing the truth due to the “lust of the flesh”, “lust of the eyes”, or “the pride of life”? True friends tell true friends the truth, even if it hurts. Wise is the man or woman who learns to takes seriously the constructive criticism of a friend.

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