Sep26 Written by:Nathan Williams
Friday, September 26, 2008
A group of feminists were gathered together one evening. The speaker was fired up about the power of the woman and how she could do everything a man could PLUS SOME. Finally, as she was wrapping up, she cried, "And where would men be without women, anyway?" A woman from the back of the room shouted, "In the Garden of Eden picking strawberries!"
We can speculate why Satan approached Eve instead of Adam with the first temptation, but all we know is the fact that he did. Satan did not threaten Eve. He did not say, "You're going to eat of this fruit, or I'll break your arm." Satan did not try to scare Eve with some story about how if she didn't eat it all her hair would fall out. Satan TEMPTED Eve by completely twisting the truth of God's command not to eat of the fruit. He enticed her with a half-truth that she could be like God knowing good and evil. God does know what evil is, but he doesn't KNOW evil in the sense of experience. After she ate the fruit, Eve KNEW evil in the most intimate sense, because it was then part of her person.
Notice the temptation for the woman in Genesis 3:6: "When the woman saw that 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." Satan pulled out the big guns. Any one of these temptations would have been strong enough to push most people over the edge, but Even was presented with these three angles.
1. Satan tempted her with the lust of the flesh. He appealed to the thought that this fruit was going to be delicious! And doesn't God want His children to have good things? Yes, He does, but this was NOT a good thing, although it looked tasty in the eyes of the woman.
2. Satan tempted her with the lust of the eyes. The fruit was pretty - pretty enough to eat, it seemed.
3. Satan tempted her with the pride of life. What a great thought - to be like God! But this was more than being LIKE God. This was a desire to BE God, and that's where the sin was.
Let's remember God's commands are always for our good. When we are drawn away by temptation we KNOW the "forbidden fruit" is really bad for us, but Satan helps us make all kinds of excuses and compromises and rationalizations with ourselves. We must have a strong sense of God's love for us. Sometimes a father will say to his son, "Son, I know you don't like this, but it's for your own good. Trust me." We are the son, and we must learn to trust the Lord even when we don't like it.
And don't blame Eve. We'd probably have done the same thing if we were in her skin (considering she had no shoes at the time...). In fact, we have.
God bless,
Nathan
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