“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” (Genesis 3:6).
God had warned them. An enemy lurked in their midst. The Lord told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. To do so would signal they were no longer loyal to their Creator. Satan would use his most deceptive abilities to lure and tempt the couple to disobey God.
Unfortunately, Eve believed a lie. More important, she disbelieved the truth. God told her that if she ate from the tree, she would die. Satan told her, “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). Whom should she trust? There’s no question that the devil tricked her. But in the end, Eve and Adam chose to turn from the Lord’s command and follow the enemy. Some suggest that this was unfair and that we cannot blame Eve or Adam for the introduction of sin into our world. The story of the fall has been misused, they say, to treat women as inferior beings. Eve simply “introduced” a new form of knowledge into the world. It’s just not politically correct to lay any blame at her feet.
The truth is that both Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. Both our first parents brought sin and its deadly consequences to the human race. Thus, the temptation and fall do not define Eve as inferior. If we were to play the blame game, we might argue that while Eve was tricked with the crafty deception of a lying mastermind, Adam disobeyed deliberately.
However, Eve’s decision shows us that believing Satan’s lie involves more than being hoodwinked. In the end, biting forbidden fruit is saying no to God and yes to the devil.
Lord Jesus, may every decision I make today be a yes to You and a no to the enemy of my soul.
For Further Study: Genesis 3:1–6; John 8:44; 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22