"Did God Say ...?"

¹ Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" ² And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³ but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that when 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, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. (Gen 3:1-6)

You recognize the story, I'm sure. It's the account of the Fall. You have all the main characters there -- the serpent, Eve, Adam. You have the dialog that deceived Eve (1 Tim 2:14). You have Adam's fatal choice to join her in it. All the pieces are there. What were the serpent's tactics? What methods were involved in making mankind a sinning race? Paul warns us to "Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." (Eph 6:11) What schemes?

The first question is key. "Did God actually say ...?" The serpent wasn't asking for a quote. The serpent didn't want to see the text. He was asking Eve to explain what God said. And He did it by not asking if God said what God actually said. He did it by overstating what God said. The question could be restated this way. "Hey, Eve, did you understand God to say that you couldn't eat from any tree in the garden at all?"

Eve bought it. She thought it was a genuine question. She didn't see the lie. (Seriously, Eve, you're talking to a snake! Wasn't that a clue?) She didn't see the attempt at pushing her beyond what God said. How can we tell that? Because she went beyond what God said. She corrected the serpent -- that's true -- but went on to say that God warned them against touching the one tree in question. Never happened. Satan already had her leaning away from what God had said.

The next step was easy -- denial. "You will not surely die." The difficulty here is that it was a half-truth. Adam and Eve died hundreds of years later. But the death they experienced at the moment was spiritual ... much worse than physical (Matt 10:28). The denial was effective. Eve succumbed to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16), included her husband in it, cut off their unhindered relationship with God, and all creation has suffered since (Rom 8:19-22).

Oddly enough, Satan hasn't had to retool. His methods worked well then. They work well now. It is the standard approach. "Did God say ...?" "No, that's not true." You'll hear it in your ear from Satan. You'll hear it in the world from skeptics and even "Christians". They'll sound warm and even wise. They'll lure you into sin. Simple as that. Watch for it. You'll surely see it.