Passage: Genesis 3:1-7

The Big Idea

Satan’s only real power has always been deception. He got to Eve by twisting God’s word, and she was vulnerable because God’s word had already been added to. Legalism, adding rules God never gave, opens the door to deception, because it paints God as a restrictive God we wouldn’t want to serve. The answer is to know God’s heart and trust His Word alone. And for husbands, it’s a call to lead with God’s heart, not just His rules.

The Serpent (Genesis 3:1)

The serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

In case you’re new to this story, the crafty talking serpent is Satan.

His only power has ever been deception and cunning.
He has never been strong. In Revelation, a single angel binds him with a chain (Revelation 20:1-2).
He has never been right.
But he’s very, very smart and deceptive.
He isn’t God’s evil twin or equal.
Throughout Scripture he’s pictured as a serpent or dragon (Revelation 12:9).

What did the snake give his wife? A goodnight hiss! How do you measure a snake? In inches, since they don’t have feet. (I know, I’m hissss-terical.)

The Snake on a Pole

Ever notice the snake on a staff on ambulances? That symbol actually comes from Greek mythology (the rod of Asclepius). But Scripture has its own, far more important snake on a pole.

In Numbers 21:8-9, when the people of Israel were complaining and sinning against the Lord, venomous snakes came among them, and many died. The people cried out to God for salvation from their sin. God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole, and anyone who was bitten could look at it and live.

It’s all a picture of Jesus becoming sin for us. Jesus specifically identified Himself with that serpent: as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up (John 3:14).

Why would Jesus be pictured as a snake? Because God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

He did it for you. Because you and I had the snake’s venom in us. We needed a new heart pumping new blood. That’s what Jesus offers.

The Fall (Genesis 3:2-6)

Eve told the serpent they could eat from the trees of the garden, but God had said not to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, or even touch it, or they’d die. The serpent said, “You won’t surely die. God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened, and you’ll be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye and desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.

Adam ate

Adam knew what he was doing. Maybe he thought he loved Eve enough to get by.
He wanted to be with the woman more than he wanted to obey God. He didn’t want anything to get between him and his wife, no matter the cost.
He thought he could handle the consequences of sin. He thought he was man enough.
He wasn’t. Death came.

Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to everyone, because all sinned (Romans 5:12). As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22).

When Adam sinned, everything broke.

Husbands, take note

It always comes back to us.

Where was Adam while his wife was hanging out by the tree with a creepy talking snake? What was more important than being with Eve?
He wasn’t being a spiritual leader to his wife. He wasn’t teaching her, caring for her, and providing the protection she needed.
Maybe he thought he’d done enough, given her enough leadership, and could leave her on her own.
He was very wrong. Not because she was bad, but because he failed her. He failed to prepare and protect her.

I believe the biggest failure wasn’t simply that he wasn’t there, or that he trusted her. The biggest failure may have been that he opened the door for her to be deceived, by teaching her, or creating an environment where she believed in legalism.

Let’s look carefully at what that means.

How Deception Happens

“Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

Satan twists God’s word. He turns a positive into a negative and implies God is holding something back. God had said, “You may freely eat from every tree… except one.” Satan made it sound like, “God won’t let you eat from any tree?”

Satan attacks people the same way today: getting them to doubt God’s word, which leads to neglecting God’s word.

Eve’s first problem

She was talking to a snake! No good comes from a conversation with a master manipulator.

She didn’t even name the tree. She just called it “the tree in the middle of the garden.”
But its name spoke volumes about God’s command, God’s heart and God’s provision. It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, set against the tree of life.

That’s always been the choice before every person:

God’s way is life: walk with Him, obey Him, trust Him, abide in Him, and live.
Man’s way is rebellion: decide for yourself what’s right and wrong. “I don’t need to listen to everything You say. I can figure this out. Don’t hold me back. What if I’m missing out?”

Adam had heard all of this from God, but it seems he failed to pass God’s heart on to his wife.

He didn’t share why they should obey God: for life!
He didn’t share God’s heart: His plan to bless them.

Are you sharing God’s heart with the people around you, or just handing them rules? Parents, are you just giving your kids rules, or explaining God’s heart to them?

Adding to God’s word

Eve’s answer reveals a deeper problem: “You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.”

She added to God’s word. God never said, “Don’t touch it.” He only said, “Don’t eat it.”

Maybe she thought an extra rule would keep her safe. Or maybe Adam told her that. Either way, Satan jumped on that gap in her knowledge of God’s word to bring deception. I suspect Adam may have exaggerated God’s word to her, bringing the first legalism into the world.

Legalism is adding a restriction God doesn’t require.

The Sabbath was meant to be a blessing. Over time, religious leaders turned it into a crushing burden, debating whether you could wear a wooden leg, dentures, or even spit on the Sabbath.
Clerical robes were originally meant to dress everyone down to the same level, so no one felt superior. Yet clothing so easily becomes a status symbol.
Rabbis counted 613 commands in the Old Testament. Jesus summed them up in two: love God, and love others (Matthew 22:37-40).

Legalism is everything in church and religion beyond those.

And legalism opens the door to deception. When people think God cares more about how they dress, what they eat, how they talk or where they work than about their hearts, they’re wide open for Satan to whisper, “That’s not the kind of God you want to serve, is it?”

It seems smart to add extra safeguards, to be extra conservative. But if God didn’t say it, don’t add it as if He did. The integrity of His Word is at stake.

Adding to God’s word says, “What He said isn’t good enough.”
“I can’t just hear His word, keep it, and trust that it’s enough. I have to do more.”
“I have to add some of my own effort to make it work.”
And that’s how we become an imitation of a truly spiritual person.

A truly spiritual person lives by faith in God’s Word alone, trusting it at every point, and so eats from the tree of life every day. And he’s blessed!

To eat from the tree of life is, in a sense, to read your Bible and believe it.

A legalistic person doubts that God’s Word is sufficient, and feels the need to add their own rules and regulations.

The freedom of love

Does God require you to dress up for church? No! Is it okay if you do? Yes. Just don’t treat it as God’s word when it isn’t.

We’re the freest people in the world. Does God give us a detailed rulebook on music, clothing, hobbies or food? No. He gives us an overarching command that covers all of them: love God and love others.

Music? If I love God, I’ll want what fills my head to encourage me to love Him.
Clothing? If I love others, I’ll dress modestly so I don’t stumble them or tempt them to lust or envy.
Hobbies, food, where I work? It’s all governed by love.

If you see a lack of love in any area, confess it, and ask Jesus to supply it.

Wearing nice clothes to church might show love and respect for God. But it might also make someone without nice clothes feel ashamed or unworthy. So sometimes the loving thing is to dress down. That shows love for your neighbor and God’s heart of love, which honors Him too.

But Eve, your great-great-great-grandmother, added to God’s word. She didn’t trust it as enough. So she was primed for a fall, standing at the edge of the cliff because of her doubt. Satan only had to push.

He has a cunning way of knowing where we doubt. That’s why believing is so important. It keeps us away from the edge. Believing is more important than understanding.

Anselm of Canterbury, a pastor and theologian in England in the late 1000s, was famous for reasoning about God’s existence. Yet he said, in effect, “I do not seek to understand in order to believe; I believe in order to understand.” Understanding profits no one without faith.

Ultimately, people don’t reject God for lack of evidence. Often they simply don’t want to be convinced.

“You Will Not Surely Die” (Genesis 3:4-5)

Paul warns us not to give the devil a foothold (Ephesians 4:27).

Eve heard the serpent’s flat contradiction of God’s word because she was listening to him, not focusing on God’s word. We’re always more open to deception when we aren’t abiding in the Word.

“You will not die.”

Satan wants Eve, and us, to forget the consequences of sin. “It’s not what you think! Don’t worry about it. That won’t happen to you. You deserve a break today.”
He calls God a liar. And how can a liar be trusted? Satan is attacking the very foundation of faith.
He says sin isn’t so bad, certainly not worthy of death.

Donald Grey Barnhouse observed that Satan and the flesh will always present a thousand reasons why disobeying God’s command would be good.

“Your eyes will be opened.” Satan mixes truth with lies so well that Eve can’t tell the difference anymore. Their eyes would be opened, to their own sin, rebellion and condemnation! That mixture of truth and lie is what makes him such an effective tempter, and why God’s pure Word is so precious to us.

“You will be like God.” Satan convinced her that God was holding her back from a better life. But God isn’t holding you back. He’s inviting you in to the better life.

“Knowing good and evil.” “If you only knew the power of the dark side!”

The Bite (Genesis 3:6-7)

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye and desirable for wisdom, she took and ate, and gave to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, they knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

Eve was done. She’d been tricked. So she didn’t flee temptation as she should have. She considered it. She thought about it, not remembering God’s word, reasoning in her own head.
That’s a big problem. When we use our intellect to make decisions instead of trusting God’s word, we fall like Eve. We can’t out-think Satan; no matter how smart you are, he’s craftier.
None of her thoughts were actually true. But who needs truth, as long as it’s “my perception,” right? Wrong. There is absolute truth, and it’s found in God’s Word.

The moment they ate, the deception was exposed. They could “see” all right, but not what Satan promised. They saw shame. They saw guilt. They saw sin. They were exposed.

Whenever we depart from the simple Word God has given us, it ends in shame, embarrassment, devastation and death.

Satan promised them vision. They ended up blind. All because they abandoned the Word that had been spoken to them.

But that isn’t the end of the story. The same chapter that records the fall also records God’s first promise of a Savior (Genesis 3:15), the One who would be lifted up like the serpent on the pole, so that all who look to Him will live.

Grace Takeaway

Satan can’t overpower you; he can only deceive you, and his favorite tool is twisting God’s word, either by subtracting from it or adding to it. Don’t add rules God never gave, and don’t doubt the good heart behind the words He did give. Abide in His Word, believe it, and eat from the tree of life every day.

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