The first half of Genesis 3 gives us a picture of where it all went bad after creation. God created the Garden of Eden, the most beautiful place on earth, and gave it to His new human creations – Adam and Eve. There was one instruction He gave them – not to eat of the one tree. Now the serpent (enemy/Satan) shows up and begins his dastardly mission to destroy them. He has the same mission for you and me – scripture tells us it is to kill, steal and destroy – and he goes after the woman first. Does that mean that women have more likelihood of disobedience or failing to walk with God? I don’t think so – this story could have gone either way – the serpent just went after the first person he found and began his work of deception. The serpent starts out asking a question: “do I understand that God told you….”. All about setting the stage to create doubt in what the woman had been told and why she had been told what she was. The enemy we have is very deceptive and the whole battle is really about choice. Satan must convince us to choose to do wrong – to disobey God’s direction for our life. The enemy doesn’t sin for us – we make that choice just like Eve did when she took a bite. The enemy did use a pretty good carrot to get to her – “you’ll be just like God”. That was what caused Satan to be cast from heaven in the first place – he wanted to be God. That just isn’t the way it works.
We can debate Adam’s response when Eve came to him and offered him the fruit. Did she deceive him and he was some innocent victim? I have often teased that the woman really is the culprit here. But c’mon guys, we never do what our wives tell us any other time so that doesn’t pass muster here either. Sin is a personal choice. We may be led to the edge of the cliff, but we have to make the decision to jump. Eve didn’t force it down Adam’s throat. She “gave some to her husband, and he ate”. Did you catch the “and he ate” part? It was his decision, just a different tempter at most. Sin is a personal decision – we all make it if we sin. So the root of the sin problem is me, or you, not the serpent or our spouse or anyone else. Sin has “I” right in the middle of it. Interestingly, what the serpent told them would happen was true. They “did see what’s really going on” just like Satan said they would. So the serpent didn’t tempt them with something that was not true, that fruit did make them sort of like God. But that is not the point – the temptation was to violate what God said not to do. It isn’t to test whether the temptation was true or not, it is about obedience. Satan often tempts us with things that are true – they are just violations of God’s truth and standards. Sin means we miss the mark of what God intends for us to do – we don’t live the way He instructs. We are not obedient to His mission and instruction for life. Sin is a choice – we make it alone and on our own. No one to blame but you and me when it happens. We may get some help making that very poor choice from Satan or others, but at the end of the day, we make the choice and have to take responsibility for that sin.
