On Halloween night the streets are filled with masked children out to get
treats and to play a few tricks. Their masks may hide their identity from us,
but we are only moderately fooled because we know that underneath there are
children and not assorted demons, or at least not supernatural demons. This
was not so on one of the first days of history. It was not a Halloween, but it
was a day of tricks and treats. Satan was out to trick Eve into a treat that
would bring about the fall of man. Eve was not even aware that Satan was
using the serpent as a mask.
Satan's first role on the stage of history was that of a hypocrite. A
hypocrite is one who wears a mask and who plays a role externally which does
not correspond to his internal character. By the mask of hypocrisy Eve was
tricked into the first sin. It seems as if the odds were so great against her that
she didn't stand a chance. Milton says in Paradise Lost, "For neither man nor
angel can discern hypocrisy, the only evil that walks invisible, except to God
alone." Satan appears to have all the advantage, and Eve stands helpless
before his cunning temptation. Except for one thing this was true. Satan then
and now has the advantage over man, and man in his own wisdom will never
outwit the subtle serpent. One of the very first lessons we learn from the
account of the fall is that there is only one way to victory over evil and that is
by obedience to the Word of God. Eve in her ignorance still had no excuse for
her sin because she knew God's command and was free to obey it. Milton
again has God speak concerning man:
"I made him just and right,
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
Such I created all the ethereal Powers
And Spirits, both them who stood, and them who failed.
Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
Verses 2 and 3 tell us that Eve had all she needed to gain the victory had
she chosen to live according to her knowledge. She did not know the reason
for God's command, however, and it was at this point of ignorance that Satan
worked and sought to get her to doubt.
A children's story about an ancient king who wanted to find a faithful
servant illustrates the need for obedience in spite of reasons. The king wanted
to make sure he had a servant who would obey him, and so he ordered two
men who applied for the position to draw water out of a well and poor it into a
basket. It was not long before one of the men threw his pain away in a rage.
He shouted, "This is foolish work. I will do no more of it." The other said,
"This is the work the king commanded us to do, and for which he is paying
us." He went on dipping his pail into the basket. When the water was nearly
gone he saw a glittering of something in the mud at the bottom. He brought it
up and found it to be a diamond ring. Then he understood why the king had
given them that apparently foolish work. If the ring would have been brought
up it could have been found in the basket. He took the ring to the king, and
the king gave it back to him as a gift saying, "You are a man I can trust,
because you obeyed and trusted me when you did not understand my reasons.
I see I can trust you in greater things."
This simple story carries the same profound truth as the story of the
Garden of Eden. If man has the knowledge of God's will that is all he needs,
for he can obey what he knows regardless of the lack of reasons and the
pressure to not obey. The test of the king was the same test that God gave to
Adam and Eve. The test was to determine if they could obey without reasons,
and even when the subtle one made it seem unreasonable. In verse 4 Satan
comes right out and denies that God has spoken the truth. You will not die as
God has said were his words. This left Eve standing where all of us stand, for
she was between two conflicting voices. Every command of God is challenged
by the voice of doubt. The first sin of man is usually thought to be
disobedience, but it is likely that doubt likely deserves the dubious honor of
being the first sin. Disobedience was the first sinful act, but before the act Eve
was deceased into doubting God's Word. Once Satan gets a person to doubt
he has them in his power.
Doubt is one of Satan's most powerful weapons simply because it is so easy
to create. By the very nature of our limitations we are easy targets for the
arrows of doubt. There are so many things we do not know for sure, just as
Eve did not know, and unless we are willing to except many things on God's
Word alone we can be duped into doubting. Doubt lost paradise, and it has
lost many blessings of God sense. The Greeks recognized the great power of
doubt in bringing loss to man. One of their most pathetic stories is that of
Orpheus who was in love with a beautiful maiden Eurydice. She died and he
was plunged into deep grief. He besought the gods to restore her, but to no
avail, and so he decided to descend to the underworld himself and bring her
back. Down he went through the gloomy way haunted by ghosts and
phantoms till he stood before the throne of Pluto, god of the underworld. He
made such a passionate entreaty that Pluto called Eurydice and bade Orpheus
to lead her back to the light.
Pluto imposed one condition on Orpheus. He said, "Lead on in front,
while she behind must follow, nor dare to doubt or look even once behind until
the upper air is reached, else the boon is null and forfeit." Gladly he accepted
the conditions and striking his lyre in joyful notes, he began to climb toward
the light. As he came near the top a fear fell upon his heart. Had his loved one
followed, or had she dropped by the way? Was she really behind him, or had
Pluto only deceived him? So strong was the voice of doubt that he could stand
it no longer. He turned to see if indeed his love was there. She was and with
joy he clasped her, but alas, even as he did she began to fade. "Oh! What!
She cried, what madness hath undone me! And, O wretched! The, my
Orpheus, too." The madness that seized them was the same madness that
brought ruin into the world, and it was the madness of doubt. Eve like
Orpheus could not trust and leave the unknown to God.
Satan says in verse 5 that God knows if you eat of the forbidden fruit your
eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil. Satan seeks
to change completely her concept of God. He is saying that all you think about
God being good and loving is a myth. His prohibiting you is not for your good
at all, but it is a hindrance to what is best for you. Satan has to wage an attack
on God's character in order to get Eve to doubt his motives. The most
amazing aspect of this whole attack on the character of God is that it is all
done with true statements. Nowhere can a better example be found of how
truth can be used for evil ends. It can be used to give false impressions, or to
lead one to false implications and conclusions.
Satan said they would not die, and we know that they did not literally die,
but lived for centuries after their sin. He said their eyes would be opened, and
this came true. He said they would be as God knowing good and evil, and this
is confirmed by God himself in verse 22 where He says, "Behold the man has
become like one of us, knowing good and evil." There is not a single statement
of Satan that was an outright lie. The lie consisted in the total impression he
conveyed, they were true statements, but only half-truths because they were
stated in such a way as to give a false impression. Shakespeare said, "Oh what
authority and show of truth can cunning sin cover itself withal." Allston said,
"The most intangible, and therefore the worst kind of lie, is a half-truth."
Satan conveyed to Eve the impression that God was the enemy of her
highest well-being, and that he himself was coming to her as the great
liberator showing her the way to freedom from God's unjust restraint. Milton
expresses the devil's delight in his clear deception:
I under fair pretense of friendly ends,
And well-placed words of glazing courtesy
Baited with reasons not unplausible,
Wined me into the easy-hearted man,
And hugged him into snares.
If we learn nothing else, we must learn that the most dangerous lies are
half-truths that give us false impressions. Let us never underestimate the
powers of evil as to think their lives are always an obviously false.
Shakespeare knew his Bible and history, and so he knew of what he was
speaking when he wrote,
Often times, to win us to our harm,
The instrument of darkness tell us truths;
Win us with honest trifles, to betray us
In deepest consequence.
It is not enough that an idea be true for us to follow it, for there is not a
cult, philosophy or religion in existence that does not contain some truth. One
of our basic doctrines is that the Bible is our soul authority for faith and
conduct. This is our protection against half-truths. There is much we do not
know, even as Eve did not, but like her we have an objective authority to be
our guide. If we do not doubt it, but seek only to obey it even when we do not
fully understand all the reasons for God's will, then we can be assured that
Satan's cunning will not be able to trick us into treating ourselves to forbidden
fruit. It is important that we recognize that Satan will even use the good to keep
us from the best. What he said about the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil was true, for it did open their eyes, and they did become more like God.
In their innocence they were not like God, for they did not know good and evil
as God does. The first sin actually made man more God-like in making them
true moral agents. Good came of their disobedience, but it was good at the
expense of the best. There can be no doubt that if Adam and Eve would have
stood the test and obeyed God would have permitted them to eat of that tree
freely.
I am convinced that Satan's subtlety is best demonstrated in his getting
men to arrive at a right end by the use of wrong means. Scripture makes it
clear that the knowledge of good and evil is a good thing. It is said of David in
II Sam. 14:17, "The word of my lord the king will set me at rest, for my lord
the king is like the angel of God to discern good and evil." It was this God-like
ability that Solomon prayed for in I Kings 3:9. "Give thy servant therefore an
understanding mind to govern thy people, that I may discern between good
and evil."
We see then that Satan tricked Eve into a treat that could have been a
treat of victory, but it became a treat of defeat because it was gotten by an evil
means. The very first sin teaches us of the danger of letting the end justify the
means. It is by this philosophy that Satan can trick us into treats. He can
offer us true and valuable goals, but when they are attained by means
contrary to the will of God they are sinful. The knowledge of good and evil
was a good, and it was a real treat, but to gain it by disobeying God spoiled it
and left only bitter consequences. When Satan tempted Christ it was in each
case to get a good end by an inappropriate means. Satan is tricking masses
into treats of defeat by getting them to thinking that knowledge is the answer
to all problems. God uses knowledge to lead men to higher ground, but Satan
has tricked men into making knowledge an end in itself, or as a means to
making them think they are gods. God is left out and a good thing is made the
enemy of the best. To avoid being tricked into a treat of forbidden fruit we
must always make sure that the means to a good goal is also good, and that it
is consistent with the revealed will of God. Do not be tricked into getting to a
good goal by a route that God has forbidden.
