And the serpent was more crafty than any animal of the field which Jehovah Elohim had made. And it said to the woman, Is it even so, that God has said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
The third chapter of the Bible opens with a question about something God had already said plainly. Behind the animal that asks it stands a real enemy, and Scripture keeps exposing him right through to its last book.
The chapter names only a creature, but the rest of Scripture names the one using it.
Notice that when the enemy attacks our first parents, the account leaves him in mysterious obscurity. Yet no believer, no serious mind, can doubt that under the form of a serpent, Satan was at work to deceive and destroy... The last book of the New Testament answers the first book of the Old Testament with striking force. It names him from first to last as "that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan" — the slanderer and the adversary.
The very strangeness of a beast speaking should have warned the woman rather than drawn her in.
This chapter introduces the serpent as more cunning than all other beasts. Satan's use of the serpent as his mouthpiece shows that this was so. The woman had probably never heard any other animal speak. When the serpent spoke to her, she should have been doubly on her guard... God has never allowed Satan to appear to mankind as he is in his own person, except in his temptation of the Lord Jesus.
Nothing in the approach announces itself as evil. That is what "more crafty" means in practice.
Notice, the first thing introduced here is the craftiness of Satan. When Eve replied to it, it was not flagrant, open sin and wickedness. He does not say, "I am the devil come to deceive you." He points to how pleasant the thing is right now.
A planted doubt works better than a loud denial. The mind finishes the argument itself.
It opens mildly. Planting a doubt overthrows convictions better than a flat denial does. The mind is then left to draw its own conclusions... The woman's reply makes it clear. Her mind had caught the drift of his words, and her heart, sadly, had taken in the implied question about God's goodness.
The question sounds like it is about food. It is really about whether they can trust God.
It was by craft, not by force, that man was overcome... The way the enemy attacked makes one thing clear. Faith is the root and spring of all obedience in the creature, even in innocence. Faith is also what receives the Saviour and His great salvation once man has fallen... Our first parents knew nothing of the reason for the ban. Perfect confidence in God's goodness would have assured them that it must be, and was, for their good and happiness... How much more that question held than appears on the surface! It carries his pretended concern for their enjoyment. It hints that God, if He really said this, must be an enemy of their happiness, grudging them so small a pleasure.
The failure began before anyone touched the fruit. It began when the question got a hearing.
The right way to meet Satan's questions and suggestions is to treat them as his, and to repel them by the word. To let them near the heart, even for a moment, is to lose the only power by which to answer them. To admit the question, "Did God actually say?" when I know that God has spoken is outright unbelief. The very fact that I admit it proves I am completely unable to meet it.
The serpent chose which of the two to approach.
His first move was to throw doubt on the Word of God. God had revealed very little so far, but on one point He had spoken clearly and decisively. The serpent questioned that revelation. He twisted God's words as he questioned them, to make his hint of doubt more believable. What is more, he addressed himself not to the man, who was primarily responsible, but to the woman. Of the two links in the human chain she was the weaker, and the adversary struck just there.
- Craft — The enemy does not announce himself. He opens with something pleasant and a mild question.
- Doubt — A planted doubt beats a flat denial, because it leaves the mind to finish the argument against God on its own.
- Goodness — The question was never about a tree. It hinted that God's ban was not love. His goodness was the real target.
- Faith — Faith is the root and spring of all obedience, before the fall as much as after it. When trust goes, the command feels like mere restriction.
- Word — Treat the question as the enemy's. Answer it with what God said. To let "Did God actually say?" in, when you know He has spoken, is already the defeat.
And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden;
Eve answers the serpent, and at first her words look right. But commentators see in them the point where her trust in God began to slip. They also ask why she answered him at all.
Before we weigh what Eve said, writers ask whether she should have spoken. The serpent's question attacked God's goodness, and she knew better.
The enemy's approach was indeed subtle. It was to awaken distrust of God in Eve's heart. Could it be good to refuse man the fruit of any tree in the garden? Distrust of God opens the door to every sin. Eve ought at once to have turned away. She knew the goodness of the LORD God. Why then talk a moment longer with one who questioned it? To allow it was to sit in judgment on Him, to doubt His love, to accept the serpent as a better friend.
Even a fair-sounding reply was a loss, because she entered the argument at all.
If you do not want temptation to defeat you, do not argue with Satan. When Eve began to argue the case with the serpent, he was too strong for her. The devil reasoned her right out of Paradise. If you enter into a discussion with him, you give him half the victory.
Eve keeps the sense of God's permission, but not its full warmth. One writer treats the words she dropped as proof that the serpent's hint had already landed.
But Eve's first reply has two sad features. First, it was not made up of God's own words. Second, the two she left out were the ones that show the tempter's suggestion had already begun to take effect. Her answer shows that her thoughts of God's generosity are already smaller and poorer than His own words. The thin edge of the wedge was already inserted. All the rest, sadly, was easy.
Eve names the trees she may eat, then moves straight to the one she may not. Notice also where she places that tree — "in the midst of the garden" — though Genesis put the tree of life there.
Here we see a soul that has lost its balance. It wavers, and flounders all the more as it tries to regain it. What tree had God put into "the midst" of the garden? According to the inspired account, it was the tree of life. Prohibition — was that at the very heart of paradise? Did everything there radiate, so to speak, from the threat of death? Sadly, slight as the matter may seem, it tells us where the woman's soul is. For how easily with us does one forbidden thing blot out of our view a thousand blessings!
As her reply runs on, she widens the ban and softens the penalty. One writer counts both moves as damage to the truth.
Had she held fast the sense of her responsibility to obey, she would have resented the question rather than answered it. And her answer lets us see that Satan's evil intent did not fail of its effect. She adds to the prohibition, and takes from the penalty. The LORD had not said a word about touching the forbidden fruit. But He had threatened death, in the most certain terms, on the day they ate it. Exaggerating truth is no more the truth than reducing it; either weakens it, and both are Satan's work.
One writer supplies the reply Eve could have given — an answer resting wholly on God's goodness.
Simple rest in the infinite goodness of God would have kept Eve safe from all this reasoning. She should have said to the serpent, "I have the fullest confidence in God's goodness. So I think it impossible that He could withhold any real good from me. If that fruit were good for me, I would surely have it. But God has forbidden it, and that proves I would be no better off by eating it — I would be much worse off. I am convinced of God's love, and I am convinced of God's truth. And I believe you are an evil one, come to draw my heart away from the fountain of goodness and truth. Get behind me, Satan." This would have been a noble reply. But it was not given.
- Doubt — the serpent's question targeted God's goodness. Letting it in was already the wound, since distrust of God opens the door to every sin.
- Debate — arguing with the tempter hands him half the victory before anyone takes a bite. The safe move was to turn away at once.
- Diminish — her retelling makes God's generosity smaller than His own words had made it.
- Distort — she then tightens the ban and softens the penalty. Stretching the truth weakens it just as cutting it does.
- Displace — one forbidden thing now fills her view, and a garden of blessings drops out of sight. All the rest came easily.