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by GLENN PEASE
01/18/18
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Based on Gen. 3:1-6

     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.

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