Most Of The World Who Know Not The One True God...
"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" Gen.3:1
Notice, first, that Lucifer appears, no longer as an Archangel of light and beauty but as a snake renamed "Satan" which means "hateful accuser". God's Genesis record says he is "subtil". This word is "arum", in the Hebrew, and means "sly, cunning, crafty, deceitful, treacherous. So his first name, Lucifer, which means "light Reflector", has lost his light and become a "cunning, crafty, deceitful, treacherous and hateful accuser".
Notice, secondly that he first approaches Eve not Adam. It was Adam to whom God had given that first, single "commandment of obedience"... "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen.2:16-17. So Eve wasn't yet created when God gave that Commandment to Adam. All she knew about it was what Adam had witnessed to her immediately after she was created in the next few verses, Genesis 2:21-22. So when Satan saw her, maybe gathering fruit, in the garden, he asked her the question, "Hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" This is not what God had said. He had said, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it...." God only left out one tree, but Satan made it sound like God had forbidden them all. So Eve caught the devil in a lie and corrected it in the next verse. "And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it....lest you die." Gen.3:2-3.
Eve's correction of Satan's lie drew from him the most profoundly blasphemous accusation in the history of humanity. He contradicts God's words in verses 4-5, and alleges that God is a liar. "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doeth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
Notice that Satan does not suggest that there is no such thing as "God". Satan is not an atheist or agnostic. He knows God is real, by experience, and knows he could not pull off such an unbelievable lie as denying God exists. No, what he does is accuse God of lying in order to keep those created in his image and likeness from knowing that they too can be God's equal... as all knowing gods.
Obviously, Adam wasn't there yet, at that moment, to straighten out what God had told him, and to rebuke the devil and protect his wife from Satan's lies and her own lustful desire to enjoy this one and only forbidden thing. So she plucked one for herself, and ate it, and another for Adam who arrived a bit late. "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked...." Gen.3:6-7. God clothed Adam and Eve with anamal skins, which alludes to blood sacrafice to cover our spiritual nakedness. And to this day, half of humanity struggles to cover its nakedness and half struggle against covering their nakedness.
Adam and Eve had just one Commandment, in the garden, which was to obey God whether they understand why or not. Their disobedience brought upon them, and all their progeny, pain in women's laborious births and pain in both men and women's hard laborious work. And at the root of it all, we see the lying accusations of Satan still fighting his "battle of the ages" against God and those who love and serve God. This great accuser hates them all because God loves them and created them in His own image.
Jesus said to the devilish, lying hypocrits...
"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."
Ugly Is Only Skin Deep, But Intentional, Wicked Lying and Untrue Accusations Go All The Way To The Bone. RB
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