This transcript was auto-generated. 

Last time we saw how Satan comes along and highlights the one prohibition that God put in place in the garden as if to suggest that it somehow outweighed all the other good things God has done for them. Thereby casting doubt on the very character of God. His starting point is always to plant a seed of doubt. Satan will always focus our attention on God’s exclusions in such a way as to suggest God is limiting you by withholding something from you or stopping you experiencing pleasure or happiness. 

There are many people out there who see the bible as just a list or rules that stops them doing the things they want to do and that is what the devil wants us to think. And that what he does here with Eve. But listen to how she responds.

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.”

(Gen 3: 2) N.K.J.V.

So, what did Eve do wrong here? On the face of it, it seems a reasonably accurate response of what God said. But look carefully she retracted something from the Word of God. Do you notice what she slipped something in, listen carefully? God actually said in Genesis 1: 17; 

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eat of it thereof you shalt surely die”.

But Eve says,

‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die’.

Eve has changed it. She has added a prohibition of not touching it and she has lessened the punishment from you shall surely die, “to you might die”. So, Eve changed the penalty from surely die to maybe die. So, Eve is not precisely saying what God had said.  She is subtracting from it and thereby changing its meaning. She is doing what many have done since. By subtracting from, the word of God, she is minimizing the word of God. But she also adds to it and by adding to it she exaggerates the exclusions of God. Eve is the first person to suggest living a faith means living a boring life, a life that is just full of rules and regulations. And by changing the word of God she also weakens the consequences of disobedience. Now don’t get me wrong paraphrasing God’s word is sometimes legitimate, but Eve goes way beyond that. She changed and altered what God said to the point where she changed the intent of what God had meant. Hebrews experts will tell you that Eve’s paraphrase of what God says in the original language removes the certainty of what God said. Doubt has already entered her mind when it comes to accepting the character of God as good and she has lost sight of the grace of God, she has focused on the prohibition and exaggerating it. 

At the bottom of every temptation there is always a lie doubt about the goodness and grace of God. Think about that the next time you are tempted. Next time you are tempted ask yourself how is that temptation in some way making me doubt the goodness of God. In her short reply to Satan’s question she perverts and misquotes what the Lord had said. She misquotes the freedom that God had given in relation to the other trees in the garden and she overstates the restrictions that God had put in place. 

So, you want to know how Satan works, it’s all here. 

1             He disguises himself. 

2             He makes you doubt the goodness of God by making you doubt the Word of God. (Usually by adding to is, taking away from it, or changing the intent of what it says) 

There is a third thing he does.

We will look at that next time.