01.025. HOW SIN CAME INTO OUR WORLD: THE TEMPTATION
Lesson Twenty-three HOW SIN CAME INTO OUR WORLD: THE TEMPTATION Scripture Reading: Genesis 3:1-8.
Scriptures To Memorize: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man; but each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed” (James 1:13-14). “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
94. Q. What was man’s original state morally?
A. It may be properly described as a state of innocence.
(1) It was at the outset a state of untried innocence, How long Adam and Eve continued in obedience to God after their creation, we have no means of knowing. It is obvious, however, that as long as they did so, they had no knowledge of evil as a matter of experience. (2) The notion of some theologians that Adam was created holy, is absurd. It is absurd for the simple reason that created holiness is impossible. Holiness is attained, and that only through free, voluntary choice of right above wrong. (3) Whatever character Adam earned prior to his lapse into sin, was earned by his obedience to those commands of God which crossed none of his natural inclinations, and which therefore cost him little or no self-denial. His goodness was commendable as far as it went, but of inferior worth because there was no settled principle of obedience in his heart. (4) Hence when the real test came, a test in which the command of God did cross his own desires, and that directly and sharply, his love of having his own way overpowered all other considerations, and he sinned. (5) Genesis 3:5—“ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil,” urged the tempter. It is true that when our first parents sinned, they did then learn to know good and evil, but not in the sense they had anticipated. They learned to know evil, not as God knows it, i.e., as something to be abhorred and forever rejected; but as Satan knows it, i.e., as a matter of bitter experience. It was when they came to know evil as a matter of personal experience, that they fell from their original state of innocence and became separated from God by sin.
95. Q. How did our first parents fall from their original state of innocence?
A. They fell by disobeying the law of God.
96. Q. Did they sin purely of their own volition as the angels sinned; or were they seduced from an outside source?
A. They were seduced by Satan, who acted through the instrumentality of a serpent.
(1) Genesis 3:1. What this a literal serpent? Evidently it was, for the following reasons: (a) It is expressly classified with the beasts of the field. (b) It is described as a creature possessing the instinctive cunning that is popularly supposed to belong to actual serpents. Genesis 3:1—“now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field,” etc. Cf. Matthew 10:16. (c) It seems only reasonable that Satan should have made use of an apparently harmless agent in seducing the woman, thus, by keeping himself in the background, deceiving her as to the identity of the real tempter. (d) It was evidently a creature well known to her, as she manifested no surprise on hearing it address her articulately. (e) The curse subsequently pronounced upon serpent-kind in general (Genesis 3:14-15) would be meaningless if this was not an actual serpent involved in the transaction, or if it had been an unreal creature or apparition of some sort. (f) The language of the New Testament corroborates this conclusion. 2 Corinthians 11:13—“but I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness,” etc. Says Olshausen: “We are perfectly justified in concluding from this mention of the fall, that Paul spoke of it as an actual occurrence.” (2) That the serpent was merely the instrument through which Satan acted, is evident from the following considerations: (a) Because the power of speech is not a natural endowment of the serpent; hence it must have used articulate language on this occasion as the mouthpiece of a supernatural intelligence. “The speaking must have emanated, not from the serpent, but from a superior spirit, which had taken possession of the serpent for the sake of seducing man” (Keil and Delitzsch). Balaam’s ass, by divine impulse, spoke in articulate words (Numbers 22:21-30); so the serpent in tempting Eve must have spoken by diabolical impulse. Eve had no fear of it for the reason probably that fear was unknown in Eden, i.e., prior to the entrance of sin into the world. (b) Because there is no other ground on which we can explain the diabolical malice and cunning manifested in the temptation of Eve. (c) Because there is no other ground on which we can explain the words of Jesus in John 8:44. (d) Because this view is confirmed by the circumstances of our Lord’s temptation. “The tempter approached the Savior openly; to the first man he came in disguise. The serpent is not a merely symbolical term applied to Satan; nor was it only the form which Satan assumed; but it was a real serpent, perverted by Satan to be the instrument of his temptation” (Keil and Delitzsch). No doubt Satan approached Christ openly because he was well aware that the latter would be able to penetrate every disguise and uncover every deception, (e) Finally, there is no other ground on which we can account for the twofold implication of Genesis 3:14-15, which includes both literal warfare between mankind and serpentkind, and spiritual warfare between the Seed of the woman and the Old Serpent, the devil; and there is no other ground on which we can explain the various scriptures in which Satan is alluded to as the Old Serpent (2 Corinthians 11:3; 2 Corinthians 11:14; Romans 16:20; Revelation 12:9; Revelation 20:2). (3) “To a child, there are few things more attractive than a glittering serpent, with its curving motions, its brilliant colors, and the magnetic charm of its eye. It is a fit symbol of the devil in his sly, insidious approaches, his cunning, and the power to charm that precedes his power to destroy” (Errett, Evenings With the Bible, Vol. I., p. 24). (4) “On the hypothesis that there was in this first temptation a twofold agency; that Satan spoke through a literal serpent, just as demons, in the time of Christ, spoke through real men and women; on this hypothesis, I say, all is plain, simple and natural. It is, then, easy to account for all the facts in this eventful case; and especially to see how it was that the woman, being at length deceived and overcome by the hellish malice and diabolical cunning and artifice of the Serpent, stretched for her hand, and plucked, and ate ‘Of that forbidden fruit, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe.’”
(Milligan, Scheme of Redemption, fn., pp. 43–44). (5) “The serpent itself is the best comment upon the text. Look at it: glittering, lithe, cunning, cold, smooth, poisonous—truly it looks as if it might have done it! I don’t think the lion could, or the elephant, the eagle, or the ox; but the serpent brings with it a high probability of baseness and mischief” (Joseph Parker). (6) “It is remarkable that the Gentile idolaters did many of them worship the devil in the shape and form of a serpent, thereby avowing their adherence to that apostate spirit, and wearing his colors” (Mathew Henry).
97. Q. What great lesson should we learn from the serpent’s part in this tragic affair?
A. The solemn truth that temptation often comes to us like a serpent.
“Temptation comes like a serpent; like the most subtle beast of the field; like that one creature which is said to exert a fascinating influence on its victims, fastening them with its glittering eyes, stealing upon them by its noiseless low and unseen approach, perplexing them by its wide circling folds, seeming to come upon them from all sides at once, and armed not like other beasts with one weapon of offense—horn, or hoof, or teeth—but capable of crushing its victim with every part of its sinuous length. It lies apparently dead for months together, but when roused it can, as the naturalist tells us, ‘outclimb the monkey, out-swim the fish, outleap the zebra, outwrestle the athlete, and crush the tiger.’ How naturally in describing temptation do we borrow language from the aspects and movements of this creature!” (Marcus Dods).
98. Q. What characteristics of Satan are revealed in this story of the first temptation?
A. His diabolical malice and cunning.
(1) His diabolical malice. Who but Satan would have molested that happy pair created in God’s image, and thus brought such tragic ruin upon the whole human family? (2) His diabolical cunning is indicated: (a) by the fact that he selected the woman as the object of his approach. “Woman has more generally been injured and ruined through the abuse of that affectionate trust, which is really one of her main characteristics, than by any other means” (Isaac Errett). The devil knew, too, that through her the man could be more easily beguiled. (b) By the fact that he approached her when she was alone, and unsupported by her husband. It seems that Adam appeared on the scene later and, probably out of love for her, followed her into disobedience (1 Timothy 2:14). (c) By the fact that he selected such a favorable opportunity for the temptation. It seems that he made his approach at a moment when the woman was standing near the tree of forbidden fruit and no doubt was gazing upon it with considerable curiosity. Genesis 3:6—“and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,” etc. (d) By the fact that he used a method of approach designed to weaken her faith in the word of God. First, the flippant, ironical question, “Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden?”—thus insinuating that if God had issued such a prohibition, it was an exceedingly foolish one. Second, the malicious alteration of the divine command, quoting it as a prohibition not merely of the one tree, but of all. Third, the bold contradiction of the divine command. Genesis 3:4—“ye shall not surely die.” Fourth, the lying accusation against God. Genesis 3:5—“for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.” “That is to say, it is not because the fruit of the tree will injure you that God has forbidden you to eat it, but from ill-will and envy, because He does not wish you to be like Himself” (Delitzsch). Finally, the fatal appeal: “ye shall be as God.” “They will be independent of God—gods to themselves, free from all restraints, and having all the materials of happiness within themselves. It was an appeal to selfhood against Godhood; and the eating of the forbidden fruit was, on the part of Eve and Adam, an attempt to erect selfhood into Godhood. It was a renunciation of Jehovah’s sovereignty, the lifting up of a standard of rebellion against their Maker, who had been to them the fountain of life and blessedness” (Errett, Evenings With the Bible, vol. 1., p. 26).
99. Q. What fatal mistake did the woman make in dealing with the tempter?
A. She made the fatal mistake of temporizing with him.
(1) She might have perceived from his first insinuating question that he had no good end in view, and should therefore have answered with a curt “Get thee behind me, Satan!” But she temporized—and the devil was quick to press the advantage thus gained. (2) “Whoever parleys with temptation is already on the verge of danger” (Peloubet). It doesn’t pay to flirt with the devil. 2 Timothy 2:22—“flee youthful lusts.” 1 Thessalonians 5:22—“abstain from every form of evil.” James 4:7—“resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (3) Whereas our Saviour resorted to the word of God as his support in resisting Satan’s appeals (Matthew 4:4; Matthew 4:7; Matthew 4:10), Eve, by temporizing with him, was inveigled first into doubt, and finally into disobedience. “Satan teaches men first to doubt, then to deny; he makes them skeptics first, and so by degrees makes them atheists” (Matthew Henry).
100. Q. What should our knowledge of the circumstances of this first temptation lead us to do?
A. It should lead us to put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
“Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and haying put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:13-18).
REVIEW EXAMINATION OVER LESSON TWENTY-THREE 94.Q.What was man’s original state morally?
95. Q. How did our first parents fall from their original state of innocence?
96. Q. Did they sin purely of their own volition as the angels sinned; or were they seduced from an outside source?
97. Q. What great lesson should we learn from the serpent’s part in this tragic affair?
98. Q. What characteristics of Satan are revealed in this story of the first temptation?
99. Q. What fatal mistake did the woman make in dealing with the tempter?
100. Q. What should our knowledge of the circumstances of this first temptation lead us to do?