Introduction: Imagine you are Satan. You have rebelled
against God and you and your allied angels have been (or are
about to be) tossed out of heaven. What do you do? We know
from Revelation 12:7-9 that Satan engaged in an actual
battle with God. The Bible uses the words “war” and
“fighting.” Why would Satan do that? The obvious answer is
that Satan wanted to rule heaven – or at least some part of
it. We also know that Satan tried to lure the newly created
humans into rejecting God in favor of him. Why would he do
that? The humans, unlike the angels, had no power to fight
God. Was Satan’s motive to insult God? Perhaps Satan thought
that causing humans to enter into sin would make them like
him (and the other fallen angels), and God would make a way
to reconcile them all? What Satan managed to accomplish was
to trigger death among humans, and in the process create
death for himself and his fallen angels. Let’s jump into our
study of the Bible and learn more!
I. The Temptation of Eve
A. Read Genesis 3:1. Is this some smart snake? What
is “the serpent?” (Read Revelation 12:9. This is
none other than Satan. He deceived the fallen
angels and he is in the process of deceiving
humans. We are observing his work here.)
1. Why is this serpent compared to other beasts?
How is Satan a beast? (A reasonable conclusion
is that Satan has take the form of a snake.
Snakes do not have the power of speech.)
2. If you were Eve’s life coach, what would you
advise she should do in response to this
question? (She should have walked away.)
3. What do you think about Satan’s question? (On
its face it is a stupid question. Of course
they could eat from the trees in the garden.)
a. What does this teach us about Satan’s
approach to making humans sin? (Satan’s
first goal is to get us to engage with
him. Make us feel superior. Eve felt
confident in giving an answer because
this was an obviously uninformed snake.)
B. Read Genesis 3:2-3. Is Eve correctly stating God’s
rule? (Read Genesis 2:16-17. God did not include
in the rule anything other than a prohibition on
eating.)
1. Notice that God stated the rule to Adam, not
Eve. Do you think Adam added the part about
not touching because he thought he was being
helpful to his wife? He was looking out for
her welfare by telling her not to even touch
the fruit?
2. Read Deuteronomy 4:2. What does God say about
adding to His word? (We may think we are doing
good for those we are guarding by helping them
steer clear of sin. But adding violates God’s
command.)
C. Let’s skip ahead a little. Read Genesis 3:6. What
did Eve do before she ate the fruit? (She
evaluated how it looked, and she touched it.)
1. When she touched the fruit and she did not
die, did that embolden her to eat the fruit?
(It did. This illustrates the grave error in
overstating what God prohibits.)
2. Will sin always appear to be defective? Can
apparently positive, healthy things pull us
into sin?
II. Satan’s Strategy
A. Read Genesis 3:4-5. Let’s analyze how Satan
tempted Eve. Do you think that Satan carefully
planned how he would approach Eve? (I have no
doubt. Not only was this an incredibly important
event in the controversy between good and evil,
but there is no record that Satan had access to
Adam and Eve to tempt them outside of this event.
This appears to be an agreed upon test between God
and Satan.)
B. Look again at Genesis 3:3 and read Genesis 2:9.
Where does Genesis 3 say the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil is placed? Where does Genesis 2
say the Tree of Life is placed? (They are together
in the “midst” of the garden. This suggests they
are together in the middle of the garden.)
1. Why? (This is evidence that Eden was created
with the agreed-upon contest in mind. There
can be no doubt that Satan brought his best
temptation to this contest.)
C. Let’s go back and re-read Genesis 3:4. Is
disputing God essential to temptation?
1. If you want to be alert to temptation, what
should you conclude when you hear or read
something that contradicts the Bible? (You
should be on high alert! This is the point
where many people decide that they should use
their wisdom and determine who is right. What
a sad mistake.)
2. Other than God’s word, was there any evidence
that Satan was lying? (Eve could not logically
believe that she was immortal because of the
existence of the Tree of Life and the fact
that she regularly (it seems) ate from it. In
support of this see Genesis 3:22-24.)
3. What about Satan? He has existed for thousands
of years, is he immortal? Is it possible that
he thought humans were created like him? (The
existence of the Tree of Life should have
alerted Satan to the problem of human death.)
a. Do you think that God created humans with
conditional immortality (they would need
to eat from the Tree of Life to live)
because He did not want to repeat His
experience with Satan?
D. Read Genesis 3:5. I’m doubtful that directly
contradicting God would have been successful. What
did Satan add to make his temptation more
persuasive? (It was an appeal to vanity – she
would be like God. It was an appeal to conspiracy
– God was keeping something from her.)
1. Read Genesis 1:27-28. Was Satan offering Eve
anything that she did not already have? (She
was already like God. The real issue was
whether she would trust God’s decision about
the state of her knowledge and whether she
would trust God on the issue of the death
penalty.)
a. As Eve was working this out in her mind,
what did Adam’s decision to protect her
by overstating God’s command do? (When
she touched the fruit and did not die,
she concluded that God lied.)
III. The Temptation of Adam
A. Look at Genesis 3:6. This does not explain why
Adam ate the fruit Eve gave him. Read 1 Timothy
2:13-14 for the explanation. I think Paul intends
this text to say something positive about Adam. Do
you think this makes a positive or a negative
comment about Adam?
1. Which is better in your mind, to intentionally
sin or sin because you were deceived?
2. What does Adam’s failure teach us about
Satan’s strategy about the use of those we
love? (The reasonable conclusion is that Adam
chose Eve over God. We should not make that
mistake.)
IV. The Human Failure
A. Read Genesis 3:9-12. We just discussed that Adam
fell because he did not want to give up Eve. What
is Adam doing here? (Blaming Eve!)
1. Why? How does this make any sense? If Adam was
willing to give up his future to be with Eve,
why would he tell God sin was her fault? (Sin
was not yet real to Adam when he chose Eve.
Now that he realizes the beginning
consequences his attitude changes.)
a. Have you sinned with someone that you
thought would stand with you, and then
found out differently? Is that a
strategy of Satan?
2. Who else is Adam blaming? (God! He says God
gave Eve to him.)
3. Think about this. If you are disappointed in
how family and friends respond to their sins,
consider how Adam, who was created perfect,
responded.
4. Think about this in another way: did Adam
blame God for giving him free choice? (Adam
did not think that was the root of the
problem.)
V. The Death Sentence for Satan
A. Read Genesis 3:14-15. What does Satan hear about
his future? (First, humans will not be his allies.
Second, his “head” will be “bruised.” This
punishment is primarily directed to Satan, and not
mere snakes. The blow to the head is fatal (as
opposed to the heel). Satan and his allied angels
are thrown to earth (Revelation 12:4), and their
future is with the dust of earth. I think Satan
now knows he will experience eternal death. See
Hebrews 2:14.)
B. Friend, choosing Satan is the path to death. Will
you determine, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to
defeat Satan’s deadly strategies by trusting God?
Copr. 2022, Bruce N. Cameron, J.D. Scripture quotations are
from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard
Version ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing
ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All
rights reserved. Suggested answers are found within
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but it is lost one week, you can find it by clicking on this
link: http://www.GoBible.org. Pray for the guidance of the
Holy Spirit as you study.
