And we want to consider now chapter 3,
more or less, in depth.
And we're spending a lot of time in
these opening chapters because they are all important.
And God is covering a great deal of
ground in a very brief period of space,
by the way.
In this first section here, we have the,
I think, very obvious fact of the setting
for the temptation of man.
Now let me read, beginning with verse 1.
Now the serpent was more subtle 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.
Now this creature here, we find, well, we
raise a question.
Why the temptation?
And frankly, we're going to have to go
back to chapters 1 and 2.
Man was created innocent, and man was not
created righteous, if you'll notice.
Now what is righteousness?
Well, righteousness, it's innocence that's been maintained in
the presence of temptation.
You see, temptation will either develop or destroy
you, do one of the two.
And the Garden of Eden was not a
hothouse.
Man was not a hothouse plant.
Character must be developed, and it can be
developed only in the presence of temptation.
And therefore, man was created a responsible being,
and he was responsible to glorify, to obey,
to serve, and to be subject to divine
government.
Man didn't create himself.
I don't think anyone claims that.
But God created him.
And God was not, I think, arbitrary in
this.
God, you will recall, had said to man,
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.
And it wasn't the only tree to eat
of.
It would have been a very arbitrary statement
if man would have starved to death if
he hadn't eaten of the tree, and then
be told he'd die if he did eat
of it.
There were an abundance, we're told, of trees
there that bore fruit.
So that man didn't need to eat of
this tree at all.
Now, will you notice that man appears here
on the scene, a responsible creature.
Now we have here the temptation and the
fall.
And in this first verse I read, we
are introduced to the serpent.
And immediately the question can reasonably be answered,
Well, where in the world did he come
from?
How did he get in the Garden of
Eden?
And I have something to say to you
at this connection that as far as I
can tell from the Word of God, friends,
the serpent was there not as a slithering
creature, and we're not told how he came
there.
We're just told he was there.
You see, the Word of God leaves a
great deal out.
But he was a creature that could be
used of Satan.
And Satan used him.
Well, isn't that exactly the method that he
uses even today?
Paul said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians
11 and 14, No marvel, for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light.
And we find out that, especially in the
book of Revelation, where more is said about
him there than anywhere else, it is said
the great dragon was cast out, that old
serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth
the whole world.
He was cast out into the earth, and
his angels were cast out with him.
This creature was not a slithering snake as
we think of it today.
That's not the picture that the Word of
God gives of him at all.
We're told in Revelation 22, He laid hold
on the dragon, that old serpent, which is
the devil, and Satan bound him a thousand
years.
So this is a creature with tremendous ability.
Now, there's no record of his origin here
at all.
Now, I do not want to be dogmatic
yet, but I am when we get to
it.
Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, I think, give
us the origin of this creature and also
how he became the creature that he was.
Now, why in the world, and I want
to read this next verse now and ask
the question first, why in the world did
the serpent approach the woman?
Why didn't he approach the man?
Let me read.
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 is in the midst of
the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not
eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,
lest ye die.
Now, you see, woman was created last, and
she got her information from the man.
You see, God had told Adam when He
created him that he could eat of every
tree of the garden, but of this one
he was not to eat of.
So the woman had gotten her information secondhand,
got it from man.
And so he approached woman first.
And frankly, I think that woman was created
in a finer way than man was created,
but also one who probably was open to
this type of thing more than a man
would be.
Actually, I think a woman really has a
nature that probably is more inquisitive than a
man.
Also, she is the one today that you
find goes into the cults and isms more
than anyone else and leads men into it.
In fact, most of the founders of cults
and isms have been women.