Chapter 9: His Masterpiece Dining with a Stranger

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? 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. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:1–5).

In the last chapter we saw the masterpiece of God dining in holy fellowship with his Maker—a man and his Creator, sharing work and plans and, very possibly, a table, in the cool of the day. Here, in Genesis chapter three, we come upon a darker scene that is its very shadow and counterfeit: the same masterpiece now in conversation with a stranger—and once again the conversation is about eating.

It is a striking thing to notice. When we have a guest in our home, or someone comes to an office for a meeting, it is the most natural thing in the world to offer them something to eat or drink. Fellowship and food go together; discussions, meetings, and visits are so often accompanied by a shared meal. So here is the serpent, drawing near to Eve, and the very subject of his conversation is the eating of the fruit of the trees of the garden. Where God came to give and to bless, the stranger comes to question and to take; yet he comes in the familiar guise of table-talk. The counterfeit always imitates the real.

The Stranger and His Craft

Scripture highlights several things about this serpent:¹¹⁶

• He was subtil—subtle, cunning, crafty, shrewd, more clever than any beast of the field.

• He was able to speak, and this did not astonish Eve. Whether there had been speech between them before, the Bible does not say.

• He was persuasive. He tempted Eve to question what God had said—a discussion that may have been brief, or may have unfolded over time, until at last she gave in. It is not unlike the way a smooth deceiver patiently works upon someone he means to lead astray.

• He had feet; he could walk. He was not yet the snake we know today. That is why the curse that fell on him was to go upon his belly and eat dust all his days (Genesis 3:14)—so the creature we now call the serpent is the result of that judgment.¹¹⁷

Watch how the stranger works, for his method has never changed. He moves in stages, each one a step further from the truth.¹¹⁸

First he questions God’s word: “Yea, hath God said?” He does not begin by denying God outright; he begins with a doubt, a raised eyebrow, an innocent-sounding question. And he subtly distorts what God said—turning lavish generosity (“of every tree… thou mayest freely eat”) into mean restriction (“ye shall not eat of every tree?”), as though God were stingy and grudging.¹¹⁹

Then he denies the consequence: “Ye shall not surely die.” What God had plainly warned, the serpent flatly contradicts. He is, as Jesus called him, a liar from the beginning (John 8:44).

Finally he slanders the very character of God: “God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof… ye shall be as gods.” Now the accusation is open—God is keeping something good from you; God is not for you but against you; God’s command is not love but jealousy. This is the heart of every temptation: to make us doubt the goodness of the God who made us. For we will not disobey a God we truly trust; so first our trust must be poisoned.

And mark what the stranger offers: “Ye shall be as gods.” This is the very ambition that had already ruined Lucifer himself—“I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:14). The tempter hands the creature his own sin. The deep irony is that man was already made in the image of God and destined to grow in God-likeness as a gift of grace. The serpent persuades him to seize by rebellion what God had purposed to give by love.¹²⁰

The Bible warns us not to be tempted as Eve was: “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). The same serpent uses the same tactics today:

• To question God’s word, His laws, His commandments, His goodness.

• To change or twist what God has said or commanded.

• To stir desires for greatness, wealth, or advancement pursued by wrong means.

• To stir the longing to be someone special, to be like God on our own terms.

• To stir an appetite for forbidden knowledge.

Here is a simple rule worth writing on the heart: the moment a discussion turns against God’s word, do not even entertain it—run. Do not stay to debate the serpent.

She Took, and Did Eat

After the long discussion, tempted and beguiled—charmed and enchanted in a deceptive way—Eve took the fruit and ate it in the presence of the serpent, and gave to her husband Adam, who also ate:

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 (Genesis 3:6).

Notice the three doors through which the temptation entered, for the apostle John names them exactly: the fruit was “good for food” (the lust of the flesh), “pleasant to the eyes” (the lust of the eyes), and “to be desired to make one wise” (the pride of life). “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16). These were never evil desires in themselves—the body’s hunger, the eye’s delight, the mind’s reach for wisdom are all good gifts. But turned away from God and toward the forbidden thing, each became a road into ruin.¹²²

It is worth pausing to see how this same threefold pattern would one day be met and mastered. When Satan came to tempt the Lord Jesus in the wilderness—the last Adam where Adam was the first—he came again with bread (the appetite of the flesh), with the kingdoms of the world displayed to the eye, and with the proud presumption of casting Himself from the temple. But where the first Adam doubted God’s word amid the abundance of a garden, the second Adam trusted it amid the hunger of a desert, answering each assault with “It is written” (Matthew 4:1–11). What we lost in Eden through a stranger’s lie, Christ won back through His Father’s truth.¹²³

The moment we sit down to ungodly conversation, it is not long before we begin to partake of its food—words that feed and corrupt the soul. David saw this clearly: “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful” (Psalm 1:1). There is a downward progression in those three verbs—walking, standing, sitting—the slow settling-in of a soul that first strolls near temptation, then lingers, then makes itself at home.

So let us not even walk toward temptation—the counsel of the ungodly. If we find ourselves in the midst of it, let us not stand there—let us flee the way of sinners. And let us never sit down in the seat of the scornful, taking our place among thoughts and discussions that lead to sin.

First Words

I appreciate the way Dr. Mensa Otabil opened this theme in a message titled “First Words,” preached at the 2020 Men’s Conference at Rivers Church, Johannesburg. He drew attention to the first words spoken in the Bible by God, by Adam, and by Satan through the serpent. I summarize and paraphrase his point:¹²⁵

• The first words spoken by God are, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). God could have introduced Himself with any words—He could have said, “I am God”—yet His first recorded words present Him as the Creator, the giver of light and life.

• The first exact words recorded from Adam are, “…This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 2:23). Adam’s first recorded words are words of belonging and gift—receiving what God has given.

• The first recorded words of Satan are, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1). Satan’s first words are a question mark set against the word and the promises of God.

Put them together and a pattern appears. God says, “Let there be”—He speaks light, life, and promise over His creation. The believer, hearing God’s good word over his life, may rightly answer with Adam’s posture of glad reception: “this is from God; I receive it.” But then the stranger leans in and whispers his single, corrosive syllable: “Really?” Are you sure? You have no connections, no capital; you have already failed; it is impossible. And if we are not watchful, we begin to answer him—and the conversation has begun.

So when God says something over your life, your family, your work, your future, do not open the discussion with the devil about what God has said. Remember that the whole exchange happens in the mind. If you entertain him there, it will not be long before you turn from God’s word and God’s promises—exactly as it happened in the garden, and exactly as it still happens today. Confess God’s promises over your life, and refuse the stranger a seat at your table.