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Predicament of Our First Parents
27
To accomplish his work undetected, Satan put on a disguise. The
serpent was one of the wisest and most beautiful creatures. It had
dazzling brightness. Resting in the forbidden tree, feasting on the
delicious fruit, it was an object to arrest attention and delight the
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eye. Thus in the garden of peace lurked the destroyer.
The angels had warned Eve to beware of separating from her
husband. With him she would be in less danger than if alone. But
she unconsciously wandered from his side. Forgetting the angel’s
caution, she soon found herself gazing with mingled curiosity and
admiration on the forbidden tree. The fruit was beautiful, and she
wondered why God had withheld it from them.
Now the tempter had his opportunity. “Has God indeed said,
‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’” Eve was startled to
hear the echo of her thoughts. The serpent continued with subtle
praise of her surpassing beauty, and his words were pleasant. Instead
of fleeing from the spot, she lingered. She didn’t suspect that Satan
was speaking through the fascinating serpent.
She replied: “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 of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’
Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For
God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”
By eating from this tree, he declared, they would reach a higher
level of life. He himself had eaten and had acquired the power of
speech. He implied that the Lord had jealously withheld it from
them, in case they would be exalted to equality with Himself, and
that He had prohibited them from tasting or touching it because this
fruit imparted wisdom and power. The divine warning was merely to
intimidate them. How could it be possible for them to die? Had they
not eaten of the tree of life? God had been seeking to prevent them
from reaching a nobler development and finding greater happiness.
This has been the way Satan has worked from the days of Adam
to the present time, and he has been very successful with this method.
He tempts people to distrust God’s love and doubt His wisdom. In
their efforts to explore what God has withheld, multitudes overlook
truths that are essential to salvation. Satan tempts them to disobedi-
ence, to believe they are entering a wonderful field of knowledge.