10
Confrontation
“Neither shall ye touch it.” Here the subtlety of the serpent appeared.
This statement of Eve gave him advantage; he plucked the fruit and
placed it in her hand, using her own words, He hath said, If ye touch
it, ye shall die. You see no harm comes to you from touching the fruit,
neither will you receive any harm by eating it.
Eve yielded to the lying sophistry of the devil in the form of a
serpent. She ate the fruit, and realized no immediate harm. She then
plucked the fruit for herself and for her husband. “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
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he did eat.”
Adam and Eve should have been perfectly satisfied with their
knowledge of God derived from His created works and received by
the instruction of the holy angels. But their curiosity was aroused to
become acquainted with that of which God designed they should have
no knowledge. It was for their happiness to be ignorant of sin. The
high state of knowledge to which they thought to attain by eating of
the forbidden fruit, plunged them into the degradation of sin and guilt.