Genesis 3:4
“The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die!’” "For God knows that in the day you eat from it (the tree in the middle of the garden) your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
The “serpent,” who was the “devil” also known as “Satan” and the “great dragon” as described in Revelation 12:9, now directly LIED to Eve. Actually, his response, as it is so often the case, was a mixture of the truth and a lie.
They would not drop dead right after they ate of the fruit, but physically they would continue to live for 900-plus years. There are two kinds of death in Scripture; the death of the body, but much worse, the death of the soul, in which men and women are separated from God. Satan knew of both kinds of death, but only mentioned one of them.
In our society today incomplete information or the withholding information is often done by man, to gain an advantage or steer the unsuspecting in the wrong direction. As we can see by our text this ploy is as old as scripture.
This encounter of Eve with Satan at the tree of knowledge of good and evil was an opportunity for humanity’s representatives to respond in FAITH, trusting in the character of the Lord. Instead she was tempted to believe this lie about the nature of God and sin entered the world through deception.
The Truth
“So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelation 12:9)
