In the previous chapter we concluded, based on observations from certain biblical passages, that Satan, Lucifer, had become aware of God’s plan and purpose to create a material universe and fill it with humans, who would be in His image and likeness, and would fully and completely express, represent, and manifest God’s mind, heart, and will. Satan, all along, had desired the supremacy and preeminence among all angelic and heavenly hosts, as evidenced from the passages in Isaiah and Ezekial passages. His was the lust for power and the total admiration and adoration given to him by all God’s creation. He wanted to be like God, even perhaps share the office of Divinity as co-equal with God!

The creation of man in Genesis chapter 1, and in that special manner of being made in the image and likeness of God, was the beginning of the end in this quest of Lucifer for supremacy and universal dominion. Man was to be the master of the universe, starting with Earth as the base of operations, and ultimately inhabiting the entire universe and fulfilling God’s utmost desire to have a companion creation who would be in perfect harmony and fellowship with Him and would fully express the perfect compatibility with the person of the Son, who was the heir of all things.

Man was not created by accident or for God’s mere enjoyment of creating an earthly creature, only to give him the chance to fall in such disastrous misery and failure that would define the human history of the last several thousand years. Some Christian writers, in an attempt to romanticize and make the story of man’s creation worth all the pain and suffering, have suggested the shallow and somewhat meaningless idea that God was seeking fellowship and a love relationship and thus man was created to serve this very purpose. And even though this MAY sound interesting and heart-warming and purposeful, there is hardly any direct and hard Scriptural evidence that would support this romantic view of man’s creation.

The fact remains, and one can see it very clearly from the first pages of the Bible, that God created man with a dual purpose in mind. Genesis 1:26 is a foundational verse in the entire Bible, as it lays the basis for why God created man, and to what end God is striving to achieve His full purposes.

In Genesis 1: 26 we read,

“Let us make man in our image and our likeness and let them have dominion…”

We see God is responding and reacting to the ruin of earth in this final scene of Genesis account of creation (some scholars would suggest the re-creation is displayed here in Genesis 1 and 2), namely the creation of God’s vessel of expression and full manifestation of His person and Glory in the material universe. The ultimate ending of man is not a paradisical and somewhat romanticized idea of floating in the clouds with Harps in hand, or walking in a tranquil garden of heavenly garden of celestial bliss, or gold laden streets of a celestial city suspended in the air. These may all be true and factual and literal in manifestation or even imagery needed to convey greater spiritual truths. What really matters is what God wants and what God has declared about man’s nature and his destiny, and not what popular Christian writers may want to imply and suggest.

God is and will be obtaining for Himself a new humanity that is full compatible to Him and His Son, Jesus Christ, and through this renewed and redeemed man, He will accomplish His ultimate plan and purpose: The destruction of the rebellious and satanic kingdom of Lucifer and the full restoration and elevation of man to the position of full and utter supremacy in the universe.

The creation of man, which interestingly was devised to consist of duality of genders, was for a much higher and deeper meaning and purpose than mere propagation of the human race and the enjoyment of a season of sensuality.

Eve, the woman, stands in a very unique position that has aroused the anger and the fury of Satan from the outset. It’ no wonder that in the Garden of Eden, he, Satan approaches Eve instead of Adam. It seems that he has very little interest in Adam, but has an amazing interest in the woman!

We now turn to Genesis chapter 3 to have a closer look at the encounter between the Devil and the woman. This would be their first encounter, one that would set in motion the course of the world as we know it today. The story of the fall and the subsequent entry of rebellious self worship, sin as Paul labels it, is really the story of the how the woman became the target of a terrifying satanic assault that spelled the doom and destruction of man’s calling and future as the master of God’s creation. The very brief and yet poisonous conversation between Satan and the woman, laid the foundation for struggle between these two that has lasted for thousands of years and will continue to remain until the final curtain is pulled and God declares the end and establishes the victory of man over evil.

Chapter 3 opens with these verses:

“Now the Serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman,

‘Indeed has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

Here we observe several interesting points, namely:

1. Chapter opens with Satan disguised in the flesh of the craftiest of all creature – the snake. The strategy of Satan has always been a disguising method of destroying his prey. The choice of snake as the representation of Satan is brilliant. In the original language, the word translated as serpent is a hissing creature that lurks around and attacks the prey through the confusion resulting from the hissing noise and a perfectly immobile position. In this scene, we see how he hisses lies and then injects the venomous poison in Eve’s mind and heart.

2. The most amazing statement, in form of a question comes out of the serpent’s mouth, “Indeed, has God said, “You shall not eat from ANY tree of the garden’?” This is a profound and deadly attack on the person, character, and the overall goals of the Lord God. In Genesis 2 we see how God personally designs and planted a garden, specific dimensions and geographic location, to nurture His master creation. He planted all kinds of trees and vegetations for man’s consumption and use. Satan is now questioning a foundational truth God. He seems to imply, through this strategic question, that God is a sadistic and cruel God! He plants a beautiful and sumptuous garden, places Adam and Eve in it, shows them all the trees, but somehow forbids them to eat from any of the trees! There is a Persian proverb that says, “Demand death, perhaps your prey will consent to a mere fever!” Here Satan is using this tactic to completely disorient Eve, so much that she would eventually entertain the idea that God may not be absolutely good and righteous, and in fact God may have partial bias and defect in His character. God may be terrified of creating a creature in His own image and likeness that may somehow, someday, surpass Him and demand supremacy, just as Lucifer did. If God has placed this primary couple in such an unfair condition, namely a garden that they can only look but never eat from ANY of its fruits, then He will do the same with all His creations, as He did with Lucifer! How could God have created a garden, place man in it, and then not allow man to eat from it. This is utter sadistic madness!

This God is not a loving God!

This God is not righteous in al His dealings!

This God is unfair and not worthy of being worshiped!

Can you see how Satan is hissing very quietly and in a seemingly innocent, yet so cunningly, injecting a massive dose of mistrust poison into Eve?

He takes Eve to the pinnacle of distrust and doubt and then throws her down! Eve crashes with massive spiritual injuries! She and her other half, both die spiritually in this crash! They can’t erase this question from their brain cells, “Did God really give us all things or did He at any time withhold something, even something so minute, from us?” They could not believe anymore, because the foundational requirement of faith is the believer’s ability to trust the object of his faith. Trust is essential and necessary in order to activate faith. Is it any surprise that the word faith does not appear many times in the Old Testament, but rather the word used to represent faith is TRUST! Read the psalms of David and the other writers of the worship songs. You see trust as the key to any relationship with Jehovah! There are more than 150 references (depending on the version of the Bible you are reading) of this word trust that appear in relation to man and his relationship with God. Can man trust God and His word?

Apparently Eve and Adam lost their ability to trust their creator!

Eve in reply to this deceptive and entrapping question of Satan, and already under his hissing influence, replies in verse 2 and 3, “And the woman said to the serpent, “From the fruits of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.’”

The misquotation and miscommunication has already occurred! Eve replies with inaccuracies and more importantly, not recognizing her enemy, tries to correct the apparent error of the serpent’s mindset. She does not recognize that this serpent has been around for thousands, perhaps millions, of years and used to be the second most important power of God’s kingdom in the heavenly order. The errors she commits are as follows:

1. She listens to a master lair.

2. She fails to recognize the enemy.

3. She underestimates her opponent.

4. She misquotes the command of God.

5. She fails to remember her incompleteness without Adam.

6. She tries to prolong the debate with her enemy and thus extends the time that the serpent has to inject further poison in her.

The interesting thing is that in the new Testament Paul, and other apostles admonish the church, who stands in relation to Christ, the new man, as the new Eve, address each and every one of the above failures of Eve in the flesh with new divine principles and actions that indicate the church’s utmost supremacy over the Devil and his schemes.

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