Genesis 3:1-3 "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? (2) And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: (3) 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."
"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the
LORD God had made." It is important to know that we are in a daily battle.
And when in battle, it is very important to understand as much as possible
about the enemy. We are told about our enemy in this first sentence of
the first verse of chapter 3. He is subtil; that is to say, he is very
skillful in the art of deceit. Paul stated it in this manner. "Put
on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of
the devil." (Ephesians 6:11) He went on to say in verse 12 that we must
understand our enemy is not one another; rather, we war "against the
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places."
In his craftiness, the serpent came against Eve. He was not attempting to
improve her life. He was intent on destroying the peace and joy that she
and Adam had been experiencing in the Garden of Eden while enjoying fellowship
with God. What is his first line of attack? Was it not in the attempt to
put a line of separation between Eve and God? Is God holding something back
from you? Does He know that you will be just like Him when you eat of the tree?
Therefore He told you not to eat it. What Eve forgot in her attempt to converse
with the serpent was that God had made man in His image already. As much as was
humanly possible, Adam and Eve were like God in that they were without sin. But
Satan is good at blurring the line upon which we must walk with God.
Eve's first mistake was in conducting a conversation with the serpent. Because
he is "more subtil", there is no way we humans can win a debate with
Satan. I would caution anyone from trying to argue with him. The truth of the
matter is that we do not need to argue with him. We have an advocate (lawyer)
Who can do our talking for us. Any good lawyer will tell his client before
going into the courtroom - "I will do all the talking for you."
We have the perfect advocate in our Lord Jesus Christ. The only rule of
defense that we have, and that we need, is that Jesus Christ is our Lord and
Saviour. He shed His righteous blood to pay the debt that we owed, but could
not pay. I defer all my defense upon the Lord Jesus and am perfectly safe and
secure in doing so. How about you?