Genesis 3:5-6 Eve’s third and fourth mistakes

“ ‘. . .For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman say that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

Eve’s third mistake was that she listened to and considered Satan’s claims using only her own mind. Because of her conversation with the devil she saw the fruit as a potentially good thing for the first time. It appealed to her physical senses (the lust of the flesh), it looked pretty (the lust of the eyes), and appeared to have the potential to make her better (the pride of life) (1 John 2:16). Her mind was created perfect, but it wasn’t intended to be sufficient to answer all questions. It really wasn’t designed to come up with perfect decisions apart from God and especially not while under the pressures of such temptation. She could have asked the Lord for His help, but unfortunately she decided to try to handle it all on her own.

Satan attacked Eve through her mind and emotions. The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was supposed to make her wiser and smarter. It was supposed to give her knowledge. It was supposed to feed her mind. It brought her spiritual and eventually natural death. I have little doubt that up until this event Eve had been growing closer and closer to the Lord, feeding her spiritual walk just as she fed her natural body. The devil came and helped shift her focus from her spiritual development to her mental development. It isn’t bad to development mentally, and knowledge isn’t a bad thing either, but when the thirst for knowledge and reliance on logic replaces a thirst for God and a reliance on His Spirit bad things happen. A healthy Christian trusts in the Lord and does not lean on his own natural understanding (Proverbs 3:5).

Her fourth mistake is the simple obvious one that everybody knows, she disobeyed the Lord. It was Adam and Eve’s disobedience that really cost them. Interestingly enough the Paul notes that Eve ate because she was tricked (1 Tim 2:14). Adam knew what he was doing. I suspect either that the protective side of himself wouldn’t let his wife go it alone or perhaps he saw Eve’s offering of the fruit as a choice between her and the Lord. Regardless of why they each chose the fruit the results were equally disastrous. The lesson here is simple: disobedience always brings ugly consequences.

As followers of Jesus we must decide that we will always obey His commands to the very best of our ability. Disobedience is not an option. All over the Bible kings rose or fell and people prospered or perished on the basis of their obedience and their disobedience (some kings whose stories are worth considering in this light: Saul, David, Jeroboam, Jehu, and Josiah); even after Jesus’ resurrection this pattern still holds true (Acts 2:42-43; 5:1-10, 1 Cor 11:29-32).