That Sneaky Serpent

That Sneaky Serpent

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

“Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

Genesis 3:1-5

Dogs bark. Kittens purr. Birds chirp. You can hear them and you know they’re there. But how about snakes? Snakes glide silently. They’re dangerous because they can attack before you hear them coming.

This is what the devil did in the Garden of Eden—and what he still does today. He sneaks up on us and speaks lies to us when we don’t even realize he’s the one talking. He hates us, and he wants to use us to humiliate God. Just like he did in the Garden of Eden with Eve, he tries to convince us that God is withholding something good from us when really God is loving us by setting limits around us. The devil tries to manipulate us into looking out for ourselves rather than trusting God to look after us. He twists the truth to trick us into reaching for what looks good and what we think will feel good. But those things really only taste good or feel good for a short time, and then they go sour and hurt us.

The good news is that we are not forever at the mercy of the sneaky snake Satan. Right in the Garden after Adam and Eve sinned, God promised that a descendant of Eve would one day fight Satan to the death. That descendant would suffer but ultimately win (See Genesis 3:15). The rest of the Bible tells the story of this promise—how a second Adam came to earth and overcame Satan’s temptations. As God foretold in the Garden, Satan struck Jesus’ heel, by working through people’s evil actions to put Jesus on the cross; but Jesus crushed Satan’s head, by overcoming death. He took away Satan’s power to hurt us for good.

DISCUSSION STARTERS

Why do we think of snakes as sneaky? Why do they sometimes scare us?

How did Satan twist, question, and weaken what God had said to Adam and Eve?

What does Satan use to get us to turn on God rather than trust him?