THE COUNTERFEIT PROMISE

Genesis 3:1–5 (NASB)

Now the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit 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, or you will die.’”

The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.”

The Serpent’s Cunning

At first glance, the word “cunning” (Hebrew ʿārûm) means shrewd, subtle, or prudent. It appears eleven times in the Old Testament.

Lesson – Casting Doubt

The serpent is anti-God—the adversary of God. He distorts God’s command by emphasizing the prohibition rather than the generous provision of every other tree in the garden. In essence, he makes God’s word sound harsh and restrictive (Bruce Waltke).

The character of the serpent is clear. In this dialogue with Eve, the Creator’s authority is maliciously challenged, realities are distorted, and God Himself is misrepresented. The serpent presents a false view of sin as something beneficial: “You will be like God.” The temptation is great. Man becomes suspicious of God; He is no longer to be trusted. Sin is no longer regarded as destructive. Man’s own interests are now thought to be best served by self-determination (Asbury Bible Commentary).

The tempter was the devil in the shape and likeness of a serpent—the same malignant spirit identified in Revelation 12:9. By creation, he was an angel of light and an immediate attendant upon God’s throne; by sin, he became an apostate from his first state and a rebel against God’s crown and dignity. Multitudes of the angels fell with him. He knew he could not destroy man except by debauching (degrading the moral purity of) him.

In a similar vein, Matthew Henry observes: Balaam could not curse Israel, but he could tempt Israel (Revelation 2:14). Solitude often gives temptation great advantage, while the communion of saints contributes much to strength and safety. Satan tempted Eve; he later tempted Job through his wife and Christ through Peter. It is his policy to send temptations by unsuspected hands—those who have the most interest in us and influence upon us. He tempted both the first and the second Adam (Matthew 4:1–11).

The Dialogue

² “Of course we may eat it,” the woman told him.

³ “It’s only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God says we must not eat it or even touch it, or we will die.”

⁴ “You won’t die!” the serpent hissed.

Lie – Father of Lies

How subtle the dialogue is. The serpent simply said, “You won’t die!”—usurping God’s authority.

I struggle with the fact that Eve had just told him exactly what God had said, even adding that she was not allowed to touch the fruit. Why did the serpent not first tempt her merely to touch it? To my limited thinking, it seems logical to begin by placing the fruit in her hand and then enticing her to eat. “You won’t die!” places Eve at a crossroads: obey the first command from God or follow what she is now being told.

There appears to be a pause. Eve may not immediately believe the serpent, so he quickly compounds the temptation: not only will you not die, but you will become just like God, knowing everything—both good and evil. In my own thinking, the serpent reacted swiftly, not allowing Eve time to meditate or ponder the lie, “You won’t die.”

Lesson – The Allure

The desire to know more, or to be like God in any way of thinking or feeling in this context, was incorrect.

I cannot help thinking of all the New Testament passages that speak of our becoming more like Christ. In God’s infinite plan of salvation, He is restoring humanity to Himself.

Lesson

God has the final word and the final plan for our lives.

1 John 3:2

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

Greek homoioi (“like”) means similar to, resembling, of the same nature or kind. It derives from the root homos (“same” or “together”). Homoios therefore denotes similarity in nature, character, or form. Notably, it differs from isos, which denotes strict numerical equality or identity (e.g., being equal to God in essence or divinity).

Theologically, when John writes that believers will be homoioi to Christ at His appearing, he conveys a specific transformative reality rather than absolute equality—conformity of nature, not identity; similarity, not equality.

“Like God” in Genesis 3:5

“God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.”

Hebrew kĕʾlōhîm (“like God”).

Keil and Delitzsch argue that the primary focus here is equality in autonomy. The serpent enticed Eve not merely with higher intelligence, but with independent sovereignty—taking the power to determine moral values out of God’s hand and into her own.

Bruce Waltke notes that the serpent paints God as restrictive and self-serving. By offering to make them kĕʾlōhîm, the serpent implies that God is withholding a higher state of existence from humanity, subtly reframing disobedience as enlightenment.

The core sin—wanting to be kĕʾlōhîm—was a desire for moral self-determination: acting as one’s own ultimate authority rather than submitting to the Creator.

This sin of the first pair was heinous and aggravated. It was not simply eating an apple, but a love of self, dishonor to God, ingratitude to a benefactor, disobedience to the best of Masters—a preference of the creature to the Creator (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary).

Lesson

The more we realize how serious sin is, the more we cherish righteousness.

Partial Truth, Full Lie

The serpent tempted Eve to be like God and got her to focus on the one thing she could not have.

In Genesis 3:13, the LORD God asked the woman, “How could you do such a thing?”

“The serpent tricked me,” she replied.

Adam and Eve were already God’s image-bearers. They already knew from experience the goodness of God’s creation. They chose instead to be wise in the ways of evil. Their decision to eat the fruit was a choice of sensual taste over God’s word.

Good is no longer rooted in what God says enhances life, but in what people think is desirable to elevate life. In short, they turn what is good into evil (Theology of Work Bible Commentary).

Related New Testament Passages

2 Corinthians 11:3

I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.

1 Timothy 2:14

And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who was deceived and fell into transgression.

Satan’s Five Ds

(A widely circulated modern Christian outline; no single author is attributed. It functions as traditional pulpit teaching.)

• Doubt – Makes you question God’s word and His goodness. Echoes the serpent’s strategy in Genesis 3:1 (“Did God really say?”).
• Discouragement – Makes you look at your problems rather than God. Reflected in Peter sinking when he looked at the wind and waves rather than at Jesus (Matthew 14:30).
• Diversion – Makes the wrong things seem attractive so that you want them more than the right things (1 John 2:16).
• Defeat – Makes you feel like a failure so that you don’t even try. Summarized in the parable of the talents, where the servant was afraid and buried his talent (Matthew 25:24–25).
• Delay – Makes you put off doing something so that it never gets done (Hebrews 3:15).

Note

In the story of creation, God made everything, yet He created human beings in His own image. Our dignity and worth rest on the fact that we have been created in His image.

Prayer

Father, lead us not into temptation, but forgive us our sins. Lord, I submit to Your authority. I am depending on You and Your word of life. Guide me into all righteousness. In Jesus’ name I pray.

Amen