The Fall of Man - 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'?"
- 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 surely will not die!
- "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 saw 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.
- Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin covering
When I look at this incident of Adam and Eve, this look rather familiar. The conversation between the serpent and Eve very often happen to me in the form of self-conversation. It goes like this:
"should I do this? NO!"
".............why not?"
"It's not right."
"Come on, it does not refer to this. This.....(and the self-justification starts).."
Sometimes by the grace of God, I would be able to realise it and come out of it making the right decision. But sometimes, not. As for Adam and Eve, it often comes in a form of peer pressure. It is such a useful strategy for satan because we are living in a era that image is everything. We want to be accepted, we want to be seen above others. So, we follow what our peers do to be accepted, and we follow what our leaders do to be seen above others by our peers. And very often, we do it blindly putting little thought to the fact that our peers and leaders are all fallen people.
All and all, let us pray for discernment to see through the scheme of the evil one to bring us to sin and let us pray for love for God that our own lust and evil desires may never succeed over our love for God. Amen.