The Enemy

Genesis 3:1-5

1 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.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Okay, let's go backwards a little bit:

Genesis 2:16-17

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

The Serpent was obviously possessed by Satan.

And, back then, the serpent was of the most beautiful beasts of the field. He had legs, and wings, and his colors were glorious!

So, when the serpent spoke to Eve, she listened to him, even though what he was saying was contrary to what her God had told her.

Satan is the evil tempter. Satan likes to twist the truth by mixing a lie with the truth in such a way it makes you rationalize toward the lie and tricks you into believing you are right, when you are dead wrong.

Satan chose that tree as a point of temptation, because he knew God told them they would die "in the day" they ate it, if they ate of it. Jesus said:

John 10:10

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

Back in those days, man was made to live eternally in the presence of God. If he were to eat of the tree, he would die "in the day" in which he ate it.

Our day is one rotation around the sun.

2 Peter 3:8

“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

God is eternal. One day, for him, is as a thousand years.

So, when you look at history, you will see that men sometimes lived for hundreds of years after the fall; but, eventually, they died. Methuselah lived to be 999 years old. NO MAN has ever lived more than one thousand years, bringing God's promise of death "on the day that thou eatest thereof".

But, Eve didn't know that. And, even today, a lot of men question this, seeing as we have not been destroyed yet. So, Satan used this knowledge (or lack thereof, or both), to tempt Eve.