Everything changed in the Garden of Eden after the tempation.  It started out so well but ended so awful.  All because Eve entered into a discussion with a serpent showing us that entering into a discussion with the devil is always a bad idea. 

Genesis 3:1 says:

"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord god had made.  And he said to the woman, 'has God said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" 

So why was it a bad idea for Eve to have a discussion with the serpent?  One reason is because of what he is like.  He's more crafty than any beast of the field.  Another reason to ignore him is because of what he does.  He calls into question the revealed will of God.  "Has God said?"  Lastly because he exaggerates God's will for mankind.  He twists and misquotes the Words of God.  "Does God say you cannot eat of every tree?" 

Paul's writings in 2 Cor 11:3,12-15 and 1 Timothy 2:14 give us a few more puzzle pieces.  We see there that the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness and that she was quite decieved.  Interesting since the serpent only made two comments, but that's all it took.  We are also told he operates as an angel of light, working in deception and disguise.  He wraps it all up quite nicely.  He doesn't come to us ugly and repulsive. 

Sometime compare what God really said in Genesis 2:16-17 to what the second hand information looked like here in 3:2-3.  When we shade God's truth just a little bit we always have disastrous consequences as we will see here. 

Eve wasn't thinking of the future consequences.  Hmmmm.  Maybe she was a created teenager?  We know now that sin had consequences that reach for generations.  Everytime we sin someone else is either directly or indirectly affected by my sin.  She is teaching us that speaking with the devil and walking with the Lord are not compatible. 

Genesis 3:4-5 says:

"And the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die.  For God does know that in the day you eat then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods knowing good and evil."

Think about it.  They already knew good.  Did they need to know evil?  Do we?  Think about how nice it would be to only know good.  Turn on the news and you can see plenty of evil.  Parents killing babies.  Teens killing parents.  Recently there have been many accounts in China where deranged men are stabbing and killing kindergarteners.  I read about a father tossing his infant over a bridge.  Terrible.  Evil.  I cringe when I hear it.

Look how Satan cast doubt on the things God said about the truth.  He told her she would not "surely die."  Is she alive today?  Who was right in the end?   He invites Eve to doubt the goodness of God's motives for us.  He makes God out to be the bad guy.  Sound familiar in modern times?  "If there really was a god..."  "What kind of god allows evil in the world?"  "God doesn't care about us...if there really is a god." 

John wrote in his epistle 1 John 2:16:

"For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world."  Compare that to Gen 3:6 which says:

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise she took of the fruit and did eat and gave also to her husband with her and he did eat also." 

All sin can be traced to these three enticements. 

1.  Lust of the Flesh:  "when the woman saw that the tree was good for food."

2.  Lust of the eyes:  "Pleasant to the eyes."

3.  Pride of life:  "the tree was desireable to make one wise." 

Jesus was tempted the same way.  Only He did not give in to the devil.  Everytime He was tempted He referred back to the Word of God and refused to listen to the lie of the enemy.  The whole temptation in the Garden was not about eating forbidden fruit.  It was about trusting God and obeying His revealed Word and not believing the lies of the enemy.  It was about not placing her will over God's will for her. 

So where was Adam?  It says he was right there with her the whole time.  He said nothing.  He was just as guilty not only for eating the fruit and disobeying the Word of God to him directly but also because he failed in his leadership role in his relationship. 

Not only does this story speak about the sin failure but also their response to it as well.  Genesis 3:7-8 says:

"And the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.  And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden."

They responded by hiding.  From each other and then from God.  It is our fleshly response to try and hide from sin.  Pride never wants to be found out.  It takes humility to take responsibility for failure.  The tendency to hide sin only alienates us from God and others around us.  I remember when one of my sons decided he didn't like to eat sandwiches in his lunch.  Instead of telling me he hid them.  He hid them in his bureau drawers under his clothes.  I'd find these sandwiches, black, blue and green from the mold weeks afterwards and would confront my son who had been found out.  Sin always eventually gets uncovered.  We just think it never will. 

How could they even imagine they could hide from their Creator?  He created the world.  He created every knook and cranny, every hole and rock to hide under.  Who can hide from God? 

Next:  God's response, questions and confrontation to the man and woman hiding in fear from Him.