In our study of Satan's arrogant evil we left off last time with the principle that Satan became arrogant because of his beauty but arrogance can be offset by the ability to think truth and to properly relate life. The soul is designed by God to offset arrogance by rational thought from metabolized Bible doctrine. Rom 12:3;
Self-consciousness is not arrogance. Arrogance is the product of irrational subjective thinking related to the self-consciousness of the soul. Satan's subjective irrationality that was uncorrected by Doctrinal viewpoint corrupted his thinking and led to his making bad decisions because he thought he was greater and more powerful than he really was.
Then through his deceitful communication Ezek 28:18; he was able to persuade one-third of the angelic creation to join his rebellion against God. Rev 12:4; that resulted in the destruction of the earth Gen 1:2; and the subsequent sentencing for of all of them to the lake of fire. Matt 25:41;
When God subsequently reformed the earth Gen 1:3-12; to be he abode mankind he placed trees in it. Gen 2:9; Net note 32
The trees provided all of man's needs and the freedom to choose between God's grace policy represented by the tree of life and Satan's arrogant policy represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God permitted man to eat of all of the trees of the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Gen 2:15-17;
The tree of life was permitted to be eaten because it was provided for man as the ruler of the world. If man is going to rule the world under God he must have capacity to appreciate God.
He had to have capacity for life, for love, for happiness, for perfect environment. These capacities are not self-generated they are provided by God's grace; and the tree of life was designed for that purpose.
The tree of life was God's grace provision for man in the garden and was associated with man's positive volition in innocence to perpetuate grace blessing and man's rulership of the world.
The tree of life was associated with the capacity for appreciation of the perfect environment of life in the garden plus the continuation of that life under positive volition toward God's grace provision for man. Gen 2:9;
On the other hand the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was forbidden. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was unnecessary because when you have a relationship with God in a state of innocence you don't need the knowledge of good and evil and you don't need works. Gen 3:22;
Without a relationship with God, evil is what you think and human "good" works are how you put your evil thinking into operation.
While Adam and the woman were in the garden God came every day to provide them the spiritual information that they needed for perfect life in the garden. Gen 3:8;
However, Satan in the disguise of a serpent also came to the garden. Gen 3:1; Net note 2 and begins to use his evil propaganda to entice the woman so that she would brainwash herself and become arrogant.
Gen 3:1; 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'?"
Gen 3:2; And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
v 3; 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, lest you die.'"
From the Lord's original proclamation of the first couple's "rules of engagement" in the garden, we are able to determine a few inaccuracies in the woman's synopsis in Gen 3:1-3. The Lord's actual words are recorded in:
Gen 2:16; And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
v. 17; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die."
We see that God came to the garden every day in Gen 3:8; - And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day (each evening) and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
The word for "walking" is the Hithpael participle of the verb "halak" that means "to habitually walk about" Although the prohibition cited in Gen 2:16-17 was given to Adam before the woman was created, she is responsible for knowing its content from the Lord's instruction and Adam's reiteration of it to her as head of the household.
However there are four major points that the woman misrepresents in her conversation with the serpent that demonstrate her ignorance of the Word of God and her inattention to the instruction.
First of all, the One who issued the prohibition was not God the Father but Jesus Christ. Gen 2:16 informs us that it was "the Lord God" or Yahweh Elohim who issued the mandate. However, in Gen 3:1, Lucifer assigns the quote to God the Father: "Has Elohim said?" Net note 6
The woman picks up on this and uses Satan's term for God in Gen 3:3 when she assigns the source of the prohibition to Elohim. Lucifer plants the idea that there is a supreme being and it's all right to subscribe to such an idea. But the idea of a personal God, Yahweh Elohim, is an idea he must suppress.
Lucifer begins his attack on here thinking by diminishing the possibility that she really has a personal relationship with God with the subtle inference that God is really not very interested in her personally. He does this to create division and animosity in her thinking.
His next ploy is to then challenge what God has said, "Has God really said that you shall not eat from every tree of the garden?" in order to create doubt in her thinking.
In her response, she begins to misquote the Lord. First of all she forgets that the provisions supplied in the garden by the Lord are placed there under logistical grace. She and Adam are not required to do anything to receive their sustenance.
Therefore, the Lord God, Jesus Christ, said in Gen 2:16; "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely." we have the repetition of the Hebrew word "lkaakal "that is translated "to eat." It forms an idiom that is literally translated, "eating you may eat," but means that Adam and the woman "may eat freely" Net note 49
This indicates there are no restrictions on how much they may eat and the supply is limitless. She then addresses the lone exception regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, "God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it.'"
The Lord gave no prohibition against touching the fruit, only against eating it so her statement shows at she has not been concentrating when she was being taught because she cannot accurately recall the doctrine. Her final comment also drives home this point, "'Lest you die.'"
The penalty clause for eating the forbidden fruit is attached to the Lord's prohibition in Gen 2:17; "in the day you eat from it you shall surely die."
What is actually found in the Hebrew is quite different from the English translation The verb "to die." Is stated twice. The first use is the Qal infinitive absolute of: "muth" that is translated "dying" followed immediately by the Qal imperfect of the "muth" translated "you shall die."
The Qal infinitive absolute refers to spiritual death while the Qal imperfect refers to subsequent physical death as a result of spiritual death. The spiritual death terminates fellowship with God while the physical death terminates the sinner's time on this earth.
The woman quotes the latter Qal imperfect in her reference to the Lord's penalty clause. She interprets it as referring only to physical death. Satan picks up on this lack of precision and uses it in his propaganda that ultimately deceives the woman.
Gen 3:4; And the serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die (Qal imperfect: of "muth"!"
Satan exploits the woman's apparent fear of physical death. She doesn't understand that the penalty of spiritual death occurs immediately and eventually results in physical death.
Having caught her with the notion that eating the fruit will not kill her physically immediately; Satan's next remark turns out to be his closing argument.
Gen 3:5; "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."
By surrounding his false assertion with the truth Satan's conceals his lie and his propaganda advances his hidden agenda behind a rhetorical veil. If she eats the fruit her eyes will indeed be opened and she will know good and evil. However, this will not enable her to "be like God."
Satan knows that is exactly what she wants because it's exactly what he wanted in his rebellion against God Isa 14:14; and he uses her lust for power and her disorientation to God's authority that he has inculcated in her to deceive her into thinking that God wants to keep her ignorant.
The woman's conclusion is that by keeping her ignorant, God can continue to control her life and keep her under the authority of Adam. She wants out from under Adam's authority and she assumes that the wisdom that she will acquire from the tree's fruit will enable her to break free from the constraints of legitimate authority.
According to the rules of engagement in the garden, there was no sin except for the volitional decision to eat the forbidden fruit. This means that her mental attitude lust for power was not a sin but it did result in the motivation for her choice to eat the fruit of the tree that was a sin.
She should have kept her thoughts under control. 2Cor 10:4-5; Net note 17