Temptation: Then and Now

It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out. - demon Screwtape, from The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis.

One of the things that the Bible clearly states in the Book of Genesis is that God had made everything that the man and woman would need prior to their creation. And upon human creation, God also made them rulers of all else that were created. There was no room for dissatisfaction - everything was there in abundance for them to enjoy. Then the question is: How did the satan so easily convinced them to disobey God? What great offer could the satan have given Eve that compelled her to go against God? Did God actually forgot to create something that man would have wanted and did satan took advantage of this lapse from God's part?

When we think about temptation, we often assume that it as the evil forces injecting impure fantasies and crooked thoughts into our mind. However, this is rarely the case. The devil is not a creative being to come up with so many ideas to bombard out thoughts with. As a matter of fact, he is so unoriginal that he uses different variations of the same trick since the beginning. What is so unfortunate is that we fall for it every time, regardless of the innumerable times we have encountered it. 

Rather than inventing things to tempt us with, what devil does is that he finds ways to make us forget how special we are. When we start to doubt or question our rightful place in this world, then we will also begin to have doubts about the goodness of everything we have within us and also in our possession. This will in turn force us to look for ways to supplement what we have with other things in order to make it flawless. When we are no longer satisfied with who we are or what we have and constantly crave for things to either enhance the beauty or hide the flaw, we are opening ourselves up for greed and pride.

Now let's see how this analogy worked in the temptation of Adam and Eve. When satan was presented with an opportunity to tempt Eve, he knew very well that there was almost nothing out there that he could use to do so. The man and the woman weren't too concerned about the one tree from which they couldn't eat from. It is evident in the answer Eve gave to satan when he asked, "Did God really say,'You shall not eat from any of the trees in the garden'?" Eve immediately went onto defend God by saying that satan's understanding of what God said was absurd. She went on to say that they were allowed to eat all the fruits in the garden. Then as an afterthought she added that they were not suppose to eat from one tree in the middle of the garden. The bottom line is that one tree didn't bother her so much so that she was holding a grudge against God. Satan realized it as well - Eve wasn't too eager to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree, she was happy with the fruits from all the other trees. Eve also had no reason to believe satan when he said that they wouldn't die if they eat the fruit.

It is, however, easy to see Eve getting caught up in something satan said very passively, "...when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods..." (Genesis 3:5). "You will be like gods" - that was a good proposition. Adam and Eve had everything they ever needed, but they were humans, being god was better. Satan succeeded in identifying something the man and the woman was not, thus hurting her pride, causing dissatisfaction and generating greed. 

But a careful analysis also exposes the fault in satan's statement. He claimed that man and woman would be "like gods", not God itself. So what's the problem with that? The problem is that the man and the woman were already like gods, "Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness." (Genesis 1:26). God created humans in His likeness, they already were like God. Not God, but like God. Satan didn't put anything new into Eve's mind, rather he veiled the discernment that she was already in the likeness of God. And that's all satan had to do. Man and woman did the rest.

Failure to properly recognize her identity caused Eve to question her place in the hierarchy of things. Rather than being happy about what she was - creation at its best, Eve began to imagine of something even better - something she perceived as better. Now she was willing to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree in order to be that something better; the fruit was going to help her get there. 

Not much has changed since the time of Adam and Eve as far as temptations go. Today, devil uses everything God has created or inspired humans to invent in his fight against God. He veils the human minds with pride, greed, dissatisfaction and deception so that we fail to see the goodness within us and in everything around us. So we use power to oppress others, advances in technology to pollute the planet, innovations in medicine to turn wombs into slaughterhouses, the life giving sexuality into hedonistic entertainment, and we consider wealth as a measure of our ability rather than the symbol of a commodity. By keeping us busy with chasing after everything this world has to offer, satan and his minions keeps it hidden that we are not created for this world, rather this world is created for us. It is not the earth that is moving - its motion is limited to rotations and circulations, but we are the ones who are moving and the earth is nothing but a rest stop on our way to a greater glory. 

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us. For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. (Romans 8:18,21)