Reading: “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” Genesis 3:1
When Adam and Eve woke on that fateful morning, they had no idea what the day would hold. Lucifer had already rebelled and sin was already part of the universe. He had brought a third of the angelic host with him, but his attack on Adam and Eve brought all humanity down.
The Holy Spirit introduced the fall of humanity with the serpent and with such a simple historical narrative that demands we understand it as a real serpent, with certain attractive qualities. Satan could not assume human form, since Adam and Eve were the only humans, and so he enters into the serpent; an already wise creature (Matthew 10:16) which Satan used for evil purposes.
No matter how pleasant life seems, how idilic or comfortable, there is always a serpent in our garden. We need to be sober and vigilant (1 peter 5:8). At the beginning of Genesis 3 sin was limited to “spiritual wickedness in heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). In this world Adam and Eve sinned and fell. By the end of the chapter Satan’s arsenal was expanded to include “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). Temptation no longer comes only from without but from all around and from within!