How to Quit Losing & Start Winning
By A.L. Gill
Lesson Three: Satan’s Plan of Deception
Satan saw that Adam and Eve, and thus all mankind, had been
given the very same life and nature that God possessed. Satan must have been horrified that mankind now had authority over everything on this earth. Man looked like God. He acted like God. All the hatred Satan had for God, he turned against man. He could not let man succeed. So, Satan devised his own plan!
SATAN’S PLAN
Deception
Satan had deceived the angels in heaven, and one-third had followed him in rebellion. He was experienced in using deception.
God had given mankind a free will – they could choose to obey or to disobey. With that freedom of choice, He had also given a penalty for disobedience.
Genesis 2:17 …but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
- Disguised Himself
- Questioned God
Satan chose to disguise himself as a serpent so that he could come into the garden unnoticed. He had no right to be in the garden and Adam would have cast him out if Satan had boldly walked in without a disguise.
Genesis 3:1a Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
“Cunning” means to be sly or crafty.
Satan was within the serpent’s body when he talked to Eve. Demons still possess bodies today. That is their disguise and covering for the evil they want to accomplish.
Genesis 3:1b And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
Satan questioned what God had said, and at the same time left out the penalty for sin.
- Quoted God
Notice that Satan quotes God’s words in order to twist them into his deception.
Genesis 3: 2,3 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat 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 has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
Eve added “touch” to what God had actually said, but she still remembered the penalty.
- Satan’s Lie
Genesis 3:4b “You will not surely die”
Satan contradicted what God had said, but Eve still continued to listen. Then Satan promised a reward for sin.
- You Will be Like God
Genesis 3:5 “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Satan said to Eve and Adam, “Your eyes will be opened and you’ll be like God!” They were already like God but Satan tricked them into wanting more.
ADAM AND EVE SINNED
Both Sinned
Many times, we picture Eve alone when Satan, disguised as a serpent, came to her. That is not what the scripture says. In verse six, we read, “She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”
They both stopped following God’s Words, followed their natural senses, listened to Satan, and ate the fruit.
Genesis 3:6 So when the wom
an saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the fruit, God’s nature left them. They had been clothed in glorious light – the nature of God – now they were naked.
Using the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Satan had deceived Adam and Eve, tricked and defeated them.
Satan has not changed. His tactics are the same today!
They Were Left
- Defeated
- Naked
Satan had deceived them, and mankind was stripped of their covering, dominion and authority.
Genesis 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
- Afraid
- Hiding
Satan had defeated Adam and Eve. Now, the former rulers of this earth were cowering and hiding behind a bush!
Genesis 3:10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
- Still in God’s Image
It is important to understand that even after Adam and Eve sinned they were still made in the image of God. However, they no longer had the life of God in them. They were spiritually dead.
Genesis 9:1, 2, 6 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.”
“Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man.”
Man was still to:
- Be Fruitful
- Multiply
- Fill the earth
- Subdue
- To have dominion and rule
Now, this would be done in pain, by the sweat of the brow, and all living things would live in dread of mankind.
Review
God had created Adam and Eve to rule this earth. However, when man disobeyed God and exercised his will contrary to God’s will, he died spiritually. He was robbed of his God-given authority and dominion.
God’s will was for men and women to have authority and dominion. Satan’s will was for mankind to rebel against God. Adam and Eve had a choice to make –they had a will to exercise. They aligned their wills with Satan. Satan stole from Adam the titles: ruler of this world, the prince of this world.
AFTER MAN SINNED
Curses That Came
- On Serpent
Since a serpent had allowed Satan to use its body, a curse was placed on all serpents.
Genesis 3:14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field;on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.”
- On Woman
There were two parts to the curse put on women. She would bear children in pain and man would rule over her.
Genesis 3:16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
When a woman accepts Jesus as her personal Saviour, she regains her created position. Jesus became the curse for her.
Galatians 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.”)
- On Man
The curse put on man was that he would toil the ground in pain to secure food.
Genesis 3:17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.”
- On Earth
The earth also was cursed.
Genesis 3:18,19 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
- On Satan
At the very time Satan gained his great victory over mankind, God pronounced a curse on him.
Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
God spoke to Satan, who was inside the serpent, and told him that the seed of the woman would crush his head.
Promise of Redemption!
The curse put on Satan was also the first promise of the coming Messiah. The “Seed” was a prophecy of Jesus who was to be born of a woman.
Satan would be under the feet of Jesus. His head would be crushed and bruised.
God’s Plan
Even at the darkest point in the history of the human race, God had a plan of salvation for mankind.
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, of His own free will, would give His life for us.
By His death, He would bring Satan’s defeat. Satan would strike Jesus’ heel, but Jesus would crush Satan’s head. Satan’s authority would be crushed and that authority would be restored to man according to God’s original plan.
Satan has never stopped hating and fearing men and women who were created to look and act like God. His plan of deception has never stopped. Through deception, spiritual leaders through the ages have been robbed of their power. They have become blind leaders of the blind.
Satan’s Assignments
Satan has organized his forces into a full battle plan. Rulers of darkness are assigned to each nation, each man, woman, and child, to put them into bondage. Their instructions are to steal, kill and destroy.
God brought the law to humanity so that they could have forgiveness for sins and walk in communion with Him. But for four-thousand years Satan lived in dominion over the earth because of mankind’s disobedience.
People created to rule
over this planet were:
blind and begging beside the roads,
bound with spirits of infirmity,
possessed with legions of demons.
Faces and bodies, created to look like God,
were eaten away with dreaded leprosy.
Men and women created to reign and rule
were living in defeat!
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW
- Explain why Satan so violently hated the creatures called man and woman.
- Describe the results of man’s sin and fall.
- What was God’s promise of redemption as revealed in Genesis 3:15?