Wish there were a way to find out who the FIRST one who did something was? Who was the first EXTORTIONIST? Who gave the first ULTIMATUM?

Well, the bible would answer that Satan is the father of all lies.  And it is a good way of showing how manipulation works, even our own thought processes.

He beguiled Eve, as the old serpent a malignant spirit, by creation an angel of light and an immediate attendant upon God's throne, but by sin became an apostate from his first state and rebel against God's crown and dignity.  He knew he could not destroy man but by debauching him. The game therefore which Satan had to play was to draw our first parents to sin, and so to separate between them and their God. The whole race of mankind had here, as it were, but one neck, and at that Satan struck.

It was the devil in the likeness of a serpent. Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in fine colours that are but skin-deep, and seems to come from above; for Satan can seem an angel of light. And, because, it is a subtle creature. Many instances are given of the subtlety of the serpent. There is not anything by which the devil serves himself and his own interest more than by unsanctified subtlety.

The person tempted was the woman, alone and distant from her husband, but near the forbidden tree. It was the devil's subtlety to enter into discourse with her when she was alone. There are many temptations to which solitude gives great advantage. Satan tempted Eve, that by her he might tempt Adam. The temptation itself, and the artificial management of it.  That which the devil aimed at was to persuade Eve to eat forbidden fruit; and to do this he took the same method he does still, he questioned whether it was a sin or not. He denied that there was any danger in it, he suggested much advantage by it, and these are his common topics.

He said to the woman, Yea, hath God said, you shall not eat? The first word intimated something said before, perhaps some discourse Eve had with herself, which Satan took hold of, and grafted this question upon. He does not discover his design first, but puts a question which seemed innocent "I hear a piece of news, pray is it true? Has God forbidden you to eat of this tree?" He quotes the command fallaciously as if it were a prohibition, not only of that tree, but of all. He seems to speak it tauntingly, upbraiding the woman with her shyness of meddling with that tree.  It is the subtlety of Satan to blemish the reputation of the divine law as uncertain or unreasonable, and so to draw people to sin. 

In answer to this question the woman gives him a plain and full account of the law they were under. It was her weakness to enter into discourse with the serpent. It is a dangerous thing to treat with temptation, which ought at first to be rejected with disdain and abhorrence.  The garrison that sounds parley is not far from being surrendered.  It was her wisdom to take notice of the liberty God had granted them. "Yea," says she, "we may eat of the fruit of the trees, thanks to our Maker, we have plenty and variety enough allowed to us." It was an instance of her resolution that she adhered to the command and faithfully repeated it, as of unquestionable certainty. "We must not eat, therefore we will not touch. It is forbidden in the highest degree, and the authority of the prohibition  is sacred to us." She seems a little to waver about the threatening, all she makes of that is, Lest you die.

He denies that there is any danger in it, insisting that, though it might be the transgressing of a precept, be it would not be the incurring of a penalty: "You shall not surely die." Either "It is not certain that you shall die," so some, Satan teaches man to first doubt and then to deny; he makes them sceptics first, and so degrees makes them atheists. "It is certain you shall not die." He avers his contradiction with the same phrase of assurance that God had used in ratifying the threatening.  He concealed his own misery, that he might draw them into the like: thus he still deceives sinners into their own ruin.  Hope of impunity is a great support to all iniquity.

He promises them advantage by it, he could not have persuaded them to run the hazard of ruining themselves if he had not suggested to them a great probability of bettering themselves.

He insinuates to them the great improvements they would make by eating this fruit. And he suits the temptation to the pure state they were now in, intellectual delights and satisfactions.  These were the baits with which he covered his hook. "Your eyes shall be opened: you shall have more power and pleasure of contemplation than now you have; you shall see further into things than now you do. You shall be as gods, as Elohim, mighty gods; not only omniscient, but omnipotent too.  You shall know good and evil, that is, every thing that is desirable to be known." To support this part of the temptation, he abuses the name given to this tree: He perverts the sense of it, as if this tree would give them a speculative notional knowledge of the natures, kinds, and originals, of good and evil.  All this presently "In the day you eat thereof you will find a sudden and immediate change for the better." Now in all these insinuations he aims to beget them, first discontent with their present state, secondly, ambition of preferment, as if they were fit to be gods. He sinuates to them that God had no good design upon them, in forbidding them this fruit, as if he durst not let them eat of that tree because then they would know their own strength, and would be able to cope with him.  Now, this was a great affront to God, and the highest indignity that could be done to him, a reproach to his power, as if he feared his creatures, and much more a reproach to his goodness, as if he hated the work of his own hands and would not have those whom he has made to be made happy. It was a most dangerous snare to our first parents as it tended to alienate their affections from God.


Satan, at length, gains his point, and the stronghold is taken by his wiles. We have the inducements that moved them to transgress. She saw no harm in the tree, more than in any of the rest. It seemed as good for food as any of them, and why should this be forbidden them rather than any of the rest? We are often betrayed into snares by an inordinate desire to have our senses gratified. It was the more coveted because it was prohibited. In us (that is our flesh in our corrupt nature) there dwells a strange spirit of contradiction. Nitimur in vetitum -We desire what is prohibited.  She imagined more virtue in this tree than in any of the rest, that it was a tree not only to be dreaded, but to be desired to make one wise. See how the desire of unnecessary knowledge, under the mistaken notion of wisdom, proves who knew so much, did not know this - that they knew enough.

The steps of transgression, not steps upward, but downward.  She should have turned her eyes away from beholding vanity, but she enters into temptation, by looking with pleasure on the forbidden fruit.  A great deal of sin comes in at the eyes.  She took. It was her own act and deed. The devil did not take it, and put it into her mouth, whether she would or no; but she herself took it.  Satan may tempt, but he cannot force; may persuade us to cast ourselves down, but he cannot cast us down.  She did eat. Perhaps she did not intend, when she looked, to take, nor, when she took, to eat; but this was the result. The way of sin is downhill; a man cannot stop himself when he will. Suppress the first emotions of sin, and leave it off before it be meddled with. Obsta principils - Nip mischief in the bud. She gave also to her husband with her.  She gave it to him, persuading him with the same arguments that the serpent had used with her, adding this to all the rest, that she herself had eaten of it, and found it so far from being deadly that it was extremely pleasant and grateful.  As was the devil, so was Eve, no sooner sinner than tempter. He did eat, and eating of the tree of knowledge which was forbidden, he plainly showed a contempt of the favours God had bestowed on him, and preference give to those God did not see fit for him. he would be both his own carver and his own master, would have what he pleased and do what he pleased: his sin was, in one word, disobedience. The human nature being lodged entirely in our first parents, henceforward it could not be transmitted from then under an attainder of guilt, a stain of dishonour, and an hereditary disease of sin and corruption. And can we say then, that Adam's sin had but little harm in it?

The immediate consequences of the transgression 1) Shame seized them unseen.  the strong convictions they fell under, in their own bosoms: The eyes of them both were opened. It is not meant of the eyes of the body, but the eyes of their consciences were opened, their hearts smote them for what they had done. Now, when it was too late, they saw the folly of eating forbidden fruit. They saw the happiness they had fallen from, and the misery they had fallen into.  They saw a law in their members warring against the law of their minds. The text tells us that they saw that they were naked, that is, they were stripped, deprived of all the honours and joys of their paradise-state. They were disarmed; their defence had departed from them. That they were ashamed. They saw themselves laid open to the contempt and reproach of heaven, and earth, and their own consciences.  What a dishonour and disquietment sin is; it makes mischief wherever it is admitted. Secondly, what a deceiver Satan is. He told our first parents their eyes would be opened, but not as they understood it, they were opened to their shame and grief.  This sorry shift they made to palliate these convictions and to arm themselves against them: They sewed or platted fig leaves together; and to cover at least part of their shame from one another, they made themselves aprons.  See here what is commonly the folly of those that have sinned. That they are more solicitous to save their credit before men that to obtain their pardon from God.  That the excuses men make, to cover and extenuate their sins, are vain and frivolous. The shame thus hidden, becomes the more shameful.  Fear seized them immediately, what was their fear? They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. It was the approach of the judge that put them into fright; and yet he came in such a manner as made it formidable only to guilty consciences. He came in the cool of the day, not the night, when all fears are double fearful, not in the heat of the day, for he came not in the heat of his anger.  They heard his voice, and probably it was a still small voice, like that which he came to enquire after Elijah. What was the effect and evidence of their fear: They hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God - a sad change.  God had become a terror to themselves. Their own consciences accused upon them, and set their sin before them in its proper colours.  Their fig leaves failed them and would do them no service. Knowing themselves guilty, they durst not stand a trial, but absconded and fled from justice.  The falsehood of the tempter. he promised them they should be safe, but now they cannot so much as think themselves so; but he promised them they should be knowing, but they see themselves at a loss, and know not so much as where to hide themselves; he promised them they should be as gods, great, and bold, and daring, but they are as criminals discovered.  All that amazing fear of God's appearances, the accusations of conscience, the approaches of trouble, the assaults of inferior creatures, and the arrests of death, which is common among men, is the effect of sin.


The arraignment of these deserters befor ethe righteous Judge. The startling question with which God pursued Adam and arrested him: Where art thou? Not, in what place? but, in what condition? "Is this all thou hast gotten by eating the forbidden fruit?" This enquiry after Adam may be looked upon as a gracious pursuit, in kindness to him, and in order to his recovery. If sinners will but consider where they are, they will not rest till they return to God. The trembling answer Adam gave this question "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid." He does not own his guilt, and yet in effect confesses it by owning his shame and fear. How their confession was extorted from them. God put it to man "Who told thee that thou wast naked?" How earnest thou to be sensible of thy nakedness as thy shame? Hast thou eaten of the forbidden tree? Though God knows all our sins, yet he will know them from us, and requires from us an ingenuous confession of them; not that he may be informed, but that we may be humbled.  The question put to the woman was "What is this thou hast done?" It concerns those who have eaten the forbidden fruit themselves, and especially those who have enticed others to eat it likewise, seriously to consider what they have done. In eating forbidden fruit, we have offended a great and gracious God.  In enticing others to eat of it, we do the devil's work, make ourselves guilty of other men's sins, and accessory to their ruin.

How their crime was extenuated by them in their confession. It was no purpose to plead not guilty. Instead of aggravating te sin, and taking shame to themselves, they excuse the sin, and lay shame and blame on others.  Adam lays all the blame upon his wife.  Learn, hence, never to be brought to sin by that which will not bring us off in judgement; let us therefore never act against our consciences, nor ever displease God, to please the best friend we have in the world.  But this is not the worst of it. he not only lays the blame upon his wife, but expresses it so as tacitly to reflect on God himself.  He insinuates that God was accessory to his sin: he gave him the woman, and she gave him the fruit.  There is a strange proneness in those that are tempted to say that they are tempted of God, as if abusing God's gifts would excuse our violation of God's laws.  Eve lays all the blame upon the serpent: "The serpent beguiled me." Sin is a brat that nobody is willing to own, a sign that it is a scandalous thing.  That Satan's temptations are all beguilings, his arguments are all fallacies, his allurements are all cheats.  Sin deceives us, and, by deceiving, cheats us.  It is by deceitfulness of sin that the heart is hardened.  Satan's subtlety will not justify us in sin: though he is the tempter, we are the sinners; and indeed it is our own lust that draws us aside and entices us.




 









  

This post was edited by kjames at October 28, 2020 1:36 AM MDT