The Process of Temptation

Over the last few weeks we have been examining the subject of temptation. We began by looking at what happened when Satan tempted Jesus right after His baptism. The 3 ways in which Satan tempted Jesus were:

• Turn these stones into bread
• The offer of all the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worship
• Jump off the pinnacle of the temple and God will rescue you.

As we saw, Jesus overcame Satan, not by arguing with him, but by quoting Scripture to him. And eventually Satan left him. But Satan lies in wait to take the unwary by surprise. And he concentrates on those areas in which we are vulnerable, where he has detected a weakness which he can exploit. In this, Satan has no mercy and he is always willing to play dirty.

Today we will look at another episode in which Satan tempts someone. We will look at the process that Satan utilizes to get the individual to fall into his trap. Read Genesis 3:1-7. As we can see from this passage, from the beginning of history, people have been subject to the dangers of lying and deception. And Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). He is very clever, and he knows how to use half truths, or twisted truths, or outright lies, to his advantage. And he also uses innuendos, or slanted questions which lead a person down the path he wants them to go. Satan begins his attack on Eve with a question that he often poses to all of us: “Did God really say…?”. It implies, did He actually say that? Or, if He did, did He really mean it?

How you answer that question will determine how you face the temptation at hand.The passage we just read about what took place in the Garden of Eden is not simply about apples and trees and making fig-leaf aprons. It is about thoughts and words and how they shape our deeds. It’s about love and loyalty. It’s about freedom and responsibility. Whom will you trust? Who will guide and direct your life?

Satan will try to get you to listen to him, and become his slave, by means of deception. How does Satan do this? The road to deception is a process that Satan uses consists of 5 steps. It is a process, and once you have fallen for the first one, you are ripe for the second one, and so on.

Step No 1: Subtle questioning of God’s Word.

“Did God really say…?”
The tempter begins with the suggestion rather than an argument. Notice the tone of the question: it is incredulous. “Did God really say, you not eat from any tree in the Garden?” Rather than launch a frontal assault, the tempter sows seeds of doubt and suspicion. Notice the fact that by doing it this way, Satan doesn’t have to take the blame; he just gets things going. He says, “I just asked the question: You’re the one who drew the conclusion.”With this question, Eve began to think consciously about God’s word for the first time. Up until now, she had just enjoyed conversations with God, and took everything He said at face value. There was total trust and confidence in Him.

Step No. 2: Innuendo and exaggeration.

The serpent (Satan) said to the woman, “Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden?”To see what God really said, we need to turn in our Bibles to Gen 2:16-17: And the Lord commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Notice those first words: You are free…! Free to do what? To eat from any tree in the garden, except one. Satan cleverly turns around a statement of God’s giving freedom with one limitation, to an insinuation of oppression and slavery: “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”.

Here is modern equivalent to this story:

A parent says to his teenager: “You may borrow the car tonight: I trust you to get home at the time we agreed. I have filled the tank with gas so you can go wherever you need to. The only thing I don’t want you to do is to go to the San Pedro Mall where that big bar and night club is. You know about all the things that go on there…just stay away from there, but you can go anywhere else. I trust you to use good judgement. Have a great time.”

But during the evening one of the teenager’s friends says “What do you mean you can’t go anywhere you want to go? Your parents are setting all these boundaries and restrictions on you. What’s the deal with you? Are you going to listen to them?”
And the teenager begins to think, “Yeah, what’s the deal with my parents? Don’t they trust me?”. Thus,what started out as a gift of freedom becomes a restrictive prohibition! That’s just the way Satan made a good freedom-granting commandment of God to look like niggling restrictive rule.

What could Eve have done instead of what she did? She could have quoted the words she had heard from God, and set the record straight – which is what Jesus did when He was tempted. She could have remembered her position of authority and her duty in responsibility. As a result, she could have told the serpent (Satan) where to go. As we can see, the first way to deal with temptation is to recognize the lie and silence it. If you don’t, you will stumble into the third step on the road to deception.

Step No. 3: Debate.

Debate is often a sign that you are looking for loopholes. That’s when the battle is usually lost. Whenever you and I accept the questioning of God’s authority as the legitimate basis for debate, we give the enemy the high ground. Now, wait a minute, you say, “we’re not robots! We can ask God questions! We can try to understand what the Bible says!” That is absolutely true, but there is a difference between an honest question and a question disguised as an accusation. There is a big difference between honestly exploring a subject from the prospective of faith, which is seeking to understand, and saying, “there is really nothing to this”.¨Look at the different ways Zechariah and Mary responsed when visited by the angel announcing the births of their children.
• Zechariah (challenging): How can I be sure of this? (Luke 1:18)
• Mary (wondering): How can this be, since I am a virgin?

In the passage we are looking at today, Eve begins a debate with Satan.She says “No, we may eat of the trees of the Garden, except not from the central tree, nor may we touch it.” Now, wait a minute! Who said anything about not touching the tree?
It seems that Eve is on the defensive here. Instead of calmly correcting the serpent about not eating from any tree in the garden, Eve overcorrects, and in doing so she makes God sound harsher than he is. Is it possible that Eve is beginning to feel that God was not fair for setting limits? We don’t know. But we do know this: as she began to debate, she began to take the side of the tempter.

Step No. 4: Denial

Debate leads to denial. When you get into denial, Satan takes off his disguise and makes a direct attack.Following Eve’s “correction”, the serpent says to her: “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” God says that if you eat of the fruit you will surely die. Satan says, you will not surely die. Someone is lying. Someone is wrong.

Satan is the one calling God a liar. What in effect Satan is saying to Eve, explicitly and implicitly, goes something like this: “Eve, God lied to you. You’re not going to die. Furthermore, you know why he told you that? Because he didn’t want you to be like Him, knowing good and evil. He wants to keep all this God stuff to himself and He doesn’t want to share it with you. Isn’t He a pain? So you go ahead, and eat of that tree! You’ll be just like God!” Satan presents God as a petty jealous being who is trying to keep us from what is rightfully ours. He misrepresents God and His intent. He creates competition and rivalry between humanity and God. And he says, “You will learn good from evil.”


There are two ways to discern good from evil:
1. Doing what is right and experiencing the benefits of that goodness.
2. Going against what we know is right and receiving the bad consequences and punishment for our wrongdoing.

At this point the tempter’s work is done. He began with the subtle questioning of God’s word. “Did He really say that?” Then he went on to exaggerate and twist the truth. “You mean you can’t eat from any of those trees?” The he went on to debate, looking for loopholes. And then denial, saying “No, you won’t die.”

Step No.5: Enticement

At this point Satan’s role in the temptation process is almost over. All he has to do now is to step back and watch it work. He allows Eve to wrestle with the enticement that is there. Eve is focused on this gorgeous tree with beautiful fruit that is right there for the taking. As it says in James 1:14: Every person is tempted when he (or she) is lured and enticed by his (or her) own desire. What this means is that we are drawn into sin when we are enticed and lured by our own desire.
So it follows that no temptation will affect you unless you are tuned in to it.

What are you tuned in to? Satan in this story has tuned in to exactly where Eve was
He went after her thirst for knowledge and her thirst for godliness. And he turned around to become the occasion for sin and destruction. Eve followed her impressions rather than the Creator’s instructions. When we reject God’s Word we forfeit the truth, and we fall into Satan’s deceptions.

Here are three principles that can help us stand firm in God’s truth:

1.Question the questioner. Not every question deserves an answer. You need to discern from whom the question is derived. What’s his motive? Is it a true question or a caustic arrogance of a critic? Is it designed to clarify or slant?

2.Know God’s Word
In the story we have been analyzing today, first, the devil misquoted what God had said. And he’ll do it again, to you, if he thinks he can get away with it. Then, Eve herself misquoted God. God said that it was forbidden to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but Eve added something that God did not say: “You must not touch it.” Ignorance of God’s Word will lead to rejection of God’s Word. That might sound harsh, but it is the truth. Jesus used Scripture to wage spiritual warfare against Satan when He was tempted at the beginning of His ministry. As we said a couple of weeks ago, that is the best defense. But in order to use Scripture the way Jesus did, you need to study, and know it.

3.Trust God’s wisdom
Eve relied on her senses instead of on her holy common sense. When that happened, she got carried away. Too often we learn the hard way that God really knows best.
There are a lot of things in life that don’t make sense to us. We wonder why God won’t let us do certain things or go certain places. We wonder why certain things that we would like don’t happen. We might get frustrated with God, but we need to draw back and trust his wisdom. I have found out, many times the hard way, that God’s plan is better than my plan, and His ways are better then my ways.

Therefore, when the question comes up, “Did God really say…?" Learn to question the questioner. Soak in God’s Word and let His wisdom seep into every dimension of your life.When Peter was asked by Jesus at one point whether he was going to leave Him, Peter responded with these words: “Lord, to whom would we go? You alone have the words that give eternal life.” That is what we also have been given: not the words of death, but the words of life.