Lucifer and all his adherents, the angels that sinned, were cast out, and their place was found no more in heaven. They were delivered up to the confirmed impenetrable darkness which they had doubly chosen. Having left their own habitation, and being obliged to accept the result of their choice, being cast out, they had no place of their own. They were homeless wanderers in space.
Still, however, their leader Satan, pursued his original mistake of thinking that he was self-sufficient for all things, and of following his blind reasoning upon his misjudgings of the Lord. His ambitious determination was still to be equal with God.
Lucifer's Plan to Take the Earth
And now he conceived the idea that he would lead the inhabited worlds astray. He had succeeded in leading angels away from allegiance to God, why could he not also lead other creatures away? Here, too, his former mistake in judging the Lord, followed him up, and laid the foundation for farther error and more false reasoning.
He had charged upon God that He was hard, arbitrary, unyielding, and unwilling to make any sacrifices for His creatures. And when the Lord asked him to yield himself, and return to God, and he had refused, and was thus given his own choice with its consequences, and was cast out of heaven, in his blindness he made this result only confirm his charge that the Lord was stern, arbitrary, and unforgiving.
And now he reasoned from this that if he could get the inhabitants of some of the worlds to turn from God, and accept and follow him, this stern and arbitrary disposition of the Lord would cause him to cast off that world as the Lord had cast out him, and to give up to irretrievable darkness its in habitants, as He had given up him and his adherents.
This then would give him a habitation and undisputed sway therein. And when this plan should thus succeed with one world, why not then with another and another, and so on, till his original purpose should be accomplished, to be equal with God?
With this purpose he set out on his mischievous journey. And he found this world in which we now dwell. Whether he tried other worlds first, or whether this was the first, is immaterial; as we know full well that he succeeded in getting into his toils this world and its inhabitants.
The Eden Home
God in His wise purpose had created man, the holy pair, upright, only a little lower than the angels. He had given him paradise for his home. He had given him dominion over the earth and over every living thing that moves upon it. He had made to grow from the ground "every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food," and "the tree of Life which is in the midst of the paradise." He had put before him everything that could please the eye, and delight the mind, and charm the senses.
In this delightful state and place God put the blessed pair whom he had formed. He gave it all to them to enjoy forever. He made them free to enjoy it or to refuse it; and therefore he put also in the midst of the garden the forbidden tree,
"...the tree of the knowledge of good and evil... And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:9,16-17)
The Temptation and Fall
Into this happy place came Satan with his deceptive pur poses. He came here to fill, if possible, these with his own evil ambition.
"Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die: For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:1-5)
The Hebrew, the Revised Version, and the Jews' translation, all give to this latter point the reading:
"God does know, that, on the day you eat thereof, your eyes will be opened and you will be as God, knowing good and evil."
This is not only the literal reading, but the true meaning, of the original words. This gives the very thought that was put before the woman. It was not that you shall be as gods, in the common acceptation of the plural term "gods." It was literally the very thought and ambition of Lucifer himself which he now put before her--you shall be as God. He would lead her away, and inspire her with this mind which was in him, to be equal with God.
But note the expression with which he opens the conversa tion. It is an expression which insinuates into her mind a whole world of suspicion.
The common version translates it, "Yea, has God said," etc.
The Revised Version gives it the same.
The Jews' English version translates it, "Has God indeed said," etc.
But no translation can give it exactly. It cannot be exactly expressed in letters so as to form a word that would give it truly. Yet everybody in the world is familiar with the expression. It is that sneering grunt (expressed only through the nose)--c-ugh!--which conveys query, doubt, suspicion, and contempt, all at once.
"C-ugh! has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"
And everybody knows that to this day among men there is nothing equal to this sneering grunt, to create doubt and suspicion; and no other expression is used so much by mankind for that purpose. And this is the origin of it.
Doubting the Lord's Goodness
Having thus suggested to Eve query, doubt, and suspicion of the Lord's word as to shutting them away from a certain tree of the garden, and having drawn her into conversation, he followed it up with further implication and insinuation that the Lord had some ulterior purpose in thus keeping this tree from them.
"You shall not surely die; for God does know that in the day you eat thereof, you shall be like God."
Thus he set up his own word directly against the word of the Lord, and then declared that God knew that it was not true that they should die, but that instead of that they would be like God; and that because He knew this, He had, under cover of this other word, thought to shut them away from that tree which would make them like Him. All this, too, solely because He wanted to keep them down and in ignorance; for fear that they should rise and advance; for fear that they would be like Him.
Thus it is clearly seen that from beginning to end, Satan was employing all his cunning to cast upon the Lord all the dark traits of his own evil character, and so to get the woman to think that God did not desire good for her nor mean good toward her.
Usurping the Place of God
It was the same evil intent with which he started on his sinful course in heaven, to get himself in the place of God in the estimation of intelligent creatures, as well as in fact. He was determined so to misrepresent God that he himself should be accepted instead of God; that thus he might succeed in usurping the place of God, and seize upon equality with God.
And the woman was taken with the prospect and caught by the deception. She believed Satan instead of God. She accepted the word of Satan instead of the word of God. And so it is written:
"When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat..." (Genesis 3:6)
The tree was not in any sense good for food. It was not in any sense a tree to be desired to make one wise. Yet the woman, deceived by the glamor cast over her mind, over her eyes, over the tree, and even over her loving Creator himself, by the deceptions of the enemy,
"saw that the tree was good for food, and a tree to be desired to make one wise."
As the tree was not good for food, and therefore was not really to be desired for that purpose, the words "to make one wise" contain the key of the whole matter.
That which caused her to see that it was good for food, and a tree to be desired, was only the idea that thus she could at tain to wisdom which God was withholding. She saw that it was good for food, and a tree to be desired, only because she supposed she could thus attain to the wisdom of God, and thus be like God.
And thus it was ambition to be equal with God that caused sin to enter the world, even as it had caused sin to enter heaven.
Lucifer had said in heaven,
"I will be like the Most High."
Here he had placed before the woman the same prize, the same ambition, to be obtained by disobedience to God.
"You shall be like God."
In heaven Lucifer had aspired "to be equal with God," and here he set before the woman the aspiration, "You shall be as God."
And that herself might be exalted to equality with God, she turned away from God to accomplish it through the ways of sin! Oh, it is the desire to please self instead of God that is the origin of every sin!
And she
"...gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." (Genesis 3:6)
However.
"...Adam was not deceived." (1 Timothy 2:14)
He accepted the situation, and went with his wife, even though he knew she was deceived.
"And the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked." (Genesis 3:7)
The glory of God which had rested upon them, and its holy light which had clothed them as with a garment, departed from them; and they knew they were naked, and they
"...hid themselves from the presence of the Lord." (Genesis 3:8)
Innocent, they had loved His gracious and holy presence. But now guilty, they were afraid of the presence of the Lord.
Sin separates the soul from God, and fills it with a dread of His approach. Righteousness binds the soul to God, delights in the fullness of His presence, and basks in the sunlight of His divine glory.