The first failure to resist temptation happened in the Garden of Eden. Where was this garden? We don’t know, but many suggestions have been put forward. They include locations in Armenia, Iran, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, India, Venezuela, and Iraq, as well as Charleston, South Carolina, and even the North Pole!

While we may not know exactly where the Fall took place, we are familiar with the story: God gave Adam and Eve one rule—not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan, taking the form of a serpent (Rev. 12:9), tempted Eve. She ate the fruit and gave some to Adam who joined her in disobedience. What can we learn from their failure to resist temptation? First, we become vulnerable to temptation and deception when we call God’s words into question. That’s how the serpent began, by saying, “Did God really say…?” (v. 1). Notice how Eve then misquoted God by adding to the original prohibition, “and you must not touch it” (v. 3). In fact, her legalism only weakened her for Satan’s next move. The serpent contradicted God’s words and slandered God’s motives: You won’t die, he insisted, in fact you’ll gain knowledge and everything that God is trying to keep from you (vv. 4–5). Finally, he appealed to her pride, “you will be like God.” Not surprisingly, pride was central to Satan’s own fall (see Isa. 14:12–15).

We see the basic dynamics of temptation here. This temptation was surrounded by lies; they promise what they cannot deliver and suggest that disobedience is better than obedience.

In the next days, we’ll look at people in the Bible who failed to resist temptation. Just as Paul wrote that Eve’s deception is a warning for us (2 Cor. 11:3), so these other biblical examples can teach spiritual lessons in what not to do.

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