That Pesky Serpent

Everything went along well in the Garden of Eden. The weather was always lovely and sunny. Adam and Eve— for that is what Adam finally named her— tended the creatures. They played tag in the trees and ate the delicious fruits and vegetables that grew there.

At night, they sat and looked at the moon and the stars twinkling in the dark sky and talked. Adam was so glad to have another creature that talked.

Their life was so perfect it was almost too good to believe.

One perfect, warm sunny day, Eve was walking through the garden. Suddenly, one the creatures slithered out in front of her.

“How nicccccccccccccce to ssssssee you, Eve,” hissed the serpent.

Now the serpent wasn’t really one of God’s creatures. He was really the devil in disguise. He appeared to tempt Eve to turn away from what God had told Adam and Eve to do.

The serpent was evil. He was God’s enemy. The devil or Satan is a clever evil character. He can appear in any form. It is his job to tempt people to do things they know are wrong.

God had told Adam and Eve they could enjoy all that the Garden of Eden produced— except the fruit of one tree.

So, the serpent said to Eve, “Did God really tell you that you couldn’t eat the fruit of the trees in the garden?”

“No!” said Eve. “That’s not what God said. He said we could eat anything we wanted except the fruit from one tree.”

“Did God want to keep that special fruit for Himself?” the serpent asked slyly.

“No, that’s not it!” corrected Eve. “God said that if we ate the fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, it would kill us!”

The serpent answered, “God tricked you!

That fruit won’t kill you! God only said that because he didn’t want you to become as wise as He is.” “That doesn’t seem right,” Eve pondered.

And this is where Eve made a big mistake. Instead of leaving right then, she checked out the forbidden tree.

You know how it is. If your parents say, “Don’t touch that stove.

You will get burned” or “Don’t put your tongue on that frozen pipe. It will stick there.” You can’t resist checking to see if they are right, can you? And what happens? You get hurt… just as your parents warned you would!

Well, that’s what happened to Eve. She looked at the tree God had forbidden them to eat the fruit of and it looked sooooooooooo good! It didn’t seem dangerous at all.

She was beginning to get suspicious. The sneaky serpent had managed to instill mistrust in Eve’s mind. The more she looked at the fruit of the Forbidden Tree, the more she couldn’t resist it.

Remember those cookies mom put in the cookie jar and said, “Don’t eat them before dinner.” The more you thought of them, the more you hungered for one— in spite of mom’s warning!

That is how temptation works. You want something badly because someone said you couldn’t have it. And there it sits, tempting you!

Then you tell yourself, “Just one cookie. Mom won’t notice!”

Then you climb up on the cupboard and sneak a cookie… and fall off the cupboard, or your little brother tells on you or you choke on the cookie.

Bad things almost always happen when you do what is wrong.

That’s why things are wrong. You were warned for a good reason.

Poor Eve wasn’t thinking about that. She couldn’t think of anything but how delicious that forbidden fruit looked.

So Eve took some of the fruit, and she ate it.

Feeling guilty about keeping it for herself, she gave some of the fruit to Adam, who also ate it.

All of a sudden, Adam and Eve realized they weren’t wearing any clothes. And they were embarrassed to be naked.

Until they ate the Forbidden Fruit they were as carefree as little kids running around in diapers. Little kids don’t know any better. That’s how Adam and Eve were before they ate the fruit.

They didn’t know any better. They didn’t know the difference between right and wrong. Now they did. They were so embarrassed that they hid from God and from the creatures in the Garden of Eden.

When God went for a walk that night, he couldn’t find Adam and Eve anywhere. “

Adam? Eve?” He called. “Where are you?”

Adam answered from behind the bushes, “Right here, Lord. We are hiding because we are naked.”

“Who told you that you were naked?” God asked.

“Did you eat the Forbidden Fruit?” He asked.

God knew that Adam had. He always knows.

“It wasn’t my fault!” Adam protested. “Eve made me do it!”

So God said to Eve, “Is that true?”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Eve argued. “The serpent made me do it!”

Adam and Eve were in big trouble like when you accidentally break a lamp after your mom has told you not to throw the football in the house.

 

Reprinted with permission from Bible For Kids: A Collection of Bible Stories for Children Complete (Over 60 Illustrated) (With Over 100 Fun-Filled Follow-Up Activities).