Did Satan Really Lie

 

“You certainly will not die.”—Genesis 3:4

I know, I know. The title questions is almost laughable to most who have read or been taught the story of the fall of man as detailed in the Bible book of Genesis. For sure, true believers may gasp and unveil an indignant frown at the preposterous question. But, humbly, I request—please don’t come bearing torches, knives and pitchforks to drag me to the burning stake. Not just yet.
It may be easier to allow me this brief tryst into the territory of Devil’s Advocate if you note of the opening inquiry, not as an affront, but more factually. It is not “Did God lie?” nor, “Is His word the infallible truth?” No, instead it is: “Did Satan really lie?”

So. Let’s jump right to it, then:

Consider:
“At this the serpent said to the woman: ‘You certainly will not die.’ For God knows that in the very day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and bad.” (Gen. 3:4, 5)

If some chose to search around, they would discover no man and woman named Adam and Eve, who still walk the ground many centuries after arriving on this good earth. In fact, the profundity of Adam and Eve’s absence has wrapped the tale of their lives in the mantle of fable. This ongoing absence supports that, indeed, they died.

That is, if you interpret the words “You certainly will not die” purely in the literal sense.

An untold sum of souls have died since the ‘original serpent,’* otherwise known as Satan, spoke those seductive words which so unduly captured Eve’s attention. Souls who were born, who ate, drank, slept, grew up, sang, spoke, cried, laughed, stole things, etcetera but otherwise, left no enduring lesson or evidence behind to remind others of their existence.

Newsflash: Boatloads of People Cheat Death! (Wait. What?)

I posit death is most solidified in the appearance of having never lived. It somehow becomes more potent when the triumphs or tragedies of an individual’s time in the world of the living is distilled to nothing more than dust swirling in the breeze. Dust that settles on household items which ultimately is wiped away without a thought. Dust adhering to spiders’ webs. Dust prompting a sneeze from someone’s pet cat or dog.

In other words, when NO ONE alive, no written record or etched stone can acknowledge that such dust once existed as a living person, let alone is capable of remembering that person’s name, though they may be willing—this is a death that exceeds all.

It is true we may be ill-informed of some interesting details of Adam or Eve lives—exactly when they breathed their first lungful of air, the specifics of a typical breakfast they ate, or conversations they had, the songs they may have composed during their time in Eden, and afterwards.

Yet, a great majority of us know or have at least heard of their tragic tale. I promised you that if you walked up to almost any stranger anywhere and said “Adam and Eve” you would invoke the idea of the first man and woman in their mind. Many would credit this knowledge to bearing the heavy burden of their guilty tragedy—sin and the Death it ultimately leads to. But I propose:
this is the infamy in which they live.

The retelling, teaching and reading of their story keeps them more alive than some who now move about in flesh and blood, but with meaningless effect.

Eve’s Fatal Assumption

“You certainly will not die.”

So far, this remains true. Although probably not in the aspect our First Mother presumed upon hearing the words. The cunning serpent, to accomplish his aim of stirring up rebellion against necessary righteous sovereignty, merely let the very gullible Eve interpret his words in a literal sense.

And yet, the story is undying. Its source, God’s living word, is eternal. So too, the man and woman involved may never truly die.

Consider also this:
“… in the very day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and bad.”
Again, did Satan lie? The holy word answers:
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked.” (Gen. 3:7)

Satan chose his words with meticulous attention so as to allow for an (forgive me) honorable interpretation. Eve, whom, I’m positive, had never been told something other than truth, made the unwise assumption she would gain the knowledge likened to that of being a deity–like the One she knew. In her mind, a bite of fruit translated to a promotion to some level of godhood for her and Adam.

As it happened, she and her significant other gained only the knowledge that they were naked, which, of course, God certainly knew. On the heels of that eye-opener they learned they’d had “good,”—life devoid of suffering, in a paradise, no less. And would now suffer “bad”—expulsion from paradise, with the added burdens pain, misery and death.

So, things happened just as the Serpent said.

The actual lie sprang from the woman’s own naïve illusions.

The Real First Lie

Be that as it may, I, for one, swallow the Holy Word as a moisture-deprived desert traveler would guzzle a cold bottle of Dasani. I am not alone in this.

The Messiah, Jesus Christ, exposed Satan as the “Father of the Lie.” For this reason alone it follows that that title is irrefutable. With this in mind, I cannot deny that the ultimate adversary of Truth is the one called Satan. He is undeniably the originator of the first lie. Perhaps, though, this despicable role commenced long before he chose the unfortunate serpent as his puppet for the introduction of sin into a perfect beginning.

For, he’d lied to himself to think he could steal the hearts of all humankind away from the Almighty God, Jehovah and, thereby, seize the position of Supreme and Universal Sovereign for himself.

*compare Revelation 12: 9
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Eve

I’ve come to the conclusion she had a thing for snakes
She felt some connection to its silent slither

She admired, basked in, the mixed message
Of those scales, the exquisite overlap

Of pro with con, shadow with shine.
That is what made the serpent a useful

Tool. Explains why she did not flinch or flee
When tricky words tripped off that forked

Tongue. Maybe if a certain fallen angel chose instead
A rainbowed bird she would have seen through that

flashy disguised. Yeah. A wolf’s toothy grin might have
raised a reason to resist the risk of taking even one bite.

How could she suspect such smooth creation?
How could she hear past such pretty temptation?