Beginning of Human Sin

In continued defiance against God, Satan enticed the woman to eat of the forbidden tree and the woman then influenced Adam to do the same thing, in spite of God's clear and loving warning.

Satan rebelled, wanting to be like God, and he was judged. Now God had created man and woman in His own image and placed them in the garden. They were getting special attention. I’m sure Satan was not happy about this.

Remember that God had told Man that he could eat from any and all trees of the garden... except for one. Satan developed a plan to use that command to his advantage. First, he would misquote God just enough to make Him seem unloving. Then he would deny that God would—or even could—punish disobedience as He had promised. Then he would suggest that God only gave this warning because He is selfish and jealous. He probably thought, “This is going to be good.” He was ready to put his plan into action.

Satan appeared to Eve in the form of a serpent and said, “Is it true that God told you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?”

The woman replied, “Of course not! God told us we could eat from all but one of the trees; and that one we can’t even touch or we will die!”

“You won’t die,” the serpent jeered. “God knows that when you eat from this tree, you will be able to understand the difference between good and evil just like He does!”

The woman listened to the serpent. She looked at the fruit. The fruit looked tasty enough, tantalizingly so.

She thought about what the serpent had said. If she ate the fruit, could she really know more? Could she know as much as God knew? It made sense to her, so she took a piece and ate it. Then she turned and gave some to her husband, and he ate it, too.

Satan’s plan had succeeded. He was able to get the man and the woman to disobey God. I imagine he was pretty happy and was eager to see what God would do about it.

Disobedience—any instance of not doing what God commands—is called sin. The first disobedience of man and woman which resulted in some severe long-term consequences is generally called "The Fall of Man” or simply “The Fall.”