The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 139

IIOMILETICS. Ver. 6.-Tliefirst sin.-I. THE TEMPTATION. 1. ThD/ctct. That sin i,; p0ssihlc e,o,n in pure beings without the intervention of solicitation, at Je,i,st ab extra, 11111st ho heir! lo hll the doctrine of Scripture (vide James i. 14 and Jude 6). 1Icnc0 man might hnvo fallen, even had he not been tempted. The fact, however, that he was tempter! is explicitly revealed; a circumstance which notes an important distinction between his sin and that of the angels. Does this explain Ileb. ii. 16 anrl 2 l'et. ii. 4? 2. :l.'he anthor. Though ostensibly a serpent, in reality the devil. Besides b()ing expressly stated in the inspired word, it is involved in the very terms of the Mosaic nn.rrativc. If the reptile possessed the malice to conceive and the skill to manage such an assault upon the first pair as this book describes, then clearly it was not a serpent, but a devil. It is doubtful if all man's temptations come from thD devil, but many, per- haps most, do. He is pre-eminently styled "the tempter" (Matt. iv. 3; 1 Thess. iii. 5): From the days of Adam downward he has been engaged in attempting to seduce the saints; e. g. David (1 Chron. xxi. 1); Job (eh. ii. 7); Christ (Luke iv. 13); Ananias and Sapphira (Acts v. 3). At the present moment he is labouring t" deceive the whole world (Rev. xii. 9). 3. The instrument. The serpent, which was a proof of Satan's skill, that particular reptile being specially adapted for his pur- pose (N. B.-The devil can always find a tool adapted to the work he has in band) ; and is an indication of onr danger, it being only a reptile, and therefore little likely to be suspected as a source of peril; whence we may gather that there is no quarter so unexpected, and no instrument so feeble, that out of the one and through the other temptation may not leap upon us. 4. The nature. This was threefold. A tempta- tion (1) to suspect the Divine goodness (ver. 1); (2) to disbelie,e the Divine word (ver. 4); (3) to emulate the Divine greatness (ver. 5). (Cf. the three assaults upon the Second .Adam (Matt. iv. 1; Luke iv. 1), which were essentially the same.) The first aimed a death-blow at their filial confidence in God; the second removed the fear of punishment from their path; the third fired their souls with the lust of ambition. Separation from God, disobedience of God, opposition to or rivalry with God-the devil's scala c<eli. 5. The subtlety. That great art should have been dis- played in the conduct of this campaign against the citadel of human holiness is what might have been expected from such a general. In theso respects it was evinced. (1) The assault was commenced before use and practice had confirmed the first pair in obedience. (2) lie began with the woman, who was the weaker of the two. (3) He attachd her when alone-:-the best time for temptation. Beware of solitude. ( 4) He selected the best ground for delivering his first blow-when the woman was in full sight of the tree. (5) HA was extremely cautious so to moderate his onset as not to excite alarm-beginning with a casual inquiry. (6) He advanced by degrees as he obtained a footing in the woman's heart. (7) Ile never revealed the proper scope and drift of his observations, but always couched them in obscure and ambiguous language. (8) He never seemed to lead, but always to be following the woman's thought. (9) In all he said and did he pretended to be seeking his victim's good. (10) He chose the best of all possible baits to captivate the woman's fancy and ex- 1:ite her cupidity-the hope of gnining knowledge. II. THE TRANSCJRESSION. 1. Its guilty perpetrators. Not the serpent or the devil, but the first pair. The devil may tempt man to sin, but he cannot ijin for man. A creature may be the unconscious instrument of lending me.n aside from the path of virtue, but it cannot possibly compel man to go astray. l\len aro prone to blame other things and persons for their sins, when the trµe criminals are themselves. 2. Its impelling motive. No temptation, however skilfully planned or powerfully applied, can succeed until it finds 1dooting in the nature that is tempted. Unless the devil's logic and chicanery hnd produced the effect described in ver. 6, it is more than probable that Eve would have stood. But first it wrought a change upon horsolf, and them it trnnsformed the tree. First it created the need for sinful motives, nnd then it; supplied thorn. So works temptation still. As with E,·e, so with ua. Sinful motive3 nre (1) demnndecl by the heart; (2) supplied by the evil which the hcD,rt ccmtemp'intcs; /\ml (3) nre gePernlly a~ weak an<! irumtlkirnt a~ F.,·c's. 3-  62 TllE BOOK OF GENESIS.