Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
The above passage is the complete thesis statement for the nature of mankind. God placed Adam in the Garden and gave him a command. Between him and Eve, they failed and man’s nature has been corrupt ever since. The story outlines for us the very first time conflict entered the world. This story gives us six elements of conflict:
1. Entitlement - As Satan tempts Eve he makes a point of making her think she is entitled to the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. He makes her think she is being denied something she is owed.
2. Injustice - Satan continues by suggesting God is even being unjust to deny her the fruit of the tree.
3. Ignorance - Satan then taunts her with a half truth that she will not die. Rather than seek truth, Eve is willing to remain ignorant because that allows her to leverage the moment for what she wants ... the fruit.
4. Ego - Satan then tells her she can be like God. Now, she no longer wants just the fruit, she wants to elevate her significance in life and be more that she was created to be.
5. Envy - Satan continues to lure her in by appealing to her envy. When she saw that the tree was good and could make her wise her envy caused her to move deeper into Satan’s trap.
6. Imperious - the ultimate goal of this for Satan was to defeat the power God had and corrupt the man and woman making them think they were not subservient to God but had their own power to direct their own lives.
These six tools are part of every conflict moving forward in the Bible. If you read any conflict from this point on you will see they boil down to one, a few, or all of these six. All of today’s conflict stems from the very first conflict in the world: Satan causing a conflict between Adam and God via the temptation of Eve.
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