“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15

Amid all that God has given our first parents in Eden also came a warning: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

This warning against eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil shows us that, though they were to know good, they were not to know evil. However, amid this tragedy comes hope, which is found in Genesis 3:15, called the protoevangelium or the first gospel promise. This verse presents the first gospel promise found in the Bible, the first time humans are told that despite the fall, God has made a way of escape for us all.

In order to accomplish his work unperceived, Satan choose to employ as his medium the serpent, a disguise well adapted for his purpose of deception. The serpent does not present himself as an enemy of God. On the contrary, the serpent refers to God’s words, which he repeats and seems to support. That is right from the start, we can see that Satan likes to quote God and, as later be seen, even quotes the word of God itself (Matt.4:6). The serpent does not argue immediately with the woman, but he asks a question that implies that he believes in what the Lord has said to them. After all, he asked: _“Has God indeed said….?”_. Thus, even from the start, we can see just how cunning and deceitful this being was.

While God forbade Adam to eat the fruit, Satan encouraged them to eat the fruit because by eating of it they would be like God. After they sinned, Adam and Eve felt naked because they lost their garments of glory, which reflected God’s presence. When God approaches, he asks them the rhetorical question _“where are you?”_, the same kind of question God will ask Cain. Of course, God knew the answers to the questions. His questions were asked for the benefit of the guilty, to help them realize what they have done and yet, at the same time, to lead them to repentance, salvation and redemption.

Adam blames the woman, saying that she gave him the fruit. Eve blames the serpent, saying he deceived her. But in the end, they both were guilty.