What did Satan promise Eve?

He promised her that if she ate the fruit she would become like a goddess. “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). Talk about promising a woman the moon and the stars!

But what did he actually give her? Genesis notes that when they ate the fruit they “knew that they were naked” (Genesis 3:7). Well, they had information for sure, but short of the knowledge God possesses.

You see, Satan promises us the sun and the moon and the stars, but he does not deliver. While sin does provide pleasures, it is nothing as magnificent as that which it promises. It’s a little like junk food. We smell it cooking and think we’re going to get some magnificent cuisine. Sin, like junk food, is easily accessible, leaves you craving more, never truly fills you up, and, note this, making it a habit will kill you.

I think of the adverts that show compelling and cool people drinking alcohol. They’re having so much fun together! They’re so sophisticated! Tomorrow they will be so hung over!

Or the dramas on television depicting adultery. They’re so in love! They’ve found such solace in each other! Tomorrow their families will be broken, children disorientated and frightened. There’s what we see in the here and now, the allure of sin, and what takes place down the road and around the corner, the heartbreak and, it still stings.

Moses chose to serve God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin “for a time” (Hebrews 11:25). Sin’s promises are saccharine sweet, insubstantial as Jell-O, and just as hollow. Instead, find genuine fulfillment in the Lord.