God commanded the Man, “You can eat from any tree in the garden, except from the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil. Don’t eat from it. The moment you eat from that tree, you’re dead.” … The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.” When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate. [Genesis 2:16-17, 3:4-6 (MSG)]

Eve saw what she wanted and couldn’t possess. God clearly said this was the one thing Adam and Eve couldn’t have in the paradise in which they lived. Satan, however, told her otherwise; he told her what she wanted to hear. Was the tree more seductive, did she crave it all the more, because it was forbidden? Eve saw what she desired and took it. She trusted what she saw, a beautiful tree with delicious looking fruit, instead of what she’d been told by God. She sinned because she walked by sight toward what she desired instead of by walking by faith in God’s word. Unfortunately, mankind has continued down that path ever since. Who is the wiser, God or us? Who loves us, God or Satan? Whose words will we believe? Who do we trust?

Father, fill us with your Spirit so we always walk, not by sight, but by faith. Strengthen us so that desire never tempts us to ignore your word.

All the cunning of the devil is exercised in trying to tear us away from the word. [Martin Luther]

Yahweh: You’ve been unhappy because you’ve desired things that cannot be.
Lucifer: That’s what desire is. The need for what we can’t have. The need for what’s readily available is called greed. [Mike Carey, from “Lucifer, Vol. 11: Evensong”]