Adam and Eve and the Sneaky Snake

Imagine that your mother has placed two bowls out on the table. One bowl is filled with beautiful fruit like this one. (Show the bowl of fruit.) This bowl is filled with lovely fruit like apples, oranges, grapes, and bananas. The other bowl is filled with chocolate candy. (Show the bowl of candy.) Yum, Yum! Look at all those goodies! After setting the bowls on the table, your mother says, "You can eat anything from the fruit bowl. Those things are good for you and will help you to build a strong, healthy body. But from the bowl of candy, you must not eat anything. Candy is not good for you and will surely make you fat and give you cavities in your teeth.

I'm sure that you probably know that the surest way to get someone to do something is to tell them they can't do it. It has been that way since the beginning of time. In fact, that is what our Bible lesson is about today.

In the beginning, after God had created everything, He placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to take care of it. He said to them, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die."

The serpent was very clever, more clever than any of the animals that God had made. He slithered up to Eve one day and said to her, "I understand that God told you that you could eat from any tree in the garden. Is that true?"

"No, not all of the trees," Eve replied. "We can eat from all of the trees except the one in the middle of the garden. God told us that if we ate from that tree, we would die."

The serpent said to Eve, "You won't die! God knows that the very moment you eat from that tree you will be just like God. You will know everything — even what is good and what is evil."

You know what Eve did, don't you? That's right! She ate some of the fruit from the tree that God had told them not to touch. She thought it was good, so she gave some to Adam and he ate it too. At that very moment, their eyes were opened and they realized that they were naked and they were ashamed. So they sewed some fig leaves together to cover themselves.

So, that is the story of how Adam and Ever were tricked by a sneaky snake. I'm sure you know the rest of the story. God banished them from the garden and they suffered for their disobedience for the rest of their lives.

You and I face temptation every day, but God wants what is best for us. He will help us to resist that temptation if we will read the Bible and do what it tells us to do.

Father, help us to follow your teaching and do what your Word tells us to do. We know that we will sometimes fail, so we ask you to forgive us and set us on the right path. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.