After Satan rebelled against God and was defeated, God cast him down to earth to wander as an evil spirit. He and all his angels traveled from place to place, looking at all that God had created.

“It makes me sick!” Satan said, looking at the trees, the oceans, the birds, the mountains and the sky. Then, he saw God’s greatest creation - the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. They were in the Garden of Eden that God had created for them.

“He created them in His image,” Satan sneered, “so that they may be godly. But they aren’t immortal like me! They are innocent and stupid… and I will start getting my revenge on God by getting them in trouble…”

Satan had no form. He was just a spirit, floating around with the rest of his ex-angels. So, he took on a form so that the two people could see him. He became a big serpent.

“Eve,” he said to himself, “she looks like she might fall for my trick!” He slithered into the Garden and he found her laying under a tree relaxing. Adam was out naming animals and she had nothing to do but enjoy the beautiful day around her.

Satan saw that she was eating an apple. “Say,” he said, “that’s a tasty looking apple.”

“Yes,” she said taking a bite. “It is juicy and delicious. God provides all these fruits for us to eat.”

“Really?” Satan said. “And he lets you eat of them all, does he?” Satan knew that God had forbidden them from eating from the Tree of Knowledge.

“Well, no,” Eve said, “We can eat from all the trees of the forest except for one. That one over there,” she said, pointing. “It is the Tree of Knowledge and if we eat it’s fruit, we will die.”

“Die?” said the serpent. “HA! He has deceived you! You won’t die if you eat the fruit of that tree!”

“But,” Eve said sitting up, “why would he lie to us?”

“He doesn’t want you to eat the fruit of that tree because then you will KNOW things he doesn’t want you to know. If you eat from that tree, you will become like God… all-knowing and all-powerful. He wouldn’t want that, now would he? Then you could leave his little Garden and go out into the world. He wouldn’t control you anymore.”

“Really? But, knowledge seems like a good thing to me,” Eve said, now confused.

“Yes,” said Satan, holding an apple he’d just plucked from the Tree of Knowledge, “it IS a wonderful thing, and delicious too! Come on and eat… I won’t tell a soul!”

And that was all it took. This knowledge that God tried to protect them from was the knowledge of right and wrong, good and bad. When Eve ate the fruit, they lost that innocence forever. Satan had just worked his first trick against God!

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