As a result of Eve’s disobedience, she tempted Adam to follow her example, and he did. Instead she allowed herself to be tricked by the devil, a slick-talking, slithering serpent, whom she should have known couldn’t be trusted. Eve was our mother, we assure ourselves, and should have looked out for us. In hindsight, it is easy for us to criticize Eve. Imagine being told that she could be like God, possessing divine power and attributes! How tempting - how easy - all Eve had to do was to eat one apple from one tree. He promised her that she would be like God if she would only eat the fruit of this one tree. The Father of Lies then approached the innocent Eve. The devil patiently waited until Eve and Adam were separated from each other. She, therefore, would be the easier of the two to influence. He also knew that Eve tended to be more naïve and gullible than Adam. He knew that if Adam and Eve were together it would be more difficult to tempt them into doing his bidding. He formed a cleverly contrived plan to lure them into eating the fruit from this forbidden tree, thereby violating God’s commandment. The devil, who envied and hated our first parents, set out to entice them to disobey God. God told Adam and Eve that they could eat the fruit from all of the trees in the Garden of Eden except one. It was the devil, who tricked our first parents, Adam and Eve, into disobeying God. If we think about this, the first false prophet to don the uniform of a sheep was the devil. They are Hell bent (no pun intended) on deceiving those whom Our Lord called “the children of the light” (Luke, 16, 1-9), leading those who submit to his wiles and snares to damnation. Internally, however, they are “ravenous” - filled with envy, hatred, and ill-will directed toward mankind and God, Who created man in His image and likeness. False prophets present themselves as sincere followers of the Word. In the Gospel of Saint Matthew (7, 15-26), Our Lord presented this warning to His disciples: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” In short, Our Lord was warning His disciples to avoid being tricked by appearances.
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