Why Did Eve Disobey God When She Knew She Would Die?
Answer: Eve disobeyed God because Satan deceived her. That is, the devil used lies and tricks to get her to disobey God. God had said that Adam and Eve would die if they ate of the “Tree of Conscience,” but Satan said they wouldn’t.
Because Eve believed Satan, she wasn’t sure what would happen. Another trick Satan used was to promise that it would do great things for her; he said that if she ate the forbidden fruit, she would be as God.
That sounded good to Eve, and so she did what Satan suggested. Temptation tells you that feeling good right now is better than anything that might happen in the future.
Satan still deceives people by twisting God’s words and making people believe lies.
Satan wants us to think that once we sin, God can’t forgive us. But even though Eve sinned, and even though we sin, God had a plan for taking away our sin. That plan was to send Jesus.
Key verse: “For you are the children of your father the devil. You love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. There was no truth in him. When he lies, it is perfectly normal. For he is the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
Related verses: Genesis 2:16-17; 3:1-5; Matthew 6:13; 26:41; 2 Corinthians 2:11
Related questions: Did God want Eve to be deceived and eat of the fruit? Does God still love Adam and Eve?
Why Did Cain Kill His Brother?
Answer: The story of Cain and Abel shows the effects of sin in the world. The first sin was when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of Conscience.
After that, every person has been born a sinner, someone who will often do what’s wrong instead of what’s right. Cain’s sins of jealousy and hatred led to murder.
Both Cain and Abel had presented gifts to God, but Abel’s gifts had pleased God, while Cain’s had not. Cain became jealous of God’s favor; this made Cain very angry (Genesis 4:5).
Cain’s jealousy and anger led him to kill his brother. We can see from this story that jealousy and anger can cause people to do terrible harm, even to people they love.
Watch out for those feelings, and take care of them before they hurt you, too!
Key verse: We are not to be like Cain. He belonged to Satan and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing wrong.
He knew very well that his brother’s life was better than his. (1 John 1: 12)
Related verses: Genesis 4:1-16; Matthew 5:21-24; Hebrews 11:4
Related question: Why did Cain and Abel fight?