In his Turning Point Daily Devotional for May 15, 2013, David Jeremiah writes: “In the story of Adam and Eve’s temptation and fall into sin, the serpent is described as cunning. Before their encounter with the serpent, Adam and Eve are described as naked. What we don’t see in English is that the Hebrew words for cunning (‘arum) and naked (‘arom) are almost identical. This was no linguistic coincidence.
“Moses’ point was to link the serpent’s craftiness with Adam and Eve’s innocence, symbolized by their nakedness. The serpent was no doubt beautiful in appearance, and his words were definitely persuasive—words that piqued the first couple’s interest and appealed to their human desires to taste what was forbidden. By yielding to the serpent’s charisma, their eyes were opened and their innocence lost.
“The point: Innocence is often lost at the hands of that which is crafty, beautiful or charismatic. Every follower of Jesus must be wise about what is good and innocent amid what is evil” (
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