When Eve repeated God’s command, Satan said to her: “You positively will not die. For God knows that in the very day of your eating from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad.”

Genesis 3:1-

Do you see the seriousness of what transpired? The Devil contradicted what God had said to Adam. Satan’s words implied that Adam and Eve would not need Jehovah in order to decide what was good and what was bad for them. Satan’s challenge therefore brought into question the right and validity of Jehovah’s rulership over man. The all-important issue that Satan raised, then, was that of the rightfulness of Jehovah’s sovereignty.

Satan also told Eve: “God knows that in the very day of your eating from [the forbidden tree] your eyes are bound to be opened and you [both Eve and Adam] are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad.” (Genesis 3:5) With those cunning words, Satan presented humans with a sham opportunity to be self-governed. Deceptively, Satan implied that humans would be better off independent of God. Has this proved true?

Throughout the course of history, empires have come and gone. Every conceivable form of human government has been tried. Time and again, however, dreadful things have happened to the human family. “Man has dominated man to his injury,” a Bible writer wisely concluded some 3,000 years ago. (Ecclesiastes 8:9) “It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step,” wrote the prophet Jeremiah. (Jeremiah 10:23) Even scientific and technological achievements of recent years have not negated the truth of these statements. The passage of time has only proved these observations to be true.