Then the LORD God said to the snake, "You will be punished for this; you alone of all the animals must bear this curse: From now on you will crawl on your belly, and you will have to eat dust as long as you live. I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite their heel.

And he said to the woman, "I will increase your trouble in pregnancy and your pain in giving birth. In spite of this, you will still have desire for your husband, yet you will be subject to him."

And he said to the man, "You listened to your wife and ate the fruit which I told you not to eat. Because of what you have done, the ground will be under a curse. You will have to work hard all your life to make it produce enough food for you. It will produce weeds and thorns, and you will have to eat wild plants. You will have to work hard and sweat to make the soil produce anything, until you go back to the soil from which you were formed. You were made from soil, and you will become soil again."

Genesis 3:14-19

Temptation to do evil brought Adam and Eve face to face with the ultimate moral question: Would they show confidence in their Creator and lovingly obey Him with all their heart? We face a similar test every day. What are we going to do? Will we flunk the test? Or will we trust God completely and obey His commands?

Every temptation is an opportunity to trust God.

Our Daily Bread – January 2, 2003