I find the story of Eve fascinating. As Deeje mentioned, she was deceived. I like to look at that portion because if we can find out how she was deceived, we can eliminate some suffering in our own lives.
This is what God said, "
Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
This is what Eve said, "
Genesis 3:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."
I noticed the difference. Eve
added to what God had said. Like any scheme, you have to convince someone that a lie is a truth if you are going to take advantage of that person.
God never said you can't touch it. Now, the Serpent can begin to catch the fish with the dangling lie at the end of the fishing line.
Next, the evil one begins to seed doubt into Eve.
Genesis 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Here they have perfect peace, the whole of the earth and the bounty thereof, a relationship with God that Satan didn't have, having it all wasn't enough. He made her think that the 5 drops of water that was missing in a full glass meant that the glass was completely empty. (I wonder how many people are upset because they don't have what someone else has and become bitter instead of rejoicing in what they DO have and being content)
So she touches the apple and nothing happened. Of course nothing happened because God never said she couldn't touch it. But in her mind, for lack of knowledge and for not studying the word of God, God
must have lied because nothing happened. So if she touched it and nothing happened, she took the next step and bit on the hook of the lie and ate the fruit.
In other words, if we believe a lie is true, suffering has now started.
A good example: People say, "God has put this sickness on you to teach you something" - something that is nowhere to be found in scripture when in reality God want people to be healed. Someone believes this lie and death slowly begins to envelope them.
Or, "God is punishing you for all you did wrong", causing people to think that God goes around with a big bat to smack you when you do wrong when in reality Jesus already took the beating so that you would be free of all condemnation and thus, because of religious erroneous thinking, suffering continues.