What was the devil’s intent when he tempted Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
The devil sought to establish a new order of humanity. He sought to turn upside down the order that the Lord had established in His creation.
The first order was the roles of men and women. When Eve ate from the tree she assumed headship of the family and offered the fruit to Adam. Thus women ruling over men was the first mark of the new order.
Women were given a very specific role by the Lord in creation: respect their husband, serve him, bear children and nurture them.
The man was given the role to provide for his family and in that role love his wife and raise his children.
The second new order was that unrighteousness instead of righteousness would be the dominate nature of man. Unrighteousness is also called sin and that man, after eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, would possess a sinful nature.
Thus you have the new order where women rule over men and sin is the nature of human life. This is antithetical to our created order and explains mankind is at enmity with our creator.
When you see this order in our life-time you can now identify it as the order that was established by the Devil when he tempted Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Mankind entered into its sinful state when Eve then led Adam to eat too.
Jesus Christ reverses the Devil’s order back to the original order that was stabled in creation. This intent is revealed in Holy Scripture.
One more way to explain the new order is the Christianity takes man back to his original design and in doing so destroys the work of the Devil.
Views from an Evangelist 