“Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.” (Proverbs 20:17)
We can “enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” (Heb. 11:25) When Eve first ate the fruit it was so good that she wanted Adam to enjoy it as well. (Gen. 3:6)
There is a reason why sin is so attractive: it makes people feel alive; it takes them on a “roller coaster ride” of pleasure. To yield to temptation is to escape into a world away from the world; an oasis of forgetfulness; a place where the senses have been reinvigorated. To give in to the call to sin, to let ourselves be filled and overrun by evil thoughts or passions, becomes habitual when our brain remembers the pleasure, the “life” we felt, but forgets the death that came later. The wisdom that is the fear of the Lord learns to reject the offer of temporary pleasure because it remembers the “wormwood and the gall” that came afterwards. (Lam. 3:19)
When the god of this world, or one of his serpent messengers, comes knocking on our door, beckoning us to dine with him, we must put on a sober mind and remember more accurately that the life offered to us is death; the sweet treat offered to us will turn bitter; and the good offered to us is nothing but evil.