The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
September 21, 2006 by Mike
1. After God perfectly sets the above stage for Adam and Eve and literally gives them everything under the sun, He tells them that there is now one thing that they cannot do. He specifically tells them that they can eat of every single tree that is in this garden – with the exception of one tree. This one tree was called the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
Think about this. God makes this test that they both had to pass for the future implication of all mankind as easy as He possibly could. He tells them that all they have to do is stay off of this one tree. He tells them that they can literally eat from every other tree that is in this garden.
The Bible does not tell us how many other trees were in this garden – but I bet there were thousands of them. All they had to do was to obey God’s direct command to stay off of this one tree – and they would have eventually passed the test – and all of us could have been born into this perfect God environment. But they blew it big time – not only for themselves – but also for the rest of mankind that was to follow.
In addition to telling them not to eat any fruit that was on this one tree – God allowed one other thing to occur in this setup. He allowed Satan himself to be able to roam in this garden in the form of a serpent – knowing full well that Satan would try and tempt them to disobey His direct command to the both of them not to eat any fruit off of this one forbidden tree.
So God sits back and watches this scenario unfold. Will Adam and Eve listen to and abide by God’s direct command not to eat any fruit off of this one tree – or are they going to allow themselves to be duped by the devil?
2. As we all know, they eventually fell for Satan’s lies. Satan first targets Eve, telling her that she will be like God if she eats the fruit off of this one forbidden tree. He tells her that she will have God’s knowledge of good and evil if she partakes of it.
After Eve trespasses and eats some of the fruit off of this forbidden tree, she then turns to Adam and convinces him to do the same thing. Adam then proceeds to eat some of the same fruit and once both of them have eaten off of this tree – an amazing thing happens!
Before they had eaten off of this forbidden tree, the Bible tells us that they literally were allowed to run naked in this garden. They had no shame in doing this. They were as innocent and pure as little children. Until they had transgressed by eating off of this one forbidden tree, they had no sin in their lives.
When they ate off of this forbidden tree, they had committed their first sin against God – and what happened after they did? The Bible tells us that their eyes were “opened” and they “knew” that they were naked. They then proceeded to sew some fig leaves together so they could cover their nakedness.
Why all of a sudden would they want to cover their nakedness when they had been running around totally naked in this garden for who knows how long before this transgression took place? I believe the main reason was due to the fact that shame, guilt and condemnation immediately set in the minute they committed their first sin and transgression against God.
The minute this shame, guilt and condemnation set in as a result of committing their first sin against God – they lost all of their childlike innocence and purity. And once they lost all of their childlike innocence and purity, they then became self-conscious of their nakedness and then had to make an attempt to try and cover it up.
3. Why was it so bad that Adam and Eve ate the fruit off of this forbidden tree? It was just fruit. The Bible says that they could tell that the fruit on it was good for food and that it was very pleasant to the eyes. So what was so bad about eating this fruit besides disobeying a direct command from God not to eat of it? What did this fruit represent?
Besides disobeying a direct command from God the Father, I believe there was another reason that God did not want them eating any fruit off of this one tree. The clue is in what the tree was called – “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
The Bible tells us that God wants us to be “simple concerning evil.” In other words, He doesn’t want us crossing over any lines to experiment with, to test out, or to engage in any type of sinful activity – not even one time!
Instead of fruit being on this tree, imagine that there was a bag of pot, a bag of cocaine or a bag of heroin. God’s original plan and design for all of us was that we not even attempt to experiment, even one time, with anything that is sinful such as some of the above items. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death.
Once you cross the line even one time to try and smoke pot, shoot up heroin or snort cocaine – you now have the knowledge of something that is sinful and evil because you have now ingested it – you have now taken it in – you have now officially tried it out. That is why this tree was called the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
God’s original plan and design for man was that man not have the “knowledge” of evil by engaging in it! Once you engage or enter into a specific sin – you now have the “knowledge” of it. That is why death resulted when Adam and Eve ate the fruit off of this forbidden tree.
So now Adam and Eve will have to face the consequences of transgressing against God by eating off of this one forbidden tree.
The above was taken from “The Story of Adam and Eve”
God bless,
Chris Bradley
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a tree is something you build with,the fruit is what it produces,a garden is a fenced in area,good and evil is inside of us,when we sin do we not seperate ourselves from God? Genesis3:22
where is the garden of eden?staying at home with mom and dad,and not messing up!
Hi Chris, that is the best explanation I come across. God bless. Thanks
I think the tree of knowledge is our bible. It teaches good and bad. and the tree of life is the family tree in the bible. Jesus reveals himself as the ROOT of DAVID, bright morning star, son of the Dawn…(AKA..the SUN). The bible also says that the bright morning star, son of dawn fell. but his right hand was exalted (or lifted up high in righteousness) basically Bible is true, but God reveals himself all through. Asking ppl to turn to him. And since Genesis 1:1 there is God maker of all things who created man AND woman. Genesis 2:2 starts with the “LORD” and the garden of eden… God’s spirit is in all living things. We are all children of God. It would be just like satan to sneak in and lead us into the valley of the shadow of death…the book of Job, the Lord convinces job to turn from god and turn to him, in exchange the Lord gives Job power. Abraham is told, by “the” lord
, to leave his family and spread his seed all over, in exchange he is made king of Babylon, is given POWER!!!! Proof is in the word, see for yourself.
Hi
Stem cell is like murder!! God would not be plesed by this process. We need to wake up and let our voices be heard. We love to obey God’s commandments!!
Yes, it was a test with the results already determined by God. There was no true choice. If there was really a choice, why did God allow a serpent into the Garden to tempt Eve and subsequently Adam? For a real and fair choice, how about telling Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree and then let them decide entirely on their own with no outside influence. More than likely, without the serpent, Eve would not have “caved in”. Also, how long was the test? We really have no idea how long Adam and Eve resided in the Garden of Eden and successfully passed the test by not listening to the serpent and eating the “forbidden” fruit. It could have been a thousand years or even more. At what point was God going to say, “o.k. The test is over”. We have no idea. The only message we can glean truthfully from the account is that God set up the test with a absolutely certain result (i.e. God determined all the rules, created the participants with all their foibles and to minimize the risk of failure even further, threw in an outside influence in the form of a serpent).
God knew before he created man, that he would fail the test, thats why he provided a saviour in Christ Jesus, through out the old testament Christ was revealed to the prophets, he had a plan before the heavens and the earth were created, and if we read the Bible, and beleive the Bible, the end result is ultimate victory for beleivers, through Christ Jesus, who is THE WORD OF GOD
The pison river is one of the river heads surround the knowledge of good and evil and what is also around the pison river?
ijust believe that God created us to worship him, and if we had to truely worhip him, it should be out of our own free will. true worshipers are not prompted to, or forced to, or mandated to worship, but do this out of their own free will. so in the beginning, i think God put that tree there, and instructed them not to eat the fruit in other for them to obey him out of their own free will,a nd also to love him out of their own will.