Wednesday: At the Tree
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 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” (Gen: 2:16-17).
This test provided Adam and Eve with an opportunity to exercise their free will. It also challenged them to respond positively or negatively to their relationship with the Creator.
Image © Kevin Carden at Goodsalt.com
It also shows that God had made them free, moral beings. After all, if they did not have the opportunity to disobey, why would the Lord have even bothered warning them, in the first place, against disobedience?
“Everything preceding in this chapter has paved the way for this climax [Gen: 2:16-17]. The future of the race centers upon this single prohibition. Man is not to be confused by a multiplicity of issues. Only one divine ordinance must be kept in mind. By thus limiting the number of injunctions to one, Yaweh gives tokens of his mercy. Besides, to indicate that this one commandment is not grievous, the Lord sets it against the background of a broad permission: ‘from any tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.’ ” — H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Genesis (Columbus, OH: Wartburg Press, 1942), vol. 1, p. 127.
By calling Adam and Eve to obey His will, God was saying: I am your Creator, and I have made you in My image. Your life is sustained by Me, for by Me you live and move and have your being. I have provided all things for your well-being and happiness (sustenance, home, human companionship) and have established you as ruler of this world under Me. If you are willing to affirm this relationship with Me because you love Me, then I will be your God, and you will be My children. And you can affirm this relationship and the trust implicit in it by simply obeying this specific command.
In the end, our relationship with God can be effective and lasting only if we freely choose to accept His will. Rejecting His will is, in essence, to claim independence from Him. It indicates that we believe we do not need Him. That is a choice that results in the knowledge of evil, and evil leads to alienation, loneliness, frustration, and death.
| The test God gave Adam and Eve was one of loyalty and faith. Would they be loyal to their Creator, who had given them everything they needed, plus a world of delights, or would they go their own way, independent of His will? Would they have enough faith in Him to take Him at His word? Their loyalty and faith were tested by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In what ways do we face similar tests every day? How does God’s law function as a parallel to the command given in Genesis 2:16-17? |
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God continued to demonstrate His goodness by giving man responsibility and holding him responsible. The man had responsibility to care for God’s creation and he must make sure to care for it according to God’s command. Remember in Genesis 1:26 that God instructed man to “have dominion over” everything on earth and this,required labor: “the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it.” This labor was not burdensome (Gen 3:17-19), but inherently fulfilling and productive. God also made it clear that even though the man had dominion over the garden, he was under the authority of God. God’s first prohibition was: “you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”
Hey Josiah, I like your addition to the Sabbath school lesson. The points you made, Man was give the responsibility to rule over the earth and its environs. I would differ with you on the choice word you used prohibition, this would indicate that God enact a law enforced if you will. You see too often we as human (sinful I might add) has ever so often would want to think that the way 'our laws' operate that is the exact way Gods laws operates. We should also remember that God's is love and whatever He does is love. This was given out of His true character.
I appreciate your comment, Josiah. "God continued to demonstrate His goodness by giving man responsibility and holding him responsible." Without responsibility, there is no opportunity for growth. Without opportunity for growth, life has no purpose. And if life has no purpose, what would be the point of free will? Choices would be pointless. God gave humankind a purpose, now it is up to us to choose to follow God's plan for us or to abdicate our responsibility to Him amd to ourselves.
The man did not assert his leadership or as a ruler as God pronounced. He failed in his responsibility to have dominion over everything including the beasts created below him. He allowed himself to be dictated and dominated by the snake he is supposed to rule over. Why did he listened to the snake is the mystery of sin which is not of his blatant choice of disobeying God. Did he have a premeditated plan or intention; or did he choose to sin that day? Apparently not, but there are steps that led to his downfall. First of all, they were free to stroll around the garden and probably intended to go to the tree of life but was distracted by a beautiful being with a melodious voice from the forbidden tree who sabotaged them, enticing them, misleading them and deceiving them into eating its fruit instead- so can we blame them? Sinning was not inherently self-motivated by the pair but someone has deceived them therefore God the creator has all the right and justified to redeem them. Unlike Satan his sin is self-generated and cannot be redeemed.
This test provided Adam and Eve with an opportunity to exercise their free will. It also challenged them to respond positively or negatively to their relationship with the Creator. This is profound we know in the perfect world that God has created sin showed up its sinful head, and as result this this choice led to the conditions we are in. Man had the opportunity to do the the right thing and honor his creator and like all of us took the wrong turn. Creator God right there and then stepped in and and covered them (the had to suffer the consequences of their sins) by offering His from that early stage now that is love
God established relationships (to God, to man and creation), then responsibilities, then necessities of life and now freedom (more of being loyal). God is so good..to me!
The LORD is Love but He is also the Ruler of everyone and everything in the whole Universe. He gave the two everything they could ever wish for to make them happy, and best of all was the loving relationship with their Creator provided that they accepted Him and His conditions.
This is the essence of His Everlasting Covenant which included His Principles of Life.
I will be your God - means I will provide & protect
You will be My people - means love and obey Me
I will dwell with you - means we will communicate daily
We are all given free will to choose everyday, and one thing must be clear here, there are only 2 ways to go: evil or good! There ain't no middways, or sideways, there are only 2 opposite ways, divided by a flat angle, 180 degrees! Although our own choices may lead to different directions from what God may have planned for us, God has a plan to put us back into the right tracks, every single time we change direction. Salvation is free, and as it is our free will to choose, we may simply accept His plans! The miracle of the straightening the path is totally given to the Creator. Our everyday key thought must be "I am willing to choose good, I am willing to do God's will for my life today"!
Why did Adam sin?
Probably Adam saw Eve dying because of her disobedience. He probably saw the removal of God's protection from Eve,Adam could not imagine life without Eve.
How many of us would trade places with our dying child?
Instead of calling upon God, Adam seeked His own solution the disobedience of his wife thus sin entered the world
A simple test was given to those formed in God's image. We face the same test daily, and every choice we make reveals our faithfulness or unbelief. It is our highest priority to gain a knowledge of God's will in order to obey it(Eph 5:17).
God's Law is the very expression of His will for us(Ps 40:8), yet many disregard this law and choose their own will instead. In this we make self our god.
I don't see the tree as a test. It was more for their protection. Satan could only attack them at that spot. Stay away from the tree and be safe.
Test: to allow demonstration, in this case, of either faith or unbelief. How could it not be a test? All are given free will, then are left to demonstrate their choices. If no test/demonstration is allowed, there is no free will. A test is not a temptation by default.
The very presence of the tree (in the middle of the garden!) tells us two things: we have free will, and we must demonstrate our choice. To believe was to stay away from the tree. To doubt, well, we know how that went.
What about Job, Abraham, Israel(many times over!) and even Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days/nights, as well as every day of His earthly life including childhood. Life in time of war(Rev 12) is a test.
God knew what Satan would do with the serpent, and yes, He also knew they would fail through unbelief. Freewill demands "tests", or opportunities to express one's true will. No one should fail if living by faith, but there is no other way to "wrestle...against...principalities" etc, to prove/demonstrate our faith or unbelief.
We are told: "Choose this day..." whom we will serve, and those choices are being made hourly. You must, and will, demonstrate where you stand before probation is closed at last. See also 2 Cor 13:5, and see how it reads in several versions. Test/prove...same meaning. Life is about passing tests, or failing. We are in a war that started in heaven and is now contained on our planet. These daily tests reveal which side of this war we stand with.
Submitting yourselves on to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. ....Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkles or any such thing; but that is should be holy and without blemish. Eph 5:21-28.
At the Tree-
God do not test nor tempt anyone. Eve sin when she was drawn away in her own lust, a mystery humans cant understand.
As I was thinking about the Creator and the one tree of the knowledge of good and evil, these thoughts came into my mind. I do not believe the tree was placed there by God just to test Adam and Eve. If so, James words will make someone a liar. James 1:13-16. Both humans had a loving relationship with their maker. God does not think like humans, he does not just place things in our way to test us, e.g he will not just leave us to fall from grace just to test us. He first presented the two ways to Adam and Eve and in loving obedience and encouraged them to choose the right way. He was not micro managing them by walking behind them every step of the way just waiting to see the 'ha ha got yo moment' to see when they will go to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to eat the fruit. That relationship was one of submission to a Holy Creator and Friend. One of trust that existed between the Creator and humans. According to the bible that tree did not had any surrounding barrier or fence, neither the tree was not difficult to access. The Lord trusted them that they will not go there to eat. But love allows choices to take its stands. Love without choice is no love at all.
This brought me to my text for today. Paul says in the bible about the relationship that existed between the husband and wife (Adam and Eve), similar to the relationship that exist between Christ and the church. A relationship of love and submission. If you love someone you submit, not the submission of someone bullying another person to do what they want them to do, that's not submission according to the bible. E.g if you have a spouse, you don't walk around them everywhere they go because you love them, you give them their space but you know at the end of the day all will be well. You don't check the bank to see if they are spending out the finance to pay the bills on frivolous things, you love then and trust them. As a Christian husband you accept your responsibilities and so as a Christian wife. Both Adam and Eve had their own responsivities at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Both were warned, both were to submit to Christ.
Qu for today- 'In what ways do we face similar tests every day? How does God’s law function as a parallel to the command given in Genesis 2:16-17?'
How is our marriage relationship in 2021 to each other and to Jesus, is it a loving trusting relationship? What about other things to those not married, the singles. Can Jesus trust us to obey him in our everyday life as one who can represent him in trial and temptations? Can we set out today to be ambassadors to represents Christ?
God created Adam and Eve in love. He knew that they would sin because He is all knowing. He knows the beginning from the end.He is kind beyond measure and gave them choice of free will. He gave them conditions and responsibilities. He was not a hard taskmaster, therefore they were free to choose. They could build on the relationship that God the creator and father began with them or they had the choice to go another direction.God wanted them to have faith in the lessons He had taught them that obedience was necessary; however, they disobeyed and as a result sin came into the beautiful garden that God gave them for a home. God could have driven the couple out of the garden and turned His back on them; but the plan of salvation that was in place since the foundation was put into action to fill that gap that was created when sin came.According to first John 4:16 says that God is love and because of this His son came to redeemed man unto Himself.To God be the glory.
Patriarchs and Prophets
No longer free to stir up rebellion in heaven, Satan's enmity against God found a new field in plotting the ruin of the human race. In the happiness and peace of the holy pair in Eden he beheld a vision of the bliss that to him was forever lost. Moved by envy, he determined to incite them to disobedience, and bring upon them the guilt and penalty of sin. He would change their love to distrust and their songs of praise to reproaches against their Maker. Thus he would not only plunge these innocent beings into the same misery which he was himself enduring, but would cast dishonor upon God, and cause grief in heaven.
Our first parents were not left without a warning of the danger that threatened them. Heavenly messengers opened to them the history of Satan's fall and his plots for their destruction, unfolding more fully the nature of the divine government, which the prince of evil was trying to overthrow. It was by disobedience to the just commands of God that Satan and his host had fallen. How important, then, that Adam and Eve should honor that law by which alone it was possible for order and equity to be maintained.
The law of God is as sacred as God Himself. It is a revelation of His will, a transcript of His character, the expression of divine love and wisdom. The harmony of creation depends upon the perfect conformity of all beings, of everything, animate and inanimate, to the law of the Creator. God has ordained laws for the government, not only of living beings, but of all the operations of nature. Everything is under fixed laws, which cannot be disregarded. But while everything in nature is governed by natural laws, man alone, of all that inhabits the earth, is amenable to moral law. To man, the crowning work of creation, God has given power to understand His requirements, to comprehend the justice and beneficence of His law, and its sacred claims upon him; and of man unswerving obedience is required.
I really enjoy how the lesson’s writer expresses his insights; they speak straight to my heart and mind. I agree, “the test God gave Adam and Eve was one of loyalty and faith.” If God designed man in His own Image, then He must have had certain expectation of the creature when He placed him in charge of caring for himself and those he was given dominion over.
From the very beginning when I met my heavenly Father as a child, I was drawn to Him because of His predictability. He was always loving, always caring, always available to a child’s soul seeking comfort.
Giving directions for something to be done one way implies that one could do it differently. Gen. 3:22-24KJV – provides the insight to understand the two spiritual environments that man’s life could be lived in. The one designed by God was for man to choose to live according to the Father’s will and so to prolong his life indefinitely, the other was to live according to his own will and “to till the ground from whence he was taken. No middle ground, so to speak, was offered.
I understand this to mean that our first parents used their free will to choose against the expressed will of their Father and so with lost the right to eat the fruit from the Tree of life to live forever.
In my opinion, for us who study the Scripture, the focus should be on the price our parents paid for exercising their self-will – the loss of their right to the Tree of Life .
I believe that our parents have been able to partake from the Tree of Life until they used their will to choose against their Father’s will. The consequences were swiftly announced, and the parents in their fallen state could no longer partake of the life-prolonging fruit; they had to leave their Eden home which our Father had provided for them and their children.
They were left now to their ‘own devices', having to decide for themselves what was the right way to live their life, how to maintaine it and how to interact with each other. Our first parents were now living only as long as their own body’s functions would make it possible for them to live.
Lucifer also lost the privilege of everlasting life. Our judgement was immediate, His judgement will come at the end of this age. Mankind has been the object of the fierce struggle between the forces promoting evil – disobedience, self-will – and the forces promoting good/God – loving obedience/trust. We are experiencing this struggle in the flesh every day.
God’s Love, Patience and Kindness offers to all who hear him and follow His invitation to come back to live in His spiritual Kingdom of Heaven to reflect again His Nature, to trust Him and live according to His will and so prepare for the life in the heavenly Kingdom to come.
Man cannot within himself find the right way to live. The only way man could know what a righteous life looks like was by seeing it and being taught. Christ Jesus, the Son of God, our Creator, came to redeem mankind from his spiritual darkness and place in us again His Heavenly Light.
All the faithful, those who desire to do the Will of the Father, are again eligible to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life. We can live our lives only one way – God’s Way or our way; again, the choice is ours to make!
I can't help but see the striking parallel between Gen. 2:16,17 and Exodus 20:8-11. Here God clearly gives our fore parents the dietary command against the backdrop of numerous options. There must have been a thousand trees or more to choose from, but therein lay the TEST. Would they pass it and remain faithful to their Creator?
In Exodus 20:8-11 the Lord gives the Sabbath command against another set of options, SIX clear working days out of the SEVEN He made; requiring just ONE for His holy purpose and the benefit of man. What more could God have done? Yes, there was more, the plan of redemption to rescue disobedient children from eternal destruction.
Today, many argue and dispute endlessly the veracity of God's commandments, especially the Sabbath Commandment and this will be the ultimate test to separate the sheep from the goats. May God help us to choose to be on His side, and with our household declare that "we will serve the Lord"
i refer to Ellen G White, Education, Chapter 3, Knowledge of Good and Evil
“As they refused to have God in their knowledge,” “their senseless heart was darkened. ”
Though created innocent and holy, our first parents were not placed beyond the possibility of wrong-doing. God might have created them without the power to transgress His requirements, but in that case there could have been no development of character; their service would not have been voluntary, but forced. Therefore He gave them the power of choice—the power to yield or to withhold obedience. And before they could receive in fullness the blessings He desired to impart, their love and loyalty must be tested.
{Ed 23.1}
In the Garden of Eden was the “tree of knowledge of good and evil.... And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat.”
Genesis2:9-17
. It was the will of God that Adam and Eve should not know evil. The knowledge of good had been freely given them; but the knowledge of evil,—of sin and its results, of wearing toil, of anxious care, of disappointment and grief, of pain and death,—this was in love withheld.
{Ed 23.2}
While God was seeking man’s good, Satan was seeking
his ruin. When Eve, disregarding the Lord’s admonition concerning the forbidden tree, ventured to approach it, she came in contact with her foe. Her interest and curiosity having been awakened,Satan proceeded to deny God’s word, and to insinuate distrust of His wisdom and goodness. To the woman’s statementconcerning the tree of knowledge, “God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die,” the tempter made answer, “Ye shall not surely die: 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.”
Genesis 3:3-5
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{Ed 23.3}
Satan desired to make it appear that this knowledge of good mingled with evil would be a blessing, and that in forbidding them to take of the fruit of the tree, God was withholding great good. He urged that it was because of its wonderful properties for imparting wisdom and power that God had forbidden them to taste it, that He was thus seeking to prevent them from reaching a nobler development and finding greater happiness. He declared that he himself had eaten of the forbidden fruit, and as a result had acquired the power of speech; and that if they also would eat of it, they would attain to a more exalted sphere of existence and enter a broader field of knowledge.
{Ed 24.1}
While Satan claimed to have received great good by eating of the forbidden tree, he did not let it appear that by transgression he had become an outcast from heaven. Here was falsehood, so concealed under a covering of apparent truth that Eve,infatuated, flattered, beguiled, did not discern the deception. She coveted what God had forbidden; she distrusted His wisdom.She cast away faith, the key of knowledge.
{Ed 24.2}
When Eve saw “that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat.” It was grateful to the taste, and, as she ate, she seemed to feel a vivifying power,and imagined herself entering upon a higher state of existence. Having herself transgressed, she became a tempter to her husband, “and he did eat.”
Genesis 3:6
.
{Ed 25.1}
“Your eyes shall be opened,” the enemy had said; “ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
Genesis 3:5
. Their eyes were indeed opened; but how sad the opening! The knowledge of evil, the curse of sin, was all that the transgressors gained. There was nothing poisonous in the fruit itself, and the sin was not merely in yielding to appetite. It was distrust of God’s goodness,disbelief of His word, and rejection of His authority, that made our first parents transgressors, and that brought into the world a knowledge of evil. It was this that opened the door to every species of falsehood and error.
{Ed 25.2}
Man lost all because he chose to listen to the deceiver rather than to Him who is Truth, who alone has understanding. By the mingling of evil with good, his mind had become confused, his mental and spiritual powers benumbed. No longer could he appreciate the good that God had so freely bestowed.
{Ed 25.3}
Adam and Eve had chosen the knowledge of evil, and if they
Who is responsible for sin?, Will sin exist in the New Earth? Will the temptation to sin exist in the New Earth??
We are all responsible for our own choices.
Satan made the choice to rebel against the government of God.
Eve made the choice to believe the serpent instead of God.
Adam made the choice to join Eve in disobeying the LORD.
I believe that everyone in the New Earth will have made the choice to follow the Lamb and having experienced the result of the chaos arising from rebellion will not be tempted to go that route again.
Yes, the new earth will be populated by those who have overcome, yet they will always have free-will. Keep in mind that Lucifer was "found perfect" before he rebelled, and both Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, sinless.
Nahum 1:9 tells us "affliction shall not rise up the second time". But what does this mean? No more free-will? The word translated "affliction" actually means "adversary", or "one who afflicts". There will never be another Satan who is allowed to persist in rebellion since all creation will have seen the results and now know where such a course will lead. If an individual rebels, God will deal justly and swiftly, and all His subjects will say "Amen"(see Rev 4:11; 15:3). So if we read Nahum 1:9 correctly, free-will remains, and with it, the possibility of a rebel.
This is similar to the rainbow promising no more flood of water upon the earth, yet it may still rain.