Genesis 2
And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food. The tree of life also was in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
(Gen 2:9)
And Jehovah God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, you may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but you shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
(Gen 2:15-17)
Here it is, God’s perfect world, and He places man in its most perfect spot… the Garden of Eden. He gives him the license to enjoy everything that grows in the garden… Except for one thing!
Isn’t it interesting that our human nature is never drawn to what God allows, but to what is forbidden? God has just told man, His created being, that he can do whatever he wants with the glorious garden he has been placed in. What freedom, what privilege, yet when we read this passage immediately we think “what a bummer, no good and evil fruit”. We misunderstand God in all of this.
Obedience to the Lord is the greatest expression of our love to Him. He made us, and He has the right to tell us what to do, and what not to do. If He is a good God, then we have every reason to believe that what He tells us to do and not to do is for our own good.
This command was for Adam and Eve’s own good. The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil contained in it things that would introduce Adam and Eve to the reality of DEATH. It wasn’t that God wanted to keep a good thing from them, but that He wanted to protect them from something destructive.
OBEDIENCE . . .
Will you take God at His word? Will you trust that He really knows what’s best? God wants us to experience life at its very best… those things that He forbids are things that will steal life from us.
Ask yourself today… am I willing to obey God, no matter what He says? As the old Hymn says…
And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food. The tree of life also was in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
(Gen 2:9)
And Jehovah God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, you may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but you shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
(Gen 2:15-17)
Here it is, God’s perfect world, and He places man in its most perfect spot… the Garden of Eden. He gives him the license to enjoy everything that grows in the garden… Except for one thing!
Isn’t it interesting that our human nature is never drawn to what God allows, but to what is forbidden? God has just told man, His created being, that he can do whatever he wants with the glorious garden he has been placed in. What freedom, what privilege, yet when we read this passage immediately we think “what a bummer, no good and evil fruit”. We misunderstand God in all of this.
Obedience to the Lord is the greatest expression of our love to Him. He made us, and He has the right to tell us what to do, and what not to do. If He is a good God, then we have every reason to believe that what He tells us to do and not to do is for our own good.
This command was for Adam and Eve’s own good. The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil contained in it things that would introduce Adam and Eve to the reality of DEATH. It wasn’t that God wanted to keep a good thing from them, but that He wanted to protect them from something destructive.
OBEDIENCE . . .
Will you take God at His word? Will you trust that He really knows what’s best? God wants us to experience life at its very best… those things that He forbids are things that will steal life from us.
Ask yourself today… am I willing to obey God, no matter what He says? As the old Hymn says…
“trust and obey, there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey”.
