The Good Book | Bible

I was reviewing the Book of Genesis recently and some new questions popped up as I was reading certain passages.

Specifically, I questioned the true value of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad, the Tree of Knowledge of Eternal Life, what sin is, and how the devil (it is the devil, right?) used the snake aka serpent to tempt Eve (formally known as Woman).

Since we partook of the Tree of Knowledge does that mean that we are like divine beings? And if we had partook of the Tree of Life would we be able to live forever? And why did GOD, the Most High, even create these two very special Trees if they were not for man? GOD and HIS angels (and whomever else there were) didn't need these two Trees, did they? So who were they for?

Keep reading...

I guess this is the part where we should look at the text...

KEY: (words like this are my own); the asterisks*** mean you should take special note; this [!huh!] means I don't get it; this [wow] means I'm amazed.

You're going to have to read along either online or with your own Holy Bible (I'm using NIV).

Gen. 2:
15The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden*** to work it and take care of it.
16 And the LORD God commanded the man***, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die***."

Gen. 3:
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made***. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.
5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil***."
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked***; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

GOD soon shows up in the Garden of Eden looking for the man (Adam), and calls out for him when he doesn't see him. Adam then tells him he's hiding because he's naked. GOD wants to know who he knows he's naked. ...The circle of blame is rather interesting.

Gen.3:
12The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
13Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

Adam blames Eve. Eve blames the serpent. GOD punishes the serpent and puts division (hostility/enmity) between serpent-kind and humankind. GOD then punishes the woman. GOD then punishes the man. GOD kicks Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. We don't know where the serpent goes...

INTERPRETATION
GOD didn't say 'I'm going to kill you if you eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.' My guess is that GOD knew once man could discern from good and bad, that he would be conscious that his actions were either good and bad, then he would be held accountable for those actions. If here were to consciously choose to do something bad, he would be sinning...and the punishment for sin is death.

Look at passage from the Holy Bible where GOD explains who will and who will not see the 'promise land' based on their behavior and reverence for HIM... Deut. 1:
9 And the little ones that you said would be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad—they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it.

Your children who do not yet know good from bad... that's an interesting phrase, isn't it? We all know that babies aren't born into the world knowing their left from their right, nor good from bad. They learn along the way. And we all know that once this knowledge is acquire, that despite discerning a good action from a bad action, some children (who eventually become adults) consciously, willfully choose to do bad. And we don't punish babies when they pee on us while we're doing a diaper change... they don't know any better. The 4-year-old you're helping on the potty who does that, however...

So it was with Adam and Eve - GOD made them innocent, not knowing their left from their right, so to speak. So HE would not hold them accountable for their actions, unless they willfully disobeyed HIM...Like if HE were to tell them that something they have done should not be done and they do it anyway.

Eating from the Tree of Knowledge destroyed that innocence - they now knew full well that either choosing left or right would either result in a good or bad thing.

They could choose to do good or bad and we humans often delight in doing bad. As in Gen. 6:5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

We read in Gen. 2:15-17 that GOD made the man first and put him in the Garden of Eden, and told him not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

We also learn after this that GOD made the man a companion, a woman. We don't read when GOD told the woman the same thing about the Tree of Knowledge. It is implied, however, that either GOD and/or Adam told her this. But for some reason she thought the serpent had the authority to know what's what. Now, at no point is it written in Genesis that the serpent told Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. The serpent only gave her contradictory information, he lied and told her GOD was lying about her dying if she eats its fruit. He said GOD lied about the fruit because HE knows those who eat of it can become like HIM.

For the love of me I don't know why Eve didn't ask the serpent how he knew all this or if he had eaten any of the Tree of Knowledge's fruit himself. Eve must have been kinda dumb (gullible, to be nice), like Adam (who didn't recognize that this fruit looked different from the others)...innocent, right?

So, the devil (yes, the serpent was his chosen vessel) essentially tells her 'You can be like GOD'. Ironic, that's what got Lucifer expelled from heaven -- his vain desire to replace GOD ALMIGHTY HIMSELF. Eve, fully aware that her Father, the CREATOR, already told her not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, chooses to follow her desire to be like GOD and eats of the Tree. Why else would she eat of the Tree if the only information she knew about it was that eating the fruit would make her like GOD? Satan didn't tell her it was nutritious and delicious or would make her beautiful or anything. The singular incentive was to be like GOD. Eve wanted to be like GOD... that's a big no-no. Perhaps that's why it seems she was held more accountable than Adam.

GOD cannot stand sin, so HE evicted Adam and Eve from Eden. Eve and Adam destroyed their chance of living in paradise with GOD. Imagine that, from paradise to hard manual labor. Adam lived 930 years (as did Eve, too... I guess).

And since HE had seen the desire of Eve's heart, GOD gave the Tree of Life special protection... else they might be convinced that they too should live forever...one Lucifer is enough. But what of Lucifer's power, you say. Lucifer has no power - only what GOD gives him. He cannot raise from the dead, make the cripple walk, turn water into wine -- Lucifer has no power. But, we'll save that for another blog post.

QUESTIONS:
My question is, if Adam was made first and had been hanging out in Eden for much longer than Eve, shouldn't he have known what the Tree of Knowledge's fruit look like? Shouldn't Adam, therefore, have been held more accountable? I suppose this goes back to why Eve chose to eat of the Tree of Knowledge when she only knew one thing about it - that it would make her like GOD (according to the devil).

But the eating from the Tree of Knowledge did give Adam and Eve a divine quality. Does that mean GOD lied? Nope. HE said if they ate from the Tree of Knowledge that they would die. HE just didn't go into details as to what HE meant. GOD and those with HIM (the hosts of heaven) are incorruptible. HE made man from the earth...a corruptible being. So what is GOD? - The ETERNAL SPIRIT.

Why does knowing that he's naked make Adam ashamed? How did he know that he should be covered? Are we to assume that the LORD appeared to him clothed? Adam must have seen GOD since it was just the two of them (besides the host of heaven and the other creations on earth) It says in the Holy Bible in Gen. 3:8, Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. A being can't walk unless he or she has legs, right? I suppose the LORD was walking around clothed when HE chose to appear this way (as he does in other parts of the Holy Bible).

As for the nudity question, I guess Adam and Eve were made to desire each other. You can't really be fruitful and multiply unless you want to start that process. So that goes to say that the fruit of their desire was pleasurable. We humans don't usually choose to do things we don't enjoy.

Why should I obey GOD or care what HE wants from me? GOD created us for HIS pleasure, not for our own - we didn't exist. Life was a gift and HE gave us dominion over the earth (another undeserved gift we totally destroyed). You respect, love and appreciate your parents, don't you? You're glad they didn't decide to abort you or even decided to procreate, else you wouldn't be around. So you hold them in reverence. Why can't you do the same for GOD, who made life possible?

BOTTOM LINE:
You should obey GOD. If HE tells you to not do something, you should probably not do it. Most assuredly, if HE has attached a consequence to this thing you're not supposed to do, HE will carry out HIS word and punish you. Usually when HE tells you to abstain from something, it's usually for your own good and to save you trouble and sorrow.

Don't give into temptation when you know that you definitely should not. Yes we are weak and make mistakes (definition of human), but don't be willfully disobedient.

And don't trust the devil. He's a liar and his only aim is to keep you from having a real relationship with your GOD ALMIGHTY.

-Theist @ http://goodbible.blogspot.com

Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |