Of all God’s creation, one of the most beneficial to life is the tree. Trees play many important roles in our ecosystems, including providing oxygen to breathe and food to eat. They can provide shade from the sun as well as a habitat to live for many types of animals and birds. Many types of trees can be harvested to provide wood to build structures, tools, or a myriad of other devices we can use. And let’s face it, trees are beautiful to look at. They can enhance a landscape, beautify a yard or garden, as well as decorate a home.
Throughout the bible, trees are used as symbols, used in parables, and have been regarded as life-giving and in some cases majestic. Think of the many references to the Cedars of Lebanon throughout the Old Testament.
Genesis 2:9…16-17 – The LORD God made all kinds of trees to grow from the soil, every tree that was pleasing to look at and good for food. (Now the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil were in the middle of the orchard.) … Then the LORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will surely die.
Genesis 3:6 – When the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, was attractive to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.
How it started
Ever wonder why God told Adam not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? There are many different things to look at here. In a physical sense, it could simply be the fruit itself, or the knowledge gained from it. It could have been a matter of a test of obedience. Or, perhaps it was a warning against attempted independence from God. Whatever it was, it changed everything…. Literally.
Before the tree event, Adam and his wife already had it good. They had all they could ever want or need or even desire. They enjoyed perfect provisions such as an abundance of food and a perfect environment to live in that was unmatched in beauty. Adam and his wife enjoyed a perfect and unadulterated fellowship with God himself, most likely sharing in countless conversations, as well as enjoying a perfect relationship with each other. Simply put, they had all they could ever need, everything they could not even realize they really and truly wanted.
I personally have to think that Adam witnessed a magnificent display of God’s creative power. Looking at Genesis chapter 2, we read a slightly more detailed account of creation than the outlined creation events of chapter 1. Although certain things were created on certain days, it appears they did not ‘become’ until after the first man was created. Even if this isn’t fully the case, we do see an example of God’s creative wonder within the chapter. Take a look at Genesis 2:7-8:
The LORD God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. The LORD God planted an orchard in the east, in Eden; and there he placed the man he had formed.
This can suggest that man was formed and given life first, then God made the orchard; or it can mean God formed and gave life to the man and placed him in the orchard that was already made. The use of the term planted in verse 8 weighs heavy evidence in my opinion to the former. Either way, even if that is wrong, Adam was well aware of the LORD God’s power, wisdom, and goodness; this should have been enough all in its own to heed His word!
So, what happened?
So, what was it about the tree? What was it about the whole good and evil thing, and the knowledge thereof? Let’s start with the simple command, you must not, or don’t. Look again at Genesis 2:17:
“but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.”
Here God gave an explicit warning that was simple enough, just don’t. He didn’t convey a blind command, God followed it up with a repercussion – don’t do it or this will happen. It’s a basic form of conditional logic, if this, then that; it’s one or the other, period. That’s about as simple and straightforward as it gets! No gray area, only one or only the other.
With all the good they had, why would he have considered anything else? After all, the LORD had placed them in Eden, which in Hebrew means pleasure, delicacy, or paradise, which adds support to the argument of the wonderful conditions they lived in. Could it be perhaps he couldn’t realize how wonderfully good that good really was?
One study bible, found online at netbible.org, expresses in their notes (specifically note 33 in 2:9 of Genesis) that “The prohibition becomes a test to see if man will be satisfied with his role and place, or if he will try to ascend to the divine level.” It then goes on to say that this command was the first lesson in obedience, discernment, and wisdom.
Isaiah chapter 14 describes events of a Babylonian king, from the perspective of Canaanite mythology, who lifted himself up above all others then was torn down to less than nothing. It is probable that this is imagery of Lucifer, being the most beautiful of angels. He exalted himself up above God and was then reduced to being subject to God’s wrath. Through the tree event, we chose to know about evil, we chose to gain knowledge and wisdom apart from God’s teaching. By doing so, this sin has become to consume all and that is all we want or can do.
Just before they ate the fruit the serpent impressed on them, “surely you won’t die”, going directly against what the LORD had warned, twisting what God had said and coaxing them into questioning Him. Remember, before this took place all they knew was good, all they knew was life – there is no evidence to suggest there was any experience of death at all, not even with the animals. Having no real knowledge or experience with it, how can they truly perceive the massive impact of that consequence? And the serpent knew and took advantage of that.
Genesis 3:4-5 – The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die, for God knows when you eat from it your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Genesis 3:6, 22 – When the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was… desirable for making one wise… And the LORD God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
Rebellion and no sudden death, imagine that! Adam and his wife went directly against God’s warning and didn’t get struck down by lightning. They were able to do things apart from God and no one got hurt. How thrilling, how satisfying, how delightful! The serpent was right… or was he? Clearly, they did not die after eating the fruit, not physically at that moment anyways, but they did start realizing some things.
Genesis 3:7 – Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Cause and effect of disobedience
Before this event, Adam and his wife knew God and His goodness. They were both naked yet were not ashamed or afraid. However, since choosing to disobey, they felt shame because they realized they were naked – they knew and felt they had something to hide, and partly because of that, they were afraid. Right off the bat, by ‘gaining’ the knowledge of good and evil, they became subject to both shame and fear.
Once God came around looking for Adam and his wife asking if they had eaten from the tree, Adam responded by blaming the woman for giving it to him to eat. Although it was God who told him explicitly that he must not eat from it, he tried to deflect the blame to someone else. In other words, he tried to maintain his innocence despite him being guilty as charged. And just like that, not only did mankind become subject to shame and fear, but guilt as well.
It’s in our nature
Despite being warned, they chose to seek wisdom on their own rather than trust God; by doing so, they chose evil by default and as a result became subjected to the consequences of that decision. Now that we know both good and evil and are subjected to the effects of the evil, we can’t truly know the goodness of God without knowing or experiencing those effects and what comes from them.
The world is evil because that is all it can know. The more there is evil, the more good God will afford us to counter it – we need only to accept Him and His truth. It holds true that God is always better than what it would need or take to make up for the bad.
Ephesians 2:3 – …among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and where by nature children of wrath even as the rest…
Romans 5:20 – …but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more…
Because of the choice made to eat the fruit from the tree Adam was warned against, and thus gaining the knowledge of good and evil, we are prone to, dare I say have become slaves to, sin and the evil it engenders. It becomes now that all that we want to do is cater to our own flesh and disregard our spirit which is eternal. All we want is to do and learn things on our own and apart from the God who created and provided for us. Perhaps this is why our lives have been shortened from how long we lived pre- and shortly post-flood?
Genesis 6:3,5 – So the LORD said, “My Spirit will not remain in humankind indefinitely, since they are mortal. They will remain for 120 more years.” But the LORD saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time.
We can think of it in this way – having eaten of that tree, we are prone to do evil – that is, think, act, and love according to our own desires. It has become natural for us to attempt to be independent of God since then, thereby making ourselves our own gods. For we, being in our flesh, will always choose to sin, subsequently tracking naturally towards death.
Without bad, we can’t know good
We have to experience the bad that stems from evil in order to appreciate what good really is. That is not to say that we first experience bad, then we will the good, except maybe from a spiritual sense that we are first sinners, then saved through the grace of Jesus Christ upon believe on Him (Ephesians 2:8).
Terribly, it has to work this way. The only exception to this rule is Jesus. No matter how ‘good’ we might think we are or try to get to, it is still no comparison to the goodness of God and of His Son. To reach anywhere near the level of the goodness of God, evil cannot even be evil enough to match. This is how God wins, evil (sin) will have to grow so bad that no living creature can handle, to the point that sin will implode, disintegrate, and be completely conquered by the goodness of God and that is what will be left.
Romans 5:12-15 – So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned – for before the law was given, sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin when there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam (who is a type of the coming one) transgressed. But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many!
So, why the tree?
With all that said, this is why the tree, at least in part – for our obedience, and to present a defining point of our choice between God and ourselves, life or death, good or evil. This also can answer the question of the ages, If God is so good, why is there so much evil in the world? Simple, we chose to know what evil was, and now we are bound by it. Being bound by it, we are subject to die by it.
The only escape from these chains is to turn ourselves back to God, and we can only do that by looking to Jesus Christ, God’s Son who was sent to die for us. He received the just compensation paid for turning from good and choosing evil. He took our place that we may live, and that more abundantly!
John 10:10 – The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
Where do we go now?
Look to Jesus. Repent of what and who we became that moment in the garden. Proclaim Jesus as the Lord and Savior, God’s Son that He is and trust in Him! Anyone would be false in saying that walking with Him is like tip-toeing through tulips, but it does refocus our spirits from our flesh to the God who created and loves us. Amen!
The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® https://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
