Week One / Genesis 3
Were Adam and Eve real people? Some days I feel the answer is “Yes” while other days I feel the answer is “No”. The New Testament certainly treats them as if they were real and that makes me lean heavily in that direction. However, if they are not real and are instead characters in an allegory I’m not going to be crushed, nor will I argue about it. If this is an allegory it is a magnificent one.
Why were they forbidden to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?
This is an important question and its answer reveals a lot about ourselves and God. God created us in His image. This doesn’t mean that God has to have a humanoid form. It does mean that we have an eternal spirit, and that we have the ability to create and reason, and that we are in some mysterious way autonomous. The one thing that God could not just gift us with was love. This is perhaps the most important way in which we could be like Him but in order for us to love we must have the choice not to love.
Follow me here. Jesus said, “If you love me you will obey my commandments.” Love is the pure source of obedience. (Fear is the impure source.) Mankind had no opportunity to exercise such a choice before the command was given to not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The tree itself likely had no inherent evil or power of any kind.
I seriously doubt that there was anything evil about the tree. In fact, I don’t think the fruit of that tree bestowed any special knowledge. It was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil because the act of disobeying God’s Word was the first time mankind knew evil. Up until that time all we had known was good. Because we disobeyed we now knew evil as well. Thus, Good and Evil. Aren’t we glad that choice was made? (Not.)
The real issue was who we would believe.
God said we would die if we ate from the tree. The tempter said we would not die but would be better off if we ate from the tree. The choice was that simple. Who are we going to believe? It still is that simple.
All that is in the world.
This fateful choice was the beginning of the World System. John tells us in 1 John that all that is in the world amounts to: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. Eve saw that the fruit was good for food (lust of the flesh), pleasing to the eye (lust of the eye), and desirable for gaining wisdom (boastful pride of life). We also note that these are the same three things with which the devil tempted Jesus.
The coming One.
After God came on the scene to sort things out He told the serpent that the seed of woman would come; He would strike His heel (a non lethal blow) but He would crust the serpent’s head (a lethal blow). Even at this early stage God is revealing the Messiah. We already see the faint outline of the virgin birth (“seed of woman”) and the cross (“strike His heel”). The important thing was the serpent’s ultimate defeat. One will come who will undo the misery of that day and lift the curse it brought.
Death?
Did Adam and Eve die that day? Not in a biological sense, but in a more real sense they did die. God is the source of all life. Death is separation from God. Prior to this day they met with God face-to-face. On this day that fellowship was broken.
In Conclusion
Adam and Even had not been forbidden to eat from the Tree of Life; yet, apparently they had failed to do so. They chose the wrong tree. So often we still choose the wrong tree.
They only had one command the breaking of which brought death. “Don’t eat from that tree.” Only one command is required to find life. “Believe in the One who died on the tree.”
You don’t have to believe that Adam and Eve are real people, but the truth of their story is powerful and clear.
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