Christian Living
Genesis 2:17 Command: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
God’s instructions in Genesis 2:17 wasn’t ambiguous, it was clear and precise.
“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.”
Genesis 2:17 NKJV.
There is no record in the Bible of Adam asking God for clarifications about Genesis 2:17. So we can safely assume that he understood every bit of it. Don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil Adam, maintain your current state of innocence and no-sin….This was probably God’s plan, for He knew the Romans 4:15 principle;
“…because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression” NKJV
As the devil rightly pointed out to Eve in Genesis 3, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, is true to its name. It equips its eater to know the difference between good and evil. The way I see it, there is really nothing wrong with becoming knowledgeable. However, the other implication also is, that the eater of this tree must always choose to do good, a contrary choice for evil would mean sin.
I agree with God that not every knowledge is gainful in life. It seems a lot easier to me to avoid this tree completely than to consciously put a demand on oneself to always do good. Eve didn’t see it that way, the idea sold to her by the serpent to become as knowledgeable as God by eating the tree seemed harmless and more appealing.
How the Serpent Tricked Eve
Many times people ask questions about how Eve became aware of the instructions in Genesis 2:16-17. While some people think Adam must have passed on the information from God to her, others believe that ‘man’ as used in that scripture could refer to both Adam and Eve. Meaning that Eve was with Adam when God gave the instructions. Probably the question that needs to be answered is ‘how did the serpent become aware of God’s command?‘ Whether crawling about, camouflaging within bushes or however, the devil somehow got wind of this command. And in his characteristic way, he came to Eve clothed in his best suit of craftiness; in subtlety and deceit.
Now, knowing it would be foolish to totally discard what God said to Adam, the devil chose instead to add ‘a little seemingly harmless twist‘ to God’s command. Sadly, Eve bought into it.
“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
Genesis 3:1 NKJV https://bible.com/bible/114/gen.3.1.NKJV
Eve could have firmly replied the devil with Genesis 2:17 without mincing words. But no she didn’t. You see, the devil’s ‘has God indeed said‘ didn’t come to confirm to Eve what God said, rather, it came to offer Eve an opportunity to reconsider what God said. The devil was making obvious to Eve other possibilities of what God meant. The lesson for me here is this; not every opportunity or possibility is God sent. Some of them are subtle suggestions by the devil to make us veer off our destiny pathway. In our walk with God therefore, we must be sensitive to recognize distractions as they come and to decisively tackle them headlong.
“And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
Genesis 3:2-3 NKJV
We see that Eve fell prey to the devil’s trap, she grabbed his suggestion with both hands by further elaborating on God’s command. Notice the almost negligible addition Eve made to Genesis 2:17; ‘nor shall you touch it‘. You see, as insignificant as that phrase is, it was the window of opportunity the devil was hoping for. Eve fell right into the devils trap, by shifting grounds ‘just a little bit‘. Not that shifting grounds is always a bad thing, no, it has its place. But any form of shifting that throws us out of God’s territory into the devil’s space, could be an opening for the thief to steal from us. The first mistake Eve made was to lie; by altering what God said. That immediately positioned her in the devil’s camp. And true to type, the serpent jumped at the opportunity to further cement Eve’s new line of thinking.
Eve’s Real Temptations
In a recent blog post I tried to make sense of the devil’s modus operandi for buying people over as including 3 temptations. We see temptation for food, protection and wealth/power. In Genesis 3:6, again we see temptation for food, pleasure and wisdom/power.
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.“
Genesis 3:6 NKJV
I believe these are the various baits the devil many times dangle at Christians. I pray that as Christians, we become more aware of these things. And I also hope that this awareness will help us recognize the devil’s baits when thrown at us.
May we not make too much allowance for the the devil to steal our destiny.
Amen!
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