WHY WERE ADAM AND EVE FORBIDDEN TO EAT OF THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL?
GENESIS 2:7-17
7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.
9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads.
11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there.
13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush.
14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
17 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.”
God put this commandment upon Adam and Eve to protect them from what He knew would happen if they ate of the tree. As long as they obeyed His command they would remain innocent, free from sin and Satan would have no power over them.
But like Satan, he had also given them a free will. He had told them not to eat of the tree and as long as they obeyed Him, they would live in harmony with Him. And as far as they were concerned, that was that. God had spoken, He apparently had good reason for this commandment, and it was good enough for them.
Satan however, in consummate jealousy had decided to try to usurp God's place with this new creation. If he could get Man to disobey God and follow his will, Man would be subject to him, and he, Satan, could take God's place in the life of Man.
Satan also knew that God had placed Man over all of His creation, making him second only to Himself in the order of things. This enraged Satan to no end, to have someone as innocent and as fragile as Man be greater than he, Satan! So in order to deprive Man of God's blessing and protection, he had to get Man to disobey God and sin as he did. Satan had already been judged and sentenced, and if God simply forgave Man and didn't punish him, he, Satan, would demand that God forgive him and restore him to his former place in God's kingdom.
There is a fascinating bit of Scripture which I tend to label ‘Satan's Temper Tantrum’, found in the book of Job in which a spirit appeared to one of Job's friends and spoke to him. And in these passages, I feel that Satan himself spoke to this man and revealed his thoughts in this matter. Job’s friend Eliphaz the Temanite in speaking to Job, says;
JOB 4:12-21
12 “Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it.
13 In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
14 Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
15 Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair on my body stood up.
16 It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence; then I heard a voice saying:
17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?
18 If He puts no trust in His servants; if He charges His angels with error,
19 How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before a moth?
20 They are broken in pieces from morning till evening; they perish forever, with no one regarding.
21 Does not their own excellence go away? They die, even without wisdom.’
Note the phrasing here. "His angels He charged with folly". The angels who remained true to God serve Him out of love and devotion while those who sided with Satan were given his sentence, namely to be cast into the Lake of Fire by Jesus.
Satan then begins to deride Man saying essentially, "God trusts no one, not even His angels. And if
He considers ME to be unrighteous, what chance do YOU have? You are weak, and worth nothing.
You die, and no one cares. You perish forever, and no one notices. Enjoy life while you can, because
your 'greatness' will soon return to the dust."
Back to the main issue.
God had told Man that if He ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he would die. Satan considered his options, and carefully studied the woman that God had created. And he soon knew she would be the one he would have to deceive first.
Eve was not formed yet when Adam named all of the animals. The fact that Adam not only named all of the animals but remembered their names indicates a mind of incredible power! Try remembering the names of thousands of species of animals!
But Satan knew that if he went to Adam and spoke through the serpent, Adam would immediately know something was wrong, because Adam knew the serpent couldn't speak. Eve however, didn't know any better. So he approached Eve through the serpent, and the first thing he did was question God's commandment. Scripture records;
GENESIS 3:1-5
1 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’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;
3 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.’ ”
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
In a masterstroke of logic Satan says that if she and Adam attain the knowledge of good and evil, they would be like God! And they wouldn't die if they ate of the tree! God was being selfish and keeping them from becoming gods too! (Note: Satan's sins were rebellion against God, disobedience, and desire to be God himself. Note some similarities here?)
Scripture then records;
GENESIS 3:6
6 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.
With that one act, Satan became Man's master. Man had chosen the word of Satan over the word of God, and Satan was able to usurp Man's mastery of the Earth. Even Jesus didn't dispute that fact when he was here on Earth. Scripture says;
LUKE 4:4-7
4 But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ”
5 Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.
7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”
Adam had given the world and everyone in it to Satan when he fell. But at the resurrection, Jesus would take that mastery back.
GENESIS 3:7-10
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
Now the lies of Satan became apparent. He had told the truth in saying that their eyes would be opened, and they now understood the difference between good and evil, and right and wrong just as God did. But what he didn't tell them was that they would now be responsible for their knowledge. And since they had willfully disobeyed God, they were now sinners as he was, and no longer innocent.
We consider babies and small children to be essentially sinless, because they have no knowledge as yet of right and wrong. But as soon as we tell them that some action is wrong, they are now responsible for that knowledge, and there is no more innocence in the matter.
Satan had also told a partial truth concerning death. They didn't die physically, at least not right away. However they immediately died spiritually. One of the results of their new-found knowledge was that they were no longer sinless before God. So, they tried to cover themselves and their sin by hiding, and creating clothes.
God knew immediately what had happened. He also knew exactly where Adam and Eve were
hidden. But He wanted them to confess to Him what they had done, so He called them, asking
where they were. And when they responded, he asked them directly about their disobedience.
GENESIS 3:11-13
11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Note that the first thing Adam did was try to shift the blame to his wife! He was trying to duck his responsibility for their disobedience! She gave it to me! It's HER fault! And yet he ate of the fruit of the tree as she did, knowing full well what he was doing.
God knew the terrible results of what they had done. He knew that sin and death would spread through all of His creation. He knew and felt the terrible suffering and destruction that would result from this single act of disobedience. We can't even begin to imagine the sorrow He must have felt, and still feels for us today.
Here we go again. Unable to face God's horrified cry, Eve tries to shift the blame on the serpent. He
deceived me! It's his fault, not mine!
GENESIS 3:14-15
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
God punishes both the serpent and Satan in this passage. He condemns the serpent to crawl for the rest of it's existence, and tells it that it shall eat of the dust of the ground all of it's days. (It is interesting to note that snakes have the remnants of leg bones, and they use their tongues to sample the environment they are in. Evolution? Hardly. God's curse!)
He also tells the Satan through the serpent that a descendant of Eve would destroy him, but not without suffering himself in the process. This is the first mention of God's salvation plan for fallen Man.
God in His mercy knew that the serpent had been merely a pawn for Satan, therefore he punished the serpent as He did instead of destroying it, letting it continue to exist as a constant reminder to us of Adam's sin. Satan however had already been judged, and God foretold of the instrument of his destruction. More on this later.
Satan and the serpent being taken care of, God turned His attention to Eve.
GENESIS 3:16
16 To the woman He said : “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
Eve's punishment is to be subject to her husband's authority, and she would bring forth children in sorrow. She would be cast out into a hostile world, and would see the results of sin which would be passed on to her descendants as a result of her disobedience.
And then it was Adam's turn.
GENESIS 3:17-19
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
With this passage, God holds Adam responsible for the entire matter. Adam knew better! But
because he willfully listened to his wife and disobeyed, the responsibility for the entire matter
was laid on him, and the harshest judgement was reserved for him.
God even though angry still showed mercy, for instead of destroying Adam, He instead cursed all of creation for man's sake. Adam's descendants would live, but they would live in a cursed planet, and would work all of their days for their food until death overtook them, returning them to the dust from which they had been formed.
But God had still given man a hope of redemption, namely the promise of the One who would
come that would free us from the curse of sin, Jesus Christ. And note: animals are sinless and
were not to blame for what happened in the Garden of Eden. Yet they suffer just as we do.
They grow old and die, are divided into prey and predator, etc. When God cursed His creation,
He cursed everything BUT Man. Man would suffer and die because of the curse of sin that he
had brought upon himself, but man also had an eternal spirit, something animals do not have.
Man's spirit would live after death of the flesh, animals' spirits do not. When Man dies, he
either goes to Heaven or hell. Animals simply cease to exist.
ECCLESIASTES 3:19-21
19 For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity.
20 All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.
21 Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?
Yet God in His mercy made a provision that Man should once again live forever as Adam was originally destined to do. But not in the flesh for the flesh was corrupted because of sin, but in the spirit, which God would redeem when He took His own curse and punishment on Himself through Jesus Christ at the cross. (For more on this subject, please see the study, "Why did Jesus have to die for our sins?")
The results of that original rebellion are still with us today. Look around you at the behavior
of people, watch the news reports. Millions of people suffer and die all of the time, through
war, famine, disease, murders, natural disasters, attacks by animals, etc. And yet Man still
refuses to turn to God!
GENESIS 3:20-24
20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—
23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.
24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
God knew that if Adam was left in the Garden, he would also eat of the Tree of Life, and
would live forever. As such, we would all be slaves under him, and this world would be a
horror beyond imagination. So He drove them both out into a now hostile world to live out the
rest of their days, and began to put His plan into motion for the redemption of mankind.
And as Scripture shows, in the greatest act of mercy and love ever known, Jesus Christ, God
Himself, was born in the flesh as a man and willingly suffered our punishment for our sins,
taking the full curse of sin upon Himself, freeing forever those who would believe in Him of
the bondage of sin that Man had suffered under since Adam.
Note: He didn't take upon Himself the curse He placed on creation, but the curse of the sins
of mankind. He freed us from the sentence given to Satan, namely being cast into the Lake of
Fire, for through man's sinning as Satan did he also would be sentenced to receive Satan's
punishment.
In summary, because of Adam's disobedience we are subject to sin, disease, aging and death,
living and dying in a cursed world. But God, because of His deep and eternal love for mankind
whom He had created, provided us a way to be free of the curse of sin, namely by sending His
own Son, Jesus Christ to the cross for us to redeem us from the curse of sin.
Death spread to all creation and to all mankind because of Adam, even though you and I weren't there when he sinned. But because Adam sold all of us to Satan, we are subject to sin all of our lives, with all of it's consequences. Jesus Christ paid for our sins at the cross, and if we reject His redemption of us, we have therefore chosen to follow Satan into his punishment.
We are still responsible for the knowledge of good and evil we inherited from Adam, but we also inherited his rebellion which has distorted this knowledge. Therefore God gave us His Scriptures so that we would understand what is right and wrong in His eyes, and it is from these Scriptures that we will be judged on the Day of Judgement. Not by tradition, Magisterium (church authority), or any other man-made doctrine, but by God's word alone.
Remember, after death it's too late to repent! If you are still living in sin, and haven't asked Jesus Christ to be your Savior and Lord, do so now! Because after death, you have made your final choice. If you die in sin, you will be sent to Hell to await sentencing to the Lake of Fire along with your master, Satan.
And despite Catholic teachings, there is no Purgatory. You will go straight to Hell to await the sentence of eternal torment in the Lake of Fire. You will never make it to Heaven to be with Jesus. But if you repent of your sins, ask Jesus to be your Savior, and follow His commandments, He will cleanse your spirit of all sin and will grant you entrance to Heaven when you die.
It doesn't matter that we have to make a choice whether we like it or not. God and Satan are locked in a war for the souls of mankind, and like any war, you must choose sides whether you like it or not. And if you choose not to decide, you have made your decision already and will follow Satan to destruction. The outcome of the war has already been determined. Whom you will choose to serve has not.
God is perfect, and will not allow anyone who is imperfect to inherit His kingdom. We are ALL imperfect because of Adam, and as his descendants we are ALL under the curse of sin without exception, but through Jesus Christ we can be made perfect in Him after death if we choose to accept Him, and be obedient to Him. The choice is yours to make. Will it be eternal life in Heaven? Or eternal suffering in the Lake of Fire?
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