Why Did God Create And Put The Tree Of Knowledge Of Good And Evil In The Garden Of Eden? This is one of the most common questions asked by those who hear God’s Word. Brethren, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil wasn’t there to condemn Adam and Eve. God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden to give Adam and Eve a choice to obey Him or disobey Him. Adam and Eve were free to do anything that they wanted to do, except to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:16-17 says, “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 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.’”
It is important to understand that the Lord God Almighty created Adam and Eve to be “free-will beings” and not robots. Notice that if God had not given Adam and Eve the choice, they would have been essentially robots, simply doing what they were programmed to do. God created Adam and Eve to be “free” beings, able to make personal decisions, able to choose between good and evil. It’s clear that in order for Adam and Eve to truly be free, they had to have a choice. There was nothing essentially evil about the tree or the fruit of the tree. It is unlikely that the fruit, in and of itself, gave Adam and Eve any further knowledge. That is, the physical fruit may have contained some vitamin C and some beneficial fiber, but it was not spiritually nutritious. However, the act of disobedience was spiritually deadly.
Why Did God Create And Put The Tree Of Knowledge Of Good And Evil In The Garden Of Eden?
There was nothing essentially evil about the tree or the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. It was Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God’s instructions not to eat from the tree that opened the pathway for evil and sin to enter humanity and cause spiritual death. Adam and Eve’s sin of disobedience opened their eyes to evil. For the first time, they knew what it was to be evil, to feel shame, and to want to hide from God. Their sin led to the fall of humanity. Eating the fruit, as an act of disobedience against God, was what gave Adam and Eve the knowledge of evil and the knowledge of their nakedness (Genesis 3:6–7).
The Lord God Almighty knew ahead of time what the results of sin would be and never wished Adam and Eve to sin. However, God knew that Adam and Eve would sin and would thereby open the pathway for evil, suffering, and death to come upon them and their descendants. Why, then, did God allow Satan to tempt Adam and Eve? The Lord God Almighty allowed Satan to tempt Adam and Eve to force them to make the choice. Notice that Adam and Eve chose, of their own free will, to disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit. The results – evil, sin, death, suffering, and sickness – have plagued the world ever since. Adam and Eve’s decision to disobey God results in every person being born with a sinful nature, a tendency to sin.
Redemption From Sin And Evil Through Jesus Christ
Adam and Eve’s decision is what ultimately required Jesus Christ to suffer, shed His blood, and die on the cross on our behalf. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we can be free from sin’s consequences, and ultimately free from sin itself. Apostle Paul says in Romans 7:24-25, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Likewise, John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Did Adam And Eve Know What Death Was? When God created Adam, the first man, and Eve, the first woman, He placed them in the Garden of Eden where they lived in a state of innocence, without sin. The Lord God freely gave them the fruit of every tree in the garden except one: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As for this tree, the Lord God told them not to it from it, “for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:17). Today, some people reason that Adam and Eve’s punishment for disobedience was overly harsh, because, before they ate the forbidden fruit, they could not have had knowledge of good and evil; not having that knowledge, they couldn’t really tell right from wrong. In response, it’s worth noting that the Bible never says Adam and Eve couldn’t distinguish between right and wrong.
According to Genesis 3:2-3, Adam and Eve understood the difference between right and wrong; Eve clearly knew that the Lord God had instructed her and Adam not to eat the forbidden fruit (cf. Genesis 2:16–17). Taking the name of the forbidden tree, “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9), to mean that Adam and Eve had no understanding of good and evil is a misunderstanding. The word knowledge in Scripture often means “experience.” Truth be told, prior to the fall, Adam and Eve had no experience of evil. However, they understood the concept of good and evil quite well, or they would not have known what obedience to God’s instructions meant. Notice that Adam and Eve had not yet sinned until they ate from the tree, and their sin was the gateway to a firsthand, experiential knowledge of the difference between good and evil.
Did Adam And Eve Know What Death Was?
Behold, Adam and Eve clearly knew the difference between right and wrong, because both were created with that understanding; it’s just that they hadn’t experienced it personally until they sinned. Their lack of experience doesn’t excuse their actions. The Lord God Almighty gave a simple, straightforward instruction to Adam and Eve. Notice that Adam and Eve had the understanding and the ability to obey, but they disobeyed anyway. In addition, might be the Lord God gave Adam and Eve an explanation of why they weren’t supposed to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil, other than “you will certainly die.” However, there is no such explanation recorded in Scripture, but we shouldn’t assume that one was never given. But even if the Lord God didn’t fully explain why eating from the tree was wrong, Adam and Eve could still know that it was wrong.
Today, we can know with great confidence that murder is wrong, without necessarily committing murder or being able to explain why it is wrong. And even if we can’t explain why murder is wrong, we should still be held accountable for any act of murder we commit. Behold, Adam and Eve’s not knowing the exact reason they were forbidden to eat the tree’s fruit has nothing to do with the fact that they clearly knew and understood eating it was wrong. Nevertheless, it is worth pointing to the fact that death exists in the world today because of sin, not because of Adam and Eve’s lack of knowledge (cf. Romans 5:12). As a matter of fact, God didn’t punish Adam and Eve with death for simply “not knowing” something but for acting against what they already knew was right. Thus, death was a consequence of disobedience and not ignorance.
Were Adam And Eve Naive?
Adam and Eve directly, intentionally disobeyed a command from God. Their disobedience brought sin unto humanity. And Romans 6:23 teaches us that “the wages of sin is death.” With this in mind, many people often ask how God could punish Adam and Eve (and the entire mankind) so harshly for doing something they could hardly have been expected to know was wrong. Thinking as such is somehow assuming that Adam and Eve had no more moral intelligence than the average toddler. Thinking of Adam and Eve as harmless, totally naive children certainly makes God’s response seem overblown, like a father who has lost all patience with his kids. Wouldn’t a reasonable God have at least given His beloved children a second chance? Or at least rid the garden of the tree before Adam and Eve could encounter that danger? Why sentence your own creation to death for one “innocent mistake“?
Such are the kind of questions that come up when we think of Adam and Eve’s sin as a naive mistake. But thinking of Adam and Eve’s sin as a mere naive mistake is off base. It is important for us to understand that innocence is not the same as ignorance. Consider what we know about the first couple, Adam and Eve: the Lord God created them in a perfect world and gave them dominion and freedom over the entire earth; they knew and spoke face to face with their perfect, loving, and good Creator God (Genesis 2:22). In other words, the Lord God created them, protected them, provided for them, and loved them. In spite of all these blessings, Adam and Eve listened instead to the serpent, who directly contradicted what God had told them (Genesis 3:4–5).
The Trick of the Serpent
The Lord God Almighty provided all the needs of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Notice that the serpent had done nothing to provide for them and nothing to love and care for them, and his words only contradicted the goodness of God they had experienced up to that point. Adam and Eve had no reason at all, as far as we know, to trust what the serpent said. Unfortunately, they trusted him thereby rejecting what they knew about God’s will, provision, and loving care. As a matter of fact, Adam and Eve’s reason for rejecting God’s command was not an innocent mistake as Genesis 3:5-6 clearly demonstrates that Adam and Eve saw the fruit as an opportunity to become “like God.” Although shocking as it sounds, it was their desire to become “like God” that brought their downfall.
Behold, Adam and Eve – grown adults, rulers of the earth, perfectly capable of understanding what it meant to obey or disobey the loving God who had provided them with everything they needed – rejected the same God, in favor of the false promise of a serpent, who had never given them even a single reason to trust him over God. Notice that this is not the mistake of a child in ignorance but the willful, intentional rebellion of the created against the Creator, a mutiny against the rightful Ruler of the Universe. As a matter of fact, Adam and Eve were not artless babes misled into a regrettable choice; they were God’s own intelligent, morally accountable creation committing treason against Him. Both of them clearly knew that what they were doing was wrong, and they did it anyway.
Our conclusion
In conclusion, we must think of Adam and Eve the way Scripture portrays them: as responsible, comprehending adults who rebelled against the authority of their maker. Behold, Adam and Eve knew and understood that they were disobeying God, yet they ate of the fruit that was “a delight to the eyes, and . . . desirable to make one wise” (Genesis 3:6). Brethren, this was not an accident or a mistake but a choice. And that is the reason why the Lord God Almighty was justified in sentencing them-and us-to death. This confirms what Scripture says of the Lord God Almighty, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you” (Psalm 89:14).
Amazingly, God in His loving nature didn’t abandon mankind following the Fall of Man. The Lord God Almighty responded to their disobedience with a promise of redemption. Genesis 3:15 gives the first expression of the Gospel during the sentencing of the guilty: to the serpent, God said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” The Good News is that God has made a way for us to be restored through the work of Jesus Christ. Despite all the evil displayed by Adam and Eve – and that which all of us have displayed ever since – God has reached out to us in love. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.“
Bestofchristianity.com is a Global Media Ministry. As a Christian Website and Online Evangelical Ministry, Best Of Christianity focuses on the teachings of Jesus Christ, the power of the Holy spirit, and above all the Love of God. It uses the Bible as the foundation to knowing and obeying God. It steps in at the command of Jesus Christ to take the holy gospel to the four corners of the world so that those who believe in him can have eternal life. Under the authority of Jesus Christ, we are Apostolic and Prophetic sons and daughters of God sent out to set the captives free, heal the sick, bring deliverance, give sight to the blind, strengthen the lame to walk and above all lead souls to heaven. It is in the Christian light that we analyze topics like Prosperity, Wealth, Debt free, Credits, Finance, and Money in the Bible.
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