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TALE OF TWO TREES
AND GOD SAID:
"Behold, the man is become as one of us,
to KNOW good and evil....." Genesis 3:22.
Man usually knows good and evil by participating in it.
Does this verse mean God at one time actually
did evil because He also knows evil?
by
Keith Hunt
When we think of a human person coming to know evil, we
invariably and most often think of this meaning that they did and
participated in some evil deed or action. And in the context of
Genesis 3 this first assumption of ours in understanding the
phrase "to know good and evil" would be a correct one. For the
context of Genesis 2 and 3 bears out the fact that Adam and Eve
did not immediately, after being created, just run out and
want to do evil, as if it was the first thing on their minds, as
soon as God breathed into them the breath of life and they became
living souls. Doing evil in their lives came later.
We are not told how much later. We have no clue as to the time
that elapsed after they stood and breathed the air of life and
the time they partook of the tree that the Lord said
they were not to eat from. But whether the time was short or
long, we are told that their eating from that forbidden tree was
their first act of evil or sin. And from that one act God
said they had come to KNOW good and evil, as He also knew good
and evil.
Adam and Eve most assuredly came to know good and evil from
and by participating in and DOING an act of evil or disobedience
to the wish and the will and the commands of God.
So does the fact that Adam and Eve came to know evil by
doing evil, mean that God also came to know evil, or good and
evil, by DOING evil, as opposed to doing always the good and the
right?
It seems like a somewhat silly question when we consider the
whole Bible. When we consider what is written about God in the
entirety of the Bible. How that God is perfect, and holy, and
righteous, and without sin. It seems a silly question to ask
when we know that the NT teaches that Jesus, as the Son of God,
was sinless, that He never sinned once, not for a minute or a
second.
So, how did God, or the God beings, the "us" - the persons
of the Godhead, the one we know today as the Father, and the one
we know today as the Son, how did they COME TO KNOW good as
opposed to evil?
FROM THE BEGINNING
We must back up some in time to find the answer to our
question. We see many things around us on this earth. We see many
things out there in the universe. The Humble Telescope is
bringing us photos of the universe that truly does stagger the
mind. We know from the Scriptures that their is an unseen (in the
most part) world of "spirit creatures" out there, both good and
evil ones. Can we know if these things we see and are told about
in the Bible, always existed? Are we told in the Scriptures that
they did not always exist? Yes, we are told.
Speaking of Jesus Christ, Paul was inspired to tell us, "Who
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every
creature. For BY HIM were ALL THINGS created, that are in heaven,
and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: ALL THINGS
were created by Him....for He is BEFORE all things...."
(Col.1:15-17).
There it is. Jesus, one of the Godhead beings, one of the
"us" of Genesis the first chapters, was existing BEFORE anything
that was created was created. It was He who did the creating of
ALL THINGS, visible and invisible.
All the angelic host, all the "spirit beings" of the unseen
world, all the unseen things such as the air we breath, and all
the physical universe, and everything we can see around us, at
ONE TIME did NOT exist! The one we know today as Jesus, did
exist and it was He who made EVERYTHING that is made!
Very little is told to us in the Word of God, the Bible,
about the time BEFORE there was nothing made that was made. We
are left in our finite minds to just suppose and imagine that
there were two great Spirit beings, who were inhabiting NOTHING.
Be this right or wrong, for we do look through a glass darkly on
some things, as the Scriptures say. Some things are just not
fully revealed to us yet. We are left for the present to only
imagine that there were two Eternal Beings and nothing else, for
everything else we know of today, visible and invisible was not
there at some point in the distant passed of eternity.
So with that, I will speculate somewhat, as to a time when
those two great Spirit Beings decided to create and to make
things. I speculate that they decided to make the host of the
"spirit world" first, the angels and all the spirit beings that
are described to us in the pages of the Bible. I speculate this
was their first creation, and that the material universe came
later, at what later time, there is nothing revealed.
I can see them having great fun and joy in creating many
varied spirit creatures, of every shape and size, every color and
splendor that the human mind can imagine. Many Bible scholars
have concluded from Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28: 12-16; Luke
10:18;
and Revelation 12:3-4, that the angelic host were created with
FREE WILL and free moral agency, to either love God and all His
ways and commandments, or to disagree with God, to rebel against
His wishes and will, and to be able to choose at any time, to
go from the way of good and righteousness, and to follow the way
of evil, rebellion, and sin.
I can imagine the God Beings sitting down to consider all
this. Do they make a Spirit host of beings to just sit or stand
there and do nothing. Do they make fancy looking creatures just
for decoration, as we humans may do with paintings, to decorate
our surroundings, to look at now and again and say, "Well isn't
that a pretty one I created" or "Isn't that an unusual creation I
did" or "That sure is a colorful one I made" Did they want to
make some kind of "robot" just to help around the yard of the
universe, cut the "spirit grass" or prune the "spirit trees"?
Just something they could direct and order around, control with a
push of the spirit button on some scientific piece of spirit
control computer panel?
They surely could have done this. I guess they could have
decided to "clone" themselves. Just make super perfect, holy,
never able to sin, reproductions of themselves, and have
everything so neat and so perfect, no worries, no frustrations,
no disappointments, no repenting or wishing they had never done
it such and such a way. Yes, they could have done it the nice
neat perfect from the start, and perfect always to be way, but
that was not what they wanted or decided to do at all.
These two perfect Spirit Beings, had always been perfect,
holy, righteous. NEVER HAD KNOW anything but perfection and
holiness and harmony, and smooth plain sailing, no rain storms,
no wind-storms, no blistering heat to shade from, no battles of
any kind to fight. All they had ever know was harmony, peace,
rest, goodness, loveliness, freedom from stress, just complete
happiness and perfection.
We humans would sure love to be able to experience that
total perfection for even a year, maybe even a month or a week.
Well after an eternity of who knows how long, even that
perfection, of total easy rest perfection, could get, if not
boring, at least not very challenging.
They had experienced all that for, well who knows how long,
we are not told. But they wanted to create Spirit Creatures that
had free will, for they were going to create a huge universe
filled with so much that they wanted creatures to care for it and
to serve in it, that were way more than just machines. They
wanted something a little closer to themselves, that they could
communicate with, share ideas with, get more input on things,
than just the two of themselves all the time. They did not want
to clone themselves. But at that time they were not wanting to
reproduce themselves either. They were willing to share some of
their nature and abilities and free mindedness with other created
creatures they would create.
They would from all that they were now about to create, in
all of its complexity, need laws and rules to govern it all, and
some of that ruling and governing, they would have these new
created Spirit Creatures to administer for them. Maybe problems
would arise in one way or another, on this end of the created
universe or that end of it, and decisions would need to be made.
The two of them did not want to be bothered with all the
governing and decisions for every little things that would come
up in this now highly complex universe structure they now wanted
to create. So again, the need for free will thinking would be
important for these new Spirit being creatures to have and to be
given.
And so it was. An angelic host created with free mind
thinking. Never been done before. No experience in it for those
two mighty God Beings, from what we can gather from the Bible.
Oh yes, I'm sure they knew that to create a universe with laws
and where governing rules would need to be upheld and applied, to
have things running neat and orderly, and to have creatures over
all this to help and to serve the running of it all, to have
creatures over it with free thinking minds, would mean they could
free think to disagree, to think differently, to go against the
majority, to even think they could do it better than the others
or even than the ones who created them in the first place. Yes,
all that comes with a free thinking mind. Such a mind can rebel
even against those who made such a mind.
I'm sure all that entered the minds of our God Beings, they
knew it was a possibility in creating such free thinking Spirit
creatures, that some may decide to free think against even
themselves. But, they had no experience with such, they had not
yet in eternity come to KNOW in a specific real manner the good
and the evil. They had never seen evil period, ever. Didn't
really know what it would look like, act like, or the depths of
what effects such evil would have for them or anyone else.
The Godhead had no knowledge, did not know "good and evil"
at one point in eternity, but they did at another point in
eternity, for some of those very Spirit creatures, with the free
thinking mind they were given by the Godhead, did decide to rebel
against the Godhead, the leader of that rebellion even wanting to
be the Godhead himself.
Can you imagine the personal feeling within the Godhead when
all of this took place? Can you imagine that time when the
Godhead Beings experienced for the first time creatures they had
created with free thinking minds, that not only wanted to rebel
against the basic established law and order of the new universe
they had created, but one of those created beings even wanted to
destroy Themselves, the ones who existed from eternity and
created those now rebellious creatures. The EVIL of all this
happening and the evil of what those rebellious creatures were
willing to do in order to have their desires fulfilled, must have
hit the Godhead like as we say, "a ton of bricks" if God had
willed themselves not to know what the result would in-depth be,
in creating such free thinking and free-willed creatures.
All the trouble in caused within the created Spirit creature
world, the troubles around and within the whole physical
universe, all that, made sure that the Godhead really did come to
KNOW in no uncertain way "good and evil."
The Godhead never DID or never PRACTICED any evil. They only
wanted to do good and to SHARE some of Themselves. So the
Godhead came to know evil not by DOING any evil, but by creating
Spirit creatures with free minds so they could either stay
on the good and the right way, or decide to not stay on that good
road but to hit the pathway of rebellion against God and think
and do and practice evil or sin.
In the Godhead deciding to create creatures that could have
free moral agency then the possibility of sin and evil would be
there at all times. Hence with that type of creation as opposed
to the cloning or robotic type of creation, they, God, was making
evil possible. It was His decision to so create and His
responsibility, and so we then have God saying what He does say
in Isaiah 45:7.
When the Godhead decided to create mankind for a very
special purpose, a purpose far different and far greater than
when they decided to create the angelic host (see my study called
"A Christian's Destiny" for that wonderful truth), they were also
given free thinking decision making minds to decide if they would
go with and stay with the "good" as opposed to going with and
practicing the "evil."
God had already come to KNOW the good and the evil, but Adam
and Eve when first created did not know any evil. They had God
talking to them immediately after they were created. They had
only perfect goodness all around them. Yet, God already knowing
what good and evil was all about now, from the experience with
Him creating the free thinking minds within the angelic host, had
a plan for these special human creatures that He knew would also
eventually, at some point in time, decide to find out what
rebellion against God was all about, decide to do evil. He had a
plan that all would not be lost, that mankind falling into sin
and evil, cut off from His holiness and sinlessness, could be
redeemed. He had a plan to save the sinful humans He had now
created. That basic plan was already planned and decided upon
before those first two humans had ever been created, even before
the foundation of the earth actually, as NT Scriptures clearly
tell us.
God would from the beginning with those two humans lay it
all out for them. He would be up front with them. He would tell
it to them as it was so to speak. As we say, God would put the
cards on the table from the word go.
Good and evil was already present in the universe. The world
that God had now created for those two humans, and the others to
follow, would also have good and evil present right from the word
go, and God would state the basic game plan to them from the
beginning also. He would put the basic rules of the two basic
choices of good and life and evil and death before the human
race, via physical representations to represent those two ways of
good and life and evil and death. Those two physical
representations would be of two fruit trees, the one for good and
life they could eat, but the one for evil and death they were not
to eat.
God would tell them both trees existed, and what they
represented. He would tell them to choose the tree of life and
live, to stay away from the tree of evil and death, but THEY
would have to decide and make the choice to OBEY Him or not to
obey Him.
THE TALE OF TWO TREES
When God brought Israel out of Egypt He made sure they
really knew He existed with all the miracles and signs He did
before and for them, even to speaking to them directly the words
of the Ten Commandments (see the context of Deut.5). He also was
very up front with them as to why HE gave them laws and
commandments to obey. We can find what He said to them in Deut.
30:15 and 19. "See, I have set before you this day LIFE and GOOD,
and DEATH and EVIL." Ah, do you begin to see some familiar words
here, does it remind you of those early chapters of Genesis?
Notice Deut. 30:19, "I call heaven and earth to record this day
against you, that I have set before you LIFE and DEATH, blessing
and curing: therefore CHOOSE LIFE, that both you and your seed
may LIVE."
Was there not blessings and curses given out to Adam and
Eve? Yes, if they chose the tree of life, they could have life,
but if they chose the tree that was not theirs to eat from, then
death would ensue. We also see curses given AFTER they rebelled
and did eat of the fruit of the tree they were commanded NOT to
eat from.
So, the way God talked and laid out certain things to Israel
was very much in keeping with the way God talked to and laid out
certain things to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.
We are given much more detail as to all the instructions God
gave to ancient Israel, either directly or through Moses, than we
are about all the instruction the Lord may have given to Adam and
Eve, but Genesis does tell us that God did walk and talk to
those first two created humans. They were as fully grown babes,
when first created, having no knowledge between good and evil, as
young children have no such knowledge (see Deut. 1:39). Adam and
Eve were as children, but in the bodies of adults.
I'm very confident that the Eternal God would have
instructed then on how to basically observe the 7th day that He
had sanctified at the end of that first week. I'm sure He would
have given them instructions on marriage, and on sex, on how they
could reproduce themselves by having children. I'm sure God would
have informed them about how those children would come about, be
conceived and be born. He probably gave them a course on how to
care for small babies, and some guidelines on child rearing. I
doubt He needed to spend much time in those early days to
instruct on not committing adultery, as there were no other
people around to commit adultery with.
God would have given them the basics as to what was
important for them to know and to learn for that specific time in
their lives. They were babes in many ways in adult bodies. God
would have known that there would be time to give High School
courses and University courses later, as they needed them.
The Lord is the LAWGIVER (James 4:12), and His basic plan
for the physical humans He was to create was to include free
minded will and decision making to function IMMEDIATELY within
certain rules and regulations, that God would immediately apply
with them in a not too complicated manner. He could have sat them
down and done it in a much different way, in a way far more
complicated. He could have put them in a University type setting,
given to them note paper and pen, and had a whole bunch of in-
depth classes of instructions of all the rights and all the wrong
that would come into play as they walked through their 900 or so
years of life, if He had willed Himself to know they would live
that long (and what God wills Himself to know and not know is
another interesting subject, for another time and article). But
such heavy in-depth class instruction would have blown their
minds into blubber, for they were only just beginning life, as I
have said, like babes in adult bodies. And babes are not fed
steaks of meat when they first come into the world.
God would make the instruction quite simple, as to showing
the two ways of life, either the good way leading to life or the
bad way leading to death. The basic instruction would be with
something very physical that they could relate to and see, walk
up to, even smell and touch (except for one thing He would not
allow them to even touch), without that something biting back or
in any physical way harming them.
Those two ways of life and having to make a choice as to
which way to take would be represented by two trees and the fruit
of those trees, which both fruits from both trees could be eaten
without either fruit killing or harming them in any physical way.
In fact both fruits from the two trees would look, smell, and if
eaten, would taste delicious.
The difference between the two trees was in the basic
foundation, only ONE difference. One fruit of one tree would
give LIFE, the other fruit of the other tree would give DEATH.
Why? Very simple. Because God HAD SAID SO. HE HAD WILLED IT TO
BE SO. HE HAD DECIDED IT WOULD BE SO. HE HAD SET A LAW THAT IT
WOULD BE SO. And He as the lawgiver, the one who makes and sets
the laws and commandments as pertaining to how He desires His
created beings to function within their context of life. He
has the right to set the boundaries of that context as regards
His created beings who live and move within that context.
He had created the angelic host with free thinking decision
making minds, and had come to know that such could lead to good
and it could lead to evil. God had come to know that the
foundation of such creation was as to whether those created with
free agency would LOVE Him as the creator and as the lawmaker, or
would use their free choice of mind to REBEL and to not want or
abide by His lawmaking. God had come to know good and evil by so
creating. But He also saw that such was the only way to
produce the mindset character of those He wanted to live with Him
for all eternity, without making merely robots that could never
come close to approaching Himself with the ability to converse
with Him on thoughts and plans and decisions for the universe, on
out into eternity.
The Lord would lay out the table for His new creation of
human beings, they would find out immediately that in their
environment there were some boundaries. It would not be a
complicated way to discover it, really quite simple as small
children need simple things to teach and to guide them. They
would be given the two ways to go and to live, the good and the
evil way, they would like Israel later, be presented with the way
of good and life and the way of evil and death. One tree would
be off bounds to them as to touching it and eating its fruit, and
to eat thereof would be an act of rebellion towards God. It would
indicate they did not love God as their creator and as their
lawgiver. To eat of that fruit would be disobedience against the
law and commandments of God. It would be transgression and sin.
That simple act of disobedience towards God, in eating the
fruit from the tree they were not to eat from, would actually
cover the breaking of many of the commandment laws that God had
already formulated in His mind to govern the correct way of human
society, the basics of them being the famous Ten Commandments.
By doing what the Lord had said not to do, those two humans
would be breaking the first commandment of having no god before
the true God, by disobeying the directives of the Lord they would
have cast aside Him as the ultimate authority. They broke the
second commandment by bowing down to their own desires and to
someone else's desire (Eve to the serpent, Adam to his wife).
They took God's name in vain, as that name stands for Him as
ruler of His creation. By not remaining under His guidance and
rulership they were showing disrespect to His name that carried
creation authority with it. As God had created them, they were by
that very creation His children, and He their parent. They
dishonoured Him as their parent by rebelling against His
authority and wished, hence they broke the fifth commandment.
They stole property that was most definitely out of their bounds
and did not belong to them, so they broke the sixth commandment.
They broke the last of the Ten Commandments by coveting what did
not belong to them but belonged to God who had created that tree
of the knowledge of good and evil and had told them they could
not eat from it.
So nearly all the Ten Commandments were represented in that
one little command that God gave to Adam and Eve NOT to eat of
the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The tree of life was in the midst of the garden also. From
that tree they could freely eat, and it represented the Spirit of
the Lord, the pathway to life everlasting, the way to eternal
life, to salvation through the plan of God, that had already been
planned out BEFORE the foundation of the world. The member of the
Godhead we now know as the Son, the one who came and was given
the names Jesus Christ, was to come as the Lamb of God to live a
perfect life in the flesh, to conquer sin in the flesh, to never
sin, no not once, and to take upon Himself the sins of all
mankind, in death. So they could be redeemed, forgive, justified,
and come under the grace of God, and be finally saved into
the very family and Kingdom of God the Father. All this was
planned BEFORE-TIME for man even began, planned before-hand, even
before the foundation of the earth. Notice it, "Forasmuch as you
know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as
silver and gold, from your vain conduct received by the
traditions from your fathers. But with the PRECIOUS BLOOD of
Christ, as a LAMB without blemish and without spot: Who truly
was FOREORDAINED BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, but was
manifest in these last days for you" (1 Peter 1:18-20).
Adam and Eve could have eaten of the tree of LIFE, they
could have started on the road to salvation and eternal life
through Jesus Christ and the plan of God. It does not mean that
taking of that tree of life meant they would NEVER have committed
a single sin in their 900 or so years of long life. Later on when
the population had grown, they may have sinned through lust of
the eyes and flesh. They may have not always observed the Sabbath
correctly. They may have lied to one of their children or a
neighbor. They may have coveted something they did not have but
their neighbor did. They may have had impure thoughts, they may
have said or done something to someone that was a sin. They may
have known to do good and did it not which is also a sin (James
4:17).
There could have been dozens of ways that Adam and Eve could
have sinned during their long years of life on this earth. But if
they had chosen to take and eat the fruit from the tree of LIFE
they would have been on as we call it, the "Christian road" and
would have been under the grace and mercy and LOVE of God. They
would have had the Spirit of God in them to lead and guide them,
to help and comfort and give them power to remain in a HUMBLE and
REPENTANT attitude of mind. They would have had the very nature
of God in them, and so remaining they would have been begotten
children of the Father, and would have found a place in the book
of life and in the first resurrection. They could have looked
forward to the coming of the Lamb of God that takes away the sins
of the whole world, just as Noah did, just as Abraham, just as
David did and all the rest of the Old Testament saints did. They
could have looked forward to the redeeming work of the Lord God
just as we look back to the redeeming work He did, and hence all
of God's children being saved by grace through faith that is in
Christ Jesus, being under the blood of the Lamb and applying the
instructions as contained in 1 John 1:7-10 and 2:1-6.
It was quite a simple test and trial the Eternal God put
forth before Adam and Eve. One tree and eating its fruit would
represent the CHOOSING of that which is good, the choosing of the
way to eternal LIFE. The other tree, touching and eating its
fruit would represent the CHOOSING of the way of rebellion,
disobedience, going against the revealed will and commandment of
the Lord God. It would represent going the way of evil, sin, and
death. Adam and Eve had not yet rebelled or sinned. They were
innocently pure and righteous, but a CHOICE was set before them
to either take the Spirit of life, the tree of life (verse 22) or
to take the tree of disobedience and death (verses 2 and 3).
SATAN CALLS GOOD EVIL AND EVIL GOOD
Let's notice carefully what Satan actually said to Eve in
verse 4 and 5. We shall see that he really was not interested in
telling Eve anything about the truth and plan of God to want to
make mankind into beings just like Himself, a part of His family
as He was wanting to reproduce Himself through His new creation
of human kind. Satan was only interested in deceiving Eve into
sinning by breaking the will and commandments of God.
The KJV gives the last part of verse 5 as: "....and you
shall be AS gods, KNOWING good and evil." Two phrases here, each
explaining the other. Each connected and going hand in hand with
the other. It is not correct to just take one phrase in isolation
and form a teaching out of it. With BOTH phrases taken with each
other then they interpret each other and the truth is made clear.
Being "AS god or gods" is in respect to a specific in this
context, it is in respect to "KNOWING good and evil" just as God
had come to know good and evil (verse 22). This was coming to a
certain knowledge of mind (connected also with felt emotion) that
NOW WOULD KNOW (where it did not before, because Eve was fully
righteous and sinless and had done no evil at all to this point
in her life) GOOD AND EVIL. Until evil has been done either IN
or AROUND your life then only good is your experience and
knowledge of your mind, in the practical way that is. Adam and
Eve had been told what way was good and right and what was not to
be done for it would bring evil and death. Of course that cold
impersonal technical piece of knowledge was in their minds, but
the depth of practical personal knowledge of good and evil was
unknown to them until they DID evil.
You will notice Satan did not say, "God knows in the day you
eat you shall know you are to be God, be a part of the family
called God, but He's hiding this from you, but I know this truth
and plan of His and I'm telling you eating this fruit from this
tree will give you the wisdom of becoming God." The Devil said
no such words, only that eating would mean they would acquire
something that God had, but they did not have, as yet, for they
knew nothing about "evil" and the difference between "good and
evil." But NOT listening to God and NOT obeying Him, but eating
from the forbidden tree would give them that part of the
knowledge of the mind that God had but they did not have, and
hence the Devil was telling Eve she would have more of the mind
of God and so be more like Him. He probably told Eve that being
more like God in this lifetime was what God had wanted and taught
her and Adam to be anyway, to have Him as their mentor, to follow
Him, to have and want His mind in them, and this eating from this
tree would give them more of God's mind of KNOWING and KNOWLEDGE.
Yet for us humans, it is very true that when it comes to evil, it
is better to be naive and innocent about it, not know about it,
than come to know about it through doing or participating in it.
Satan also used the common phrase "have your eyes opened" or
as we often say today, "open your eyes and see." He used it very
psychologically with Eve, as if God was saying it, but in a way
that He did not want them to see some "wonderful hidden light of
blessings" that would naturally come if eating from the tree He
did not want them to eat from. Again, the Devil was making out
God was selfish and holding back from them some good thing, great
psychological game play with words.
The phrase "to have your eyes opened" or "why not open your
eyes and see" can be used to serve and help someone into some
piece of good knowledge that could bless and give them wisdom in
this life. But, it can also be used by a deceitful and cleaver
person to bring harm and to destroy someone. How? First, it can
be a phrase used incorrectly, to belittle, to call someone "dumb"
or naive or put a person down as just "not with it" as they
should be. Secondly, the deceptive individual using it in a wrong
way, can be giving the impression that the knowledge to gain that
the person needs to gain by having their eyes opened, is really
some great good knowledge that will bless them, and not bring any
evil to them at all. Thirdly, it can indicate that the one
telling them to get their eyes opened, has been around, is an old
pro at the game, and knows this is all true because they have
been there and done that, whereas they are still a novice, and
need to listen and follow someone who fully knows about "getting
your eyes opened."
Eve, as indeed an innocent novice to "deceit" and "evil" was
beginning to be taken in, by the master of deceit, half-truths
and lies.
This is how the Hebrew scholar J. P. Green translated verse
4 and 5 in his English/Hebrew Interlinear: "And said the serpent
to the woman, Not surely you shall die, for knows God that in the
day you eat of it, then shall be opened your eyes and you shall
be as God, knowing good and evil."
The Hebrew for "God" is Elohim, the same as in chapter 1:1
and number 430 in Strong's Concordance.
First, Satan lies by saying God is a liar. Jesus in the NT
said that Satan was a liar and the father of it. We see him lying
here to Eve. His lying is very cunning and deceitful for he goes
on trying to prove to Eve that he was saying the truth and that
God was lying to her, by God holding back, hiding to her the
wonderful wisdom that would come from eating this fruit, which He
God had come to know and have (but not by doing or participating
in evil) but didn't want to share it with her or Adam. Satan made
out that God was SELFISH and self-centered, greedy, covetous,
stingy, and mean, while he was generous, giving, and concerned
with wanting to see Adam and Eve with all the very best that
could be obtained. And to get that very best would mean they
should view God with suspicion and very untrustworthy, for there
was something God had but did not want them to have.
God knew that it was best for Adam and Eve NOT to have this
knowledge, that it would be evil for them to have it. Satan turns
that around to say that it would be GOOD, a blessing of wisdom,
they would be more like God, to have this knowledge.
Then notice this new wonderful light that would come to them
as Satan said it, would come he said, "in the day you eat
thereof." This was not something for the future. This was not
some knowledge of some part of God's plan of humans to enter and
be part of His family, sometime in the distant working of that
plan. This was something Satan said would be theirs IN THE VERY
DAY they ate that fruit which God had said not to eat or touch.
And it was something they would have that God already had the
knowledge of, which they did not as yet have knowledge of, to
KNOW the TWO ways of both good and evil, and hence they would be
more like God, just as God wanted them to be. It was for the NOW
and the PRESENT the Devil said would be this good thing for them
to have and to live.
Satan did speak some truth. There were two truths the Devil
was telling them. If they obeyed him and disobeyed the Eternal
God, they could have something that very INSTANT, that very day,
that very time of touching and eating that fruit. God had told
them it would be death they would have, not the first physical
death, for that death did not happen when they ate that fruit in
that day. But it would be the death that comes from sinning.
Satan said all that was a lie on God's part. And the second truth
he told Eve was that her mind would be opened to receive the
clear KNOWING of what GOOD as opposed to EVIL was all about,
which God already had come to have knowledge about.
Satan made all this out as if all this was DESIRABLE and
GOOD for Adam and Eve to obtain. God had already told them the
real truth of the matter. He had told them He had created a world
in which there were laws and governance, rules and regulations,
given and designed to produce every blessing and happiness and a
way to eternal life with Him forever more. And there was a way of
evil, curses, painful problems and sin, which would lead to
unhappiness and to eventual death. He had told them one way was
to good and life and the other way was to evil and death. He had
told them what would lead to evil and death and what they could
do to lead to good and life. He told them they had TWO WAYS they
could go. He told them they had a CHOICE to make. They would
have to make the choice, He God would not make it for them, they
would have to make it for themselves. BUT, He wanted them to make
the choice for GOOD and for LIFE. He told Adam and Eve just as He
told those Israelites whom He called out of Egypt thousands of
years later, "See I have sent before you this day life and good,
and death and evil.....I have set before you life and death,
blessing and curing: therefore CHOOSE LIFE, that both YOU and
your SEED may LIVE" (Deut.30:15,19).
God pleaded with them to choose LIFE!
The Eternal Lord had set before Adam and Eve what was the
truth of the GOOD and what was the truth of the EVIL. God had
spoken the truth. He had not lied in any way, shape, or form. To
eat from the one tree would lead to His Spirit and eternal life,
to eat from the other tree would lead to evil and death, which if
they did in their sinless innocence, would mean they would open
up their minds to every evil going, and sure enough God already
had come to KNOW how evil that evil could be by what one third
of the angelic host had done, by they themselves choosing, from
their free thinking minds to NOT continue in the good but to
rebel against the governance of God.
God had given to Adam and Eve the truth from the false, the
right from the wrong, the good from the evil, the way of life
from the way of death. Now Satan comes along, and completely
turns the truth of God's teaching UPSIDE-DOWN and INSIDE-OUT, to
make out God was the liar, God was not giving them all the facts,
God was selfish, holding back some "good" from them. Satan
TWISTED it all around, and by throwing in a few truths (getting
to obtain something that God already had and having it as soon as
they would eat), he EFFECTIVELY in Eve's mind made it all sound
very logical and something that was VERY GOOD! He persuaded Eve
that to eat from the forbidden tree would give her in that day
more of the nature and mind of God, more wisdom in living the
daily life and things yet to come in her life, problems,
decisions to make, workings to work out, that having more of what
God had and knew about, could only be GOOD and not evil or death.
Satan effectively persuaded Eve that living in the only way she
had so far known, happiness and righteousness and sinlessness,
persuading her that she was NAIVE, Eve the naive, and that such a
way was actually NOT good but BAD, he twisted her mind to think
that good was EVIL and that evil was GOOD! And we all know the
"rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say.
The calling of good EVIL and evil GOOD is the main
foundational character of the mindset of Satan the Devil. He does
it in any way he can. From out and out calling God a liar in and
through whoever, to shading the truth, to twisting the facts, to
leaving out facts that would change the picture completely, to
declaring God is selfish, does not have your best interests at
heart, is wanting you to be led astray, wanting you to sin. To
even giving you some truths in it all. Any way he can, as a
roaring lion walking about seeking whom he can devour (1 Peter 5:
8), to coming to you as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11: 13-15),
with every trick in the book. He will attack you if he can in
many ways, but especially he loves to call good EVIL and evil
GOOD, and have people fall for it, have people BELIEVE IT!
He uses many an individual to teach and preach this basic
doctrine of his. It was used by many in ancient Israel to deceive
and lead people into sin. Notice how God spoke to Israel of old
(and so to us today) through Isaiah the prophet, " For the
vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men
of Judah his pleasant plant: and He looked for JUDGMENT, but
behold a SCAB (margin reading); for RIGHTEOUSNESS, but behold a
CRY (of)......WOE unto them that rise up early in the morning,
that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night,
till wine inflame them......WOE unto them that draw iniquity with
cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope......WOE
unto them that call evil GOOD, and good EVIL; that put darkness
for LIGHT, and light for DARKNESS; that put bitter for SWEET, and
sweet for BITTER!......Therefore as the fire devours the stubble,
and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root shall be as
rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as the dust: BECAUSE
they have CAST AWAY the LAW of the Lord of hosts, and DESPISED
THE WORD of the Lord and the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah 5:7-24).
When the great covering Cherub over the throne of God
(Ezekiel 28) decided that this wonderful earth to rule and govern
was not good but evil. When he decided, with his free agency
mind, that God was not good but evil, and that to rise above the
clouds and to ascend to heaven to cast God off His throne and put
himself on that throne (Isaiah 14) was not evil but was good,
then his mindset was changed forever to teach and preach and to
believe that indeed evil was good and good was evil. He was
ready and eager to pervert the innocently pure and sinless minds
of the first two human beings the Eternal God created on this
earth. The NT tells us that he deceived Eve into sin, and that
Adam was not deceived, but also sinned by choosing to follow his
wife on the road and pathway that leads to death via rebellion
and sin against God and His commandments (1 Tim.2:13 with
Rom.5:12-14).
But God knew beforehand that it would all happen, sooner or
later, that mankind would somewhere along the line, along the way
of life, choose either through deception or without deception,
the way of sin that leads to death. God had it all under control
and had a great and wonderful plan to redeem mankind back to
partake of the tree of life and live forever, IF they would again
use their free agency minds to so CHOOSE that way to LIFE.
As we have seen from 1 Peter 1:18-20 one of the members of
the very Godhead chose to be the sacrificial Lamb that would come
to die for the sins of the whole world, before the foundation of
the world, to redeem and reconcile mankind back to God the
Father, and through His death and His life those choosing to be
redeemed could be saved (Rom.5:10).
We finish this study with these inspired verses.
"But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if
through the offence of one many be dead (because all have sinned,
see chapter 3:23), much more the grace of God, and the gift by
grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded unto
many.....For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; MUCH
MORE they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of
righteousness shall reign in LIFE by one, Jesus Christ" (Romans
5: 15-17).
Oh how great and marvellous is the plan, the grace, and
salvation of our God.
..................................
Written July 2000
All articles and studies by Keith Hunt may be copied, published,
e-mailed, and distributed as led by the Spirit of the Lord.
Mr.Hunt trusts nothing will be changed (except for spelling
and punctuation errors) without his consent.
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