Feeling lost? Connect to the source of life.
When Eve finds herself in the middle of the garden of Eden, face to face with a talking serpent, her words reveal to us that Eve, as a human created in the image of God, was not a perfect being.
And neither was Adam.
In the beginning, God creates man in the image of God, but history proves itself over and over that we are not God. We are a unique creation created by Him for a purpose (and with purpose), but that purpose is not for us to be our own god. Man was created with a need for relationship with God. True life is dependent on that. It's the "life and life abundantly" that Jesus spoke about.
Now, let's go back to the conversation between Eve and the serpent that reveals to us that mankind, even in the beginning, was not perfect…
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 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 loin coverings.
One thing this conversation reveals is that Eve is capable of deception. She believed things that were not true spoken by the serpent, and she believed things that were not true told to her, either by Adam, or by her own false understanding of what Adam had told her. Now, in my experience with communication between males and females, I’m going to place my bets on Adam mis-communicating vs. Eve misinterpreting.
Anyway, the serpent prompts Eve to answer a question regarding what trees her and Adam were allowed to eat from in the garden, and Eve gets it wrong.
Genesis tells us that, when God created the garden in east Eden, there were two trees planted in the middle of the garden. The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord tells Adam that he may eat from any tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
When the serpent asks Eve what God had said about eating from the trees in the garden, Eve gets it partly right when she says they can eat from any tree in the garden, but her information is incorrect when she says they can't eat from the trees in the middle of the garden because only one was off limits. She also adds to what God told Adam by stating that even touching the fruit would cause them to die.
The bottom line?
Adam and Eve were born with the ability to be deceived and to disobey before they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. None of us have ever known what it's like to live without the knowledge of good and evil, but Adam and Eve did, and they still got things wrong.
The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil looks good, tastes good and even has benefits for the body, and it does make you more like God (in the sense of being aware of both good and evil). However, the problem is, God had already made Adam and Eve like Him in all the ways they would ever need. You see, Adam and Eve didn’t need to be any more like God because they were already created in His image, and they had something even better than He had; they had deep relationship and communion with the maker of the universe.
So what wisdom does this story hold for us today?
Well, here are my two cents. Walking and talking with God in the garden will give us infinite wisdom, there's no need to go looking for it anywhere else.
The great irony of Adam and Eve's story is that they already had access to all the knowledge they could ever dream of in their relationship with God. All they had to do to be more like Him was continue to spend time with Him.
However, here's the caveat people sometimes miss…
The goal of being Christ-like isn’t becoming God. It's union with God. A person with Christ-like character cares more about being closer to the Father than they do about discerning what is right for themselves.
People in general seem to be stuck in this sin cycle of trying to define good and evil on their own. In doing so, we create distance between ourselves and God because…
We often try to hide from God when we feel guilt or shame.
We walk in deception, believing we know better than God.
The cure to all this is the tree of life. I really don't know why Adam and Eve didn’t start with a snack at the tree of life in the first place!
However, I do know why most don’t today. It's because today's tree of life looks more like a cross that requires us to deny ourselves before we can taste the sweetness of its fruit. We must lose our old way of life in order to find eternal life in the here and now. One that is more fulfilling than we could have ever imagined. The kind that God originally intended for us.
AND this tree of life will eventually lead to the opportunity spoken about in Revelation 2:7 where those who have “washed their robes” will have access to the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God. Hopefully, here we will be absconded of ever having to live by "right" and "wrong" and merely live by what brings life.
Living connected to the source of life and eating the fruit of Him who freely gives it us is much better than trying to discern what is right or wrong by ourselves. If we rely on our own knowledge we will eventually fail, and may even be tempted to disconnect from God.
I encourage you to rest in the security of the cross that you have already embraced as you try to do your best in today's world, that can be quite unforgiving at times. Be kind to your brothers and sisters, love your neighbors, and love yourself with a grace that can only come from encountering the love that God has for you.
Remember, His greatest desire is to be with you.
Blessings,
Dean