Tree of knowledge of good and evil

The power of words

There were two main human missions in the Garden of Eden. The first is to cultivate the Garden of Eden. The second was to protect the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15). It is written in the Bible like this.

15 The LORD God took a man and put him in the garden of Eden, cultivated it, and kept it. 16 The Lord God commanded man. “You can eat at will from any tree in the garden .17 However, you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When you eat of it you will surely die.” (Bible Genesis 2: 15-17)

Crops were produced only when humans cultivated them. The Garden of Eden was not a place to live comfortably without working. Working is one of the purposes given to humans by God. Working for the Hebrew word is “abodah.” This word means work, service, worship. Working has existed before the fall of humans (Genesis chapter3).

Sunday is certainly a holy day, and it is very important to sanctify this day and go to church to worship God. But if only Sunday is holy and Monday to Saturday is profane, it would be detrimental. Because daily working is also a worship and service to God. Children will have to play, students will have to study, working people will have to work, and housewives will have to do housework and parenting. God is pleased to do their best to do the work they are given where they are. Peter and his friends were called from Jesus while working as fishermen as usual (Matthew 4: 18-22). I don’t think heaven is just a place to live without labor.

“Garden of Eden” by Lucas Cranach / Renaissance German painter.　　　

Various trees were growing in the Garden of Eden (2: 9). Adam and Eve were allowed to eat freely from those trees. You can eat as much as you want from any tree in the garden (verse 16). In the center of the Garden of Eden was a tree of life and a tree of knowledge of good and evil (2: 9), but God forbade eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil(verse 17). The nuts of life must have contained ingredients that would live forever if eaten. God said this to Adam and Eve, who later sinned. Now let him reach out, take from the tree of life and eat, and not live forever (Genesis 3:22).

Originally, the judgment of right and wrong is made by God, but I think that the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was that if they eat it, they will be able to judge right from wrong. God’s placement of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden is evidence that humans were created not as slaves, nor as robots, but as beings of choice. Slave and robots have no freedom and are absolutely obedient to their masters. God did not want to be obedient in that way, but wanted humans to use their free will and make their own choices and obey Him. But freedom comes with responsibility. God said. When you take it and eat it, you will surely die (verse 17). They ate the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and as the word of God said, they would reap the death. It was a spiritual death and a physical death.

“Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil” by Lucas Cranach / Renaissance German painter

It can be said that the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a tree that tests human beings. If they pass, I think they were able to become a person who would not sin. We can see that by looking at the angel. The angel also had a time for such a test. When the battle took place in heaven (between Genesis 1: 1 and 1: 2. Reference: https://canaan.blog/lucifer-2/ ), one-third of the angels were hostile to God, and two-third of the angels came to God (Revelation12: 4). In this battle, the angel who rebelled against God was judged by God and fell into devil and evil spirits. At this time, the state after that was confirmed. After this, was there an angel who fell into an evil spirit among the angels? No. There is no such description in the Bible. Was there an evil spirit who became an angel among the evil spirits? No. If humans passed this test, they would have been innocent forever, just like angels who obeyed God. Once in heaven, our condition will be fixed forever. We can live in heaven forever. We will not sin. It’s really great.

We have the freedom to do anything in life. However, we will always be responsible for the choices we make. We will cut the seeds we have sown, so we would like to sow good seeds instead of bad seeds. May we reap life, not death.

From the time of Adam to the present day, the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” is asked by God to humans, “Do you obey God or do you obey your thoughts and wishes instead of God?” It can be said that it is a test.

Tree of knowledge of good and evil

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