Forbidden Fruit
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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.’” - Genesis 2:15-17
Following God will require faith. Faith, as Hebrews 11:1 says, “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” When we have faith, we are trusting God with the things that we cannot see.
Faith can be the difference between a life of abundance and contentment, or a life of pain and regret. When we think we know better than God, that is when we get in trouble. Over the next few days, we are going to look at reasons that we think we know better than God, or reasons why we sometimes struggle to have faith.
The first reason we fail to trust God is because we want what He has forbidden for us. This was the very first sin when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:15-17 says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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.’”
Basically, God told them they could eat from whatever tree they wanted. They could do whatever they wanted. They just couldn’t eat from this one tree. But that wasn’t good enough. They wanted what God said they couldn’t have.
How often do you struggle to want what God says “no” to? You want another job even though God has told you He wants you where you are. You want another partner even though you are in a relationship.
Be careful. Do not dabble in the forbidden fruit. It was when Eve got close to the tree that she gave into the sin. Faith isn’t just about the good stuff. We must trust that God knows what is best for us. And sometimes, that means avoiding what He has forbidden.
Following God will require faith. Faith, as Hebrews 11:1 says, “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” When we have faith, we are trusting God with the things that we cannot see.
Faith can be the difference between a life of abundance and contentment, or a life of pain and regret. When we think we know better than God, that is when we get in trouble. Over the next few days, we are going to look at reasons that we think we know better than God, or reasons why we sometimes struggle to have faith.
The first reason we fail to trust God is because we want what He has forbidden for us. This was the very first sin when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:15-17 says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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.’”
Basically, God told them they could eat from whatever tree they wanted. They could do whatever they wanted. They just couldn’t eat from this one tree. But that wasn’t good enough. They wanted what God said they couldn’t have.
How often do you struggle to want what God says “no” to? You want another job even though God has told you He wants you where you are. You want another partner even though you are in a relationship.
Be careful. Do not dabble in the forbidden fruit. It was when Eve got close to the tree that she gave into the sin. Faith isn’t just about the good stuff. We must trust that God knows what is best for us. And sometimes, that means avoiding what He has forbidden.
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1 Comment
Could the identity of the unknown forbidden fruit in the world's oldest and greatest mystery story have something to do with procreation and the family Adam and Eve do not have until after their eviction from Eden at the end of Genesis 3? Adam and Eve disobey the Genesis 1:28 commandment--the first commandment--to "be fruitful and multiply [in the Garden]" when they become one flesh incorrectly (Genesis 2:24) by eating from the wrong tree in the allegorical Garden's center (Genesis 2:9). So they disobey not just one commandment, but two at the same time. Finally, it is interesting that half of Eve's punishment in Genesis 3:16 is painful childbirth--because she chooses to not have children in the Garden of Eden and God wants to remind her of her decision?
n
nThe entire evidence-based exegesis is included in the preceding four sentences. But why was this confusing allegory, whatever its meaning, constructed in the first place, as the original literal story most certainly came first, a story that confused absolutely no one, unlike the allegory into which it evolved? The widely held belief that the forbidden fruit in the Bible story is an apple illustrates among other things how confirmation bias serves as a terrible mechanism that cripples our critical thinking as it prevents discussion, criticism, and evaluation of the validity of the proposed exegesis that begins with Genesis 1:28, continues through Genesis 2 and 3, and concludes with Genesis 4:1. So the struggle continues in an effort to protect the self-esteem of so many who have held lifelong beliefs they are unable to change.