In the Garden of Eden, humans could eat from all the trees, including the Tree of Life. Every tree except one, that is. Just one simple rule—don’t eat from that one tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. When the humans disobeyed this command, God expelled us from Paradise. How did this happen? Did we both knowingly disobey God?
“Then ADONAI Elohim commanded the man saying, ‘From all the trees of the garden you are most welcome to eat. But of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you must not eat. For when you eat from it, you most assuredly will die!’ Then ADONAI Elohim said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. Let Me make a well-matched helper for him'” (Genesis 2:16-18 TLV).
Wait, did you notice something? The man heard directly from God not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. But it is after that command when God forms the “woman” for the man! Where is the woman when God warns the man? In the man’s loins? Does the woman hear this command from God or from the man? Why is Scripture ambiguous on this matter?
So, when did the man show up at that tree? Did he hear that crafty serpent? Is he there before the woman bites into the fruit? Could it be that only the man heard directly from God? Regardless, eating the fruit happens, and both eat knowingly. Then both try to shift the blame. The man blames the woman. The woman blames the serpent. Clearly, humans choose to eat, and there are consequences.
Knowledge of evil will include sorrow, suffering, tears, pain, plagues, aging, loss of Paradise, and most cruelly of all—death! And sin will reign through death.
© Jeffrey Enoch Feinberg. JEF says when we choose the hard life, we need to face the consequences.
