A Question

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Permalink Reply by Joram Joram on June 25, 2011 at 5:01am

The question here is, why God has put that Tree of the Knowledge in the Garden? He must have a perfect reason, I wanna know. :)

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Permalink Reply by Joram Joram on June 25, 2011 at 5:21am

Thanks, Wicus. Well said. :)

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Permalink Reply by ScribeD on July 1, 2011 at 1:01pm

Joram2: the two trees are very much metaphorical for us; this is the contrast of all of our human experience: will we choose the Tree of Life (TL)? Or will we choose the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Tree of KG&E). 

 

In other words the Tree of the KG&E represents human effort, and works. The problem is that human works is like pushing a bubble from the inside: some folks are good at pushing one way, more than the other way. But your strengths always have an inherent weakness. Some folks are good at standing perfectly balanced inside the bubble like Da Vinci's Vetruvian Man drawing, but they are rigid and inflexible and tend toward using themselves as the measure of all things, which is the greatest weakness -pride. 

 

The Tree of Life is God-dependent. The TL lifestyle looks completely different and frustrates the human effort folks. In the TL way of life, I don't have to push the bubble, the bubble is carrying me. I simply have to learn to walk the way the bubble carries me. If I walk with the bubble, things work well. If I fight the bubble, it's hard but the bubble still wins in the end. 

 

So, it's not silly at all. It's the whole point of the entire Bible!

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Permalink Reply by ScribeD on July 8, 2011 at 12:09am

Wow, yes. That was a long time ago. I was actually thinking of this recreational sport in New Zealand (i think) where they rent you a giant bubble about 8 feet in diameter and fill it about 1/3 of the way with water, then push you down a rolling hill. It's quite a ride from what i have seen.

 

Probably too many metaphors, but the point stands that the tree of life is a whole different way of living from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is the difference between the Gospel and the Law, the difference between imputed righteousness and self-righteousness. 

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Permalink Reply by Larry M. on July 3, 2011 at 8:58pm

God created us in His own image, impart us with intelligence. feelings and etc.

We are not created as robot but with free will. Free to chose good or evil, obey or disobey.

If God did not put that tree in the paradise, what choice they have?

We might not comprehend His purpose but His thoughts are not our thoughts.

Human own knowledge is foolishness to Him. That is why we ask wisdom and understanding from Him,

God love us and longing for our fellowship, our love. but our first parent chose to disobey than to show love by obedience.

 

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Permalink Reply by John Rogers on July 8, 2011 at 8:28pm

The way I understand it. God's concern is that after they have disobeyed him and eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that they still have access to the Tree Of Life. God even openly questions the situation of having two humans around who have now gained access to something that was not meant for them. God even talks about them being "immortal" in their present state of sinful knowledge. The way I understand it, God can't have Adam and Eve still eating from the Tree of Life in their present condition of enlightenment. They now know of things they should not know, so he boots them out of the Garden to keep them away from the Tree of Life, which they were allowed to eat from when their minds or souls were still innocent. Basically, they are now either impure, unworthy, or some kind of untrustworthy sinful problem that God does not want in his presence. What they lose is much more than just the gift to walk in the presence of God in the Garden. They have also just lost access to the Tree that allowed them access to immortality. They had it all. Pure paradise with God! Something so amazing that we can't even imagine it, and they lost it all by listening to bad advice instead of trusting in the Gods Word.

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