Did God Really Say You Couldn’t?

Almost everyone is familiar with the following story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and how they gave into temptation ruining man’s relationship with God for all the rest of us:

Genesis 2:15-17 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Then God decided it was not good for the man to be alone, he needed a helper, so God took a rib from Adam and created a woman. The man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame.

Genesis 3:1-7 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die." “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” When God found out He was very displeased with them.

Then in Genesis 3:12-13 “The man said, “The woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “the serpent deceived me and I ate.”

They were told not to do something but they did it anyway, but is there an underlying meaning to this account? Why would God tell them not to eat from that one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? What was so important about it that they were told “you will surely die.”?

Well there are several ideas that come to mind; one would be that God gave man the freedom of choice. Man could choose to follow the directions or commands of God or he could follow his own desires. God said not to eat the fruit or to even touch one certain tree, because He knew what would happen if they did, but he did not stop them, he let them choose. From the very beginning God did not force His will on man, but let man seek Him out on his own. He doesn’t tell them that they can’t; but His warning is that they shouldn’t. The death that God had hoped to have Adam and Eve avoid was the death of their innocence, like a parent with a child longing to keep them safe from the horrors of the world.

Another thought is that this is the beginning of the “blame game” that has been handed down from generation to generation since the creation of the world. First Adam blames Eve for giving the fruit to him, then Eve blames the evil snake for telling her it was ok to eat it. So there it is, the practice of passing the blame to someone else instead of taking the responsibility for one’s own mistakes.
This is still prevalent in the world today; it’s always someone else’s fault when things go wrong and not ours. We never want to step up and take responsibility for our own problems or short comings. The reason being we don’t want to deal with the consequences; we want someone else to take the punishment.

Still another thought would be that God knows what is best for us and He gives us fair warning not to go against His commands. God is like a loving parent, giving us guidelines to follow throughout life. Things such as the Ten Commandments were meant to help us avoid the pitfalls of life on earth and keep us out of trouble. The whole Old Testament of the Bible is all about God trying to teach His strong willed and stiff-necked people a lesson in love.

Maybe we need to pay more attention to the warnings God has given us and learn how to deal with the consequences of our own actions instead of placing the blame on others. Now is the time to stop being a stiff necked and strong willed people and let God lead us in the right direction through the salvation given freely by His Son, Jesus Christ!