I would have loved to have been given the choice myself, tree of life or the other one which I would not have chosen.
Is life more interesting since we are familiar with good and evil.
Forgot question mark again opps
Esther - me too. whatever would please God would please me
Broken Alabaster Flask
Favorite Answer
Always wondered sister, why they had not just eaten of the Tree of Life the first chance they got:)
This is a little lengthy dear birdy.. can you bear with me sis? Ty ;)
Two trees. One very simple, the other very complex.
Two trees. Embodying two Persons. One the embodiment of God, the other the embodiment of His enemy, satan.
Some would say that the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil could never be the embodiment of satan, but we cannot look at just the tree, we need to look at its fruit, the end result. For the human race, it meant Death. Just the direct opposite of Life.
This death was not just the outward decaying of the body, ( became the evil flesh) but also, death came in to damage man's soul, causing him to be a hater of God rather than a lover of God, causing him to exercise his will against God rather than for God, and within man's mind, he thinks and dreams up the most corrupt things rather than minding the things above. His whole soul, with the mind, will and emotions became damaged because of partaking of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.
Man's spirit, as we know, became deadened, the only part that remained active was man's conscience, allowing God a merciful way to still communicate something to man. Man's conscience became God's representative, making him sensitive to his actions.
Birdy, what truly stands out to me about this tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is its name.
My consideration was WHY would there be "good' on this tree? And what is so wrong with the knowledge of Good?
The Evil part is obvious, but the good, I saw nothing wrong with it.
To me, Good very much resembles Life.. but in God's eyes, I suppose it is not.
Good does not make anything grow, Life does.
As a believer in the Lord, I can be after the knowledge of Good, wanting to know the Good things, things related to God, to His word, and be filled up with some Good information, but in the end, would I truly grow in the Lord?
I like the illustration of a newborn baby. When the baby is born, do I read a book about milk to him? Do I show him pictures of bottles of milk? Actually, I just take my baby and put him to my breast and let him feed and grow. The knowledge does not impart life, only Life gives Life.
The Lord Jesus came, always presenting Himself to us as Life.
He said He is the Bread of Life,
The Living Water.
The Resurrection and the Life.
John 10:10 shares about two people, one is a Thief, who comes to steal, kill and destroy. This thief will like nothing better, than to have us all run after the Knowledge of Good and fill our minds to the brim with just good information ABOUT God and because we are so FULL, we end up missing Christ as Life.
The Lord Jesus is the other person, who came that we might have life. He died as the grain of wheat to release this life to us, that we would believer, receive and LIVE!
Life is simple.
The Tree of life was so simple.
To receive Christ as Life takes only our believing and receiving. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.
When we believe, the Lord enters into our spirit AS Life, Filling us with the Divine, indistructable, eternal ZOE life of God Himself. Making us children of God, actually BORN of God. This is no mere legal adoption, this is LIFE with the genes and nature of God being imparted into our very being.
This LIFE causes us to grow. This LIFE transforms and conforms us into the image of the Son. Knowledge never caused anything to grow. WE might get a big head and think that we are smarter than God and that only fools believe in an imaginary being, this is the fruit of mere knowledge of Good and Evil.
The Lord is after Life. He wants to be our life and our supply of Life each and every day,
Romans 8:6 shares that when we set our minds on the spirit, we receive Life and Peace.
This life is the Lord Himself, coming in to rescue us from whatever we are facing. He comes in as the resurrection and the Life to dispell all the death and darkness that comes when we set our minds on the flesh.
Just in closing sister birdy, I would just like to point out that there is a marked difference between the "Knowledge of Good" and the "Gift of Knowledge "
The Knowledge of Good will deaden man. Causing his mind to be filled to a point where he has become blocked out from the simplicity of the glorious gospel of grace. The god of this world,'' satan has blinded the eyes of men's mind, that they cannot receive the light of the gospel. Today, even on this forum we see so much "knowledge of good and evil "rampantly displayed. When we read these kinds of posts sister birdy, does it impart Life to us? Do we come away feeling closer to the Lord? Or do we come away with a big ole (?) in our mind.. always found that the "?" looked like a serpent.
But I know that we have experienced when someone shares the Lord in a life giving way. We come away feeling refreshed, more in love with the Lord and hungry for Him and His word.
The "gift of the word of knowledge ' ( 1 Cor 12:8) is not mere knowledge, but a gift used to build up the church as the Body of Christ. This "Word of Knowledge " concerns the deep things of Christ and in the end, builds up the church for growth ( life makes things grow)
When brother Peter was listing out some virtues, he mentions knowledge and right on the heels of knowledge he adds 'SELF CONTROL" ( 2 Pet 1:6)
Knowledge needs self control to balance it off and keep it under the Lord's authority and regulation.
Knowledge has a way of puffing up ( 1 Cor 8:1).. and satan forever seeks to bring this kind of evil root into God's children. Turning things of life into things of death.
How we need the Lord to apply the cross to who we are in all things.
TY for this question sister birdy
sorry for being so long lol
Need the Lord to regulate me some more,
Your sis
sandy
Kate Alex Bahleef
It was a bad thing for Adam and Eve and all of their descendants to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It is a serious matter to diobey the Will of God. It was a test and they failed. We are still given the choice every day to either serve God or our own fleshly interests. We have a lot of forbidden fruits we can eat but choose not to.
?
It was the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. That's a very specific kind of knowledge; not all knowledge is harmful.
Anonymous
The ten commandment is the law of good & knowledge and evil. God didn't want man to partake of the law. He wanted of man to partake of the tree of life. Which a picture of our Savior Jesus Christ. Whoever Partakes this tree will have eternal life.
The danger is this...You know the law inside out and you are miles and Miles away from God. Under the law all you have is religion not relationship with GOd. But, God is after relationship with Us.One who is dependent on His goodness and His goodness alone. When man partakes of the tree of Good and evil, He becomes dependent on self effort and self-rightousness to stay away form evil. And when man is dependenent on self effort and self rghtousness He is doomed to fail.
On the other hand, when man partakes of ther tree of life, He is completly dependent on Jesus. & Jesus ALONE.
?
That depends upon who defines "good and evil."
The knowledge of good and evil came from the realization that to obey is good and to disobey is evil. In the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil", there was a command -- and the realization of the consequences of obedience and disobedience; in the "tree of life", there was innocence without condemnation.
Discernment must come with age.