Wednesday, November 9, 2022
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:16,17 KJV).
Is the God of Scripture “anti-intellectual?”
Genesis chapter 3 again: “[4] And the serpent [Satan] said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: [5] For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. [6] And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”
The “gods” (lowercase “g!”) of verse 5 were fallen angels who had already followed Satan in his rebellion against the one true God. Like their leader, they were their own authorities, doing what they wanted. Not only had they firsthand known good—all that God is and does—but they had firsthand known evil too (life apart from Him). Adam and Eve were tempted into adopting this view as their own, and then they ate! Like “the devil and his angels” (Ezekiel 28:18; Matthew 25:41; Revelation 12:7,9), the first two humans would now decide for themselves what is good and what is evil. It had originally been God’s sole right to be that Judge. Genesis 3:22,23: “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us [the three Members of the Godhead], to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and [physically] live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.”
All these sinners abandoned God’s grace—the identity and provisions He gave them—and preferred to make their own life without Him. As He foretold, disaster would fall….
333 Words of Grace 