Thursday, November 10, 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?”
As any sensible parent would discourage his or her child from reading something injurious, seeing something sinful, or doing something harmful, so God erected barriers to guard Adam and Eve against sin for their own good (today’s Scripture). He knew the destruction that sin would cause them, and He sternly warned them of it, but He did not force their reaction. They would have their chance to make the right choice (a positive exercise of volition or free will) or the wrong choice (a negative exercise of volition or free will).
Regarding church order, the Holy Spirit through Paul commented on those tragic events in the Garden of Eden: “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (1 Timothy 2:11-14). According to the Bible, Eve was genuinely deceived, totally unaware of Satan’s trap in Genesis chapter 3 (see 2 Corinthians 11:3,4). However, Adam knew (!) the danger they were in, but he did not stop Eve, and he did not bring her to God either. Instead, he (a terrible spiritual leader/example) copied her and ate the forbidden fruit too! Rather than lose Eve and remain loyal to God, Adam made a conscious choice and joined his wife in following Satan.
Like all sinners, Satan, Adam, and Eve “worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator” (Romans 1:25). They all wanted to function outside the role the LORD God had given them. Indeed, they all wished to think and experience something besides what the Creator God intended for them. This deification of the creature goes on even now, in our “civilized,” “sophisticated” 21st-century world….
NOTE: In order to bring a special study tomorrow, we will temporarily break away from this devotionals arc, returning the following day with more advanced material on this subject….
333 Words of Grace 