I was mulling over something last night I wanted to share... There were two trees in the Garden of Eden of particular note. That of the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. Gen 2:9 "Thus Jehovah God made to grow out of the ground every tree that was pleasing to look at and good for food and also the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and bad." The command was that Adam and Eve may eat of every tree, except one. Gen 2:17 "But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will certainly die.” What I was considering was the incident that led up to Eve disobeying Jehovah's command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. Firstly, Satan presented himself through the imagery of a serpent, in order to question Eve. Gen 3:1 "Did God really say that you must not eat from every tree of the garden?” This question was obviously chosen as a set up, in order to get to the ultimate purpose of addressing her. Gen 3:4 "You certainly will not die. For God knows that in the very day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and bad.” Now here's the thing; Satan never approached the subject of the fruit being a suitable nourishment to her body, but rather an attempt to draw out a fleshly desire similar to his own. Ish 14:13,14 "You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to the heavens. Above the stars of God I will lift up my throne,And I will sit down on the mountain of meeting,In the remotest parts of the north. I will go up above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself resemble the Most High." Therefore when Eve looked at the tree as desirable, her desire wasn't based on simply the fruit looking flavorful, but that desire was growing within her to go against Gods command in order to satisfy her fleshly desire to be like God, knowing good and bad. I have always simply read the text below as the fruit itself seemingly being desired by Eve as nourishment, but this simply is not so. The presence of the word "consequently" gives the understanding that something else led her to continue to look at the fruit of the tree in a desiring way. Gen 3:6 "Consequently, the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was something desirable to the eyes, yes, the tree was pleasing to look at. So she began taking of its fruit and eating it." This first instance of sin among mankind is an example of what we all deal with now on a daily basis. Sin is going against Jehovah's command in order to fulfill selfish fleshly desire. No doubt she looked at the fruit as appetizing to the eye, but there should be no doubt that the reason she pondered it in the first place was a growing seed of desire to fulfill a selfish desire to be like God, that was presented by the serpent. Today, these 6000 years later, we are daily presented with this same predicament to follow Jehovah's direction, or to give in to fleshly desire... The tree of the knowledge of good and bad represents the absence from God. Just as there is no such thing as cold in our universe, but rather an absence of heat, so is sin the absence of Jehovah. We choose to live by our own standard of living, or the direction from our creator.
Hi AJ, I’ve had several conversations with friends, about the tree of good and bad. I’m in agreement with you on this. Today, mankind still has the influence of making choices. How about: “I don’t have to listen to you! I can make my own decisions!” It’s called “free will”. I posted a long one about this back in March of last year. (Apologetics - Defending our Faith page 7, #127) Also, in many countries, they have “elected/chosen” people to represent them. http://e-jw.org/index.php?threads/apologetics-defending-our-faith.2248/page-7#
What bothers me is when people point at the existance of a tree as though it were a trap set by God, as though Jehovah himself were the original tempter... after all, what purpose would it serve other than to place people in danger? But I've always thought that the answer is "free will." The tree itself wasn't "sinful." Jehovah wasn't commanding them not to eat from a trap tree... but warning them that this tree was a sort of contract they would NOT enjoy signing. Basically, they weren't prisoners... they had the free choice to live under God's rule (and direct protection). But never knowing suffering or death or hopelessness, they would have ignorant bliss forever. We would have all bern "safe" ... but we would always assume this is simply how life always must be, never appreciating the good that God provided. satan may be a fool, but an intelligent fool, and an efficient liar. The best liars stick as close to truth as they can... twisting it just enough to do the job, but no more than necessary in order for it to stay believable. So, he was correct that our eyes would be open like God's... but he mislead eve as to the consequence of that decision (at least 6000 years of pain and suffering and death and isolation from God). So, by eating the tree... we rejected God's authority (and protection) to start the lesson of what life is like attempting to govern ourselves... something that has to be painful enough and memorable enough that humanity never forgets, for an eternity. Thus, the tree is a painful contract that will allow us to appreciate the good by comprehending evil... rather than a pointless sin-trap. This is also how scripture says "through man sin entered the world, and death through sin" even though eve was the first to eat the fruit... because the eating of that fruit itself was foolish, but not sin. Adam's sin could have been lying to Jehovah when he tried to hide his actions, or prioritizing Eve over his God or the shame they felt for their nakedness, or something else. Anywho, that's one theory.
Yes, it's pretty simple; The tree of good and evil represented rule apart from God, and the tree of life God's way of rule. Ergo, free will...
Without free will love cannot be manifested we reflect god by manifesting love by our obedience primarily. Pretty simple.