A random and innocent thread between friends on Facebook suddenly got my mind going, which happens on rare occasions. It was merely a mention of oranges and apples and Adam and Eve. That's all it took for me:
Actually, it has been called "the forbidden fruit" or more concisely, the fruit that Adam and Eve ate was no other than the "fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." As you can see, recognizing the name of the fruit makes all the difference in the world in how we view the outcome of consuming it. The choice to disobey God by eating the~fruit~of~the~tree~of ~the~knowledge~of~good~and~evil, was a choice that opened a whole different life than the one God created for us in the beginning. Our choices always have consequences, especially those in opposition to God. (And no wonder we have shortened it to "an apple." "The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" is a mouthful. No pun intended.
Let's read the account from Genesis out of the New Living Translation of the Bible. It's an easy read and very interesting. My thoughts will be in [brackets].
Genesis 2
8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. 
In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. [TWO trees are mentioned here, but God's warning only applies to the fruit of one. We can choose one or the other, one representing life, the other representing sin and death. Either choice will be the center (middle of the garden) of our life and our life will revolve around that choice.]
15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
[Hmmm, Adam is alone when God warned about the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God also told him about "the tree of life," but He did not forbid Adam to eat of the fruit of that tree.]
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” 19 So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. 20 He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.
21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.
23 “At last!” the man exclaimed.
“This one is bone from my bone,
and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called ‘woman,’
because she was taken from ‘man.’”
24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.
[Now, it's Adam's responsibility to tell Eve the instructions God has told him, because she is part of himself.]
25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.
Genesis 3--
1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil."
[Notice that the serpent, who represents Satan, never once mentions the tree of life. He wants to keep her attention on the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He wants to keep her attention on disobeying God buy deceiving her into believing that God was lying.]
6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.
[Obviously, Adam had told Eve of the warning, because Eve knew about it and even told the serpent. But there is no way to blame one over the other. Eve and Adam both knew what God had told them, but they didn't trust Him and they listened to the serpent, to the point of disobedience. Choices of disobedience always result in negative consequences.]
7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
[The first recorded case of "passing the buck."]
13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
[And the finger pointing continues.]
14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, you are cursed
more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
groveling in the dust as long as you live.
15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 Then he said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
but he will rule over you.”
17 And to the man he said,
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains.
19 By the sweat of your brow
will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
and to dust you will return.”
20 Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live. 21 And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.
[Verse 21 is the first picture we see of the requirement of the shedding of blood to cover the sin (nakedness) of humans... a picture of the blood of Jesus Christ shed for the payment of the sin of the world, all of which was the result of that first act of disobedience by Eve and Adam. By man, sin and death entered the world and through sinless man (Jesus Christ), sin and death are defeated.]
22 Then the Lord God said, “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!” 23 So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. 24 After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
[After the human beings made their choice of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their opportunity to choose the fruit from the tree of life was gone. By their choice, sin and death had entered their lives and the world. It's the same with us. If we choose to reject the gift of grace and mercy offered by Jesus Christ, we will not always have the opportunity to choose the eternal life He supplies. There will come a day when the "gates" to Eden are closed, the "door" to eternity with Jesus Christ and life will shut, never to open again.
All that happened from the beginning of creation was God's plan. Why, you may ask, did God allow the serpent, Adam, Eve, choices, sin and death? As you learn more and more of God and His nature and character, you learn that He wants His creations to know ALL of Him. We would never have know the part of Him that is Grace and Mercy unless sin was present. Love would have no value if we did not have a choice.
Therefore, Forgiveness-Grace-Mercy-Love, arrived in Bethlehem and His name is Jesus Christ.]
2 comments:
very good lesson for all of us. Thank you for your blog - - I always check to see if there is an update - don't want to miss a single one.
Wow, Pastor LaVon, you done good. I didn't think us girls would have given you such a great sermon. I don't think I'll ever look at an orange tree again without thinking of you & your post! Love Ya!
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