The Knowledge of Good and Evil

Genesis 2:8-17

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Here we are again, Genesis chapter number two. We're going to start in verse number eight today. We talked last about the formation of man, and the thing that was described was man is in this place where it's not fully inhabited by God's creation, but somehow what God is going to do with man is going to call him to spread God's goodness to the rest of the dry land. And so we're going to start in verse number eight, and I'm going to read down through verse number 14. And we're going to do like we did last time. If there's something that seems odd or out of place, we're going to talk about that. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. We talked about this at length last time, that there's three boundaries that are being described. You got the big boundary of the dry land, then you've got Eden inside that, and then you've got the garden inside that. God planted the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed, and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into four heads. The name of the first was Pison, that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there's gold, and the gold of that land is good. There's Delium and the Onyx stone, and the name of the second river is Gihon, the same as it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia, and the name of the third river is Hitakel. That is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria, and the fourth river is Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. I said I was going to read down through verse fourteen. I decided to go with fifteen as well because we it's a bookend. Verse number eight and verse number fifteen say similar things, but as we talked last time, verse number fifteen, where God puts him into the garden, is he rest him there. That's a different Hebrew word than the previous word that was used in verse number eight. He put the man whom he had formed. Okay, let's just start out with things that seem odd. We've got the boundary of the dry land, we've got inside that boundary Eden, and inside that boundary a garden. And then it seems like in verse number nine, he's talking about the trees that God makes to grow in the garden. These trees are unbelievable. They're pleasant to look at, they're great for food, and then there's two trees that kind of get some concentration here. There's the tree of life and the tree of knowing good and bad. Those are in the middle of the garden. We talked about the middle of something before now. Talked about the middle of the dry land there being this water source. What about verse 10? Anything odd here? We find a little commentary on the water that goes out of the middle of Eden.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

So that means there would be a high place in the middle to water. Was that in the middle of the garden? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

A river went out of Eden to water the garden. One river comes out of the Eden boundary to water the garden. So it's in the center of the center of the center. It's in the center of the garden. And from there, from outside the garden, it parts and goes into four rivers. It turns that's the headwaters of four rivers. Anything else hit you after that? Like you're going along through the creation account, you're finding out this is the history of how the heavens and the earth are made. And then all of a sudden, it feels like to me, maybe it's just me. You're hit in the face with information that doesn't matter. Like, why do we have to know about four rivers? Yeah, it's names that mean nothing to us. We haven't heard anything about this boundary of Havila, the whole land of Ethiopia, um Assyria, or the Euphrates River, we haven't heard about any of that. Like, why would that matter? This seems like it's totally out of place, right? For us, yes. So, this is what I was talking about last time. If there's something in the uh biblical storyline that seems out of place in the moment, those are like glowing invitations to put a note in your mind. And okay, this is going to be important somewhere. If it seems weird or odd or out of place in the biblical storyline, it's like, look right here, make a note right here. You're gonna find out about these boundary lands later on.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

The natural reaction sometimes when we read through these texts is to skip those four verses right there. Because we just think it's a just skip it. It's just a name to some version.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Completely. So inside a minister's mind, if I were to preach from these texts, it's like, all right, I'm gonna start. Skip on down the verse. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's move on down because that it seems like they have nothing to do with anything like that. Meaningless details. Yeah. But as we know already, there's not one word that's wasted. Right. And it's important why they're here. Here again, we're going back to the first context, the first readers of this of this book. There's something going on with these four rivers being mentioned. These are the water sources for every territory that the Hebrews know about, right here. And it's water that goes to Assyria. Is Assyria going to become important in the biblical storyline for the Hebrews? Yes, very much so. Which is what? The Assyrians are the most ruthless enemies of Israel, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

So they're finding out on page two of their Bible, if you want to say it like that, that God's gift of water, God's gift of a life-sustain sustaining source came out of the center of this garden, and it wasn't just about us, it was about all humanity. However, they would have reacted after this time, God still gave his gift, his life-giving source of usable water to all humanity. Now, by the time they're getting these texts, they know that humanity's rebelled and they know they've been chosen by God. They also know that their enemies are doing things that are against God's God's will or his desire or whatever, but God still gives them a gift.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Could you look at that and say that it could have been to the Jewish person? Could they look at that and say it could have been the Assyrians that God chose to be his people?

SPEAKER_02 7:30

Very possibly, yeah. Because God tells them it wasn't because I loved you anymore. I just had to start somewhere with one family by faith. Yeah, it's getting you to look at all humanity.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

It broadens the picture for sure.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

And in the story of Israel, Abraham is told that through him all the families of the earth would be blessed. Not all the nationalities of the earth. He wants, God wants Abraham to understand that all these other peoples, there's a relational aspect. Just like you are going to become a family, through you, all the families of the earth. There's going to be a united humanity somehow, in some way, through your lineage. I hate to jump all the way over to the New Testament, but there is a united family of God. Abraham's son did bring about blessing to all the families of the earth. It wasn't just to the Jew, but also to the Gentiles. And the Gentiles are part of the family of God. There's a relational aspect. Don't think about them as only other nations, but there's a relational aspect.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Which is wild already to be talking about that. Yeah, totally. In the garden. Yeah, completely.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

So you find out outside the garden, this main river that's watering the garden and bringing life to the garden runs outside the garden and outside of Eden. It splits into four rivers and it waters the boundary lines that supply water to Israel itself and also to Israel's enemies. Every known world power is receiving the gift, the life-giving source of water. So verse number 15, and the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. We know about the garden now that it's full of these trees that are great to look at, that are wonderful for food. Have we heard the word good yet? Yeah, God said it's good seven times. And whatever is in this garden, these trees are good. They're part of God's goodness to humanity. And this little detail in verse number nine the tree of living, the tree of life is in the middle of this garden, and the tree of knowing good and bad. So we find out there's a concentration on these two trees in the middle of this garden. They're right in the very center, which would in turn be, and if you're building this picture in your mind, it would be at the high spot, right? There's these there's this river that runs out of the middle of the garden, and then there's also these two trees. One of them is a tree of life, one of them is a tree of knowing good from bad. So let's read. Verse number 15. The Lord God took the man, put him in the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. He's giving man purpose. He has, he's not just sitting there on a you know, on a bed of leaves and just resting. But there's real purpose to what's going on inside this meeting place with God. 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. It's the first command ever given to man by God. So something that we often, because we look forward to what's happened and we know what's what's about to happen, we often uh skip over the first part of this command. The first part of the command is of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. Enjoy yourself. Come into this garden, this place that I've arranged for you and I to meet. Heaven and earth comes together. I want you to come into this place and I want you to know there's never a lack. You come in and eat as much as you want. Eat your fill. That's the picture that we're supposed to have of God first. We're supposed to have a picture of God being the most abundant, giving God that there is. Here again, I hate to fast forward into the New Testament, but uh Ephesians paints that picture of God through the work of Christ to being the most abundant giving God there is. I want you to know you're never going to exhaust the riches of his grace, you're never gonna exhaust the riches of his mercy. As a matter of fact, I want you to understand what God did through Christ is exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. It's like don't view God as being some stingy God. Thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Once again, I've never seen that.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

No. Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, go around, look at them. They're awesome to look at.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

What would have meant in that? I've always I've always assumed you couldn't eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and for some reason, I've always put the tree of life in there too.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

That you couldn't eat from that? I don't know why. Evidently they could have, because you find out, yeah, when God drives man out in chapter number three, he says, Behold, man is now become as one of us to know good and evil, and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Uh if he happens to do that, he's gonna be stuck in the sinful state forever. Right. So we've got to put a boundary on this. So this other tree seems to be available, but that seems to be what they don't concentrate on. And why not? You know, yeah. What if they would have eaten of the tree of life first? There's only one. I wonder how many thousands of trees there was besides that in the garden. There's only one that they can't eat of. God is the abundant giver, inviting you to come in at any time, and all of a sudden they get narrowed down on one. I know we're we're skipping ahead, but this is the command. And also something that is lost a lot of times on Bible readers. Who got this command? The man, right? Adam.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Yes, he did. Yes, Eve was not there.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Eve was not there, right? So we find out here that man is supposed to be someone who trusts the word of God and honors the command of God. I'm gonna trust you, God, that this is true. And I'm gonna I'm gonna go by your your rules, if you will. And then continuing on that, would also be the teacher. Yes. If he got the command and the man and the woman was not present yet, then he also is gonna be the one to trust the command and convey the command. So, once again, I want to just drive the point home. God is the abundant giver. If you look at God in any way as being stingy or trying to withhold goodness from you, it's not the case. He said, Come in, look around, look at what I've provided for you.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

They were good to look at. But I don't understand why the children of Israel, that would not have been a foreign concept to them. I don't think. Okay, expand on that. Because if you look in as they're going through the wilderness, I mean, God's promise to his people is if you will trust me and follow my commands, when you enter into the land of Canaan, I'll you'll have crops that you didn't plant. Yes, you'll have all the blessings that he talked about. There'll be no disease, all this type of thing. Um, it's it's a promise of abundance and blessing.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

All you have to do is trust me and follow what I tell you.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

And we have reason to believe that what he had here was more than enough to sustain the man's life. Yes. But also, going to the analogy of Israel in the wilderness, Israel, at the time that this word comes to them, the revelation of God to Moses, they are having a daily recognition as God of God as the abundant giver to a place that's lacking. They're in the wilderness. Yeah. And they're finding that God is the abundant giver on a daily basis. Every person has enough, every family has enough. Yes. As a matter of fact, when it comes close to the Sabbath, so you don't do things the same way on the Sabbath on that sixth day. Go ahead and gather enough for the seventh and try me to see if I can't be trusted to sustain you through the seventh as well. Right. You get more than what you need, it's going to spoil on you.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Well, right.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

That's amazing. It is amazing. I wish to goodness that we could reframe the way we think about God to us as believers in the Lord. He has daily provision that is more than enough for us to make it. But he wants us to trust his word.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Well, that I was going to say that that uncovers the um the hard part of trust and how big that word, that word really is.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

I've always assumed that the the two trees, the tree of life and the especially the tree of knowledge of good and evil, looked better than the other trees. Maybe was bigger, had better looking fruit. It doesn't say that.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

No, it doesn't say that. And so, I mean, there is this, I it is something to contemplate. Were they so much different?

SPEAKER_01 17:25

I don't know that they would be so much different. I would think there would be something that would because God distinguishes a difference in them. So I would, in my mind, I would like to think that there was something that would distinguish the difference from them and the other trees.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

But then again, when fast forward to chapter three, who who highlighted the difference? It was the snake that highlighted the difference. So it could have been as well. Um it could have been as well that God put a mark on these trees for man to look at, but it could have been that they weren't so much different.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

And it was just simply his command trust my word not to, just trust me. But if it if it looked like all the other ones, then why in verse six of chapter three the woman saw that the tree was good for food? She would have seen that tree before, probably, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Well, verse number nine of chapter number two, they were good for food. Yeah. Every tree was good for the food. It looks just like the rest of them. Yeah. But God says no. So you got to trust God. The tree of knowing good and bad. Here's the other thing. Did the human, the man, did he know the difference between good and bad already? No. Why do you say that? He didn't know he didn't know the presence of, he hadn't didn't know what evil was. Does uh evil has a inherent connotation to us, but the word here is just not good. The difference between good and bad. So it doesn't have that. Evil has a stronger connotation to us. But the knowledge of bad is he he does in a sense know what's bad for him. What's bad for him is to not follow God's word. What's what's also bad for him is to think about these angry waters that's still out here on the boundary line of the dry land that could threaten. So, in a sense, though very limited, in a sense, through trusting God, he already has some semblance of something that's not good for him. So anything good and not good. Not good is to eat of this tree. He knows that.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

He would know that outside of the bounds of the garden was not good. Yeah. And I the reason I say that, I guess, as well as I assume he was put in the garden from the very beginning, but he was not. He he would have existed outside of that garden. So yeah, he would have seen the absence of good.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

Yeah. Here again, it's another one of these times where we contemplate really what's going on here and what is available to man and what's not. Only through trusting God does he know what is good and what's not good.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

We're not talking about like values and morals here. Yeah, we're just talking about existence of life.

SPEAKER_02 20:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Yeah, completely. That's that's that would that would be the realization of good and bad he would have the garden has trees that is good for food that sustains life. Outside of the garden, there's no trees that would give food. Is that fair to say?

SPEAKER_02 20:31

Yes. You find God has said it's it's not good not explicitly, but implicitly, he said it's not good for you to eat of this tree, but he's called seven times he said what's good in chapter number one. Yes, and certainly the human being created at last, he would have been brought into that knowledge for sure. Look at this. Yeah, look at the sun. Right, look at everything I provided. You understand this is good, but hang on just a second. This tree right here, it's not good. Not good. You you can't eat of it, it's not good for you to eat of it. In the day you eat of it, thou shalt surely die. So let God be the decider of what's good and not good. If you do that, you have some semblance of the knowledge of good and evil, good and not good. But you have to trust God to find that out. It's an invitation to trust God. Man's given a choice right here, but it's an invitation to trust God. Am I gonna follow what he says?

SPEAKER_01 21:36

I've I've often thought many times over my life um, why did God put that tree there?

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Yeah, he didn't want a robot.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

He didn't want to make the decision for man.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

It's great literature, isn't it? It is. It is. So now a man has the ability to choose whether he's gonna follow God's command or not. I want to go back to that idea of a man's And carrying the command. Okay, so this is something that's been highly debated in in church history. But if you fast forward to um Timothy, where Paul's writing to a church on how to establish a church, and it seems on the surface level of reading the book that Paul is giving um the idea that a woman cannot I don't allow her to teach or usurp authority over a man.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Right.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

So what what they were having going on in the churches that Timothy was going to establish. Let's go to that. It's in First Timothy. He's he's giving Timothy a way to set up um uh normal worship, a normal worship service. So chapter number two of First Timothy, he starts out um what you should do in every worship service. And Timothy's gonna be establishing uh house churches, and this is the way you go about it. So um you want a man to lead that service, but look what he says here in verse number eleven. 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. And he goes back in verse number 13 to give his reason for Adam was first formed, then Eve. Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. So he's he's going back to the creation of man to talk about conveying commands. The word to teach or usurp authority, it's the specific part of preaching or teaching that conveys the command of God. So there was a real problem in some of the churches that Timothy was trying to establish and the people they were preaching among that it was the woman that was having to step up and be the one to convey the command, because somehow there was a failure on the man's part to properly convey the command of God. So the context of that is not about whether a woman should get up and and teach or preach. The context of that was Paul's saying, Be sure you remind the men, they're pretty poor conveyors of commands, because the command that Adam got in the first in the first commandment was him by himself before the woman was there. Right. And he did a pretty poor job of conveying that command.

unknown 24:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

So it's a heavy responsibility, but that is the man's job to teach the commandments of God. So I don't want to necessarily drill down on what Paul was talking about in First Timothy, other than what I've already said, but I'll I want us to end the episode by talking about how heavy it is for a man to receive the word of God and to pass that on to the souls that have been placed in his care. We're gonna find out one of the next things that happens is the creation of the woman. And it's Adam's job, it's the man's job to convey the command of God. He's the one that heard it. He heard exactly what God said when he said, Freely eat of every tree in the garden. And he also heard exactly what God said when he said, But of the tree, of the knowledge of good and evil, of knowing good and bad, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest of it, thou shalt surely die. What we find out in chapter number three, and I know we're not there yet, is Eve completely misquoted that command. So there was a breakdown somewhere between Adam receiving that and conveying that. And he had the responsibility to be a keeper of the commandment of God. We as men are called for our families to be the receiver of the command of God and the conveyor of the command of God. I know that's a whole different subject, but I think it's well worth bringing up right here. And later on in the Bible, there's gonna be arguments, you know, in in the passage in Timothy about what a woman can and can't do in church. Why was that even in there? Paul, in his mind, he's going back to hang on just a second. So, really, you know, in a passage of scripture that's been debated about what a woman can and can't do in church, is really in my mind more about what a man is called to do. Should be not only in church, but in his family.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Yeah, we I think we've we always I have always missed the context of that.

unknown 26:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

Appeals to Genesis chapter number two for his grounding.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

I've always looked at it. This is maybe comical and harsh, but I've always looked at it as shutting down loud women when really it is calling up quiet men.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

Yes. Amen. Yeah, amen. That's a very good way to put it. Yeah. I think it's a great way to end this episode. Who knew we would get into that debate? Yeah. But maybe it's something for us to think about. Well, why would God say that? We have a high responsibility to be a recipient of the command of God and convey that command in a right manner. That's why I don't like the idea. I'm a pastor, but I don't like the idea of men in my congregation or the places where I preach, for them to say, well, that's for the preacher to figure out. No, sir. We all are called to be students of this word. And this is another thing I want to highlight here on this podcast is that this is not for a certain class of people. This is for us to sit down as a as a group and discuss what's being said here.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Yeah. Well, how convicting when we when we just go over that and we we say everything's up to this point was a perfect plan of God. He had it all all perfectly designed, and then we get to this, and then we think the burden is off of our shoulders when it's really not. No, not at all.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

It's convicting, it's very, very convicting.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

And it gives me a purpose for my life. Jesus is my trend. He's the reason that I'm still living.