Posted on 07/17/2012 12:35:09 PM PDT by Thermopylae
It really comes down to a question of trust.
Logic should have told them to trust their maker.
Logic should have also told Eve that after she corrected the serpent once, that the serpent wasn’t trust worthy.
The new testament says Adam wasn’t deceived. The implication is that Adam ate even though he knew he’d die to be with Even and suffer the same fate.
It’s really the same issue today. We know what is right, yet we fail to do it, because we fail to trust God. And then once we’ve crossed that line and broken the law, God offers to fix it for us. But once again, that takes trust in God. So many people don’t want to trust God, they want to do it themselves, earn it themselves, or justify their behavior so they don’t need forgiveness in the first place.
Thank you for sharing that insight, dear ckilmer!
Thank you so much for your wonderful essay-post, dearest sister in Christ!
Thank you so much for those engaging insights, dear marron!
I like your point.
This is about the only thing in the bible that ever left me scratching my head- “What was this Tree of Knowledge?” and “Why did God stick it in the middle of their garden if he didnt want them to eat it?”
and most of all - What happend to this tree?
The flood destroyed it, maybe?
I don’t think that there was anything inherently in the tree that made it the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I think the thing that set it apart was God’s command, not that it was physically any different or special from any other tree intrinsically.
And if we ate more of that tree, would it have any effect? Would we be wiser? Or would it result in an even bigger disaster?
Those two trees exist everyday in my life. Do I decide what is right or wrong (I do often) or do I let God decide. They cannot be separated, it is one or the other. That decision is always before us.
I often thought that they should be separated also. Makes more sense from a human perspective to protect the children. My folks never moved the wood stove outside to protect me, but instructed us not to touch it. Some never got close, and some of us got burned but we had to learn. But remember Adam and Eve were not children, they were fully formed.
The choice has always been part of the deal, maybe God was just honest about it. He was. It was the devil who lied. Jesus was no different, he did not come to bring peace but to cause division. It is one or the other, no luke warm.
Just some thoughts, we don't know the mind of God but sometimes he gives clues.
By the way, the Tree of Life is only mentioned 3 times in the Bible. Genesis and Revelations are two, I will let you research the third.
Then Matthew and John and Acts are as well...
" Then Matthew and John and Acts are as well..."
No they are not, but they contain parables. I was referring to the creation story itself, which is parable, not history, or law, ect... Matt 13:34-35, "Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:
“I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”[Psalm 78:2]
The crowd consists of all the Generations who would ever read, or hear any of what was taught by God. That includes the creation story.
And from the Christian perspective, Jesus Christ IS the Word of God (Logos - also the root of the word "logic" by the way.)
One might wonder about such a teaching since the Torah as a Name is quite long. But it could also be argued that our individual DNA is a very long "name" for who we, individually and physically "are."
Following that line of thinking, one might view the names given to animals to be of that sort, physical and lively:
Why do ye not understand my speech? [even] because ye cannot hear my word. - John 8:43
But blessed [are] your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. - Matt 13:16
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned. - I Cor 2:14
God's Name is I AM.
Communication takes place on several levels.
In spiritual terms, there are urgings of the spirit, there is discernment as you say, that do not rise to the level of language as such. In your prayer life, certainly there are words spoken and another level of communication and meaning that bypass the spoken word.
In some cases these don't even rise to the level of conscious thought, which is why prayer must be accompanied by meditation, or why it takes time for an answer to percolate to the surface sometimes. Language represents thought and helps to codify it but it rests on a foundation that is not easily accessible to language.
Or so it seems to me.
Finding words for things which have no words is a challenge and a gift.
Wings and flew? Source for that?
What I get from the description of the serpent is that it was legged. Hence the Lord cursing it - From now on you will go upon your belly.
Strangely enough, a snakes skeleton DOES show bones that could be remains of legs. Not so much wings.
Genesis is truth, as is all the Bible.
I believe they were legged, hence God cursing the serpent to go upon his belly.
The tree of life in Proverbs 3 is understanding and wisdom. The fruit of the tree of knowledge did not contain either, only knowledge. In order for man to obtain understanding and wisdom, he had to do that on his own via the gifts contained in the Image he was created in.
Notice the Cherubim stands only at the one edge of the Garden. He isn't standing guard to keep man out; he's guarding the path to the Garden to keep it open — open to the tree of life. Gen 3:24, "So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way to the tree of life." The fruit of the tree of life is understanding and wisdom.
Attaining understanding and wisdom requires choices to be made, as per the OODA loop.(see Boyd: observation, orientaiton, decision, action) God does not do one's thinking for them. Note Peter's exercise of the loop. John 6:68, "Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." Those words are understanding and wisdom. They are the fruit of the tree of life which is in Paradise and y'all were invited to eat, since y'all are what you eat. John 6:63, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are life." John 6:48, "I am the bread of life."
Moses said the Lord God gave the divorce laws. The Lord God said Moses gave the divorce laws. Which one is the truth?
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