[what's up]

So.. why make a “tree of knowledge” and then stick it right in front of them, and tell them not to eat it.

To remind them that they weren't God.

They could do just about everything, but God wanted something to be a constant reminder that they were less than Him. Taking from the tree was something in life was the one thing they were NOT allowed to do. The reminder was to illustrate to them the principle of authority...that they were lesser beings.

I heard a person teach once that the tree didn't actually contain knowledge...but in eating the fruit (disobeying) they finally experienced the knowledge (and difference) of both good and evil because they had now sinned.

[Mr. K]

"To remind them that they weren't God. They could do just about everything, but God wanted something to be a constant reminder that they were less than Him. "

You cannot make a statment like that as if it was fact. You THINK God put it there to remind them they were not God- The Bible does not SAY "God put the tree there to remind them they were not God"

Your entire post is like that, even saying the tree is NOT what the Bible says it is

[HarleyD]

To remind them that they weren't God. They could do just about everything, but God wanted something to be a constant reminder that they were less than Him.

Absolutely correct that few people seem to understand. It certainly wasn't a "trial" or "test" because God gives us trials to teach us something (James 1:2-3). That is why we count trials as joy. It certainly wasn't man's "free will" because God would never set up a condition where He knowingly would make us stumble. What a horrible perception of God. There were times Adam could have deliberately disobey God. For example Adam could have said that he wasn't going to take care of the garden or he wasn't going to give a particular animal a name. But he was obedient.

The only time Adam disobeyed God was when God told him NOT to do one thing...don't eat of the fruit. The only reason for God to have planted the tree, gave the command and then walked away was to simply show Adam that he was by nature rebellious. And Adam (not Eve) shows us we are rebellious because Eve was deceived, whereas Adam willfully took the fruit. God created the circumstance to show Adam his true rebel side. Both sinned but Adam shows us our true nature.

I heard a person teach once that the tree didn't actually contain knowledge...

I would love to meet him because rarely have I found someone who seems to understand this. There wasn't anything that happened in Adam or magical change in his nature. Adam's eyes "were opened" that he was fully capable of rebellion against God. And this knowledge unleased has caused his descendants to constantly rebel ever since and justifying ourselves for our actions.

Gen 4:23 Lamech said to his wives: "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.

Gen 4:24 If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold."