Created for relationship - Part 2

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate.  She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate.” (Gen. 3:6)

God had given his children in the Garden of Eden everything they needed and more. He had given them a wonderful career – to rule over his entire creation. They had the basic ability to do so because He had created them in his own image. He had even given them their first assignment, a task that would challenge them to use their talents and develop the necessary skills. In order to name the animals they would have to observe them carefully and develop a system for classifying the different kinds. They were learning how to discover the order God had built into his creation. Could it be that they were the first scientists?

God was pleased with his children, but He had placed a limit upon them. The fruit of one tree in the garden was off limits. God had even stressed to Adam the severity of disobedience, “When you eat from it you will surely die.” But they did eat that forbidden fruit. Did they die? Not physically, at least not for a long time. Adam was 930 years old when he died. But they did die spiritually when God kicked them out of the garden. That was spiritual death. Never before had they known evil, but now they did. They began to know by experience pain and suffering because they had broken the perfect relationship between themselves and the Father who had been providing for their every need. Their relationship with each other suffered also as they began to pass blame for wrong-doing off onto someone else. Now they really did need wisdom for discerning between good and evil. The final temptation, the one that Eve and her husband who was with her could not resist, was the serpent’s lie about the forbidden fruit being desirable for gaining wisdom to discern between good and evil, making them equal with God. Eve really was deceived when she believed they could get that kind of wisdom from a source (the forbidden fruit) other than God himself. James tells us where to go when we need wisdom to discern between good and evil: “If any of you lacks wisdom you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault” (James 1:5). Could it be that our 21^st century secular culture with its attitude that, “Now that we have science and technology we don’t need God,” is making the same mistake that Adam and Eve made way back in the beginning?