You may already be familiar with the story. Two trees stood in the Garden of Eden: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Fruit from the first tree would have allowed Adam and Eve the privilege of walking in the garden and with their Creator for eternity. But they just couldn\u2019t resist sampling the second tree first.<\/p>\n
What was so bad about eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?<\/p>\n
One clue might be in part of its name: knowledge.\u00a0In Hebrew, this term isn\u2019t about being bookish \u2014 having an academic understanding of something. Its meaning is rooted in the same word used in\u00a0Genesis 4:1\u00a0to describe Adam\u2019s relationship with Eve. He \u201cknew\u201d her intimately enough that their liaison produced fruit. Feeding on the Tree of Knowledge was sure to beget something \u2014 but maybe not the crop Adam and Eve expected (see\u00a0James 1:15).<\/p>\n
While the\u00a0good\u00a0this tree promised might not be a problem, there was another word in the tree\u2019s name that spelled trouble.<\/p>\n
And<\/em>.<\/p>\n The fruit of this tree tempted our forefathers with the idea they could feed on the good\u00a0and\u00a0still taste the forbidden.<\/p>\n Before we get all critical of Adam and Eve, let\u2019s remember we\u2019ve inherited the same deadly curiosity. We love experiencing good, but when God says, \u201cDon\u2019t touch,\u201d we struggle to resist doing just that. Like children, we want to turn the thing over in our hands to discover why God considers it such a horrible, no good, very bad thing.<\/p>\n Paul describes the dilemma this way:<\/p>\n I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, \u201cYou shall not covet.\u201d But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. . . . And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death (Romans 7:7, 8, 10).<\/p>\n Like Adam and Eve, we reach out for a bite \u2014 just a little taste, mind you \u2014 only to discover our momentary interest has morphed into a long-term commitment with evil that we can\u2019t get out of. We\u2019ve somehow \u201cmarried\u201d a behavior we only meant to \u201cdate,\u201d and found ourselves locked into doing the very thing we\u2019ve grown to hate (Romans 7:19, 20).<\/p>\n It\u2019s as though the Garden of Eden were the cosmic set for a match-making reality TV show that continues today. The two trees are two bridegroom contestants looking for a wife. Messiah is Bachelor Number One, the Tree of Life otherwise known as \u201cthe Branch.\u201d Bachelor Number Two is the anti-Messiah, or Antichrist \u2014 a tree waving some tantalizing options for tasting both good and evil under the bachelorette\u2019s nose.<\/p>\n We are the bride in the making, the target of the trees\u2019 affections. And we, as our forefathers did before us, choose unwisely. We enter into an agreement with the wrong bridegroom \u2014 the wrong tree. As soon as we take the evil portion of his unclean fruit into us, we become unclean ourselves. And since no unclean thing can come into the presence of a holy God (Leviticus 22:3), we can no longer be up close and personal with the Creator of the garden.<\/p>\n This could be the end of the story, except that Bachelor Number One won\u2019t let the show finish. He still hungers to win the heart of the love He lost. Except she (or should I say, we) are in covenant with a husband we wish we\u2019d rejected. We cannot legally marry another because \u201cthe woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives\u201d (Romans 7:2).<\/p>\n Bachelor Number One is not dissuaded from His quest by this technicality. He has found a loophole.\u00a0Romans 7:2, 3\u00a0indicates death can break a marriage covenant: \u201cBut if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.\u201d<\/p>\n Her husband will certainly die one day, but love-struck Bachelor Number One cannot wait that long. He chooses another option. Messiah \u2014 the Branch, the Tree of Life \u00ad\u2014 is nailed to the cross and hangs on a tree. Registering His beloved\u2019s death with the ink of His own blood, He cancels the covenant that kept her bound and sets her free to marry Him.<\/p>\n The Tree of Life still reaches out today. If you let your heart be won by this heavenly Bridegroom, He will break your covenant with death as well. Put your hand in His and let Him walk you down the aisle. Let him lead you deep into His beautiful garden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You may already be familiar with the story. Two trees stood in the Garden of Eden: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Fruit from the first tree would have allowed Adam and Eve the privilege of walking in the garden and with their Creator for eternity. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":33774,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,2576],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nEden and reality TV<\/h2>\n
Lover to the rescue<\/h2>\n
Breaking the covenant<\/h2>\n