The Tree of Knowledge

 

The Tree of Knowledge

Why the Tree of Knowledge is so tempting still today

We are still telling people what they want to hear

We have all become crafty

Our use of knowledge has mixed fruit of good and evil

That is why we still eat it

The Tree of Knowledge is at the center of our lives

It will always leave us with confusion and deception

That is why it is so tempting

But there is hope, the Tree of Life is still available

To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Revelation 2:7

What is at the center of your life?

What is the Tree of Knowledge?

How could its fruit change mankind?

What is the Tree of Life?

How could its fruit change mankind?

 

 

The Tree of Knowledge

 

What was the Tree of Knowledge?

 

How could its fruit change mankind?

 

First, we must understand what its fruit was…

 

It was “Good” and “Evil”.

 

The word “good’ is the word God used

 to describe everything He had made.

 

In fact it reads like this…

 

 “God saw that it was good”

Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25

 

In Genesis 1:31 we read…

 

 “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”

 

But in Genesis 2:9, we find something

“not good” in the Garden Eden.

 

In the middle of the garden were the tree of life

and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 

There in the middle of the garden,

 the center of everything were two trees.

 

 Tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 

There was something not good in the garden

 God had created, there was “evil”.

 

Evil and Good were growing from the same tree.

 

It is very interesting that after Adam and

Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge God said…

 

"The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.

 He must not be allowed to reach out his hand

and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."

Genesis 3:22

 

"The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil”

 

What is this God knowing good and evil?

 

There in the center of the Garden

was another tree that is referred to

throughout the Bible, The Tree of Life.

 

The reason there was another tree called the

Tree of Knowledge, is God knew Satan had

fallen from the goodness of God and did evil.

 

Satan had made a choice to rebel against God.

 

God allowed the Angels to have a choice.

 

A choice to love God and submit to Him or not.

 

That choice had to be apart

of the Garden of Eden.

 

God knew the evil of Satan and had

to give mankind, Adam and Eve,

the choice between the two trees…

 

 Life or Knowledge

 

   God did not create a tree of evil.

 

But a tree that represented Satan

and his choice.

 

We do not find God restricting Satan

from coming into the Garden of Eden.

 

God was in the Garden representing

the Tree of Life and Satan was there

representing the Tree of Knowledge.

 

The Tree of Knowledge bears two fruits,

“Good” and “Evil”

this is what makes it so harmful.

 

If it only bore good fruit…

 

 It would be like all the other trees of the Garden.

 

But it bore Good and Evil fruit.

 

When the “crafty” serpent speaks to Eve, he says…

 

"Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

Genesis 3:1

 

Then he says…

 

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.

"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened,

and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Genesis 3:4-5

 

God did not create evil, but He

knew the evil of Satan.

 

 When Eve and Adam ate of the fruit,

 they would know of Satan’s evil.

 

Just like God, their eyes were open.

 

 Not because they saw the fruit,

 but because they participated in it.

 

I think it is very important that we see

the Tree has a combination of two fruits.

 

I don’t think Eve or Adam would have

taken of the fruit if it was all evil or bad.

 

But it was the combination that made it desirable.

 

Any time you combine good

and evil you get the same results…

 

  Confusion and Deception

 

Satan says…

 

 “Did God say”…”you will be like God.”

 

This same confusion and deception

have increased as time has moved on.

 

With confusion and deception,

you have a lack of trust.

 

We are full of Good and Evil.

 

There is good in everyone

(even an honor among thieves)

and there is evil in all of us.

 

As good as the United States of

America is, it is full of evil.

 

Americans love it, but don’t trust it.

 

We have all become crafty.

 

 Our use of knowledge has mixed fruit of

good and evil and that is why we still eat it.

 

The Tree of Knowledge is at the center

of our lives and it will always leave

us with confusion and deception.

 

That is why it is so tempting.

 

But there is hope…

 

 The Tree of Life is still available.

 

To him who overcomes,

 I will give the right to eat from the tree of life,

which is in the paradise of God.

Revelation 2:7

 

What is at the center of your life?

 

What is the Tree of Knowledge?

 

How could its fruit change mankind?

 

What is the Tree of Life?

 

How could its fruit change mankind?

  

 

 

Scripture Reading NIV

 

Genesis 2:8-9

 9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground — trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 

 

Genesis 3:1-5

3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

 

2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"

 

4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."