AS THEY REFUSED TO HAVE GOD IN THEIR KNOWLEDGE,” “THEIR SENSELESS HEART
WAS DARKENED.
Though created innocent and holy, our first
parents were not
placed
beyond the possibility of wrong-doing. God might have
created them
without the power to transgress His requirements, but
in that case
there could have been no development of character; their
service
would not have been voluntary, but forced. Therefore He
gave them
the power of choice—the power to yield or to withhold
obedience.
And before they could receive in fullness the blessings
He desired
to impart, their love and loyalty must be tested.
In the
Garden of Eden was the “tree of knowledge of good and
evil.... And
the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree
of the
garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat.” Genesis 2:9-17. It was the will
of God that
Adam and Eve should not know evil. The knowledge of
good had
been freely given them; but the knowledge of evil,—of sin
and its
results, of wearing toil, of anxious care, of disappointment
and grief,
of pain and death,—this was in love withheld.
While God
was seeking man’s good, Satan was seeking his [24]
ruin. When
Eve, disregarding the Lord’s admonition concerning
the
forbidden tree, ventured to approach it, she came in contact
with her
foe. Her interest and curiosity having been awakened,
Satan
proceeded to deny God’s word, and to insinuate distrust of
His wisdom
and goodness. To the woman’s statement concerning
the tree of
knowledge, “God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither
shall ye
touch it, lest ye die,” the tempter made answer, “Ye shall not
surely die:
for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then
your eyes
shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good
and evil.”
Genesis 3:3-5.
Satan
desired to make it appear that this knowledge of good
mingled with
evil would be a blessing, and that in forbidding them
15
16 Education
to take of
the fruit of the tree, God was withholding great good. He
urged that
it was because of its wonderful properties for imparting
wisdom and
power that God had forbidden them to taste it, that He
was thus
seeking to prevent them from reaching a nobler development and finding greater
happiness. He declared that he himself had
eaten of the
forbidden fruit, and as a result had acquired the power
of speech;
and that if they also would eat of it, they would attain
to a more
exalted sphere of existence and enter a broader field of
knowledge.
While Satan
claimed to have received great good by eating of the
forbidden tree,
he did not let it appear that by transgression he had
become an
outcast from heaven. Here was falsehood, so concealed
under a
covering of apparent truth that Eve, infatuated, flattered,
beguiled,
did not discern the deception. She coveted what God had
forbidden;
she distrusted His wisdom. She cast away faith, the key
[25] of
knowledge.
When Eve saw
“that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to
the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she
took of the
fruit thereof, and did eat.” It was grateful to the taste,
and, as she
ate, she seemed to feel a vivifying power, and imagined
herself
entering upon a higher state of existence. Having herself
transgressed,
she became a tempter to her husband, “and he did eat.”
Genesis 3:6.
“Your eyes
shall be opened,” the enemy had said; “ye shall be
as gods,
knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5. Their eyes were
indeed
opened; but how sad the opening! The knowledge of evil,
the curse of
sin, was all that the transgressors gained. There was
nothing
poisonous in the fruit itself, and the sin was not merely in
yielding to
appetite. It was distrust of God’s goodness, disbelief of
His word,
and rejection of His authority, that made our first parents
transgressors,
and that brought into the world a knowledge of evil.
It was this
that opened the door to every species of falsehood and
error.
Man lost all
because he chose to listen to the deceiver rather than
to Him who
is Truth, who alone has understanding. By the mingling
of evil with
good, his mind had become confused, his mental and
spiritual
powers benumbed. No longer could he appreciate the good
that God had
so freely bestowed.
Chapter
3—The Knowledge of Good and Evil 17
Adam and Eve
had chosen the knowledge of evil, and if they
ever
regained the position they had lost they must regain it under
the
unfavorable conditions they had brought upon themselves. No
longer were
they to dwell in Eden, for in its perfection it could
not teach
them the lessons which it was now essential for them to
learn. In unutterable
sadness they bade farewell to their beautiful [26]
surroundings
and went forth to dwell upon the earth, where rested
the curse of
sin.
To Adam God
had said: “Because thou hast hearkened unto the
voice of thy
wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded
thee,
saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy
sake; in
sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also
and thistles
shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of
the field;
in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return
unto the
ground; for out of it
18 Education
of
redemption. “I will put enmity between thee and the woman,”
God said,
“and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy
head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15. This sentence,
spoken in
the hearing of our first parents, was to them a promise.
Before they
heard of the thorn and the thistle, of the toil and sorrow
that must be
their portion, or of the dust to which they must return,
they
listened to words that could not fail of giving them hope. All
that had
been lost by yielding to Satan could be regained through
Christ.
This
intimation also nature repeats to us. Though marred by sin,
it speaks
not only of creation but of redemption. Though the earth
bears
testimony to the curse in the evident signs of decay, it is still
rich and
beautiful in the tokens of life-giving power. The trees cast
off their
leaves, only to be robed with fresher verdure; the flowers
die, to
spring forth in new beauty; and in every manifestation of
creative
power is held out the assurance that we may be created anew
in
“righteousness and holiness of truth.” Ephesians 4:24, margin.
Thus the
very objects and operations of nature that bring so vividly
to mind our
great loss become to us the messengers of hope.
As far as
evil extends, the voice of our Father is heard, bidding
His children
see in its results the nature of sin, warning them to
[28] forsake
the evil, and inviting them to receive the good.
THESE NEWS ARE BROUGHT BY CHARLES SHIBITA
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT ME THROUGH 0763371047 OR pshibita@gmail.com