Tree of Knowledge

The knowledge of good and evil was not a bad thing for Adam and Eve to desire. The knowledge of good and evil is the same thing as wisdom and discernment, and the Bible makes it clear that we are to have wisdom (Gen. 3:22; Prov. 12:16, 23; 13:16; 14:8, 15, 18; 22:3; 27:12). The fact that Adam and Eve knew they were not allowed to eat from the tree of knowledge was, in fact, knowledge of good and evil concerning the tree. So, why did Yahweh place a tree in the garden that offered something good and then forbid eating from it?

Yahweh placed the tree in the garden to provide a choice. Without choice there can be no free will, and thus there can be no true love. If there were no option to disobey Yahweh because everything in creation was permissible, then there would be no freewill choice to love Him. Their love would then be meaningless because there would be no other option. For example, if a man was faithful to a woman only because she was the only woman who existed, it would not be as meaningful or real as the man who was faithful to a woman despite all the other women who existed.

The tree of knowledge provided an option for Adam and Eve to obtain wisdom from source other than Yahweh. By choosing it over Yahweh, they demonstrated their desire to follow a different path from the one Yahweh desired for them, therefore following after a different “god.” The tree did not offer them knowledge; rather, the experience of disobeying Yahweh through the action of eating from the tree offered them knowledge of good and evil outside Yahweh’s will.

What makes eating from the tree of knowledge a sin is that taking from it expresses the desire to seize knowledge immediately in a way contrary to Yahweh’s will. It is the choice to take what is good outside of a relationship with Yahweh that is wrong.

Yahweh allowed Satan into the garden to provide a real test of their will. They were called to be rulers of Yahweh’s creation, which meant there would be great responsibilities and difficult choices. Therefore they needed to be tried and tested to prove that they could handle it. This is true for any leader who needs to prove himself through difficult situations before moving up in leadership. Satan provided the pressure to make the choice for Yahweh more real. A man proves his love to his wife more when other women show interest and pursue him yet stays faithful than the man who has no temptation at all.

Satan’s presence in the garden presented the first real threat to their kingdom. As rulers over Yahweh’s creation, they should have seen the threat that Satan presented and should have defeated and removed him from the creation, their kingdom. Instead, they listened and allowed themselves to be tempted.