Where Do We Come From?Sample

Disobedient to God

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” (Genesis 2:16-17)

The Lord God had made a beautiful garden as a dwelling place for the first humans. In that garden grew all kinds of fruit trees from which they were free to eat. There was only one restriction. From one particular tree they were absolutely not allowed to eat: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God had created man in His image. Adam and Eve had many abilities that the animals did not have or to a lesser degree. But they were not on the same level as God. They were not fully autonomous. They were not allowed to decide for themselves what was right and what was wrong, but had to be obedient to their creator in this.

The command to stay away from this one tree was in itself very simple. After all, there were more than enough other trees. Why would they want to eat from that particular one? Yet Adam and Eve disobeyed. God's adversary, Satan, encouraged them to eat of the forbidden fruit. Then they would become like God, he told them. The first humans could not resist that temptation. They did not trust their creator who had their best interests at heart. They wanted to be God themselves!

Do you understand why God weighed so heavily the command to stay away from the forbidden fruit? Do you recognize the desire to “be God yourself?”