Have you ever wondered why Adam and Eve took those bites of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil after God told them not to? And why did God even create such a forbidden tree? Also, how were their eyes opened to knowing good and evil? I’ve pondered such things for many years. I fully understand that I will never grasp many of the mysteries of God, but my love for Him is so great that I enjoy basking in the awe and wonder of Him. So, please, join me as I share with you some of my basking-time-wonderings. 

First of all, let’s assume that Eve’s temptation by Satan and then Adam’s temptation by Eve to eat of the fruit of that tree resides in the fact that although, “God created mankind in His own image,” (Genesis 1:27), He created us with free will. God knew before He created human beings that we would be imperfect and sinners. We get a glimpse of that fact when we read in the Bible that Adam needed to be told by God, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:16-17).

As a consequence, since God knew before creating humans that He wanted us to have free will, He also knew we would inherently disobey Him. That indicates to me that a loving God had to create something in the garden to highlight this fact to us, and then provide us with a safety net when the disobedience occurred. (I’ll cover that part in a moment.). Additionally, the fact that now there were fallen angels, Lucifer and his followers, roaming around the earth to tempt us further to sin and disobey God, meant even more that God needed to illustrate to us in a tangible way, (like an impermissible tree in the middle of the garden), that we need His constant guidance due to our sin nature.

I used to think that maybe Adam and Eve’s “eyes were opened” due to some psychedelic-like chemical within the fruit they ate from. Goodness gracious! I realize now that was ignorant of me because I think I better understand that their eye-opening realization of being naked and immediately wanting to cover themselves was due to the fact that they had done evil by disobeying God. This was the first time they had done such a thing. This disobedient bite had pierced not only the fruit, but their consciences as well. They now not only had the knowledge of good, but this new knowledge of evil left them with an over-encompassing feeling of being exposed both inside and outside.

Like children crouching under cover from a parent after doing something they know they aren’t supposed to, Adam and Eve hid their nakedness with fig leaves all the while hiding from their Father. Then, like the just and loving Father He is, God rebuked the serpent for tempting them, and Adam and Eve received the consequences for their actions, including the fact that they had to leave the Garden of Eden because He didn’t want them to eat from the tree of life and live forever. This would have left them, and therefore all of us, in a dead state of sin and separation from God for eternity. 

We, too, know right from wrong. We have the knowledge of good and evil. Maybe the next time we are tempted to be disobedient to the Father, we should pause and tell ourselves, “No… Know Who God is and what He has done for us all to provide us with a life of eternity with Him.”

This provision comes from a gracious and loving Father. A love so great that he supplied us with a way out of our sinful, disobedient hearts —  His Son, Jesus Christ. Fully God and fully man, Jesus took the punishment for our sins by being nailed to a cross. I don’t think it’s coincidental that God chose the wood of a tree to hang on for our sins. He cried out for all of us as He bled there on that tree, thinking of all of those He did it for. I wonder if as soon as He thought all the way back to Adam and Eve eating from that tree in the garden, he then cried out, “It is finished.”