by Merri E. Robbins

Created on: September 24, 2009   Last Updated: September 28, 2009

A garden at harvest time is a beauty to behold. All the fruits and vegetables are shiny and ripe. While you're gazing upon all the produce, your mouth begins to water in anticipation of that first luscious bite! Was that the only temptation in the Garden of Eden?

The Bible says that the Lord made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. (Gen. 2:9,NIV) I can picture how juicy oranges, cherries, peaches, and apples etc. must have looked! It goes on to say that in the middle of the garden were the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden, to water the garden and it parted where it became headwaters to four rivers: the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Gihon, and the Pishon. This doesn't sound like your everyday sprinkler system that you have for your home does it? So it is safe to say that the Garden of Eden was a rather vast garden and at this point, God placed man in it to work and take care of it. God commanded the man, "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 of it you will surely die." (NIV)

Both trees in the garden had powerful significance as to the relevance of this temptation. The tree of life meant the giving of life without death, to those who ate of its fruit, meaning you would live forever. (Gen. 2:17, 3:3) Knowledge of good and evil refers to moral knowledge or ethical discernment. Both Adam and Eve possessed both life and moral discernment as they both came from the very hand of God. Their access to the fruit of the tree of life showed that God's will and intention for them was life.

Here is Adam and now Eve, both unashamedly naked in the middle of the garden. The great deceiver, Satan the devil, clothes himself as a serpent. One of the many questions we ask is why didn't she run when she saw it was a snake? At that time the snake/serpent was one of God's good creatures and more crafty then any of the wild animals the Lord had made. So it wasn't viewed as a danger. He then said to the woman, "Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?" Through questioning and engaging her in conversation, he insinuated a falsehood/lie and portrayed rebellion as clever. He then answered Eve with, "you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil." This was where they sought a creaturely source of discernment in order to be morally independent of God.

The woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom. She took some, ate it and gave some to her husband and he ate it too. (Gen. 3:1-6,NIV). The thought of having a Godlike quality of knowing good and evil was the temptation. It overshadowed the simplicity of being obedient to God and living forever. God always gives us a choice.

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