The Lord 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 from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:16).
When 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 and ate it (3:6).
We’re not adept at discerning good and evil. Things that feel good, look good, smell good, and taste good aren’t necessarily good for us. Plus, it’s an ever-changing standard. Things that used to be good for us turned out to be bad, and vice versa. Eggs used to be bad. Now we need them for essential fats. Butter used to be bad. But then we discovered that substitutes like margerine were worse. Coffee? That’s like the weather. Good one day, bad the next. Some cut salt out of their diet only to discover their sodium levels are dangerously low.
People who dress nicely and command respect aren’t always good people. Those who look a little rough around the edges turn out to be the nicest people you’ve ever met.
And then there’s the assumption that if something is good for us, more of that will be even better. Most of the time, that’s not true. Too much of a good dose might just be harmful to your health, if not lethal.
The knowledge of good and evil takes us down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out things that are far beyond our understanding rather than trusting God to point or lead us in the right direction. We usually get it wrong. And God knew that this would only result in suffering, death, and separation from him.
God wasn’t surprised by their disobedience. He knew about the tempter, the temptation, the disobedience, and the consequences. The need and his plan for a Savior was in place before creation (Ephesians 1).
As Jesus would later say, “There is only one who is good” (Matthew 19:17). We don’t have to figure it out. He’s the one.
Waite for it... 