So, why did God put a tree,
right there in the middle of the Garden of Eden
and tell Adam and Eve, "Don't you dare touch it."
Did God set them up for failure?
I mean, that's something I always wrestled with ever since I first came to understand the story of creation.
And when we dig into Genesis, chapter 2, we get
more insight when it comes to Day 6 of creation.
God makes all the land animals and then he makes Adam.
He hand forms Adam and breathes from God's perfection into Adam a,
asoul. A perfect soul.
And God tells Adam to name
all the animals.
Then Adam goes and names them all,
creatively.
If it was up to me I'd be like, "Brown one.
"Another brown one.
"Smaller brown one.
"Bigger brown one."
But Adam names all those animals and then gets mopey sad.
He realizes he doesn't have a mate for himself, so
after man works half a day, go figure ladies,
he has to take a nap.
God takes a rib out of Adam
and then hand forms that again into Eve.
Breathes God's perfection into Eve, giving her a soul.
And then gives Adam and Eve more commands.
Take care of the earth.
Rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, over the livestock.
God gives them the command to populate the earth.
And God gave them that other command.
"That tree, in the middle of the garden, do not touch it
or you will die."
Now, did God set them up for failure?
Now, as I count, there's four different commands that God game them.
And, any one of them,
they could have sinned.
Adam could have said, "No.
"I'm not going to name the animals."
And that would have been the first sin.
Or, Adam could have said to God,
"No, I'm not going to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air.
"I'm moving to Florida.
"I'm going to retire early.
"Everything's going to be good."
That would have been the first sin.
Adam could have sinned and gone, "You know, I prefer blondes.
"Can you make me, I have another rib.
"Can you make me a blond for a wife?"
Of course, we don't know Eve's hair color.
But he could have said, "No, I'm not going to populate the Earth with Eve."
That would have been the first sin.
But we know
the first sin is that they ate from that forbidden fruit.
Did God set them up for failure?
And the answer to that is,
well, no.
God didn't.
That tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was the ability
that God gave to Adam and Eve to worship God.
Not to get all nerdy on you, but the word "worship"
comes from the old English word "worth-ship".
By worship, we tell God what he is worth to us.
That Adam and Eve were to look at that tree and go, "Although it's
good for food and pleasing to the eye,
desirable for gaining wisdom,
they were not to take some and eat it.
And God, you're worth more to me
than that fruit." But, you know what they did.
They ate the fruit.
They sinned. And, immediately, what did God do?
He boots them out of the Garden of Eden.
And that sounds like God's being vicious there.
But God's showing what God always is doing,
grace.
Listen to this. Genesis, chapter 3.
God never sets us up for failure.
God sets us up to draw us to himself.
And so, when Adam and Eve sinned,
you see grace here.
That he pushes them away because he doesn't want them to eat from that tree of life.
And why?
The tree of life confirms you
in the spiritual state that you're in.
Adam and Eve broken relationship with God.
If they eat from that fruit of that tree,
they'll be confirmed in a sinful state and never be able to be with God again.
And so what God does,
is he boots them from the garden in order to draw them
back to him.
Do you know where the tree of life is now?
If you flip to the back of the Bible now,
and you go to the book of Revelation, chapter 2, it says this,
The tree of life is now in heaven because
God has worked to restore a relationship with him
By a tree,
Adam and Eve broke that perfection. That sinfulness came into our lives.
Perfection was gone.
And so the tree of Jesus,
him on the cross,
we have been reconciled, restored in our relationship with God.
And, one day,
to him who overcomes, to him who has faith, as you do,
God's going to give you the right to eat from that tree of life.
Be joined with him.
And why?
God never,
ever
sets us up for failure.
God sets us up
to be in a relationship with him.
Hi. I'm Bruce Becker.
I serve on the leadership team here at Time of Grace
and was recently asked to write a book on the subject of Satan, the devil
I've entitled it, "Give Satan the Credit He Is Due.
"It's Time to Take Satan Seriously."
I wrote this book because you and I have a very real and determined spiritual adversary
who wants to rob us of our joy
and cripple our faith.
But as we begin to understand who he really is,
his motivation
and the tactics he uses,
we'll be better equipped to resist his attacks.
In this book, you'll learn what it takes to overcome him
when you know Jesus is savior
he empowers you to stand against Satan and dispel his lies
with God's timeless truth.
"Give Satan the Credit He Is Due" is our way of thanking you for your generous gift this month.