Why?

Why did God even create the Tree of Knowledge? (story found in the first three chapters of Genesis)

If He knows everything, He knew Adam would eat of the fruit.  Then why would He put it in the garden in the first place?  I can’t think of one scripture, of course I may be wrong, that clearly answers this question but all of them kind of do when you put them together.    

That being said, I have an idea why. I believe God created Man as an object for his love.  The Bible says God is love, 1 John 4:8.  Love needs an outlet, a way to express itself, or Himself in this case.

Let me back up a little.  Let me assume you know nothing about The Bible or the stories within it.  The first book of the Old Testament of The Bible is Genesis.  Genesis means beginning or origin.  The first words of the Book of Genesis are, 

     “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the                 Earth.”  Genesis1:1.

I’m just going to tell you the story but please read the account for yourself.

God created everything including man whom he made in His own image.  The Bible says God formed the first man, Adam, from the dust of the earth and breathed the breath of life into him.

God planted a beautiful garden called Eden. In that garden God placed two trees. The Tree of Life and The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

In that garden God also planted every kind of tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food and told Adam that it was all his to eat from and to tend, all but the Tree of Knowledge. God told Adam that the day he would eat of that tree, he would surely die.  

Notice God didn’t forbid the Tree of Life at this point.  Adam was already full of life and in full communion with God so no prohibition was necessary.

Then God said, “It is not good that man should be alone.”  So, He brought all the animals to Adam to name and Adam saw that, among them, there was none like him to be found.

Just a couple of side notes here that we may look into in another study. The first is the fact that God created Adam to work.  Adam was placed in the garden to dress and keep it.  Work in and of itself is not a bad thing. It is God ordained.

The second is that God didn’t just give Eve to Adam.  God said, “It is not good that man should be alone. I shall make a help meet for him.”  Then God set Adam on the task of naming the animals.  That is when Adam realized than he was the only one of his kind.  God already knew his own plan but had to bring Adam to it in His own way.

Okay, back to our story. God then caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and then took one of Adam’s ribs and formed Eve from it (sorry, just one more quick side-note. Are you aware the rib is the only bone in the body that can grow back?  Google it. It's a real thing!).  So, God used his own breath to breathe  life into Adam and then used a piece of Adam to form Eve.

Hold on. Another side note here and it's the last, I promise. Many people believe that the Tree of Knowledge represented sexual relations but, if you’re following along in your Bible, you see here that Adam not only names Eve woman, this is where you get the famous lines you hear at many weddings, 

     “… bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh… a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh.”  Genesis 2:23-24

This sounds to me like God told Adam about the birds and the bees back when He said, “God forth and multiply.”

Really, back to the main story.

We don’t know how long Adam chose fellowship with God in the garden. We know that God would come and walk with him in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8) But there was a fateful day when Adam chose Eve over God.

Eve wasn’t commanded not to eat of the fruit although she knew she wasn’t supposed to.  God told Adam that he could eat of every tree in the garden save one.  Adam had one choice, Love and obey God, or not.  He was given everything else he possibly needed.

Now, God had created Adam in his own image, and that means man has a great capacity for love.  Adam loved Eve and God didn’t tell him not to.  Let’s remember, God had given her to Adam as a helper and to keep him from being alone. But when Eve ate of the fruit and offered it to Adam, he took it.  Who knows what would have happened if Adam had just said, “No, I choose to obey God.”

So, on that day, mankind was doomed. The Bible says, 

     “That by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin."  Romans 5:12

Not only was mankind doomed but so was the rest of creation. The shadow of sin had fallen over all the earth. In Romans 8:20-22 the Bible says that creation groans and travails, which is labor pains, waiting for the redemption of The Children of God because it will also be delivered from corruption.

Notice I haven’t even touched on the serpent in this study.  The serpent tempted Eve and she ate. Then she offered the fruit to her husband and he ate.  The serpent is a whole other study.

I just wanted us to see a few things from this story.  God created Adam and Eve. He gave them everything they needed.  He only gave Adam one command and that is basically to obey Him.  Eve ate the fruit and Adam chose to sin with Eve rather than obey God

So, back to our original question.   If God knows everything, He must have known Adam would eat and bring sin into the world.  Why did he create the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

As we saw earlier, God is love.  Can there be true love without a choice?  God could have made Adam love him.  He could have never made Eve and Adam would have had to fellowship with God if he was to fellowship at all. 

The Tree of Knowledge represents free will. 

Jesus said that all Ten Commandments are summed up in these two, Love The Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself, Matthew 22:37-40. But in this, it is still our choice to obey.

We are told to love God first, then our neighbors.  Remember, God is love.  How can we really love anyone truly and completely without God?  Imagine the pure complete love Adam and Eve could have enjoyed if they had just allowed God to remain in His proper place which is 1^st in their lives.

The Bible starts out showing the great love of God in His very creation and in His provision.  Every thing about this story illustrates God’s Love.

Soon we will look into part B of this story.  We will take a closer look at the serpent and the consequences of Adam and Eve’s choice