The Knowledge of Good and Evil, Part 1 of 3

Genesis 2:16-17  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Many of us have heard beautiful crafted sermons delivered based upon this verse that expounded upon the failure of Adam to keep the commandment of God.  It seems that the full implication of this tragic failure is overshadowed by Adam’s disobedient nature.  Many listeners are often left with unanswered and unvocalized questions, because of our fear of questioning the works of God. What is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  A clue can be found in the way the words are phrased.  Why would God deny man access to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?  That will be the focus of the lesson.  Did God intend for Adam to live in an ignorant state of bliss?  The answer is ‘no’, we will expound later.

Now, before we proceed further, let's take a closer look at the conversation  between the Devil and Eve.  Genesis 3:1-5  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. (Somehow I cannot get over the idea that Eve changed the message of God.  Did God command Adam not to touch the tree?) 

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  Keep in mind it was the Devil intention, then as well as now to destroy the Word of God, and it began with a simple misrepresentation of God and a misinterpretation of what God said.   The Devil plan is based upon the future, it is the prophecies of God that disturb him.   That old Satan was not out to just destroy Adam, he was trying to destroy what Man represented.  

The creation of man was not something that God did as an afterthought or to past time, neither did he create man to have someone to give stuff to.  A deeper understanding of the scripture will reveal that a battle between good and evil had already taken place and Satan and his demons had been cast out upon the earth.   This epic battle that Jesus alluded to in Luke 10:18  ”And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven,” had already taken place between the Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.  Man was created with a purpose in mind.  Genesis 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.   The words ‘replenish’ and ‘subdue’ should enlighten us as to God’s future plan and it is manifested through the fulfillment of his prophecies.  

The Bible clearly states that God created Adam and Eve and put them in the garden filled with trees that produced good things to eat.   However, according to the English translation, God also created a tree that would give the eater the knowledge of good and evil and He commands Adam not to eat its fruit.  Now this is that question that tends to plague mankind, why would God create something that was banned and, specifically, why would it be a tree whose fruit offered the knowledge of good and evil? Isn't knowledge good?  Even the Bible teaches us that the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge.  This is a question that deserves an answer and the answer must exist within the meaning of the phrase “the knowledge of good and evil” and not some outside conjectures.

If we were to proceed without getting a clear knowledge of the meaning of the phrase “the knowledge of good and evil”, it's conceivable that we will end up with a distorted and polluted view of God’s plan and the purpose of creating man.  It began as a simple task So that man might know there was a sovereign Lord, to whom he owed obedience. For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.  A simple statement that the Devil used to inject a level of confusion into the Word of God that is prevalent in this day.  Did God fail to carry out his threat when he said to the man you will die if you eat of the fruit of the tree?   Do man interpret or translate the message of God wrong the same as the Devil did in the garden? 

Once the man was tempted and did partake of the forbidden fruit, he entered into a partnership agreement with the master of deceit and began to follow his directives, the same as the fallen angels that preceded him and were cast out. Adam, now following in the footsteps of the fallen angels was cast out, also. Man began to interpret and reinterpret the meaning of God's word based upon his infinite knowledge of good and evil. The line of separation between good and evil became blurred.  What was once considered evil became 'good' and the desires of man became accepted as the will of God.  

When God created man he gave him the necessary knowledge to carry out the task that was assigned to him.  This scripture also implies that man was created with a type of God given knowledge necessary to carry out the directives of God.  Genesis 2:19  And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.  This in itself is indicative of a God given knowledge. He also created an access for man to achieve wisdom and knowledge through him, as in the case of Solomon. There is a difference between the God given knowledge and the knowledge of good and evil.   Sometime the English translation  can be misleading.

 The knowledge of good and evil is what is called a “merism.”  A merism is an expression of totality by the mention of opposites. You mention some opposites and it implies everything in between.  In the Hebrew language we  have a lot of merisms.  For example, the west and the east are used as merisms.  Heaven and hell, if I ascend to heaven there you are, if I go to Sheol there you are. This does not mean that God is only at the two extremes.  It means He is everywhere.  Near and far are used as merisms. “Peace to the far and peace to the near,” says the Lord. In other words peace to everybody. More examples of merisms— “going out and coming in” is a fairly common merism. “The Lord will keep your going out and coming in,” meaning the Lord will take care of everything in your life.

Merism involves a statement of “polar extremes” as a way of embracing everything that lies between them. A final example of this would be,  I have searched “high and low “ for that thing, meaning I have searched everywhere.

The knowledge of good and evil is a way of saying in Hebrew “all knowledge, knowledge of everything” and that is what God does not want people to know. If you read the story, you see that is what Satan says. He says, “Hey, he knows you will become like gods knowing everything. That is what he is trying to keep from you. Don’t you want to know everything?” Knowing everything sounds interesting. And they do and after the fall God says, he is speaking again in heaven as he often does in many places in Scripture, not just Genesis, “Look they have become like one of us, they know good and evil, they know everything.”  It takes time and study to achieve the knowledge of the world, the idea is that we now have more knowledge than we can morally handle.

Part of the human dilemma as a consequence of the fall of man is that we have this enormous knowledge of how to do evil as well as good. The same human being that knows how to create a computer for communication purposes know how to use that same computer for destructive purposes. The same skill set that uses atomic energy for good can also make weapons out of it. Unlike animals we have enormous capacity for choices; taking skills that could use and should use for good and employing them for evil. That is the human dilemma. We are in trouble because of our hungry for this knowledge of the good and evil.