Morning Musing: Genesis 3:1a

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“Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman…” (CSB – Read the chapter)

So far in the creation story things have been at least believable. I mean, depending on where you stand on the existence of the supernatural it may sound pretty far-fetched, but if there is a God powerful enough to create the world and everything in it, it’s conceivable at least that He spoke it into existence. We can even get our minds around the more intimate picture of the creation of the man and the woman in chapter 2. This, however, is where things run off the rails.

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Digging in Deeper: Genesis 2:18a

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“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone.'”‬‬ (CSB – Read was chapter)

Every story starts at a point of peace. Now, in our world, broken as it is by sin, we only rarely start from a place of actual peace, but at the least our stories start from a place of relative peace. Then, something happens that breaks the peace. The rest of the story, then, is about restoring that peace. It’s not just made-up stories that start like this, though, this is the narrative arc of the stories of our lives. Bigger than that, this is the arc of the story of creation. Indeed, all of the stories we write are merely reflections of this larger story.

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Morning Musing: Genesis 2:15

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“The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

So, God has made this final new creature—a man—much more intimately than all the rest. He has made him in His image in a way nothing else in all of creation was so designed (and though the woman was created differently and separately, she was equally made in His image). When you have created something so carefully as this, the first thing you do with it conveys an awful lot about what you made it for. That’s what we see here. 

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Digging in Deeper: Genesis 2:16-17

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“And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.’”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

This morning we wrestled a bit with the question of why God would have put a tree in the garden of Eden and then immediately told us not to eat from it. I let you in then on a secret about that question: The most honest answer is, “I don’t know.” But, I don’t know isn’t very satisfying and I did promise you two answers.

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Morning Musing: Genesis 2:16-17

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“And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.’”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

Did you ever have one of those experiences where someone told you not to do something and immediately it was the only thing in the world you wanted to do? Maybe your parent told you not to touch something and it was like your hand was suddenly magnetized to it. Maybe a boss told you something was entirely off limits and you immediately started looking for ways to figure out how to do it. This seems like it’s a natural reaction. So, why on earth did God put a tree in the garden and tell us not to eat from it?

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