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The Test
Last week’s lesson talked about a crucial truth: the freedom that God allows all His moral beings. Again, without that freedom, they might be able to do “moral” things, in the same way that a house alarm that protects people from crime does something “moral,” yet who would call the alarm itself “moral”? In the same way, beings who have no choice but to do the right thing aren’t “moral,” either. Only free beings can be moral ones.
A simple test was given to Adam and Eve, to see whether they would—in their freedom—obey the Lord. It was, in a sense, a time of probation for these free creatures. Freedom means just that, freedom, and they had to prove that they would do the right thing with the freedom given them.
Read Genesis 2:15–17, the probationary test given to Adam (and, eventually, Eve). Think about the environment in which this test was given. Why did that environment make their transgression that much more egregious?
Read Genesis 3:1–4. Look carefully at what Satan said to Eve. What unfortunate truth did he mix in with all his lies?
It’s interesting that the tree was of both “good and evil.” God, obviously, didn’t want to keep Adam and Eve from good. Indeed, the whole world God had created, including them, was good, even “very good” (Gen. 1:31). It was from the knowledge of evil that the Lord wanted to spare them.
Which is not hard to understand, is it? Even in our fallen world, what parent doesn’t want to protect his or her children from the knowledge of evil? How much more so, then, did God want to protect Adam and Eve from evil, as well, from the knowledge of the one thing that would cause them to lose their garments of light and to know shame, suffering, and death?
Evil doesn’t always come in blatant manifestations, which are so easy to see and detect and, often, avoid (after all, how many people are serial killers and the like?). There are, however, very subtle manifestations of evil. What might these be? How can we learn to identify these forms of evil and then to protect ourselves from them?
| TUESDAY | April 12 |
Last week’s lesson talked about a crucial truth: the freedom that God allows all His moral beings. Again, without that freedom, they might be able to do “moral” things, in the same way that a house alarm that protects people from crime does something “moral,” yet who would call the alarm itself “moral”? In the same way, beings who have no choice but to do the right thing aren’t “moral,” either. Only free beings can be moral ones.
A simple test was given to Adam and Eve, to see whether they would—in their freedom—obey the Lord. It was, in a sense, a time of probation for these free creatures. Freedom means just that, freedom, and they had to prove that they would do the right thing with the freedom given them.
Read Genesis 2:15–17, the probationary test given to Adam (and, eventually, Eve). Think about the environment in which this test was given. Why did that environment make their transgression that much more egregious?
Read Genesis 3:1–4. Look carefully at what Satan said to Eve. What unfortunate truth did he mix in with all his lies?
It’s interesting that the tree was of both “good and evil.” God, obviously, didn’t want to keep Adam and Eve from good. Indeed, the whole world God had created, including them, was good, even “very good” (Gen. 1:31). It was from the knowledge of evil that the Lord wanted to spare them.
Which is not hard to understand, is it? Even in our fallen world, what parent doesn’t want to protect his or her children from the knowledge of evil? How much more so, then, did God want to protect Adam and Eve from evil, as well, from the knowledge of the one thing that would cause them to lose their garments of light and to know shame, suffering, and death?
Evil doesn’t always come in blatant manifestations, which are so easy to see and detect and, often, avoid (after all, how many people are serial killers and the like?). There are, however, very subtle manifestations of evil. What might these be? How can we learn to identify these forms of evil and then to protect ourselves from them?
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