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Knowing Good And Evil


                Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
            The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
            “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5) 

            After yesterday's entry, I find mind on a gerbil wheel. As Paul said, the purpose of the law was to teach us about our sin. In effect, it is to give us the knowledge of good and evil. Some people seem to think that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was some sort of magical tree that imparted mystical knowledge through its fruit. I'll agree that it was probably the only tree like it in the garden, but the knowledge of good and evil was gained through the act of chewing, not through the consumption of the fruit.
           Adam and Eve should have thought, "Wait a second, God told us not to eat. This serpent is saying that eating it will give us the knowledge of good and evil. Isn't that evil? Let's go ask God to make sure. Oh, wait another second,  doesn't that mean that we're gaining the knowledge of good and evil? Without eating? Silly serpent. Let's go find some apples to eat while we listen to what God has to say."
            Some have assumed that what the serpent said was at least partly true, that God desired to keep man in a state of ignorant innocence. Some seem to think such a state would be ideal. In giving the instruction about the tree, however; God was beginning to give them the real knowledge, the experience of good in the presence of evil but potentially without the damage evil does. In going beyond what God permitted, they got what both God and they wanted, but only by suffering the harm that obedience would have avoided.
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Birthday of
Elias Boudinot

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